How To Plan The Morning Of Your Wedding
Let’s just say this how it is: the morning of your wedding may well turn out to be the most chaotic and potentially stressful of your life. As such, the planning for your wedding needs to include a rigorous breakdown of those hours before you even reach the aisle, never mind what comes after! Take a look at some of our tips for how to plan the morning of your wedding to try and minimise some of the madness that might ensue…
Schedule
Create a timetable of what will be happening on the morning of your wedding. This should include which suppliers are arriving and when and where key members of the wedding party are meant to be at any one time. Work backwards from your ceremony time so that you budget your time accordingly (don’t forget that you might have to meet the registrar ten minutes beforehand). Make sure you have circulated this schedule to all suppliers to make sure they agree with the allotted times. Make sure you give out copies to all relevant people, from your wedding planner/coordinator to your ushers or best man.
Contingency
Expect everything to run late and add time into your schedule accordingly. If you add an extra five minutes on to every task, you’re less likely to be in a tight spot should something overrun.
Calm
Try to minimise the amount of people that are with you on the morning of your wedding. It’s great to have all of your bridesmaids and your mum around you, but don’t forget you might also add in a hairdresser, a make-up artist and a photographer. The more people there are in the room, the busier, noisier and madder things will get! If you do have a big entourage, try to make a little oasis of calm in a separate room of your suite or wherever you’re getting ready so that you can have some time to yourself.
Tidy
Yes yes, the last thing you want to be doing on the morning of your wedding is tidying up, we know. BUT! If you tidy as you go, it’ll make life a lot simpler. You can always appoint a bridesmaid to be in charge of this but it’s wise to try and minimise the amount of “stuff” lying around for two reasons:
1) It’ll make it easier to clear the room and for everyone else to get their belongings if it’s all packed away.
2) You’ll be glad when you get your wedding photos back and there isn’t loads of clutter in the background of images. No one needs to see yesterday’s outfit strewn across the floor and endless cups of tea marooned throughout the room.
Kit
You might want to prepare a bridal kit in advance. You can get lists of what these should include from all good planning websites, but you might want to think about everything from a miniature sewing kit to emergency nail varnish. This is often a duty delegated to the maid of honour, so make sure she’s got it sorted if you’re not taking responsibility for it.
Zones
If you have the opportunity to get into your bridal suite or prep area the night before, you can set out everything you need for the morning. We suggest using zones so that it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. You could choose to delineate a zone for each person so that everybody knows where their things are, or you could lay your belongings out in groups, so all the dress are together, all the shoes are lined up next to each other, a table is designated for all jewellery, another area is set up for perfume and so forth.
Minutiae
In the excitement of putting on your dress and getting ready for your wedding, don’t forget about the little things that you would normally do on a regular day. Here are some things that brides have forgotten in the past…
1) Put your contact lenses in
2) Brush your teeth
3) Put deodorant on
4) Put perfume on
5) Put your underwear on (yes, really)
6) Take any medication that you need
7) Go to the loo!
Lists
There’s no better way to be organised than to have lists. People may think you’re a megalomaniac, but you’ll be the one who has the last laugh when you’re an oasis of calm and haven’t forgotten a thing. Don’t be afraid to have a master list referring to sub-lists that give you a bunch of things to check off before you walk out that door towards the love of your life.
