Staying cool through the wedding

Last post I mentioned how I managed to maintain my sanity throughout the wedding week: ie. getting rid of unnecessary elements (some DIY elements, some home improvements, etc.) and creating a great attitude.

This calming attitude helped me to create a relaxing atmosphere for my wedding day as well. I had a vision about how I wanted to spend my time before, during and after the wedding, and everything I did prior to the wedding and scheduled for the wedding day were my best efforts to allow Dustin and I to enjoy our wedding the way we wanted to.

Of course there were some chaotic times, I don't think I've heard of a wedding with no element of surprise. But overall, our wedding day was the best ever and I wouldn't have wanted it different in any way.

Creating this sense of calm started way prior to wedding week - I scheduled a massage, brunches and time with girlfriends, a pedicure and manicure, and a trip to the flower's market all to make sure I enjoyed the wedding week. You ask, ''How does this have to do with staying calm on your wedding day?"" Well, to me it has about as much to do with the wedding day as getting a good night's rest before the wedding day does (Tip: get a good night's sleep the entire week of the wedding).

I took these things that brought calm into my week and carried similar enjoyable things into the wedding day. By keeping myself calm, relaxed and happy throughout the week, I believed I was more likely to stay so for the wedding as well.

My best friends stayed over the night before the wedding, which made for extra fun my last night as a bachelorette. We made breakfast in the morning and then headed to the salon (the most beautiful salon ever, Jesse Tomme Salon in Montemedi) where our heads were each pampered for an hour. (Not to mention that D surprised us with a limo at our door to take us from place to place!) After the salon we headed back to our lovely, construction-filled home where we met our make-up artist from Origins. Now this is where some craziness happened...ie. having to break into my house because we didn't have a key on us (caught on video, mind you).

We had some snacky food, chatted and got our make-up done at my house for about 2-3 hours. I probably could have planned to have things stacked while we were at the salon and done something different with this time. But I wanted allow time to just be, to enjoy my friends and take in the day. I highly recommend making sure this is a top priority. I've heard from several brides that their wedding flew by and they couldn't even remember all the events of their day. How sad!

No rushing, no worrying. Stay calm and cool.

Staying cool through wedding week

So some of you might remember my post two weeks prior to my most-loved day ( TWO WEEKS! ), where I couldn't imagine myself being stressed or busy before the wedding because I felt like there was nothing left to do. Wrongo. The warnings, the hypothetical situations, the storm before the calm -- all true.

Dustin and I found ourselves with a gazillion things to do the week of the wedding, and only 7 days (well, 7 for me, 3 for him). I took the week off of work and he took three days, but to no avail. We could only run to so many places in one day, get so many contractors into our house in a week, and run through plan B --- oh the night before the wedding.

While we were all smiles, there was definitely a bit of adventure throughout wedding week, the blessed day itself as well as throughout our honeymoon journey (to be shared in another post.)

Who knew there was such a thing as too much DIY for your wedding? When is too much DIY? Apparently I reached it. And, I found that the too-much-DIY moment must be different for each bride-to-be. For me, DIY had to stop in order to retain sanity during my wedding week. I still was a bit crazy and conquered too many things I probably didn't need to, and a few things just didn't happen the way we originally thought they would.
All of a sudden, things like placecard holders made out of cork, ceremony decorations and cute, wooden direction signs were no longer important and therefore were tossed out like last week's trash. I no longer had a desire to even do them, none-the-less put my time and energy (or lack there of) into them.

And, all these things that I had planned on doing that didn't happen weren't missed at all. The day was still beautiful and happy. No one noticed, except for maybe my favorite DIY supporter, my MOH, and my then husband-to-be.

So all the cool-as-a-cucumber compliments I received throughout the wedding week and on the day itself were in fact true. All the little things didn't matter. I kept my mind focused on the things that mattered most to me: at the end of the day I was going to be married to my best friend, and all those that I love were going to be there to share the experience and support us.

I got hitched

Yuppers, I got me a husband just over 2 and 1/2 weeks ago! I know I'm a little late on the update, but wedded life has kept us busy busy, and we had a honeymoon to sneak in there.

More on our crazy wedding week, special day and honeymoon adventure soon!