You’ve spent months and months if not a full year planning this day. When you picked the date a year or so ago, you were so excited. You could imagine the sunlight peeking through the windows as you wake up on the day, your wedding day. You imagine how in love and calm you’ll be as the day begins with a quiet cup of coffee and breakfast with your bridesmaids. You predict the getting ready robes you’ll have them all wear as you all get your hair and makeup done.

If you close your eyes hard enough, you can practically feel your wedding dress on your skin as your mother fastens each button down your back.

You get butterflies as you picture him standing alone down a long sidewalk with his back turned as you walk up to him the first time.

You can almost hear his gasp of breath as he sees you walking toward him in your wedding dress. You feel your knees start to shake as you imagine saying those vows that you’ve heard others say a million times, but this time it is finally you. The birds are singing. Your wedding party is laughing. Guests are popping champagne. You are swirling around the dance floor with your new husband, dreaming about the beaches of the Caribbean that await you. All is right in the world.

Or is it?

It’s the week before your wedding, and your mom is nagging at you about not inviting Aunt so-and-so that you’ve never met before. The weather girl on Channel 4 keeps saying there’s an 80% chance of rain and 100% humidity on Saturday. The caterer hasn’t called you back about adding 10 more plates to your order. You are worried that the seamstress won’t have that last little alteration done on your dress in time. The bridesmaid that always runs late told you that she had to go into work for a little while before all bridesmaids are due to be at the getting ready location. You are worried that you’ve forgotten to pay one of the vendors on time…

The list goes on and on…

Planning a big wedding is stressful (The understatement of a century. Am I right?). We are the first to admit that there are many details that could go awry on a wedding day. But, we are also the first to say that you can’t control all of them. The worry that you feel that last week before your wedding can make or break how you and your family and friends feel on the day. Stress breads stress.

We challenge you to minimize the amount of stress on your shoulders the week before your wedding because calm breads calm. How do I do that? You ask.

Here are a few ideas…

Go on a date night with your fiancé. We have one condition. You are NOT allowed to talk about the wedding. Talk about anything else. Reminisce on how awkward your first date was or dream about the honeymoon that’s only a week away. Just leave the wedding talk for later.

Have a final FaceTime call with your photographers. We offer this service because it can be super helpful to go over the timeline again before the big day is here. It gives you a chance to ask any pressing questions you may have, and keeps you from getting overwhelmed.

Hire a wedding coordinator. Whether or not a full wedding planner is in your budget, we HIGHLY suggest hiring someone that could at least help you the day of your wedding. In case you didn’t know, Day-of Coordinators are a thing, and they can be lifesavers especially with wrangling family members or vendors that seem to be lost in the wind. If you don’t have the money for a day-of coordinator, give the job to a trusted friend that has been to a bunch of weddings. We all have that girlfriend that has a stern voice with a million older, married sisters, and can get things done. She’s your girl.

Eat well, drink lots of water, and get enough sleep. All of these things kind of go without saying, but are extremely important when you are going through stressful situations.

Keep reminding yourself that at the end of the day, all that matters is you are getting to marry your best friend. Cake or no cake, sunshine or heavy rain, you are getting married and that is enough.

xo. Chelsea