I am less than a week away from my wedding day and I’m feeling it. When I say “feeling it,” I mean the stress of planning such a special event. The one goal I set and was adamant about following through with was to get everything finished a week prior to our wedding, so as to not have any worries. I did a fairly good job of completing everything or delegating tasks I knew I wouldn’t have time to get to, but I neglected to take into consideration that the “to-do” lists wouldn’t be the only cause of stress. With such a special event as a wedding, there are many expectations from family and friends. I am honored that people are so passionate about our wedding, but unfortunately not all expectations can be met. For the most part people understand, but it still takes a toll on you emotionally to let people down or hurt feelings. It’s the part of wedding planning that everyone talks about, but you secretly think you won’t have to deal with. Let’s be real, you will. And if you let it get to you, it will cost you dearly (I’m pretty sure I’ve covered my seamstress’ house payment this month with the non-stop stress-induced dress alterations!) My advice to Brides-to-Be is to follow the directions all those wedding websites give you to manage stress (they all have the same advice for a reason.) Even if you feel like everything is smooth sailing, make sure to implement their advice. And another bit of advice I can give you is to enjoy the hiccups. Because of the numerous alterations to my dress, there was not time for it to go back to the boutique for a final steaming. I offered to do it myself (I have a steamer and some serious steaming skills!) and called my neighbor (who also happens to be one of my bridesmaids) to help and we had a grand time getting buried in tulle and laughing about me being the only bride that would steam her own dress. Those are the hiccups that make up the best memories. I can see us as little old ladies years from now sitting on our front porch, sipping lattes and talking about the day it took us 4 hours to steam my wedding dress!

With Love,Jenn