Welcome back to the Wedding Lounge podcast. This week we are talking about
a week of your wedding. Think that the week of your wedding it's a really funny one because it feels
like it drags for a really long time. But it's really it's so full of anticipation and excitement.
What did you do the week of your wedding just like dressing ever so slightly?
So our marquee went up on the Tuesday and it was kind of like a slow rolling process.
But you let off work and around? Yeah yeah I was. I mean I worked with my parents at the time.
So it was quite lenient. Yes it was. Press worked up until the Friday and I think he might have
just taken the Friday afternoon on work off work. But we did things like we used quite a lot of
the fridges around the house so we were moving fridges. I had bought Ribbon that had said Mr and
Mrs on it that I wanted all the napkins tied in. So you were doing so we were tying the napkins.
We were you know moving the tables. I was doing spreadsheets for the florist. So on each table
we had a different we had like an array of quite large lanterns and rots and vessels and vases
and things. And rather than me just going here's all the stuff I've bought Kenny do what you want
with the idea of him as a spreadsheet of what was going on what table which for him was a godsend
yeah because he had never. Because you'd rather get it right and then do it and exactly. So I had
pre planned all of that we'd set it all up. So it was kind of just lots of flitting about Thursday,
nails, hair. You know with both your parents. You know with my parents yeah so Nick and Pip my
in laws had come down on the Thursday we went out for dinner with them. Friday we'd obviously
finished a lot of the set up but it was kind of like a whole week long event the marquee took two days
to park. I think that's the main difference. I mean I got married in venues so we only had access
the day before so the prep is slightly different. So I actually worked I think I worked on the Thursday.
I remember one of my colleagues at the time who is somehow still a friend and laughing at me because
she was like oh yeah going home on Thursday she should not get married till Saturday and I was
like well we're setting up the venue tomorrow. So yeah I worked on the Thursday then I think I'd
had everything packed up ready because we were in Kent and driving back to Sussex. I think I had
everything organized ready. We didn't have children so I had like everything in that spare room or
boxed up labeled ready to go. We went out for dinner just Jamie and I on the Thursday and then the
Friday morning I drove over early to my mum's and one of my bridesmaids was down from Wales. We had
our nails done at my mum's like had a lady come in and do those and then we went and helped set the
venue and had like the church rehearsal. And Jamie what I retracted and he bails and things like
that from Kent so we did sort of slightly different things on the Friday and then yeah Saturday so it
was a lot sort of prep at the venue because obviously you only have a venue for a certain amount
of time. It's a bit of a whirlwind experience. There's so much you can do before you reach that
and to make sure you can blow in and be as efficient as possible. Place names is one of my favourite
things to make sure I can do an advance is organising your place names so they are in order per table
and so you can literally just go plonk plonk plonk was persons in seat one seat two seat three seat four
yeah organising them with the table knife as well. Just make everything easier for whoever
are setting up. Yeah, ironing table linen. Yeah I hate that one. I know I hate that one too but it
looks so much better. It is so worth it. If you are able to get access to the table linen
beforehand and you can spend a couple of hours doing that it's quite therapeutic when you get in
the swing of it. You're just going to have the right space and a clean space to do that. I also think
it's quite important not to change up your routine too much so when we were talking to Patrick a
couple of weeks ago he said he went for a wet shave on the morning of his jacket and I was like
that is a bold move because if you have sensitive skin I mean not had a wet shave before you could end
up with a big old rash on your face. I think it's quite important. Those things are nice to do but
maybe have a trial for you before you had to do something like that. I'm the same with ladies
and facial nails. Yeah. Don't go and have a facial the week of your wedding because unless it's
like a specific one that's not going to cause you to necessarily break out you don't want spots
clearing on your wedding day because you've got to have a lovely facial thinking that your skin
is going to be all lovely and glowy. So it's good to not pamper yourself and as you say get your
nails done and things but just be a bit mindful about how you might react to something that you've
not done before. And again I remember planning quite carefully with my hairdress that when I should
wash my hair before my wedding. Yeah she told me do not wash it the morning of. Now you see this has
changed a lot over the years. Do you think? Yeah because now people are advised to wash their hair.
Well mine just so it just doesn't do anything. No. So like it needed to be because it's so fine and
fly away. I'm literally stroking my hair here. It needed to be a little bit like dirty so it's
stay in position because it's so focused straight and heavy. Then again your hairdresser might advise
differently if you've got a different style of hair. But it's a conversation you want to have with
your hairdresser. We're saying with your makeup artist and your skincare routine. And I would just
spend the time in the evenings making sure you've got everything and in a sensible place
work. Yes. Rather than feeling your rushing round on that Friday evening before you've got to get
ready for your wedding on Saturday morning. Yeah. Just have everything ready to take the stress out.
It is worth being prepared. And just do a little bit. You know the couple of weeks before just start
doing a little bit of half an hour to order the names of the place cards. Yeah pending on number of
guests that saves the mountain of time on the day. Yeah. You know just you could be watching TV and just
sitting and doing it together. It's just doing doing the prep little bits by little bit like in advance
and so that you're not stressed on the day. I think the first thing I would do is I was to do it all
over again. It's right a big checklist. Yeah. And then break it down in today seeming you didn't have
a checklist. I had 500 checklists but not one big yeah. I think like like all those little
bits and bobs just having it all written down that you could tick off as you go in one place.
That's just me telling that to me like every day life. I think but for most it's not.
Yeah. Like we obviously do it because we do it at every wedding we go to things I write on my
fridge planner. I like ridiculous. Like way the dog. Way the dog. Yeah just to make sure she's
got to maintain her weights every Thursday every two weeks. I write way the dog on this. I remember
the way her and make a note of it for the beds. I write all sorts on there like remember to upload my
real synth gram. I do that like or remember to get the meat out of the freezer for the next day.
All of that goes on my it's not like a diary. It's like my wall. It's a brain dump. It's a brain dump.
Yeah. So have a wedding brain dump exactly. And then you just know it's all going to go through it.
Yeah and you know it's all going to be done. And if you're stressing someone else could look at that
list and I was just about to say the onus and isn't all on you to remember everything.
Things like trying your wedding shoes on and breaking them in. You partner can't do that for you
but they should be doing that if they're shoes as well. They should be doing that with their shoes.
Things like if you're planning on giving any thank you cards to people writing those in a
plants, checking over your speeches, rewriting your speeches neatly or printing them off on nice
flashcards and things like that so that it looks good when you're standing there holding it.
Yeah. I always think it looks nice or printed than standing up with a file.
100% even if it is on just a plain A4 sheet to explain and also then holding a phone
because it looks like you're just googling it. Yeah. You've written down confirm all your supplies.
I don't think that's a week before a job. I think that's several weeks before a job.
I mean it would be a several weeks before a job but if you haven't confirm all your
supplies. Make sure they are confirmed. Because as a planner, I guess like the week of when you're
setting up a marquee, things are constantly changing. So I am constantly reconferming suppliers.
For example, not everything might have been done with the marquee on one day. So they come back
or then the florists actually have them on Thursday to set up this. So I have less to do Friday.
So I feel like if you've got a marquee, sometimes there are more moving parts and that set up
changes. For example, you'll have toilets are being delivered on Tuesday. But then on Monday,
they'll ring and say, right, it's Tuesday between one and three. So like as me, I am updating.
When I have my week of set up schedule, I basically re-print it every night because I'm updating
it. So if you've got a marquee, you might have more of that. But I do agree. Yeah, you should
have obviously confirmed with your supplies well in advance. It's also worth noting that we do have
a medical document that you can download, which has all your supplier information and their
arrival times and all of that info that you can have in one space. Yes. That makes it really
easy for you. So we'll put a link to that in the show notes. Definitely. Because that also
directly links on to my next point, which was make sure that you're on the day contact is fully
aware of all the supply details. I'm trying to order. Because things might change like the week of,
you might have someone drop out, someone's ill, so you have to rearrange like your seating plan and
things. But make sure obviously you're planner or the person who's being that on the day contact.
Then you coordinate as well. Yeah. Is aware. Or if it's a maid of honour who is just keeping an
on things on the day, but you don't have a venue or a planner to help coordinate, then they're aware
of everything. I think it's also worth hacking your bags in advance. So if you're staying somewhere
different the night before the wedding and the night of the wedding, so making sure you've got those
bags packed and labeled as well. So you know if someone else is collecting that bag for you,
they'll know which bag they need to pick up and the same with your partner as well. Make sure they
have exactly the same thing going on. Because if you two are staying together, you're glamping say the
night of your wedding somewhere. That bag and that stuff has to be either somewhere at the venue
for you to take away with you or it needs to have gone in advance. So you just want to have that
cleared. Definitely. And I do this when I'm packing for holiday. I have like duplicates of things.
You're packing for holiday, honestly, makes my heart so happy. It's just the most bananas, bonkness
thing. I think I've ever witnessed in my life, but it's so organised. Five spreadsheets, but I hate
leaving. You know, like if you're going to the slide in the morning, you know, oh God, I've got packed
two brushes and two face. I'm like, do you know what? Put a spare toothbrush in, put a spare two
face in. And then obviously when you're back from holiday, you'll just have another toothpaste.
You always have a spare in the cup anyway. I'm sort of person and when one, when I take my spare,
by new ones, I always have a spare. Yeah. Oh, I personally, if I was going to spend my wedding
night at the night, four different places, and I had two separate bags, I would just chuck a two
toothbrush and a toothpaste in both bags. I agree, I do. So you don't have to think about it.
You don't want to be moving things. No. I mean, obviously you can't duplicate some things.
Some things will need to be moved like your bra, for example. But if you could chuck one bra in
ready for the Sunday in one place. Actually, maybe you only got one bra. Oh, but I mean, if you're wearing
the same teeth as that, I'd definitely own more than one bra. I'm like, cut this, cut it out.
Please don't. But you know what I mean? Like, if you've just got a bra that you're going to wear saturday,
like Friday evening, it's your favourite bra, isn't it? Yeah. But like, say you've got a Friday evening
to wear for your dinner with your bridesmaids, and then that's going to be overnight, in your overnight
bag from the Friday, but on the Saturday night, you've got your bag with your husband to be somewhere else.
Make sure you put another bra in there for the Sunday, so that you're not on the wedding day going,
"Well, gosh, I need to remember to take my bra from here today." Yeah, just like, "Cack, double."
Goodness, weren't you going to love it? See, they're going, "Oh, wait."
But I think the more you can do in advance and that week coming up to it, there is so much you
can do to make sure everything is prepared, to make that short space of time where you have to set
up the venue, when you have to prepare yourself for the wedding. The more you've done in advance,
where everything's just neatly arranged, the easier and the less stressed you will be. Yeah,
it's your favourite phrase. Fail to plan, plan to fail. It's failed to prepare, prepare to fail.
But it's so true, though, and I think that's 99% of what wedding planning is all about, is
planning for the day. Yeah. Those things should be accounted for when you're planning for your
wedding day. Definitely, and the more prep that you do in advance, then the more
relaxing the setup will be, and the more time you'll have to have your nails done and to
sit and chill and just soak up your moment as well. What do you think about just tips like sleeping,
drinking lots of water? How important do you think they are the week of the wedding? I think
they're quite important, but the hard thing is the excitement. Yes. And the nerves and the feeling.
I think you should make sure you try to get yourself in a good sleep routine. Yeah.
So try, you know, sit yourself in a alarm, like I don't know about anyone else, but I get a little
notification at half past nine every night that I need to go to bed in half an hour. Set that up. Yeah,
so that you've got a half an hour. Don't laugh at me. Let me know in bed by nine roast nights.
But then the notification makes you laugh. So set those things up to try and give yourself as much
notice as possible. And if you know that you need something to help you sleep and you're somewhere
else the night before your wedding, make sure, I think you said this in our night before episode.
Yeah. Make sure you have that thing with you. I'm a firm believer that when I get anxious or nervous,
I always have lavender. It's nice on a tissue. It's got me through the early stages of labor,
everything. I think on the wedding day, I had a rescue remedy. I remember taking rescue remedy before
my French and German speaking GCSEs and feeling like really giggly during, I don't know whether it was
the nerves or whether, but I was calm. That's now, it really fun. It's just the notes I'm just
trying to find those, yeah, those petrifying together as a speaking exam. But yeah, just make sure
you think about these things in advance and have, you know, don't send a go, oh my gosh, I'm in a hotel
and I haven't got my favorite TV. Yeah, or some lavender oil to sniff or I haven't got my favorite
pajamas or my own pillow or own pillow. My mom now travels everywhere in the UK with a fan
when she goes to stay if it's in the summer, because she came to my graduation, donkeys years ago,
and she booked the travel lodge and it was, they'd over booked the whole thing. So they'd, she'd
driven four hours out of the stope and she then ended up getting put into a nice little hotel,
which was like an old building, but she was on the top floor. The window didn't open and it was like
July and it was sweltering, like I took my gown off halfway through my graduation, like it seemed
to go outside. It was so hot. You've seen my mom now always travel somewhere with a fan because she's
like, if you're going somewhere and you kind of in windows with their AC breaks or she only books
places with air conditioning. Yeah, that's very sensible. Yeah. So just think about things like that,
they're gonna, anything you can do to help yourself get the best flight food. And they're saying with
eating, yeah, you want to get a fridge full of food or get some pre-prepared meals to simplify life
for you that week. Yeah, that week. Don't eat anything you've not eaten before. Don't go experimenting
with new foods or anything like that. Don't eat anything that's kind of not dodgy, but
where food poisoning is a bit higher risk like shellfish or something like that. And don't eat
anything that's going to blake you. Yeah. And loads of sweets and things like that. Because it's so
easy to spend that time snacking on as you go. You want to be well fueled, but yeah, it's a
chaotic week. Your stress levels are going to be high. You need to look after your body. If you need
inside out, definitely. Don't drink too much either. Alcohol. Yeah. Stop to sleep for a start.
Coffee. Coffee. Yeah. Oh, I find if I have like a Chinese takeaway, my stepmom asks them to take the
MS. MSG. Yeah. But otherwise you're all puffy. That puffy eyes. So don't, you know, the night before,
if you're going out for dinner, think about what you're having. I mean, a pizza the night before
our wedding. That's not bloatiest meal. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's great though. It's worth considering.
Yeah. It's important to consider these things as well, because you just want to make sure that week
is as easy as yes. Just summarise what would be your top tip for our couples when it comes to that
week of their wedding. I think definitely be prepared before the week. So you have a detailed list
of what you need to do when who's doing what? Because sometimes you're managing other people.
And do little bits of preparation throughout the week so that you're not stressed on the day or
on the setup day. And also just look after yourself. Like we've said, look after you think about what
you're eating, you're sleeping, and give yourself a chance to relax at some point just to help
settle your nervous system, basically. Yeah, for yourself, anyway. Next week we have got a very,
especially once joining us again, so we will speak to you then, stay tuned!