Take it from the gals who’ve been there: finding the easy route to plan your wedding is always 100% worth it. Making the wedding magic happen takes a lot of love and labor, but minimizing the labor wherever you can makes a big difference. After all, your wedding is supposed to be a great big party all about you and your sweetheart, not several months of migraine-inducing stress. Check out the tips below to make the road to marital bliss that much smoother.
Address Collecting
Keeping track of your guests’ addresses in a notebook/binder/spreadsheet/whatever is way too time consuming, especially if that list gets lost, deleted or soaked in water. Save yourself the agony and keep your guest list online. Our favorite tool for collecting addresses is Postable. This website gives you a link that you can send to your guests through Facebook, email or whichever you prefer; it gives them an easy-to-use form that they fill in their address, and boom! It’s tucked away and ready to go. It’s also really easy to export the guest list with their addresses to an Excel file if you need to give one to the printer of your invitations, or you can use it to automatically make address labels that you can print and stick to invitations. It’s ridiculously simple. Bonus: the site can also be used to send out thank-you cards when the gifts start coming in. There’s dozens of beautiful cards to choose from, and you don’t get hand cramps from writing the notes. You can’t possibly lose!
Be Prepared
Whether you like it or not, there’s a strong likelihood of a mini-crisis happening on the day of your wedding. A hem falls on your gown, a bridesmaid’s tights have a run that’s getting longer, the back of an earring is gone, the list is endless. Your best solution is to have an emergency kit ready to go in case something does go awry. We suggest including oil-blotting papers, hairspray, clear nail polish, safety pins, pain reliever, a sewing kit, mints, bobby pins and anything else you think is necessary. For anyone who wants a complete kit without the labor of making one, check out the Minimergency Kit by Pinch Provisions. There’s a kit for everyone, including brides, bridesmaids, moms, grooms and groomsmen, and they all come in neat (and very cute) packages that are easy to stuff into a bag or pocket on the big day. It makes a great gift for your bridesmaids and groomsmen, too!
“In case of inclement weather…”
We live in Idaho. The weather in Idaho is unpredictable. That’s a fact that nobody can deny. Even if the seven-day forecast predicts sunshine, there’s still a chance of a cloudburst coming out of nowhere and drenching you and your guests. If your wedding is being held outdoors, have an indoor backup reserved and available if the weather turns sour, and be sure that some folks in the wedding party are ready to pack up and set up the decor indoors if that does happen. Make sure to include this information on your invitations, as well; no guest wants to get drenched, when they could have gone straight to the indoor venue to party with everyone else.
Get Glowing
Your hairstylist and makeup artist are awesome. They pour so much into making you look like the stunning bride you deserve to feel like on your big day. However, they aren’t magicians, so doing what you can to treat your hair and skin right, long before the big day, makes a huge difference. Think of it this way: an artist does their best work on a clean canvas. Long before the wedding, make an effort to regularly treat your hair with a deep conditioner, get regular trims to keep dead ends away, and work out a routine for moisturizers and products that work best for your skin. When it comes to the week of the wedding, your skin and hair should be easily manageable for your stylists. Another great idea if you’ve got the funds: throw a laid-back bachelorette party at a spa the weekend before the wedding, where you can all get pampered. Few cures for wedding stress are better than a facial and a massage.
Bonus Tips:
- Make a separate email account for all things wedding planning. You’ll thank yourself later when you don’t have piles of wedding junk mail in your inbox six months after the big day.
- Use an envelope sealer, glue stick or foam brush dipped in water to seal invitation envelopes. Much better than using your tongue.
- Sky-high heels are perfect for pictures, but not so much for standing in a receiving line. Once photos and the ceremony are through, bring some comfy flat shoes to wear for the rest of the day. Nobody will see them under your gown, anyway.
- Uh oh: a wild pimple just appeared the day before the wedding. Listen to your mother and don’t squeeze it! Instead, grab an ice cube and gently rub in a circular motion around the pimple for three to five minutes, then dab on just a little pimple cream. Ice reduces the inflammation and the pimple will disappear and heal much more quickly.