Every bride-to-be, whether she plans the wedding on her own or leaves the hard work to experts, spends hours and hours reading blogs, bridal magazines, and experts’ opinions on what to do, what to wear and how to behave on the biggest day of her life. But lifestyle columns and wedding planners can’t prepare you for everything that’s about to happen. In this article, we’ve decided to list the seven things bridal magazines won’t tell you.
1. Wedding planning is not fun at all. Bridal magazines always show some happy brides, full of energy and understanding. But finding a wedding dress, searching for a venue, deciding on the menu and the music, and making the guest list is extremely stressful. However, a wedding planner is not necessary, unless you have almost unlimited budget. Even if you hire someone to take care of everything, you will still need to approve all their decisions. Instead, you can see a stylist, who will help you with choosing décor, colour schemes and fabrics.
2. Something always goes wrong. And this is perfectly normal, but often brides simply go crazy over every little detail. Some of your guests may not show up, you may spill your bubbly on your dress, and various other things may happen, no matter how well you’ve planned everything. Just remember that this is your big day, so enjoy it no matter what.
3. It’s okay to hide somewhere and do something normal. Just imagine being up from 5.00 am, spending all your day with your fabulous dress, expensive jewelry, smiling and looking the several thousand-dollar decorations. At one point, you will probably start feeling completely lost. Don’t worry, if you’re too tired of all this celebrating and pretending, just have ten minutes for yourself, away from the crowd, doing something to remind you of who you are. Chat with your guests for something that has nothing to do with the wedding, put aside your shoes and have a beer – it doesn’t matter, as long as it helps you feel better.
4. It’s okay to pass some of the traditions. Your family won’t agree, but it’s your wedding day, so you shouldn’t be afraid to think outside the box. Don’t want to wear a white dress? Think the bouquet toss is ridiculous? Then feel free to skip them. See which traditions you and the groom actually like and the others can be replaced by some fun games and activities that everyone will enjoy.
5. Assign someone to download as many photos as possible from your guests’ cameras. Today, everyone brings a digital camera to a wedding. So, assign someone you can trust to collect all photos and videos and download them to a certain laptop, so you can have as many moments captured as possible. Of course, you will hire a professional photographer, but your guests’ photos will still be precious.
6. The groom won’t be very excited about wedding planning. Although TV shows and magazines try to convince us the opposite, men rarely care about all those details that make you freak out. Don’t get mad if he’s not interested in picking the colours or tasting the cake. Simply ask your bridesmaids or your sister for help.
7. Know your guests and get your speakers know them, too. Usually, there are at least two families and a ton of relatives at every wedding. Don’t expect them to know each other. However, the speakers (your father, your mother-in-law, or whatever tradition you have) will probably speak of old or unknown traditions make jokes, and so on. They can easily insult someone or remain understood – for example, if your maid of honour is German and does something traditionally German, maybe nobody will know what it is.
These are just seven of the most common surprises that happen on almost any wedding. It’s impossible to be prepared for everything, but the most important to remember is to stay calm and see what happens. Just enjoy the day as much as you can!
