Advice From the Married Side – Wedding Day Advice

This afternoon it’s time again to dish out a healthy dose of wedding planning advice in our monthly ‘Advice from the Married Side’ feature. I have so many amazing real weddings on the blog and for each one I feature I ask the couple a number of questions, one of these questions being advice for other couples. Sometimes the answers get lost amongst the pretty pictures, so each month I bring you a selection of these brides (and grooms) words of wisdom! I hope there will be something amongst these experiences that help you while planning your own wedding……….Happy Planning!

(photo by Devlin Photos – full wedding HERE)

General Advice

• If you don’t enjoy crafting or making things then don’t do it for your wedding as it takes a lot of time!
• Accept that you will spend more money than you intended – getting married is not a cheap process.
• Make sure you keep communicating as a couple and schedule in time for ‘non-wedding’ activities particularly as the big day gets closer.
• The only thing that matters is loving each other.
• The people you invite to your wedding are people that you love and who love you, so if you have a good time, they will have a good time too
• I was a real Pinterest bride, it became a bit of an obsession but was a great source of inspiration!
• Ask a couple of friends to take pictures on their phones. It’s likely that you will have to wait a few weeks to see the official photographs but you will be desperate to see photos the next day.
• We’d recommend waiting to take the honeymoon. We were shattered for the first week of ours and wanted to chat to everyone back home about the wedding day. In hindsight flying out a month later would have given us a bit more time to get really excited about going away.
• Take lots of photos in the build up to the wedding – we have photos of all the preparations including us making the decorations and visiting suppliers.
• Make sure you have a solid plan B if you’re planning an outdoors wedding to cope with a sudden rain storm. Nothing is going to spoil your day more than a soaking wet bride!
• Don’t spend more than you have! We had a small budget and we stuck to it. We are really glad that we didn’t spend more, because we had an absolutely perfect day and have come out with our savings intact.
• If people offer to help, take it!

(photo by Quetzal Photo – full wedding HERE)

Keeping Calm

• Don’t get stressed. The wedding isnt a big deal and things will go wrong. What’s great is that even if everything goes wrong you still get to get married and that is what the whole day is about.
• Don’t stress about the little things as the most important thing is that you are marrying each other
• Try not to get stressed, it’s not worth it! It WILL all come together in the end and you’ll spend the day on such a high you’ll wonder what you were ever worried about
• Don’t sweat the small stuff! Your guests aren’t noting or caring and neither should you. Just treasure this time with your honey and the people there celebrating your love
• My advice would be to not get too worked up about it all. Easier said than done. There is a lot of pressure on couples, and especially women, to make the perfect day and for everything to somehow represent you both as a couple. Not everything has to mean something, you’ll probably make some random decisions because you don’t want to devote your whole life to organising a wedding. The most important thing is that you are marrying the person that you love, and that you’re committed to the marriage ahead
• I think the main thing I would say is to try as much as possible to relax and enjoy the whole process – getting married should really fun and exciting, not stressful!
• Be calm and chill – don’t worry about anything and enjoy the planning. If you are married to the man/woman of your dreams when the day ends then everything has gone perfectly! You may know that something has not gone to plan but your guests will think everything has gone perfectly.

(photo by Binky Nixon Photography – full wedding HERE)

Planning

• Don’t let the planning get you down, enjoy it, it is the greatest day of your life.
• Unless you love the drama of wedding planning – have a short engagement. Six months was enough for me!
• Don’t drive yourself crazy with all the options and minutiae that are available for creating your “perfect day.” Just pick a few core priorities and keep the focus on friends and family.
• Please take time to enjoy all the preparation leading up to the wedding as much as possible. It will go sooooo fast. Many times it’s stressful. But don’t lose sight in your vision and WHY you are planning a wedding. Do your best to enjoy the ride.
• Whether you like it or not, you have to stick to your budget. So choose the things that are really important to you, and spend most of your money on them. If there are things that push you over budget, try and work around them
• Start planning as early as possible to give yourself plenty of time.

(Photo by Stacy Paul Photography – full wedding HERE)

On the Day

• Enjoy every second of it, take time together throughout the day.
• There is so much going on, so many people around, take a moment for yourself just to reflect on the reason for the day and the love you share with your future spouse.
• It’s a cliché but the day does go so quickly, so try and find a quiet moment for you a your new husband/wife to catch your breath and sit back and enjoy what you have created.
• On the day just go with the flow, remember know one knows what should have happened so don’t worry about the small details
• When the day arrives don’t stress, just enjoy it and let the staff at the venue and photographers lead you through the day. Somehow it just comes together

(photo by Hilary Cam Photography  – full wedding HERE)

Making the Day Personal to You

• Be true to yourselves, don’t follow the ‘norm’ unless that’s what you want of course.
• Just do whatever makes you happy, whether it’s traditional or a bit different, it’s your day!
• Stay true to yourself and your fiancée during the planning process. So many people will have opinions or want a part of your day and it’s easy to lose sight of what is important. Invite who you want, do it when you want and where you want
• Do whatever you want to do, and don’t feel like you have to do any of the traditional ‘wedding’ things if they don’t suit you.

(photo by This and That Photography – full wedding HERE)

Getting Organised

• Make a lot of lists beforehand. We had a mega list pinned up in the kitchen that we could tick things off. If you’re organised in the run up then just chill and relax on the day knowing that everything will come together
  Also accept that you will spend more money than you intended – getting married is not a cheap process. Make sure you keep communicating as a couple and schedule in time for ‘non-wedding’ activities particularly as the big day gets closer.
• If you plan to do a DIY wedding, research everything, because once you tell people it’s for a wedding they will try to up-sell to you. Clive narrowly avoided hiring a generator that the man said would be perfect for our wedding, only to find out through some research that actually it would be perfect to power the O2!
• Share the work! We loved our DIY wedding as everything had a personal touch, but it’s more work than we ever imagined. Turn to friends and family for help – not only will it take some of the stress away but people want to help, and looking round the room at all the care and hard work, it’s such a lovely reminder of how much love goes into a marriage.
• Get everything in place nice and early so your not rushing about close to the day.

(photo by  Megan Steen – full wedding HERE)

I hope you found these pieces of advice helpful. If you are already married is there anything you would like to add ? Was there anything in these words of wisdom that has resonated with you?

Is there something you would particularly like to ask me  for advice? any questions just email me [email protected]

Big Boho Love

Kelly xx