Hey Beautiful Readers!
Many tasks pile up in the final 30 days of wedding planning, including final payments, guest list tracking, venue and vendor walkthroughs, and more. All the chaos of final planning moments can be overwhelming, and it often takes away from your final moments as an engaged couple. The key to prioritizing your relationship and your big celebration in these final days is to give yourself one whole week of letting go.
What I mean by that is 30 days is a long time to get these final check marks ticked - even if it doesn’t feel like it. By giving yourself and your partner one full week of letting go you allow yourself space to simply bask in the glory of this phase of your life and relationship before it's’ too late.It flies by and gets overtaken by stress - so I urge you to take these final moments to slow down.
At a later date, we will dive deep into the final month of planning and all of the last minute decisions and tasks you will be completing. For now, we’re going to talk about the most ideal activities for the final 7 days leading up to Wedding Day. Day 7 is wedding day, and day 6 is most commonly rehearsal day - so that limits you to 4-5 days max in this “week” to take for yourselves.
For this blog, let’s say your wedding is on a Saturday. It is the most common industry day; however, nothing changes if your wedding is on a Friday other than maybe 1 day of PTO from work, and the rest of the days shift.
Now it’s the Saturday before your wedding; What do you do?
Take at least 3 days of PTO leading up to the big day (and even consider 4-5 if it’s feasible)
Spend quality time with each other; cook, go on a date, do a puzzle, do whatever it is that brings you peace together every night of that week.
Pamper Yourself ( Grooms too) - haircut, facial, wax, tan, nails, massage, whatever makes you feel your best; this is the week to do it all. If you’re going to get a facial do it right at the one week mark; you want to give your skin time to be free of makeup and product and experience any post treatment breakouts.
Sleep in. Rest, rest, rest. That’s what the PTO is for too; let your mind and your body really settle down and relax.
Finalize and check in with your wedding party. If you have any sort of wedding-related responsibility; check in with your people, remind them you love them, thank them again and make sure they've got their packing lists locked down!
Practice your entrance and first dance
Hydrate
Decrease screen time
Write down your vows (you should start thinking about them long before but this is a good time to sit down and actually put them on paper)
Get your ring cleaned - duhhh, no one wants a dull ring in their pictures
Most importantly put your faith in your vendors. Your final walkthrough and meetings will have happened by this point, and most likely all of your final payments are made. At this point there is very little left for you to do. Sit back, relax, and let it all happen around you. Let yourself take a breath, and thank yourself and your partner for all the hard work you put into planning this big day. From that moment on, allow yourselves to actually enjoy it - it will be the fastest week of your life.
While you’re both off getting your nails done or fitting your tux, there are some activities you should absolutely avoid during wedding week. And no - I am not talking about just “not stressing”. You might not think about it, but some things will make your life harder and potentially get in the way of the perfect wedding day you planned. To avoid any of those bumps in the road, here is a list of things to NOT DO in those final days.
Unpacking any wedding day items before they get to the venue; Do not show your friends when they arrive; don’t take them out of the bag or box to make sure it’s the right shade; don’t let mom take a picture if she didn't already get one - you get the point. You might misplace or forget something, and this is how things break. It's all fun and games until you’re super gluing the corners of acrylic names together at 12:30am … trust me.
Risk taking / daredevil type of activities; this is not the week to live on the edge, just don't.
Drink too much alcohol - not to go all nutritionist on you but alcohol makes all of us bloated and puffy. Don’t overdrink in these final days, you will drink plenty all wedding weekend!
Experimenting with new face, hair or body products - you will break out, have an allergic reaction, become increasingly oily and then some. I'm not knocking a single product any of you use; but PLEASE if you listen to anything, listen to this. Try it at least twice before you use it in the days leading up to your wedding or on wedding day especially. This is not the time for product testing; go with your trustee brands.
Cry ( as best as you can) to avoid your eyes getting puffy. If you’re like me this was a pretty impossible feat and I cried pretty much everyday (happy tears I swear) leading up to my wedding. Especially when writing my vows and when we went on our final date; it is an extremely emotionally overwhelming time. Buy yourself some eye masks, make sure to get good rest and just try not to ball your eyes out too much - especially the night before wedding day.
Overeat / carb load which I am pretty sure speaks for itself. I know you’re stressed but fuel your body and take care of it. You don’t want to feel bloated, sick, or unhappy with the way you look because you stress ate some late night Chick-Fil-A. The last thing you need is a breakout from grease or an upset tummy going into your rehearsal.
These lists are far from exhaustive, so make sure to use them as a guide in planning your week and keeping your relaxation, health and relationship at the forefront of your thoughts. If this does nothing else other than guide you in prioritizing celebrating your relationship by actually taking a step back and just being in it for a few days, than I was successful here.
As always, you know where to find me and more planning resources. The pinterest board is growing and the calendar is filling up! Happy planning season to my current and future brides, don’t forget to enjoy it!
Xoxo,
Alyssa
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