Before my own wedding day in June of 2015, I had an uncountable amount of stress dreams focused on my wedding morning. Blame it on the fact that I grew up on My Big Fat Greek Wedding and replays of Toula’s wedding morning danced around in my head: everyone coming after me with tweezers and zit cream and having absolutely zero time to enjoy the biggest day of my life.
When June 13, 2015 finally dawned, it couldn’t have been any further from my nightmares. The sun was shining, my best friends were around our kitchen table and I could barely contain my excitement to marry Jon Moss. Of course, none of this happened by accident. There was some planning that went into ensuring that the morning of my wedding was calm, stress-free and the perfect prologue to a beautiful day.
Your wedding morning can be just as beautiful! With a few of our simple tips, you can sleep sweetly and peacefully on your wedding eve, knowing that the best day ever is just a few hours away!
Sleep Well
A stress-free wedding morning begins with a good night’s sleep. I’m not promising you’ll be able to fall asleep easily due to all your excitement, but there are things you can do to ensure you get at least a little shut-eye before your big day.
Don’t let your bridesmaids plan your bachelorette party for the night before your wedding. Go out a few days earlier and reserve your wedding eve for simple, calm activities like face masks and movies. Drink a lot of water before you go to sleep and put some spoons in the freezer so that if you wake up with puffy eyes, you’ll be able to calm them down easily. Button up all your packing and make sure you have everything set for your honeymoon–you won’t want to be rushing around taking care of this the next morning. Review all day-of details with your mom and maid of honor. You’re off duty on the wedding day, except for looking beautiful, so task these two with the responsibility of coordinating vendors, making sure everyone is on time and bustling your dress. Finally, spray your pillow with some lavender sleep spray, put on your eye mask and drift off to sleep.
A few of our favorite products for a good night’s sleep:
Eat Breakfast (Make sure everyone else does too!)
I’m not a breakfast eater by nature, but I can vividly remember my mom telling me the week of my wedding that I was going to have to eat something hearty on the morning of my wedding. She prepared my favorite breakfast (a Lebanese meat dish called hashwi that she mixes with scrambled eggs) and also made sure my bridesmaids had some of their breakfast favorites to eat too.
The key to a wedding morning breakfast is the delicate balance of something hearty and light. You want protein that will keep you full, but nothing that makes you feel bloated or stuffed. Need some ideas? Check out some of our favorite easy breakfast ideas:
- Avocado toast with egg
- Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal
- Greek yogurt breakfast bowl
- Turkey and egg breakfast casserole
Take Your Time
Give yourself plenty of time to wake up. Set your alarm early and lay in bed, write in your journal, drink a glass of water, savor the beginnings of this beautiful day. Schedule enough margin throughout the whole wedding day to enjoy this kind of time. Have your breakfast and then just sit around the table with your besties. Get your hair and makeup done then have a cup of coffee with your mom.
Remember, in the days leading up to your wedding, that you are in charge of the schedule. When writing your day-of timeline, make these moments of reflection and enjoyment a vital part of the day.
Have Hair and Makeup Come To You
When looking for the best hair stylist and makeup artist for your wedding day, the answer is: whoever can come to you. Wherever you’re getting ready–your parents’ house, your apartment, a hotel, the venue–it is going to make your wedding morning much easier if your beauty team can set up shop around you.
A few months before your wedding, schedule a hair and makeup trial so you won’t be surprised or horrified on your wedding day if things don’t turn out as you want them. This is the time and place to be honest so as to ensure a stress-free hair and makeup session on your big day!
Create a Wedding Day Playlist
This is a great job to give to your bridesmaids! Task them with creating a fun, light-hearted and memorable wedding day playlist. You can search through a myriad of other similar wedding playlists on Spotify and create one that gives you all the feels. I lived with most of my bridesmaids in college so getting all dressed up for a night out to the tune of our favorite Taylor Swift songs was something we did all the time. It made it even sweeter to relive those same memories on my wedding morning.
A few of our favorite must-have wedding morning songs:
- “Chapel of Love” by the Dixie Cups
- “Marry You” by Bruno Mars
- “No Place I’d Rather Be” by Cassio Lia
- “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” by Whitney Houston
- “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” by Shania Twain
Limit Your Posse
Everyone and their mom will want to see you getting in your wedding gown, but you don’t have to let them. A key to keeping your wedding morning calm is to limit the number of people in your space. The more voices and opinions being offered will escalate your stress. Enjoy the morning with your bridesmaids and parents and know that you’ll get to spend time with everyone else as the wedding day continues.
Carve Out Time for Moments with Your Mom and Dad
The day we returned from our honeymoon, Jon and I would be packing up his car to move all my stuff to our new home in Ohio. So it was especially important that I savor that last morning waking up in my childhood home as an Imber.
No matter where your post-wedding plans will take you, don’t neglect this time with your parents. Give them a special gift to remember the day. Sit with them over coffee. Cry a few tears. These are the moments you’ll cherish long after your wedding day is gone.
A few of our favorite gifts for Mom and Dad:
The most important part of your wedding day is that you remember it! That means that the key to having a stress-free and calm wedding morning is to slow down and take it all in. Take time to prepare in advance so no question or situation will catch you off guard on the wedding day. Then focus all your energy toward a bright smile, happy tears, and the love of your life, the sweet groom waiting at the end of the aisle!
Want to keep your entire wedding planning journey stress-free? Look no further than the RegistryFinder GiveIt blog. You’ll find everything you need, from bridesmaid’s dresses to thank you note templates, all together in one convenient location. You can also give your guests the gift of stress-free gift giving. They can find all your registries at RegistryFinder.com!
