THE DAY BEFORE VS. DAY OF…
There are so many important parts of your wedding weekend, and I do mean weekend. It isn’t just one day. I have covered numerous rehearsal dinners and weddings that I can tell you what works best for each.
First of all, speeches should be done at the rehearsal dinner. Everyone is much more relaxed, we aren’t on any time crunch and they can feel much more intimate without all your wedding guests. I would suggest you hire your photographer and videographer to be there for your rehearsal dinner so we can capture these moments for you.
Write your vows before the day of the wedding. I know you will think about them before and maybe even have them written in your phone, but go ahead and put them in some pretty vow books before they day of your wedding. I never want you to feel rushed to get this done on the day of.
Get your hair and makeup done for your rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. This is just one more opportunity to tweak those last minute changes you’d like to make before the wedding day.
Gifts for your loved ones should be given to them at the rehearsal dinner as opposed to the wedding day. This beautiful gesture doesn’t want to be forgotten about or breezed through on the wedding day. Take your time with those special people in your life, show them your love and gratitude before the day of the wedding. Especially if the gift is something they should be wearing on the wedding day.
Your marriage license, this is a document that is filled out online, printed and signed. You will need a notary to notarize your marriage license, and lucky for you I am a notary. Some venues also have on site notaries. This can be done the day before the wedding as well.
Send out the day of timeline to all your vendors, wedding party, family members, and anyone else that will need it. This is something they will all need before the day of the wedding and by sending it out early, you won’t get as many questions on the wedding day as to when whomever needs to be ready.
Make sure you have decided on all the songs you want played during your ceremony and special events during the reception before the day of the wedding and communicate these to your DJ ahead of time so they have them all cued up and ready when you are ready for them.
Steam all dresses the day before and hang them somewhere they will be protected. So much time can be wasted steaming dresses the morning of the wedding, when your could just be hanging out not worrying about them.
Cut all the tags out of your dresses, the price tags, size tags and the hang tags. This way you wont be searching for scissors on the day of the wedding. Also, if all your dresses match, put your initials somewhere inside the dress, so you know which one is yours.
Check and double check, heck triple check the groom, groomsmen and father’s attire. Make sure everyone has everything they need, and they all fit. If they are wearing ties, have them either learn ahead of time how to tie them or designate one person to tie them all. Pocket squares…great idea in theory, but no one knows how to make them all look the same and stay where they are supposed to be. I say skip these ;)
And lastly, relax, enjoy yourself and take every moment in. Soak in this time, it goes by so quickly.
