Lessons learned from my hybrid wedding

By Elaine

Ok, it wasn’t even a wedding. It was my husband’s 40th birthday party. But it was a bit like a wedding…there were flowers, there was a guestbook, there were gifts…you get the picture.

Many many years ago, I did plan an actual wedding, my own. And the year after that, between my husband and I, we were invited to eleven weddings!! I was in the wedding party of three of these weddings and my husband was in four of them. You can say that I have quite a bit of experience planning, participating, and attending a wedding.

But it wasn’t until this past weekend when I threw my husband’s hybrid wedding/40th birthday bash that I realized that I had almost forgotten the important lessons I learned from my own wedding…many years ago.

1) Remember why you are having a wedding in the first place - it’s to celebrate your decision to share your life with your fiancé. So plan a wedding that will be fun and memorable for the two of you, not for your mother, and especially not for his mother!

2) Everyone works under some kind of a budget, whether it’s big or small. So sit down and figure out what’s important to you and let your budget reflect that. Have you always dreamed of walking down the aisle in a fabulous designer gown? Then, allocate more $$ for the dress. Everyone will be too busy oohing and ahhing over your dress to notice that you went for the simple but tasteful centerpieces.

3) No matter how absorbed you get in the wedding details during the months and months of planning, some time before the actual big day, find a trustworthy and responsible friend (or wedding planner if you can afford one) and delegate it all. The goal is that you will be your most beautiful and relaxed self on the day of the wedding. Besides, who can look beautiful if they are all stressed out over what time the cake cutting is supposed to start?

4) Last of all, remember and cherish every detail on the day of your wedding. This is one day in your entire life and it will go by so fast. Don’t worry if things don’t go exactly as planned. The guests will never notice. Trust me, I’ve been to many weddings where everything seemed to flow perfectly only to find out from the bride afterwards, that very few things actually went according to plan.