Guest Author - Victoria

5. Don’t get hung up on the small things. If you can’t find the wedding favors you were hoping for or the right color napkins for the reception, make lemonade. My summer wedding’s color scheme went from lilac and white to lilac, white and pink because the reception hall didn’t have lilac accents for the tables. Instead of adding a few thousand dollars to our reception bill for rented lilac colored table accents, we made a compromise and added another color to our wedding color scheme. No harm done!

6. Don’t forget what this day is really about. The quickest way to ruin a wedding day is to make the day about you. Yes, you heard me right. Of course, the bride and groom are very special parts of the wedding but your guests are there to celebrate the joining of two families. This is not the time to act like a monster bride and alienate your family and friends. It’s not all about “you” and you won’t die if something small goes wrong. And if your sister decides to show up with her hair down straight while every other bridesmaid has her hair up in curls, just keep counting down the minutes before you are Mrs. instead of Miss. Make the best of the mishaps that happen throughout planning your wedding and on your wedding day. My uncle absolutely hates wearing suits. When my grandmother told him he would be walking her down the aisle (since my grandfather died) I had a feeling that there would be a problem on the wedding day. Sure enough, he didn’t want to wear a boutonnière, hated keeping his suit jacket on and at one point at the reception (before portraits were taken) took off his tie and unbuttoned his shirt. Was I annoyed? Yes, but I was so happy to finally be newly married that I let it go. And to this day, I have friends and family members that remind my uncle about how he is dressed in the wedding photos, so I don’t have to.

7. Don’t automatically assume you need a wedding planner or anyone can be a wedding planner. Just because you saw the movie The Wedding Planner, doesn’t mean your wedding must have one also. Many weddings happen without a problem without the help of a wedding planner because the bride and grooms enlists the help of the wedding site coordinator and / or the reception site coordinator. These men and women are there assisting with weddings every month – sometimes 100 weddings a month. You won’t go wrong asking them questions about planning your wedding. Now since we are the topic of the movie The Wedding Planner, take this advice. Not everyone can be a wedding planner. Since that movie came out there have been an enormous amount of wedding planner offices that have opened. I know this because I was a wedding planner with my best friend before the movie came out and then we started to meet several wedding planners at events that maybe only had one or two, if any. As with any wedding vendor, get references and ask to speak with previous clients.