You wake up in the middle of the night, half–sweated and with one only thing in your head: shall I include a stapler in my Wedding Emergency kit?
You know this is not a big deal and that you can fix it easily tomorrow but somehow this thought can’t leave you alone.
You continue to think about it and you can’t help but start typing the word “Wedding Emergency Kit” on Google Search and go through a million blog articles, all with different answers.
You skimmed – read one blog post after the other one and you find yourself caught up in more and more questions. Before you even have the time to blink is 6 am, the alarm goes off, you feel already exhausted and your day is not even started yet!
Your dog is watching you impatiently, breakfast needs to be made and the kids need to be taken to school. And in all of this, you still don’t have the answer to your question.
Breathe in, Breathe out – all you need right now is a structure – a guide that you can easily follow so you won’t lose your mind during the planning process.
I lined up 4 main steps for you to follow to plan & coordinate your wedding day so you can feel more in control of the whole process.
Let’s start!
Create Your Concept: Colour Palette and Mood Board
Right, let’s start with the basics, shall we? So first things first: decide the concept and the style that you want to reflect on your Big Day.
It is really important to be 100% clear in your head on what is that you are looking to recreate. This will be the “fil rouge” to add ANY elements to your Wedding Day concept.
There are two core keys to design a flawless Wedding Day:
- Colour Palette
- Mood Board
The Colour Palette is a series of 4 to 5 colours that you want to incorporate into your Wedding Day. Those colours are recurrent elements that you will see everywhere in your Ceremony and Reception setup. From napkins to stationary, the colour palette is going to help you to keep yourself on track when you are choosing the different elements of your Wedding day.
TOP TIP: Real colours and “on-screen” colours can be different. If you are unsure about it before buying or rent any items ask the provider/seller to send you a sample or even better go to their showroom and vision yourself the item before rent it.
As a general rule please do not stress yourself too much as you won’t find the same shade of blue for everything you are having on your Wedding day and that’s OKAY.
REMEMBER: It is much more important to recreate a cohesive look instead of 1 perfect detail and the rest of 99 out of place.
The second element is the Mood Board. This precious tool is a layout of numbered images that represent the core elements and the style you want for your Wedding day. It is by definition the most important tool you have to make sure everyone understand what you want for your wedding day. It is super easy to create(If you are not tech-savvy like me I recommend using Instagram Layout.So practical!) and handy to keep your vision is in one place.
Keep checking your mood board through all the planning stages to make sure you do not buy or rent anything that doesn’t belong there!
Spreadsheets, Spreadsheets, Spreadsheets!
Oh yes, this is a goodie. So you had your concept, now you need to start planning.
The key here is only one: get organized! And as much as this sound boring this means a lot of spreadsheets!
These are the ones I recommend you to have:
- Ceremony & Reception Floor Plan: Planimetry of your wedding space with the precise number of tables and chairs that need to be set up there
- The Table plan: aka “where people are sitting”
- The Suppliers list: Your Team in a box
- The Shot List: What do you want your photographer to focus on
- The Wedding Ceremony and Reception Schedule: your wedding in a nutshell
Why do you need them? Well, first things first those will help you to plan through your day and make sure everything you have imagined is going to take place. These docs are not something your Venue Coordinator will provide to you, as the venue will mainly take care of your wedding from the venue perspective.
The Venue will produce a BEO(aka Banqueting Event Order) of the event, lining up their bit but they won’t produce a material that covers everything that is happening on your Wedding Day. So this is something that it’s highly recommended for you to have and provide to your suppliers and venue for them to stay on track. You can make these using a simple Excel sheet and make sure everyone knows what they need to do on the day.
So what should you include in these documents? in brief, everything is relevant!
But remember to keep things well separated and in order. For example in the Wedding Ceremony and Reception Schedule just line up the timings in which each step will take place.
I would not recommend adding too many information here as this need to be referred for all supplier as a guide of when things will need to take place
TOP TIP: if you have more detailed instructions just create 2 separate schedules: one more generic and the other one more detailed. Please be mindful to create any further spreadsheet as all of these need to be continuously updated and this can be quite a time consuming
Preparing Your Weddind Emergency Kit
How do they say? “Hope for the best BUT prepare for the worst!”
Your Wedding Day will go smoothly as you planned, but just in case something will slip off have ready your Mary Poppins bag kit so “every task you undertake becomes a piece of cake!”
What should you include in your life-saver kit?
Well, you know I LOVE listing so I got just lined up this for you:
Apparel Emergencies
- Boutonniere Pins
- Straight Pins
- Safety Pins
- Clear Nail Polish
- Hem Tape
- Lint Roller
- Sewing Kit
- Stain remover pen
- Static Cling Spray
- White Chalk
- Extra Earring Backs
Hygiene Emergencies
- Baby Wipes
- Dental Floss
- Deodorant
- Hand Sanitiser
- Mouthwash
- Razor
- Toothbrush & toothpaste
Beauty Emergencies
- Bobby Pins
- Chapstick
- Comb or Brush
- Cotton Balls
- Cotton Swabs
- Eye Makeup Remover
- Hairspray
- Lotion
- Makeup Sponges
- Nail Clippers
- Nail File
- Nail Glue
- Nail Polish Remover
- Perfume
- Ponytail Holders
- Tissues
- Blotting Tissues
- Tweezers
- Small Mirror
TOP TIP: Pack everything in a nice white make-up suitcase, you can even get it personalised and decorate it with your name so it won’t look like a “survival kit” and leave it with you MOH – she will know what to do in case of emergency!
Your Big Day: 10 Top Tips To make it flow!
Congratulations, you are ready to marry the Love of Your Life!
How exciting (and also frightening I get it!)
You are worried about what else needs to be done on the night before your wedding day and on the day itself.
I got you covered with these 10 simple steps!
- Use wisely the access time the venue will give you and arrange as much as a possible to be done the day before the Wedding day. This includes any décor for the day, the room set up and everything you want to be displayed on the day
- What it cannot be done in advance it will need to be done on the wedding day (Es. Flowers) so make sure you have clear scheduled times of arrival for each supplier on the wedding schedule(aka the timeline of your Wedding day that we discussed above)
- Call all suppliers the day before to make sure everything is in place, they are clear on what,when and where needs to be done
- Gather your Bridal party the day before to make sure they do not have any questions or doubts.
- Once this is done it’s time to switch off. Have an early healthy dinner, make a cuppa of one of your favourite herbal tea, put on relaxing music(my fav radio programme? Mellow Magic, just an FYI here) & unwind – perhaps have a chit chat with your mum or your MOH. Finally, make sure you go to go to sleep early. This will help you so much to release any tensions and make you feel much more recharged for the day to come.
- On the morning of your wedding eat a nutritious breakfast . This will ensure you have the strength to keep going through the day and it will make you feel better and ready to go.
- Unwind with your girls while you getting ready, have a glass of prosecco together to cheers for the exciting day to come and just relax. Everything is exactly how it is supposed to be
- Be sure you have your emergency kit with you at all times and get ready for the tears of joy that you will experience while walking down the aisle(TOP TIP: get waterproof mascara and ask your girls to be ready with LOADS of tissues!)
- Spend as much time as possible with your guests but do not forget to take a moment only for you two – the day will run fast!
- Smile and have fun, it’s your wedding day!
That’s a wrap!
How do you feel? I hope you are not out of breath anymore! I know, I know we cover up a lot and you may still have questions on how to put all this information together. Well if is that the case, I think I may be able to help you one step further.
Whether you’re planning an extravaganza with 300 of your friends or you looking forward to an intimate Wedding with 25 guests, I take all your hard work and make it come to life on the day of the Wedding day so you can relax and enjoy the celebration.
Sounds like something you may be interested in? Check my Wedding Day Coordination service to know more about it! CLICK HERE and explore the possibility to have your very own Wedding Fairy on your Big Day to sort out any potential hiccup!
And remember make your Wedding Day and charming experience with Enchanting Weddings & Events!