Here are some things that I needed (er, at least wanted) during the week of my wedding, but didn’t have handy because no one ever told me I’d need it. I hope this helps you when planning your wedding!
Water. Copious amounts of water. Seriously. The week of your wedding, you’ll probably be wrapping up some projects and running some last minute errands. Nervousness and excitement may affect your appetite. The least you can do for your health is stay well hydrated. Carry around a huge bottle of water with you everywhere. Keep bottles in your car, in your purse, keep a nalgene clipped to your purse, do whatever you have to do. Stay hydrated. It will also help keep headaches at bay and will also keep the bloat away on your wedding day.
Gladware, baggies, and plastic containers. Shitloads of them. Your caterer will likely have lots of leftovers for you. And you’ll probably also have lots of cake leftover. We had both. Our cake leftovers were provided in cardboard cake boxes (which would make it dry out fairly quickly) and the catering leftovers were provided in HUGE aluminum pans. Both were useful for transport, but not as longer term solutions. Before your wedding, make sure you purchase tons of large gladware containers as well as a mix of sizes of smaller containers. You will also be able to give away containers of leftovers to guests still in town.
Easy-to-make meals. Make sure your freezer is filled with easy-to-make (but healthy) meals in the weeks leading up to your wedding. We used a lot of frozen foods we had on hand, like fish sticks and chicken nuggets from Trader Joe’s, and other food items like grilled cheese and soup. This were great and helped us avoid the typical day-to-day chores that are typically a part of daily life.
A small notebook and pen on your person at ALL times. Multitasking sucks. And so does realizing you need to do something but forgetting about it five minutes later. So, when you’re in the middle of doing something but remember another task that you need to complete, just take out your small notebook, write down a reminder, and continue on with your current task. The Wednesday before the wedding, I purchased a few of these notebooks and kept one for myself and gave one to Ken. We did a great job making notes and reviewing them later on. We also used them to remind ourselves of other things we had to discuss with each other but we weren’t in the same room at the time.
Sleeping pills. (Disclaimer: Ken seriously disagrees with me on this one and would be afraid that people would oversleep for their wedding). I’m not a big proponent of sleeping pills. That’s probably because I am a very sound sleeper. And perhaps it’s because when I do have trouble sleeping, a glass or two (or three) of wine is enough to send me to sleep for hours on end. However, I did not sleep well in the three days leading up to the wedding. Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night were fitful nights of sleep. With the exception of Thursday, falling asleep was not the issue for me. Staying asleep, however, was problematic. I’d wake up in the middle of the night and then find it impossible to fall back asleep. It would have been great to have gotten a great night sleep the night before the wedding, especially considering all the craziness of that night. So, in hindsight, I should’ve asked my doctor if she recommended anything in case I had trouble sleeping before the wedding. Maybe she would’ve said, “no way.” But, it’s just something for others to be aware of!
