1. Hire trusted professional vendors

You’re paying good money for your wedding vendors to perform specific services at your wedding. You shouldn't have to manage their performance or make sure that they’re doing what they need to throughout your wedding day. When you’re looking at potential vendors to hire for your wedding, pay close attention to their Google and Facebook reviews. Find out what other people’s experiences were like working with them, hiring a company with a list of negative reviews could leave your stressin’ out on your wedding day!

2. Have a game plan and don’t be afraid to delegate

Hiring a wedding planner is a great way to do this, however, I realize that a wedding planner isn’t always in the budget. If you’re not planning to hire a wedding planner, I’d recommend making a detailed timeline of the day after you meet with all your vendors. If you know that there are things that are going to need taking care of on your wedding day like showing the DJ where to set up or connecting your caterer with the venue staff, be sure to delegate someone either in your wedding party or a family member to help take care of some of the little things so you can focus on the more important parts.

3. Share Your Timeline with EVERYONE

I make wedding schedules with all of my clients before their wedding day, but it still happens all the time… someone doesn’t show up when they’re supposed to or someone’s late. For most weddings, you’ll be on a tight schedule for a good chunk of the day. You don’t want to push back your ceremony time because your dad was late to pictures since he stopped at Dunkin Donuts (I’ve seen it happen). Be sure to share your timeline or schedule with absolutely everyone and make it clear where and what time they need to be there.

4. Pack an emergency kit

An added benefit of working with me as a wedding photographer is that I’ve got you covered here. I always pack an extensive emergency kit full of all the things you may not be thinking about. However, if you’re reading this you may or may not be working with me for your wedding photography yet. So I recommend making your own emergency kit ahead of time and packing it on your wedding day just in case. I recommend reading my post, 5 Wedding Day Must Haves, for ideas on what to pack!

5. Practice bustling your dress before the reception

Depending on the dress, bustling can be pretty difficult. Combine that with having to bustle your dress in a tiny bathroom and you’ve got quite a difficult task on your hands. Make sure that your dress shop shows you how to do this before you leave and maybe invite a couple of your bridesmaids over one night to have them learn how to do it. That way when it’s time to get bustled up, you can make quick work of it and get back out to the party!