Preparing for Your Wedding | The Wedding List

When you have spent the best part of a year preparing for your wedding, the last thing that you need is to forget anything you’ve worked for and carefully prepared. There is every chance that despite all of your careful planning, you will forget something and you will forget to bring at least one thing with you on your wedding day. The planning is all about ensuring that this doesn’t happen, but weddings aren’t always straightforward and the tiniest detail being forgotten can feel like a disaster.

Whether your maid of honor has forgotten to call Today-Flowers about the buttonholes, or you have forgotten to pack tissues to blot any tears, you need to make sure that you close any gaps and shut down all potential risks. Below, we’ve put together a wedding checklist that may not seem like the important stuff but if you forget just one, you will notice. You need calm and patience on your wedding day especially, and lists like this are going to help you to maintain that. So, with this in mind, let’s take a closer look at the things you need to double-check before you leave to get married.

• The Rings. As the bride, this shouldn’t be your concern as this is firmly in the column of the partner in the relationship. However, you would not believe how many people get to the church or the hotel ready to get hitched and don’t actually have the rings with them! You need to put reminders on phones and if necessary, sticky notes around the hotel room or home where your partner is. Make sure that you really trust the best man to watch the rings for you!
• The Bag. You will be exhausted after swapping vows, eating delicious food, and dancing the night away, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take your makeup off. You need an overnight bag ready in the honeymoon suite to take off your makeup, brush your hair and teeth, and put on clean clothes the next morning. You need to be ready and you can always give this job to one of the mothers – they’ll love organizing you!
• The Timeline. Ideally, you would have printed out a booklet of the timeline of the day, from the moment you arrive in the venue until the cutting of the cake and the end of the dancing. You need to have everything noted down and timed and if you have a wedding planner, they will take care of this for you. If not, you need a cheat sheet in your bag so you can keep up with the day.
• The Boss. Someone in your wedding party, your parents, or a wedding planner needs to be the boss on your wedding day. This person will be the one to tell everyone what to do according to your instructions. They’ll be your voice, and they’ll work through you to ensure that your day goes off without a hitch and it keeps your stress levels as low as possible.
• The Gown. We’re not talking about the wedding gown you’ve got in the dry cleaning bag hanging in the wardrobe. You need to wear something while you’re getting ready, and an embroidered bridal gown is often the clothing of choice. You need to remember this so that you can get ready with your bridesmaids and ensure that you are covering your nakedness as you get ready!

• The Information. Have you got all of the information for each of the vendors that you’re looking at for your wedding day? You need to have their information to hand just in case anything goes wrong. With this information, you need to keep hold of the tip envelopes. These should have the right tips for each vendor based on what you paid for the service, and you should have someone you can trust to handle this for you. You need these labeled and ready to go at the end of the event.
• The Meals. You have already booked and paid for catering, we know, but what are you going to eat before you get to your big moment? You need to consider breakfast and what you plan to eat. You need to eat – don’t forget that – you don’t want to faint in the middle of the vows and you need to eat to keep your strength up through the day, too. You should have some delicious wedding breakfast platters made for the morning of the wedding, with pastry and fruit, champagne glasses of orange juice, and DO NOT eat anything in your dress. Eat before you get ready!
• The Extras. Extra pens, extra programs, extra paper in case you want to jot anything down – don’t forget these. You want to ensure that this is a day that goes off without a hitch and the best way to do this is to pack it all into your overnight back the day before.
• The Wedding Emergency Kit. Every bridal party needs a backup with sewing things, double-sided tape, band-aids, tissues, floss, and painkillers. This pack can be kept with one of the bridesmaids at all times, and you will be set if there’s a spill, a cut, a hem rip, or more.
• The Speeches. From the best man to your partner, you need to remember to have a copy of the speeches. These can be printed and laminated, ready in an envelope at the dinner place of each speechmaker. If you have a toastmaster, they can hold the speeches and hand them out at the wedding as they call on each individual to speak up for the bride or groom. 

Lastly, the one thing that you don’t want to forget is something old, something new, something borrowed, or something blue. You want to know that you are following the old tradition, so include a sixpence in your shoe if you can get one. These items are, of course, not essentials, but weddings can be busy – we could all use a little luck.