DIY Bride Guide: Some Wedding Day Tips

Hi! I'm Maverick12 and I'm a recently married DIY bride. I wanted to share with you some tips I discovered during my wedding day.

*I'm not a superstitious person. I'm also not a girly girl. To be honest, I was both excited and dreading dress shopping. I was thrilled that I found my dress at the first store. I can say I feel in love with it. Mostly I loved the way it made me feel. Because remember that's the most important thing - how it makes you feel.

*When you get it altered for bustling - put extra buttons and loops on! I discovered the hard way. Someone stepped on my dress during cocktail hour and ripped it. I lost one of the loops and put a six inch tear in my beautiful dress. Luckily for the tear I happened to have a seamstress attending my wedding who did a quick fix with some thread provided by a groomsmen. (I know - right?) BUT. It was difficult to re-bustle the dress because I only had one set of buttons and loops. It may cost a little extra, but definitely worth it.

*Find shoes you are comfortable with. Mine were super comfortable in the store, but I'm so glad I wore them to a friend's wedding a month before because they hurt after dancing all night!

*As a DIY bride I did my flowers myself. I ordered the flowers online and had them delivered to the house I planned on preparing them at. Get them delivered approximately two to three days before the wedding. The flowers needed time to get some water and open up again.

*Set time aside the day before to get the flowers done. I was lucky enough to have super awesome bridesmaid and maid of honor who were able to knock them out in just a couple hours. Make sure you have all the supplies necessary before you begin! You don't want to go running out to pick up something you forgot.

*When transporting the flowers to the ceremony, make sure you write down the directions taking care of the flowers. While the girls and I were busy getting hair done and dressed we trusted the Dads to transport the flowers. They wrapped the bouquets up with wet paper towels (hydrangeas love water) BUT they also laid all the boutonnieres on wet paper towels. Which ruined the calla lilies. And all the other flowers in them.

*Make extras! Luckily we had made enough extras that we were able to switch things around so the groomsmen had theirs, but we had to trash all the rest so no one else got the ones they were supposed to.

*Get cake you love! The cake was delicious. I highly recommend a buttercream frosting over a fondant. Unless you're doing it outside. Buttercream melts.

*You don't need cake for every single guest. Not everyone eats cake. Where I got married there was a cookie table tradition, so I worried even less about the cake serving everyone.

*Get a smaller cake. Wedding cakes are expensive! Get a nice cake to cut into and some to feed the wedding party - but serve sheet cake for everyone else from the kitchens. No one really noticed or cared, but it was way cheaper.

*Throughout the day you need to eat! (And drink!) The food will keep you going all night long and prevent you from fainting or over heating during the day. The girls and I stopped at Panera Bread in between the hairdresser and the Church.

*Eat what you want at dinner. I was so worried about eating something with a red sauce that I missed out on a ton of delicious food. Take precautions - eat over your plate and use two napkins for extra thickness.

And one final note of advice. Don't sweat the small stuff.

My flowers were trashed. All that work. Poof. And 30 minutes before my ceremony too.

My cake arrived late. So late. And they brought it in during my Maid of Honor's speech and then didn't even put the cake topper on.

My dress ripped. So sad. It's really a gorgeous dress.

Oh! And it started pouring down rain at the park where I was taking my photos.

But even with all that I had a fantastic day.

I got married to someone I really love. And I had my best friends standing by my side.

And all in all. A party's fun, but other things matter more.