Weddingbee Blog

Just in case you missed Part 1, check it out here. OK, now for the rest of the list.

6. Scheduled Alone Time: We arrived in Dallas on Wednesday afternoon, and immediately began running around like crazy trying to get last minute things taken care of. Once Thursday rolled around, family members started arriving from out of town, escalating the crazy factor even more. Luckily, I took the advice of one of my recently-married friends from work and scheduled a massage for the Thursday before the wedding. This quiet, alone time was the one time during the weekend that I could clear my head and recharge without a single distraction—no questions, no cell phone, no chit chat. It was heaven. Not only did the alone time help me relax, but it allowed me to have some time for reflection, to put into perspective the enormity of this event (the marriage more so than the wedding), and the priorities I wanted to focus on for the coming days. If you can schedule some solo time during the wedding week (massage or not), I would highly recommend it.

7. Down Time Between the Wedding and Honeymoon: King Hippo and I decided to have a couple of days post-wedding back in NYC before heading off for our honeymoon for a couple reasons. Since we were getting married out of town, we had to pack for the wedding, and I just couldn’t wrap my head around packing for the wedding and the honeymoon at the same time. And if we left immediately for the honeymoon, would we take all of our wedding stuff with us on the honeymoon and then fly back to New York? Or leave it with a friend in Dallas, return to Dallas after the honeymoon to pick it up and then fly back home to NYC? That was just too much packing and transporting of stuff for my little brain to handle. Plus, we were boarding this little fella.

How can you not love that slobbery face?

Coming back right after the wedding allowed us to get our pup out of confinement for a couple of days, before kenneling him right back up for the honeymoon. I’m sure he loved cuddling with us for a couple of days just as much as we did! I’ve also heard from many couples that they were exhausted after the wedding. We figured that it would be better to relax and regroup at home, instead of “wasting” days of our honeymoon trying to de-stress. By coming back home for a couple of days (but not going back to work, of course!), we were able to relax a bit so that by the time we left for our honeymoon (the Wednesday morning after our Saturday wedding), we were already in full-on chill mode but also had time to build excitement about the honeymoon. We were so glad that we made this decision!
8. Pre-Wedding Workouts: I mentioned here and here that I was trying to get into better shape before the wedding, and I’m so glad that I worked toward that in the months leading up to the big day. I definitely saw a difference in my muscle tone, and I just felt better in my own skin on the wedding day. I didn’t think once about how my body looked during the weekend (which is totally not like me), so just the fact that I could put my insecurities and worries aside was a huge step forward.
9. Hotel Space for Pre- and Post-Wedding: We had a large space at our host hotel for the bridal party to get ready in together, and it was perfect. We had lunch brought in and spent the afternoon hanging out, chatting, and getting ready all together. I always love spending time with my BFFs, and doing it on my wedding day was so much fun. We booked the space for the entire day, so it was available after the ceremony for people who wanted to have an after party. I was surprised how many people took advantage of it and came to hang out at the hotel after the festivities!
10. Donuts: Enough said.

Married bees: were there any other best wedding decisions you made that you can share?