Tips on avoiding last minute wedding disasters

[Skarossinkplunger]

Wedding is in three weeks I think we're pretty much on top of plans but my brain keeps going over things that can go wrong. Anyone had any last minute disasters and any tips on what I can do to avoid them?

While having a flute of champagne while you get dressed sounds lovely, use a nice chunky stable tumbler for your drink.
Less likely to get knocked over your dress (bitter voice of experience)

Definitely go through a step by step plan of the day (locations, timings etc) and make sure all key people know it or have it written down (MOB, MOG, groomsmen and bridesmaids) so you can direct all queries their way and they can deal with any problems. I also made sure DH had a list of all the suppliers and phone numbers; I had booked a lot of things myself so it was helpful for DH to have this info on the morning so he could deal with any problems (and not have to trawl through my emails!). This did come in handy for us as the florist cocked up and didn't make it to my mum's house to give us our bouquets so we had to collect them at the church. I had dealt with the florist the whole way through but DH was able to sort it on the morning.

My other bits of advice would be not to have any suprises on the day; a relative did our cake as a suprise and it was fucking hideous!

Also make sure you have extras of everything (place names, favours, decorations etc.) in case something breaks or gets ruined. We had a small water leak from the ceiling of our reception venue on to one of the seat covers but fortunately had a spare.

And finally make sure everything has been rehearsed or done in enough time to be fixed before the wedding, including hair, make up, fake tan, nails etc. You definitely don't want to be finding out on the morning of the wedding that something doesn't work or looks terrible!

Oh and get more formal photos than you think you'll want, unless you don't mind not having photos of everyone - some people are real photo dodgers and will avoid the photographer when he's doing candid shots. We had some guests that aren't in a single photo.

the best advice I can give is this -

remember the important parts of this whole thing are you, the person you are marrying, how you feel about each other, and the people required to make it legal.
Everything else is just "stuff" really.
And that means if something goes wrong, it's just stuff and stuff isn't really worth getting that upset about.

My florist died a couple weeks before my wedding (which was during peak August wedding season)!

Luckily another florist took pity on me and agreed to do my bouquets and buttonholes and I raised Ikea for table centrepieces (beautiful lanterns and candles).

It looked fab, no one knew we were missing floral centrepieces, we saved a load of cash and we still have the lanterns!

For the day I found it handy think think of everything I could possibly need and made up "bathroom boxes" to put in the loos at the venue so myself and my guests wouldn't be caught short (sunscreen, sanpro, tissues, handcream, Kirby grips, chewing gum, hairspray, plasters, hay fever tablets, makeup removal wipes etc)

My husbands brother had to leave for work unexpectedly the day of the wedding-he was in the photos with DH in the morning and then gave a speech via mobile phone in the church which was actually lovely!

My vintage wedding car was all booked and sorted...a week before the owner/driver rang to say he could no longer do it as he had shingles and no one else was insured to drive the car-Ended up with a nice enough Mercedes.

My photos are lovely but my photographers didn't get a photo of just me in my wedding dress... makes me sad!

Overall though, the day was great and I loved every second! As did DH! We went straight on honeymoon the morning after which was great as we were still in our wedding bubble!

Good luck and congratulations xx

Wear a button down shirt to get your hair done. Stupidly wore a t-shirt to the hairdressers in the morning then had to be cut out of my top by very giggly bridesmaids before I could get in my dress, actually a really fond memory now.

Then just go with the flow/ make it someone else's responsibility to stress about things on the day and enjoy the stories of the near mishaps afterwards.

A list of what you will be wearing so you don't forget your earrings like me I dashed out and bought some a few days before the wedding too

The one main thing we forgot - we were using condoms and didn't bring any for the wedding night/morning after.

Agree with the previous poster saying get more formal shots than you think; we wanted lots of 'natural' shots so the photographers suggested a maximum of 10 posed ones. We have some really lovely pictures but none of us with my grandparents and would have liked one with my brothers and me on our own as well. We were also whisked away for photos which was a really lovely part of the day but I wish we'd specified that we only wanted to be away from our guests for half an hour maximum because I feel like we missed out on a bit there.