1. You really find out who your friends are during the wedding planning process. A woman who called me her "best friend" ditched my wedding for what she claimed was a boyfriend flying in, but she never had him there (according to her Facebook) and was out yard-saling on my wedding day. Block button for you! Meanwhile, my best friend and her husband drove 12 hours (almost 17 thanks to their GPS) from Florida to Virginia to see us get married.
2. Do not, under any circumstance, wait to find someone to officiate the wedding until you get your marriage license. 9 times out of 10, you'll get numbers of people who have been booked for months.
3. If someone offers to pay for something for your wedding/reception, get the money up front (I'd say as soon as those words come out of his/her mouth). My MIL was supposed to pay for our reception out of $3K she had saved up, and we ended up paying for nearly everything and using the $500 she gave us a month before the wedding to get us through the government shutdown where my hubby was furloughed.
4. Don't count on your guy helping you plan the wedding in any way other than financially. I picked out our theme, colors, dresses, cake, accessories, decorations, officiant, etc. etc. etc. and hubby just paid for everything. Not that I'm not grateful, but when I would ask for his help, 9 times out of 10 it was an "I don't care, just tell me where to be and when to be there."
5. If you feel confident, sexy, beautiful, etc. etc. etc. in a dress, GET IT. It doesn't hurt to try on other dresses, but coming from personal experience, I tried on 5 dresses total and looked at probably 10-15 before deciding on my dress, and it was the 4th one I'd tried on.
6. Don't stress about things you can't control on the day, like the weather. It rained on my wedding day...twice in fact. A few hours before the ceremony and right after the reception ended. The chances were anywhere from 10% - 70%. But have a back-up plan just in case if you *have* to have an outdoor wedding...tents are expensive, hotels and stuff are probably worse.
7. Have people in your wedding party that are reliable and punctual. My matron of honor was AMAZING. She bossed people around and I LOVED it. She constantly called to check in with me for progress (I would have called her as well but she just had a baby in February and I don't like to wake the kid up lol).
8. Something is bound to go wrong on the wedding day, whether it be the ceremony or the reception. Our officiant had known us all of a few weeks when we recruited her, and during the ceremony she kept calling me Diana (my middle name was Diane). I had a sense of humor about it and corrected her, but I knew it wasn't going to be the picture-perfect thing I had envisioned. And you know what? I was perfectly fine with that. Heck, our DJ announced us into the reception as "Mr. and Mrs. (my maiden name)" LOL. Not to mention my 2 month old ringbearer and his parents never showed up to the wedding nor gave me an excuse, so our friend from MD gave us the rings instead.
9. Melatonin is your best friend the night before the wedding. That's the only way I got 5.5 hours of sleep.
and finally, 10. Pee before you get into your wedding dress. I did literally three times in an hour, and then didn't have to the entire wedding/reception time. It was AWESOME.
Feel free and share your experiences!
