I literally just got married two days ago, so it is fresh in my head. Lots of married people gave me advice before the wedding and I tried my best to listen to it. Of course, it is hard though in the thick of it to remember all those thoughtful words. So, if you are about to get married or plan to in the future, take it from me…I wish I listened more closely to all the advice that was given.

Like all brides, you have this perfect idea of how everything will flow so smoothly and then your wedding day comes and things just seem to spiral out of your control. It is a perfect metaphor for life: you can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather. Ethan and I, being Event planners, designed a perfect timeline for the wedding and had all of it down to a T. Then life happened. It took way longer for me and the girls to get ready than we planned. I was an hour late to meet Ethan at the waterfall for our first look pictures. Then our plan to take pictures before the ceremony didn’t happen, as we had just enough time to get ready to walk down the aisle. As a result, we took pictures after the ceremony, we completely missed the cocktail hour. We squeezed speeches in before dinner and then that set the rest of the night off track. The music didn’t all get played since we started dancing late…etc…etc…

This may sound like a disaster and at the time, I was a bit in a panic. But in the end I realized that none of the guests realized that we were off schedule and everyone had a great time. This is all that matters, that you and your guests have a great time. So, please take these words of advice to heart, or you will miss out on the best day/evening of your life.

1. Make a plan for the timeline.
2. Accept that your plan will not be executed the way you want it to be.
3. Forget said plan and just get absorbed in the moment.
4. Let go of preconceived notions of how the day should go.
5. Try to take an extra moment after the ceremony with your new husband/wife and just enjoy being alone and taking it all in.
6. People will not follow the rules you set out for them.
7. Just breathe. You are not the event planner, you are the guest of honor. Forget about making everything go right and just fully enjoy your special day.
8. Don’t expect to get to talk to everyone. It is very challenging and you shouldn’t get upset with yourself about it.
9. Eat, eat, eat!! Don’t be one of those couples that doesn’t eat at their own wedding! You must make it a priority or you won’t feel good. We told them we have to eat and they set aside a special table for us and all the appetizers and dinner, so we could eat before entertaining/thanking guests.
10. Just have fun! It is your wedding and no one knows what you planned, so if things don’t happen, don’t worry about it! Just enjoy it as much as you can and soak up every moment, because it flies by so fast!

Seriously, take this advice. I almost didn’t and was ruining my own wedding by getting upset about the little things going wrong. You just have to go with the flow and accept that it isn’t going to go exactly by plan, but it will still be perfect! Breathe, and have an amazing wedding day! In the end it is all about you and your husband saying your vows and spending the rest of your lives together, not how well your wedding goes.