The year has flown by and that means it’s time for a recap packed full of helpful tips. Whether you are looking for quick tips or to explore on a deeper level, in this month’s blog we’re talking about things you might have thought about, things we're pretty sure you never thought you'd care about, and more!
We think you'll find that these 24 Wedding Day Tips for 2024 are timeless, helpful and insightful. And if you prefer to listen instead CLICK HERE to tune into episode 29 of our Lifting the Veil podcast where this was our topic of conversation. Okay, let's get into it:
Establish a main point of contact for your wedding day. You do NOT want to be the person everyone calls the week of the wedding, much less on wedding day, so if you have a planner, that will be the person. If not, designate one of the bridesmaids to answer all wedding related questions.
Make a wedding email. This will help keep your personal or work email inbox from getting jammed, keep everything in one place, and be the catch all for post-wedding day communication as well. Just don’t forget to check it!
Make a wedding website (and let your guests RSVP there). Wedding websites are ALWAYS a good idea. Yes, it’s another task that you have to complete but it’s a necessary one-stop-shop for all things wedding communication for your guests. And communication is key! Also, unless you are super traditional and formal, let guests RSVP through your wedding website. This will make things way easier on you as guests can enter their RSVP, make meal selections, update their contact info (in case you need to send a “week-of” reminder) and when it’s time to do table assignments, you simply export an Excel list of all responses. Can you say “done and done baby?”! Oh, and hint….you’ll see this as a big trend for 2025. So be sure to check back in January for “25 Trends to Incorporate into Your Planning for 2025”
Break in your shoes. This goes for guys too…pretty much anyone that will be walking or standing for more than an hour (uh, that’s all of us) on wedding day. Back-up tip, we recommend bring an extra pair or two to get you through the night. As a planner, we change shoes a minimum of three, sometimes four times a night. Sneakers for set-up, heels for the ceremony and the first hour of the reception, cute flats for the remainder of the reception and then back to sneakers. It won’t make the day pain-free but it’s a game-changer for sure!
Try on all your clothes before wedding day, this goes for everyone! This try on the ENTIRE outfit to ensure you have all the necessary pieces and that everything fits. This also means trying on anything that you’ve had altered. A lot of people make the mistake of having something altered and then not trying it on at pick-up. You’ve got to make sure that the alterations came out the way you wanted. Bonus Tip: Most alterations require two visits. Plan accordingly.
Practice tying your tie. This is especially important for those that are wearing bow ties. Regular suit ties are fairly easy but bow ties require a bit more effort. Don’t wait until wedding day to practice. Start now. After all, practice makes perfect.
Write wedding thank-you cards as gifts come in, don’t wait until after the honeymoon. This is the easiest way not to get overloaded and buried in “thank-you” card to-dos. Doing a little along the way will ultimately save you time and help give your wrist a break. Bonus Tip: Don’t leave it to one person in the couple. You both got married, you both received a gift, you can both split the task.
Schedule an engagement shoot whether you think you need it or not. You may think you don’t need to do an engagement shoot but it’s about more than getting photos. Often times this is how you get to know your photographer and they get to know you. It will help ease photography stress on the “day-of” so you know what to expect and understand how timing will play into the events of the day from a photography standpoint. Plus, you’ll have precious pictures with your partner. It’s a win-win!
Request a site tour with your planner and/or photographer. The logistics of planning a wedding are endless but as a quick snapshot, you’ll want to understand the venue logistics, load-in/load-out, access into the building – and related challenges – lighting, sound, etc. Touring with these two vendors can save you a world of headache on wedding day!
Consider custom printed menus. The price is minimal with maximum impact! This simple detail will elevate your place setting and is an easy way to help avoid issues with guests that have food allergies.
Make a decor list. This should include literally everything you want your planner to touch, transport and set-up for you on wedding day. Planners rely on this to ensure that all of your personal décor is accounted for during set-up and tear-down.
Make a shot list. This isn’t a tip, it’s a “must-have”. Create a list of all of the group family/friend/wedding party shots you want throughout the day. Organize first by time of day: getting ready; pre-ceremony; post-ceremony, reception. Organize second from largest group to smallest. This will maximize your timing and keep things moving smoothly. Bonus Tip: Be sure to include real names. Don’t say “Gam-Gam”, “Pops”, “Uncle TeeTee” or “Aunt BooBoo”, we need real names to know who everyone is and get them into place at the correct time.
Determine the sunset time. Visit https://www.timeanddate.com to look up the anticipated time for sunset, and back-up by a minimum of 45 minutes for optimal “golden hour” lighting. Bonus Tip: Tune into Lifting the Veil episode 27 for deeper insight into how this works.
Create a song list. This is one of those things that trips up a lot of couples. Needing to identify songs for the events of the night can creep up on you. We recommend making a playlist on your phone and every time either of you are dancing, enjoying or getting emotional at a particular song, save it, tag it, write it down, and go back to it later when you need to make those designations. It’ll be a lifesaver for you!
Don’t forget parent gifts. There’s a high likely-hood that your parents were involved in getting you to wedding day, so let’s don’t forget a thank you. It can be as simple as writing them a thank-you letter, not a note, but a letter to tell them what they mean to you and of course thank them for all they have done to support you. Or, this is a perfect time to get with your photographer and gift them a special album post-wedding. Not all gifts have to take place before hand. And it must be noted that this tip applies to anyone that helped you along the way…it doesn’t have to just be for parents. Bonus tip: If you do wait until post-wedding for a gift, be sure you thank them and/or give them a shout-out at some point during the night. That little word of appreciation will go a long way.
Pack Tupperware. We need this for your cake at the end of the night. Quick and easy, the bakery box isn’t cutting it (all puns intended). Large Tupperware is the way to go to ensure that cake makes it home for that post-wedding sugar rush!
Make a slush fund for tipping. This topic is a bit controversial but ultimately we tell our couples to tip only those vendors that go above and beyond. We say this because most vendors have built their pricing to support their service. Hair and make-up artists use to be the exception to this but more and more are now adding gratuity to their contracts, which alleviates the need for tipping “day-of”. Catering also typically builds this into their quote, so again they’re often covered. Having said that, be sure to check with both of these vendors to ensure staff is covered, if not, then yes, we recommend tipping them but we pretty much agree it stops there, unless someone goes above and beyond. In that case, yes, you’ll want to have some cash on hand for an extended “thank-you”. Bonus tip: Where bartending companies are concerned, make sure gratuity is included upfront and watch out for hidden fees like those who add gratuity to the final invoice in instances where you designate that you don’t want the bartenders to put out a tip jar. This will be in your contract but is often buried or overlooked unless you know what you are looking for. Bonus, bonus tip….we don’t recommend any bartending services that do this.
Room reveal with a practice dance run. This is a great time to shave off some of those nerves. We like to bring our couples in and do a room reveal, and when time permits…which we work hard to incorporate, we allow them to do a quick practice run of their first dance. Another game changer if you can sneak it in.
Practice your dip. There are a lot of online tutorials tips but we love @weddingdance.school for this task. Dips are hard when you haven’t practiced and since you’ll likely dip as you recess down the aisle for that fab photo snapshot, you’ll also likely be dipping in your first dance. So, like the song says, “when I dip, you dip, we dip”, so start practicing.
Practice the kiss that lingers. If you’ve ever been around our planning team, you’ve likely heard the “kiss, kiss, kiss” rule. That means when you kiss your partner, hold it for 3-seconds to give the photographer a chance to grab the shot. Bonus tip from our podcast colleague and photographer @themacmeekens, close your eyes, don't over pucker, have a soft mouth kiss, and imagine kissing with your teeth. Yep, sounds super weird and awkward but we tried it recently and our vacation photos turned out SO much better.
Repurpose your florals. Our favorite non-profit organization @texasflourishproject does this for you, if you are within the D/FW metroplex. They will come at the end of your event and help breakdown the flowers, pull as much as they can take and repurpose them into new arrangements for guests at local nursing homes and hospitals. If you aren’t in an area that they service, you can always send arrangements home with guests or vendors at the end of the night. @themacmeekens says she often takes them after a wedding and then gifts the arrangment to the cashier when she stops on the way home for a late night snack. We love that idea! We know you spent a lot of money to have flowers at your wedding and we don’t want to see them go in the trash, so think through how you want to handle this and get with your planner to make it happen.
Build in buffer time into your timeline. We do this with every single timeline we make. Not by much but 5, 10, 15 minutes here and there. It makes the day less chaotic and stressful when you’re not trying to function to the exact minute of the day.
Follow your planner’s instructions on sharing out the wedding day timeline. If you don’t have a planner make one yourself so people know what to do, where to be and when. It doesn’t have to be 19 pages long like most of ours…yes, they are really that comprehensive, but having even a general timeline in place will help keep the day running smoothly. But you know the drill, hire us and we’ll do all of this for you, then all you have to do is follow our instructions on sharing out the wedding day timeline.
If it’s not done 2 weeks before the wedding….it doesn’t matter. Enough said. Weddings can be very stressful, so don’t add to it by coming up with a new idea in the final days. If that task or appointment isn’t done, or scheduled to be done at least 2 weeks out, then it doesn’t matter. Scrap the idea and move on. You’ll thank us for this one for sure!
And there you have it, Our Top 24 in ’24. While this isn’t a fully exhaustive list, these are our collective top favs. Follow these and you’ll be off to a good start. Want to be off to a great start? Click here to schedule your free consultation so we can get you booked and take all of this off your plate!
Photography by: Reigh Walker; Harper Blankenship; Outland Weddings; Jen Symes Photography, Austin Daniels , Tyler Freer Photography, and The Macmeekens.
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