**Wise Words from the Brides of 2009**

Have fun and enjoy every minute b/c after all that $$$$...it goes by sooooo fast!!!!

Oh and don't kill people b/c they don't mail RSVPS by the rsvp date.....I wanted to but it all works out in the end. People are rude and **** and you just have to deal and love them anyway.


And don't get so s ucked into planning your wedding 'day' that you forget or jeopardize WHO & WHY you are getting married for a lifetime in the first place. If your fiance wants to play the Hulk, Batman, and SupermanTheme songs at cocktail hour, it will be okay...the people attending love you no matter what and will not care they will know he picked it and you'll have a happier new husband because he had some input.




CONGRATS 2010ers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im only going to say these 2 things cause i feel they r the most important

1.enjoy every second of the day cause it flies by faster than u can imagine..if something goes wrong laugh it off..those 5 min u get upset or worry r 5 less u have dancing or laughing with ur friends,family and most important your new hubby

2.dont stress bout how u look that day..yes we all want to look our best and trust me you guys will look amazing but EVERY bride is beautiful in their own way..all u need to look beautiful in ur pics is a smile..remember how happy you fh makes u and if u carry that with u all day i guarentee every picture with translate that

i wish you all nothing but the best of luck and i look foward to seeing all your amazing pics and joining us on the nw board!!!

enjoy the last days of 2009 girls cause your year is here!!!!!! congrats girls

thanks for the advice! this post makes me both scared and excited at the same time

Thank you so much for the great tips!
And Congrats to all of you 09 Ladies

Thank you for the tips ladies! All great suggestions!

This is what I put up after I got married, sorry if there are any repeats here:


1. You will change your mind, and that’s ok! – I changed my mind about A LOT of stuff from the beginning of planning to the end. So it’s ok to be on top of things and book stuff early, but wait to buy the smaller details and don’t be afraid to tell vendors you want to update your needs because as you get exposed to more things and ideas you will change your mind about what you want.

2. Don’t buy the first dress you try on. Don’t buy a dress at the first store you go to. – This sort of goes along with #1. Make sure you look around before you make a decision. Look online first to help you narrow down ideas and then try on different fits etc. You may not end up with the dress you always thought you would want (a dress you picked out when you were 5, 15, 25, etc. may not be the same style you like now).

3. Don’t let anyone bully you around. – It’s your day and you should get what you want. Bottom line. You aren’t being selfish or spoiled. It’s YOUR day.

4. Be VERY explicit with what you want. I can’t stress that enough. Even if you think you’ve generally explained things, other people are not mind readers. Make sure if you have told a vendor you want to change things around or do something special you explain things and have them go over it with you in detail. The two things the entire day that annoyed me was the transition between our two first dances and the way our cake turned out. Both times I said to the vendor, “we’re just gonna do this” as opposed to “let me specifically explain to you my vision.” In the end it didn’t matter too much, but for super OCD people it could have.

5. Pee a lot before your ceremony.

6. Have a formal receiving line. We did that between cocktail hour and the reception to make sure we got to talk to every single person we invited. When the reception came around we could socialize if we wanted to, but because we didn’t find it necessary to go around to each table we were able to eat, dance, and actually have fun.

7. If you’re an anxious person, or get nervous being in front of a crowd make sure you have someone with you in the limo who can calm you down. Our priest was really strict about not drinking before hand so I was so incredibly nervous I almost had a panic attack. Thank God my cousin was there, she knows me the best and could give it to me strait to help me calm down. I don’t know if anyone else could see how truly nervous I was besides just the regular pre-wedding jitters.

8. Make sure YOU have all of the wedding extras you want photographed before the ceremony. My parents had my rings and my RH had an invitation (that I wanted to use and also set out for decoration that they lost) so we don’t have glamour shots of those two things.

9. Have a point person at the church who is not in your FH’s BP. Chances are they won’t have their phone on when they get to the church and you never know if you’ll need to get in contact with someone. Before that have a point person within each side of the BP in case you need it. The phone was ringing off the hook all morning and I didn’t want to get on the phone because of being the chair to get my hair and make up done (for 2+ hours) plus getting dressed, etc. I just wanted to be left alone, it made things so much easier to have a BM be in charge of that.

10. If you are taking pictures at your RH while the cocktail hour is going on don’t have them just put a few things in the bridal suite. You will run out of food REAL fast and won’t get to eat too much. Request to have your own personal butler on hand to bring food to wherever you’re taking pictures. We were at our cocktail hour for about 10 minutes and people of course wanted to talk so I missed some stuff I wanted to try, but between that and having people come by I still got to eat way more than most brides do.

11. Have someone keep track of time, and don’t be afraid to be a nazi about keeping others on time for things too. And don’t be afraid to tell people what to do while you’re getting ready. With so many people getting ready at the same time and you being the one who has to do the most stuff, you won’t be able to keep track of every little detail. My BMs thought nothing of me randomly yelling out at times “what time is it?” and “where’s my veil?” etc. They are there to help you, make them do their job!

Thank you 2009'ers!!! I remember reading 2008's post to all of you and it was soooooooo helpful. It is so strange, exciting, nerve-wracking, AWESOME to be up next

Thank you and a BIG FAT CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL!!!!!!

I can only give all future brides one tip...it will all work out perfectly. Whether its rain, a no show guest, a pimple, or an annoying MIL, your day will be perfect. Make sure you don't lose your mind while planning, and don't go overboard. You have heard this before, but LIW is a ridiculous place in which one girl comes up with a crazy idea, and everyone follows. You will try to do all of these crazy things, which will only make you more stressed and resentful towards the people who don't help you (which is probably FH--I know it's his day too, but chances are he would be happy if you two just went to the town hall and made it official, he may not care about all the things you do, and thats ok...don't beat him up over it)

Yay! I'm glad we're doing this!!

1-Buy shoes and accessories you can wear again! I'm so glad I wore silver shoes and had non-bridey looking jewelry. I can re-wear all of it and think about our wedding day.

2-Don't wait until the month before your wedding to start dieting and exercising. Slow and steady always wins the race.

3-if you are an exerciser, work out the morning of your wedding. I'm truly convinced that I was the calmest bride of all time. Running and weight lifting for 45 minutes the day of the wedding really calmed my jitters and made me feel fantastic.

4-drink water (cut out caffeine and alcohol) the week leading into your wedding so your skin glows. ALSO if you have a nervous stomach, take an immodium an hour or 2 before you leave for your ceremony.

5-Do what you can afford! When you look back on your wedding, nobody will remember if you had custom menus or not..when it's all over and you look at how much $$ you spent you realize you could have bought an entire new wardrobe for what you spent on 'extras'.

6, most importantly: Invest more time into FH building your relationship than pondering centerpieces and on LIW. A wedding is a DAY but a marriage is a LIFETIME. When it's all said and done you don't want to be like 'NOW WHAT??' As hard as it is, you need to keep perpective on what's really important and not let wedding planning consume you.

Congratulations ladies, I hope you join us on the Newlywed Boards!

xoxo, Jen

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Posted by ddnsp618

I can only give all future brides one tip...it will all work out perfectly. Whether its rain, a no show guest, a pimple, or an annoying MIL, your day will be perfect. Make sure you don't lose your mind while planning, and don't go overboard. You have heard this before, but LIW is a ridiculous place in which one girl comes up with a crazy idea, and everyone follows. You will try to do all of these crazy things, which will only make you more stressed and resentful towards the people who don't help you (which is probably FH--I know it's his day too, but chances are he would be happy if you two just went to the town hall and made it official, he may not care about all the things you do, and thats ok...don't beat him up over it)

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Thanks for your advice. Sometimes, I go over board with getting things done and I find that I am yelling at FH because he is so relaxed.

Thanks ladies!!

THANKS for the awesome advice!!!!

wow, i starting tearing up lol....i cannot believe i'm getting married in less than 2 months!

thanks for all the advice ladies, keep it coming!! i especially like the advice saying do what you want to do it's your day

Thanks for the advice and I can't wait to read your wedding review!!!