Wedding, anyone?

If the throngs of crazed customers clutching registry printouts at the Crate and Barrel are any indication, wedding season is once again upon us.

I'm beyond excited for the handful of women out there finally finding Mr. Right and reaching the pinnacle of their lives where they finally get to live out their childhood dream - an elaborate white wedding with roses galore and champagne toasts for the happy couple. I must admit, I'm a sucker for weddings and all the emotions that come with it too!

Having gone through the joy of wedding planning (and panic) myself, I thought I'd share with you some honest tips that anyone, married or not, can read and laugh at or cry about...either way..Enjoy!

1) If you think you're wedding is going to go perfect - It's not! Not to cause any panic, but I don't think there's any wedding in the world that has gone perfectly as planned, and if you claim that yours did, please come forward so I can slap a "DENIAL" sticker on your forehead!
Ok, look at this way. A wedding is a BIG event that requires the cooperation and coordination of many people. One of these people is bound to screw up. I started planning my wedding 14 months before showtime, and STILL there were hiccups. Just to name a few: a) My limo driver showed up 30 minutes late. b) An event was booked right before our wedding so we only had 2 hours to set up instead of the whole day. c) My veil almost blew off during our ceremony because the wind was so strong that day.
Yet, in the end, we got married and there were no cops/ambulances called. That's the important thing right?
Heck, you'll be so nervous, you won't have the energy to deal with all that stuff anyway.

2) Don't feel bad about cutting down your guest list. Looking back at the people that were at our wedding, I can name a few "well, that was a waste" invitations. I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm just being very frank about the fact that you should never feel bad for a person that's sad about not being invited!
Remember, it's your wedding and the only people that deserve to be there are the people that genuinely want to see you married and happy. You will KNOW if someone just wants to be there to enjoy the free food and drinks...because honestly, anyone who thinks that they deserve to be at your wedding probably doesn't. So when you're making your list and checking it twice, ask yourself, "Do I want to pay $100 for them to be there?" Because that's an average of what it costs to invite that one person. Same rule applies for someone who asks to bring a guest. If they can't stomach the idea of coming to your wedding alone then perhaps they shouldn't be invited either.

3) Find the motivation to get in shape. This little piece of advice might be too direct, but it's honest-to-goodness one of the simplest things you can do to make your special day that much more special. If you're feeling lazy, find the motivation to just get up and do it. There are going to be cameras coming at you from thousands of different angles, and trust me, you don't want to look back at your wedding photos that people tag you in and say "Oh gosh, look at my double chin in that picture!" You want to look and feel beautiful because 30 years from now, you want your grandchildren to revel in how perfect their grandmother looked on her wedding day so they can argue about who gets to wear your dress and not who wants to cut it up and use it as a parachute.

4) Be cautious about your vendors. Read reviews. Get testimonials. Don't hire someone blindly! Vendors are the people that will make your wedding magic and you don't want to be trusting someone with your money and and an essential piece of your wedding without being 100% sure that they're going to do an excellent job. I was a fiend for weddingwire.com and still, I was dissappointed with some of their performances. In most cases, you get what you pay for..So if there's ever a question about going with the cheaper person who is not well known vs. a pricier person with excellent reviews, well, you should go with the latter to say the least.

5) You can't put a price on love!  If at one month before your wedding you find yourself throwing the budget out the window, don't beat yourself up. There comes a breaking point in every bride's life where they say "EFF IT" and impulsively buy that cupid ice sculpture that they've been so hesitant to buy for so long. And you know what, that's A-OK! At the end of my wedding planning, I must've given into at least 5 things that I didn't "have the money for". And you know what, I don't regret those little extras one bit. You only get married once, and just as long as you don't go wildly off of your budget, then yes, get those chivari chairs you've been longing for! You'll be glad you did.

6) If you're not going on a honeymoon, find some time to get away after the wedding, just the two of you. After the big day is over and done with, you don't want to come home to a house full of unwrapped wedding gifts and skip the days of bliss that follow. Try your hardest to take some time away together, even just for a weekend, so you can process what you just did and forget about all the financials just for those few days. The last thing anyone wants to do is fight about how you're going to pay for this and that and discuss what lies ahead. If you can, sip on some cocktails poolside and enjoy some peace and quiet. Trust me, you'll need it before dealing with all the details that come after the wedding is over!

There's much more that can be said about this subject, but I don't want to blow the lid off of the "mystery of wedding planning". So boys and girls, if theres anything you took away from this little lesson of mine, it's to be merry and wed. Everything else, well, just kind of happens the way it's supposed to.

Happy planning!