There’s a lot that goes on the day of a wedding. Schedules are attempted to be met, visions are made into reality, and family and friends from two different sides are coming together in one venue. With that comes a lot of stress and it’s easy to become anxious or nervous wanting everything to be perfect.
If there’s one piece of advice that I could give all the brides I meet, I’d say
be fearless on your wedding day.
Be fearless with your dress because you’ll only wear it once. Don’t shy away from a photo opportunity because your dress might get dirty. It’s meant to be worn and enjoyed and you might end up having regrets if you avoid taking a photo on the grass or climbing some rocks for an incredible view. The biggest regret I have from our wedding day were of the photos we took on the beach. I had envisioned everyone sitting in the sand, walking into the ocean, just having a blast on the beach – which we did, but I was nervous the whole time and didn’t want to get my dress wet. My dress ended up being a bit too big so I was terrified of it getting wet and heavy and possibly falling – something that I really shouldn’t have cared about as I wanted those photos more than anything and I had a second party dress I could have changed into if needed. It’s an experience that I now look back on with such regret and I hope this advice could help future brides avoid it.
I’ve really lucked out with my clients though because all of my brides have been fearless. They are happy to walk through a field of yellow flowers (yellow pollen and a white dress isn’t always the best) or they will stroll through puddles or climb over a retaining wall! It’s like they know that it’ll be ok and even if their dress gets a little dirty, they are beside their true love and that’s all that matters.
I’d add that being fearless also applies to letting go of any doubt or fear that something might go wrong and trust that the day will be perfectly imperfect. Even if a flower isn’t the right colour or if your centerpieces are not what you asked for, these are small details that no one will notice and if you let them, they will take away from the joy and fun that you could have. This is something that I wish I had known – I had flowers that I didn’t ask for and centrepieces that, in my mind, were awful and I let those things get me down instead of focusing on all the good that happened. I regret it so much that I let it bother me as much as they did and now looking back I can see how insignificant they were and they added to our day and how it was imperfectly perfect.