The New Mrs. Turner: October 2011

I was recently asked to be guest blogger for another Bride, Kayleigh, who's getting married near Clemson in two weeks. She's looking for people to help her out while she finishes her last minute planning. I wanted to share the blog with you:

First off, I want to thank Kayleigh for this awesome opportunity to be a guest blogger as she prepares for her big day!

I recently got married 5 months ago and had the best day of my life. I wanted to pass along 2 simple tips to brides who are planning their perfect day – And they'll all tips you've heard before!

Don't stress, it will all be okay. – I know you've heard that a lot but it's seriously true. It's life and you can't control what happens. The day we got married so many things went, I won't say wrong, but not the way we planned.

When I was getting my make-up, the lady doing it decided to take her precious time. (We did makeup off site at a makeup counter in a mall – saves you money as many do it for free!) She was the only lady working, so any time a customer came up, she had to stop and help. We had my appointment at 11 a.m., I don't think I left there until nearly 12:30 p.m. So if you have your makeup done like that, be prepared and planned for it to take longer than you expect.

Another thing that didn't go as planned, we didn't start on time. We got married on a military installation and apparently it was “Retiree Appreciation Day” on base so there were hundreds of extra people trying to get on base. We just rolled with the punches and waited til it looked like the steady flow of people neared an end.

It's things like weather and traffic that you have no control over, so don't add the extra stress.

Take Time Out To Be With Your Husband – Everyone is there to see you but in the long run, this day is about you and him! So say your hellos, give your hugs and kisses to your guests who have traveled so far, but take time at some point (either before or after the ceremony) to spend with the man you love.

My husband and I decided to do a first look before the ceremony. It gave us a chance to get those awesome pictures, showing reaction and it also gave us time to spend alone (yea our photographers were there, but they were off in a distance) We also decided to knock out of pictures together then, that way after the ceremony, we could focus on wedding and bridal party and then join the party.

Remember to have fun!-- It's your day, you just spent the last one million hours planning and putting so much hard work into it. Do something you would never do again.

It may sound tacky, but we had a blast at our reception when the groomsmen started stripping (just their shirts) and dancing with my 70-year-old grandmother. Everyone was on the dance floor, laughing and having the best time. It was something everyone was talking about for weeks afterwards.

Finally-- Make your wedding memorable.

You want people to remember something besides the flowers and the food. Let them remember why they were invited and why they mean something to you.

The one thing we did that was memorable was having the mascot from my college come to the reception. Many of our guests are South Carolina Gamecock fans, so when the Gamecock's fight song started planing and “Cocky” ran in, the place went crazy. Everyone wanted to dance with him and have their picture taken with him. He was a hit... for a while he was more popular than us! But it was well worth it to know our guests were having fun!