The Wedding Craziness Has Officially Started (if it hadn't already)

Hello, hello!

Today I embarked on my last full week of work before the wedding! I woke up on time and was even ready early- very uncharacteristic of a Monday morning. I headed to work and was in the car no more than 5 minutes before rear-ending someone. AHHHHHHH!!!! Let me rewind a second to say that the sun in the morning coming down Highway 17 has been absolutely blinding recently. My window was still slightly fogged over and my mind was in another world. Sure enough, you cannot plow through traffic to make it move. I must have done something nice for someone recently because Karma was really on my side today. No damage was done, and the guy didn't even want to take down my information- sweet relief!

I promised that I'd write a wedding advice post, and today seemed like a good day for it. I've been reminiscing over the events of the past year, trying to figure out where all the time has gone. I'm torn between overwhelming excitement for the big day and knowing that it's going to come and go faster than I'd like. How many times in your life do you get to have all your closest family and friends come to the same place at the same time to celebrate you? Not many! I've been trying to savor all the little moments- things that happen that are both firsts and lasts at the same time- that I know I'll look back on someday and smile. That said, here are some little pearls of wisdom that I've gleaned from the whole experience. Everybody's different, so in the end there is no formula for a perfect wedding, but advice never hurt.

*Try to do as much in advance as you possibly can. This is one thing that I've been especially appreciative of these last couple of weeks. I can't really take credit for this one, though- everybody knows I am the queen of procrastination. I have my mom to thank, as well as the crazy wedding scene that is Charleston. We realized early on that things book up far in advance, and so we had to pounce on our vendors while they were still available and make some quick decisions in a few instances. Having the groundwork laid out is key to managing stress levels later on.

*Whenever you make a decision or book a vendor, write it down in the same place (that part is really crucial) as all of your other decisions, etc. Make lists, and make lists for your lists. Also, take note of when payments are due. Normally I'm pretty good at keeping all my information stored and readily available in my various brain compartments, but don't rely on memory! I spent probably an hour the other day weeding through emails and trying to figure out when we needed to pay everybody by- something I could have avoided completely if I'd had taken note of it in the first place. Organization is a must.

*Don't think you need to have every minute detail figured out early on. For instance, the bridal books will tell you to decide on your color scheme in the beginning but this was something that took me months to finally settle on. It's not the end of the world if you change your mind 9000 times about flowers, or soup for the cocktail hour, or what favors to give, or how many tiers to put in your cake. You may start to irritate your vendors, but ultimately they know that it's all about making the bride happy :)

*Never hesitate to ask for advice. A secret: most of my wedding ideas were stolen from other people. It was so nice to let other people do the legwork for me; whether it was a customer at the bank, a friend bored at work, or a vendor with tons of experience, I've been happy to rely on word-of-mouth recommendations, and so far they've all panned out.

*Finally, don't forget yourself in the whole process. I've been really lucky to have family and a fiancee who, for the most part, have let me call the shots and dictate how the whole day will be. I can see how it would be easy to fall into the old people-pleasing trap, but it's not worth it to stress over what everybody else thinks. If people don't like it, they can go have their own wedding.


Anyways, wish me luck as I try to survive this next week without being too much of a threat to the world around me. And stay tuned for Recipe Thursday with a guest post from Chef Carl!