There was a lot of things that happened that I wish I knew about before the wedding and there were also things that I did know that really saved the day. Read on for tips to make your big day extraordinary!

1) Create an Emergency Kit. One thing I’m glad I remembered to do was put together a kit containing sewing materials, tape, lipstick, powder, tissue and Tylenol just in case. I put the entire thing together in a plastic container and gave it to my coordinator to hold on to. Although fortunately I didn’t need to sew anything on that day, my husband was the best man at a wedding where the button on his rented tux fell off right before the ceremony. Lucky for the resources of his friend, a paper clip saved the day!

2) Get organized! Another thing I’m happy I did was get organized a few weeks before the wedding. The week of the wedding was so hectic I’m happy that I did everything early. I gathered things like checks for my hair stylist and makeup artist, my perfume, earrings and our wedding rings into one large plastic bag so that I wouldn’t have to scramble around looking for it that day.

3) Go over the details of your wedding day with everyone involved. I’m sad to say that this important detail was overlooked for our wedding. Although we had at different points of time met with our vendors and friends, we didn’t thoroughly go over everything right before the wedding. Emails and phone calls are easily forgotten so it’s best to meet with everyone, sit them down, and make sure they take detailed notes about what’s important to you.

4) Talk to your family before the wedding day. Getting married is emotional for everyone involved. I was lucky that my dad made me sit down with him the night before the wedding to talk about how he felt and what it meant to him that I was getting married. Although I was tired and anxious about the next day, I think that it was an important discussion that made the wedding day even more special for him and for me.

5) Make memories and savor moments with your new husband. The day went by so fast! I tried to take everything in but it was hard. The one thing that I treasured were the times I spent with my husband. Whether it was when we took pictures or when we danced, those are the moments I truly love and remember about my wedding day.

Well my wedding day came and went. Just like that it was over in a flash! After 14 months of planning, it’s a little weird that it’s finally over. I know a lot of people didn’t tell me how weddings truly are and I had been won over by the millions of magazines I had read up until this point where weddings are a perfect and flawless affair. I wanted to dedicate this post to all of you brides out there to learn the truth of one bride’s real wedding.

I don’t know how your wedding went or is going to be like, but I can say for my own the entire week before the wedding and a few days after was filled with emotional highs and lows. From rehearsal dinner to the after wedding breakfast, I felt like I was a walking zombie filled with anticipation and nerves. I did not sleep a wink the whole week before the wedding nor could I eat the day of. Talk about needing to relax-I should have listened to my own advice I wrote about in a previous post! Everything I said I needed to do and swore I would like eat throughout the whole day and really get some rest was thwarted by nerves. And forget about trying to be perfect or having a perfect wedding, my wedding I like to say was “perfectly imperfect.”

The wedding itself was filled with things that didn’t go as planned-caterers were late, food wasn’t what we ordered, I was 20 minutes late myself. But with that being said, I could not have imagined a more sincere and simple display of my new husband and I. Everyone commented that they knew they were at our wedding because from our unique ceremony to our first dance and all of our songs, everything was so us!

One thing I learned is that it was the things I hadn’t planned for that was the best most memorable moments for me. My dad giving a brief toast saying I was the best daughter and my husband was “cool,” hanging out with friends I hadn’t seen in years and just the feeling that everyone was there for us. That’s why though I wish it wasn’t as windy or the caterers weren’t late or that I had eaten a little, when I think back to that Friday I know I wouldn’t have wanted anything different than what it was, “perfectly imperfect.”