What Every Bride Shouldn't Forget

The days preceding the wedding day can be full of stress and pressure. You have dreamt of this big day and with each tick of the clock, it gets nearer. You have ordered your gown, booked the caterer, the decorator and all vendors that are needed for the day. You have even started a beauty regimen. Every element that constitutes a wedding seems covered, right? Darling Bride, if you get so worked up with the activities before the day, you may find out some very important details are forgotten. That’s where a professional wedding planner comes to work. She could be hired for the day coordination or planning everything from start to finish.
However, if you are the DIY bride, here are some details you dare not forget. Forgetting them might not be tragic but remembering them gives you a sense of fulfillment on your wedding day. Grab a glass of your favourite drink and let’s go through these twelve items.

• Gown Preservation - Are you planning to deep your elegant dress in detergent and water yourself, then just leave it to hang in your wardrobe? When you take your gown to a wedding gown preservation company after the event, they are responsible for cleaning and packing it in a safe way for you. Assign your MOH or a reliable person to take your gown for preservation after the event.
• D-day Emergency Kit - What does it contain? It has analgesics, sewing materials and other items you may need at the event. This should be carried in a small bag by your MOH. Check out my post on Emergency Kit.
• Breakfast - Physicians say the breakfast is the most important meal of the day, your wedding day inclusive. Should you deny yourself a sumptuous breakfast because you are so busy? Nay! Do not leave for the ceremony without breakfast, Miss Bride. I don’t want to hear that you slumped on the dance floor due to stress. In fact, ensuring the bride gets breakfast is a duty of the MOH.
• Cash - This is very crucial. Having some money in your bridal purse is not only meant for spraying on the dance floor (this is Nigeria!). You may need to hand out a few notes to someone for whatever reason. There are some vendors you may have to pay their balance after the event. In fact, money makes your purse beautiful inside, not only outside. Lol
• Food for the Bridal Party - The likelihood is there that your wedding party may get so encumbered with the event as you and also forget breakfast or even lunch. Eating on that day is very necessary. Arrange that food be brought for the bridal party. Ensure your bridal party eat.
• Favours for Guests and Bridal Party - Appreciating your bridal party and guests for gracing your occasion is not only in sending thank you notes. Give them gifts, no matter how small. Something is better than nothing. Don’t be like the bride who had no souvenirs for anyone, thanks to her siblings who had a little something to share.
• Cake Cutter and Toasting Flutes - When you cut the wedding cake and perform your ‘first assignment’ of feeding your husband, you don’t want to use that ordinary cutter or charger the baker will provide. Bring along your own beautiful utensils. Invest in a set of toasting glasses. You could have your name and your husband’s name engraved on them to customise it. But if you don’t care about personalisation, make do with the common utensils the baker will provide.
• D-day Itinerary - I love been organised and so should you if you do not want headaches on that day. Hand out a list of what is expected of each ‘stakeholder’ for the day. By ‘stakeholder’ I mean, every key role involved on that day – wedding party, the groom, mother of the bride and groom, father of the bride and groom, vendors, siblings and point persons. As such, everyone knows what to do and when to do it.
• Photo Shot List - Don’t just leave the photographer unguided as to the must-take shots of the day. Hand him an order of photography for the ceremony or reception. If you don’t there may be some shots you would have loved to have but do not have simply because you didn’t communicate it to the photographer. Good lasting memories are very important.
• Sandals/Slippers - I am certain you have chosen high heeled shoes to wear on your wedding day. So, will you be able to bear the impending pain from long hours of standing and dancing in that shoes? I doubt that! Pack a very flat sandal or slippers with the emergency kit to save your sole.
• Night of Outfit/Going-Away Clothes - What do you intend to put on after removing your wedding dress? Invest in new lingerie and new clothes.
• Enjoying the Day - Relax babe! The day will be over in a matter of hours. Enjoy it while it lasts. Eat and drink to your satisfaction. Once in a while, whisper something naughty to your husband. Mingle with your guests. Don’t freak out on unnecessary things, like your bridesmaids not getting along with each other. Have a sense of humour. Even in the face of a seeming disaster, laugh and really laugh out loud. It’s your day and you deserve to be happy. Enjoy it!