Weddingbee Blog

1. Go ahead and freak out over the schedule beforehand as quietly as you can (but try not to drive people nuts while you do this). Don’t let people tell you that schedule is meaningless, because that is absolutely untrue. Plus, Breezy Day-Of you will definitely thank Stressy Old-You for padding that schedule when you’re, say, an hour behind getting ready.

2. Drink red wine in your wedding dress, but you might want to wait until dancing hour starts. That’s what Photoshop is for, right? My dress is completely thrashed, complete with a red-wine stain on the ass, because I partied as hard as I could in it and then dragged the train through one of the grittiest ‘hoods in town to get back to our hotel. That’s one of my favorite memories from the night, in fact, and our walking buddies made it all the better.

3. Pace yourself enough to drink during the after party back at your hotel! Though, our reception ended at about 10 or 10:30, so we had plenty of time for a post-gathering.

4. Venues with dance “space” rather than proper dance floors make a raging dance floor a bit harder to achieve. We did get the raging dance floor we hoped for, but I think some peeps were hesitant at first, given the lack of obvious visual cues.

5. If you have a photo booth, it and the crowd gathered around it will compete with the aforementioned raging dance floor. But both will be so bad ass, it really won’t bother you. It may bother your new husband, raging on the dance floor, yell-asking all bystanders where his wife is. (Which totally happened.)

6. Greet all your tables during dinner and try to hug everyone there at least once. You’ll be glad you made the time to thank people personally.

7. Your birdcage veil will get even wilier than it was when your hairstylist first put it on. Maybe it’s the rose-colored glasses speaking, but the pics of it off-kilter really don’t bug me that much. See #2 for why that’s OK.

8. Spend at least one quiet moment with a handful of people, not really talking about anything. Another favorite memory is sitting on the balcony outside the room after the sun went down. I hiked up my already-thrashed dress, sat on some steps, and laughed about my friends’ two-year-old rejecting my attention.

9. …Speaking of tots, parents tell me kids are always very interested in the bride, then they immediately get shy and scared once she and all the cameras start paying attention to them, too.

10. !!!

So, this is not a lesson learned, per se. Unless the lesson is that you are sure to love your pics!

Wedding-day teaser by Ashley Forrette

What’s your favorite post-wedding tip?