We Countdown to the Wedding

The lead-up to your wedding should be as comfortable for you as possible. If you need time to relax and mentally prepare, be sure to leave as little as possible until the last minute or rely on close friends and family to handle final details. If you're like me and want a bit of distraction, use the few days before you get married to finish up your shrinking to-do list.

Despite my best intentions, the week before our wedding was quite hectic. J's union ended up on strike and he spent a few hours every day walking picket lines and waiting for a settlement so his vacation time would be honored for our honeymoon.

I worked until the Wednesday before our Saturday wedding. Back in March that seemed like a good idea, but a brutal case of strep throat put me behind schedule with my DIY wedding tasks and I had a couple of late nights finishing last minute preparations. Looking back, it's actually amazing that we  made the escort card display, packed up all of the decor and reception items, wrapped wedding party gifts, burned a CD with our ceremony music, assembled my emergency kit, finished my veil, organized final vendor payments, collected my "old, new, borrowed and blue" items, made the wedding cake, held a rehearsal dinner, baked and packaged 240 cookies and picked up everyone's outfits in only 3 days!


The stress level was kept on low thanks to Devon, our day-of-coordinator from Fairy Godmother Weddings. She was available to us for the entire month before the wedding, beginning with a meeting to review vendor contracts, check our progress with final planning items and outline the major of our day. Devon created a very detailed and super awesome timeline, created a Plan B for outdoor formal pictures in case of rain, informed all of our vendors about the schedule and logistical details and managed the transportation, set-up and take down of all the ceremony and reception decor.

The day before our wedding was spent hanging out with my sister and sister-in-law putting together the cake and favours. I know the day would be very emotional so we found a way to keep ourselves from hysterical crying:

Being a traditionalist, J didn't want to see me until the ceremony so I headed over to my Mom's house for a sleepover after a fun dinner with my cousins at Biercraft. That left J all alone in our apartment with my dress, protected by the honor system!