If everyone says your wedding day goes by too fast, is it actually possible to stay present and enjoy every moment? After all, you’ve just spent the last 6-18 months planning everything down to the tiniest detail, and your head is probably spinning, thinking about all the potential issues that could come up at the last minute, or whether you ordered the right meals, or, if you’re like me, worrying about how much you’re going to cry during your vows! All this worry and anxiety makes it incredibly difficult to stay present at your wedding and enjoy every moment, but it’s definitely not impossible. Today I’m going to share with you 5 ways I was able to stay present at my own wedding, and take in every single second of magic, no matter how fast it felt like it was going!
My Wedding Day
On my wedding day, despite the fact that I had every single thing planned down to the minute, I made a promise to myself to stay present. I actually spent a lot of time before the wedding visualizing everything, not just the ceremony, not just the programming we had planned, but also my morning walk to go pick up the bread we would serve later that night, the shower I would take, the makeup I wanted to do, and even what I wanted to wear while I was doing all of my own preparations. And you’d think that would make me get into my own head a bit about how everything would play out on the day, but because I know things never go exactly as planned as an event planner with over a decade of experience, I also knew to just let things go when they went wrong. Like the fact that I completely forgot to pick up a big carafe of Starbucks coffee before my family arrived for lunch. Instead of being upset with myself and letting anxious and worried thoughts plague my brain, I just let a new fun element of the day unfold, and I got to experience tons of gratitude when my brother dropped everything to go run out and get the coffee. So here’s how I did it.
1. Start practicing noticing on a daily basis
If your head is spinning just thinking about all of the work you have to do to get ready for your wedding, you might be feeling some symptoms of anxiety. A great way to ground yourself is to stop, and notice 5 small sensory things around you. This could be the way your keyboard feels when you type, what dinner smells like, the sound of construction raging in your back yard – anything sensory that you can notice happening in the moment. Over time, you’ll start to get better at noticing the small details, which will help you stay present on your wedding day.
2: Find a moment to talk to everybody on your wedding day
Yeah, at first glance this might seem overwhelming, but what if you really took the time to savour each interaction you had on your wedding day, good or bad? You might take a minute to look your bartender in the eye and ask her how her night is going, or you can enjoy hearing about your cousin’s flight delays just to get to your wedding! Try to let your attention stay focused on the person in front of you whenever possible, to create memories (and photo ops) you’ll cherish forever!
3: Take up a physical healthcare routine so that you can stay physically healthy on the day
I cannot stress this enough, but you need to eat on your wedding day. Eat a proper breakfast, lunch and dinner, and try your best to not drink too much champagne. If you notice yourself getting a little bit of brain fog, it might be because you’re dehydrated. A good way to get around this is to plan out when you’re going to have your meals, and when you’re going to drink water. And if you need help with this, ask a friend to be on food and drink duty for you! They can check in with you throughout your wedding and make sure you have all the sustenance you need! Plus, if you practice a healthy routine during the months and weeks before the big day, it will be much easier to implement these healthy habits at your wedding!
4: Hire a day-of manager
Hey, I might be a little biased here, but I happen to think that event managers are the best thing to happen to events since bottomless bread baskets! Event managers are experienced professionals who know how to handle emergencies, or what to do if something isn’t going according to plan (and trust me, things will randomly not go according to plan!). Plus, you really don’t want to be worrying about all of the details on your wedding day, you want to be enjoying it! You want to be present in the moment – not thinking about whether you remembered to bring the knife to cut the cake! Let someone else take care of that for you!
5: Breathe
This is a simple one, but it’s so important. Take time to breathe on your wedding day. If you find yourself getting anxious, try a box breath. Breathe in for four counts, hold for four counts, breathe out for four counts and then hold for four counts. Do this as many times as you need, to feel like you are grounded and present during your wedding.
So all that to say, if you practice mindfulness and physical wellbeing leading up to your wedding day, you’ll have a much easier time staying present on the day of your wedding!
If you found this episode useful I’d be so grateful if you followed and shared this episode with a friend, or your fiancé! If you have questions about staying present and I’d be happy to share what I know to help, drop me an email at [email protected]! I’ll be back next Thursday with another wedding planning post, so until then keep it joyful!
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