Bride Blogger Debrief: MaryAnne
This week, I introduced our newest bride blogger, Marybeth . It is going to be so fun to follow her adventures over the next year as she gears up for her wedding celebration!
Of course, in our industry, hindsight is always 20/20…and today our former blogger MaryAnne has a few tips looking back on her planning process.
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Let me just say, it has been a joy to be able to write for this fabulous blog during my wedding planning process. I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by. Now that the big day has come and gone, and I’ve had the opportunity to debrief (so to speak) the whole wedding with my husband, family, and friends, I have reflected on what I’ll call “lessons learned” that I’d like to share with readers!
Plan out your day-of morning routine, and don’t neglect those everyday pleasures that make your mornings enjoyable. For me, it was a quick run and a cup of tea at Le Pain Quotidien. For friends, it has been a stroll through a farmers’ market, or a breakfast with mom and bridesmaids. Allot space and time to do what you need to do to start the day off right.
Even if you haven’t secured the assistance of a full-on wedding coordinator, a day-of coordinator (which, in practice, is generally a month-out coordinator) can be extremely valuable. I strongly considered hiring a day-of coordinator, and although I ultimately did not make the necessary budget sacrifices in order to accommodate one, I did find myself wishing I had. Thanks to meticulous planning, attention to itineraries, the hard work and dedication of my best friends, and a very talented caterer and venue Director, our wedding day didn’t even have a hiccup. However, my bridesmaids and I would have had FAR less to think about and do on the day before and the morning of the wedding if I had made room in my budget for a day-of coordinator to handle the details.
Select one or two manageable DIY projects (assuming you want to incorporate any personalized projects at all) and do NOT overextend yourself on DIY projects. After a long dearth of creative ideas for my wedding, I was suddenly struck with too many to handle, so prioritization was key. I recommend doing as much of the work as possible as far in advance as possible. I actually ended up penning escort cards (I wanted to do my own calligraphy on each for a personal touch) the day before my wedding! Looking back, I realize it would have been far better to do them weeks earlier — even if it meant not using some once regrets arrived — than to wait until I had the final count.
Loosen your white-knuckle grip on the details. Industry professionals truly know what they are doing, and they’re in business in our very competitive area for a reason: they can handle things! I wrote in a previous post about trusting the pros during the planning process (how else would I have become aware of duet entrees and pink miniature calla lilies?), but it was on the wedding day that I truly appreciated my vendors’ attention to detail. Extra flowers were put to beautiful use in places I hadn’t prescribed; our limobus driver navigated DC traffic using a better route than I had directed; cake and cupcake stands materialized out of thin air. So relax and enjoy. The day will fly by, and the more relaxed you are, the more you’ll remember of it… Forever.
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