The day before your wedding can be one of the most exciting yet anxiety-inducing days of your life. All the preparation is done, and you’ve come to a final checklist where forgetting things is a real possibility now that pre-wedding prep is over. If you want to know what to do the day before the wedding, consider this checklist from City Hall Wedding. Trust our experts to help you with any wedding prep, whether it’s a civil wedding in San Francisco or a barndoor wedding in the bluegrass fields of Kentucky.
From family members and vendors to the bridal party and ensuring your marriage license is ready, you can do all sorts of things during the last day before your marriage. However, remember that this unforgettable milestone is about you. Now that everything is ready, it’s time to take a deep breath and plan your day carefully with you and your special someone in mind.
1. Check in With Vendors
First comes business, and the most important one to check in on is the vendor service you’ll rely on for your food, the wedding, and anything else you have planned for your big day. Follow up with your vendors or coordinator to ensure everything is still a go for your wedding. This includes, most especially, the catering. Preventing accidents begins with checking and re-checking to ensure everyone is on the same page.
2. Double-Check Vendor Payments
Payment is another aspect you should consider while checking in on your vendors. Ensuring that your vendors have their payments ready to go is a great use of your time before the big day; that way, you don’t have to re-check afterward or leave more work for the wedding planner during the event. Additionally, it helps ease nerves, knowing everything is ready so you can spend the rest of your day relaxing, as you should be, instead of running around in circles trying to tie up every loose end at the last minute.
3. Pack Your Everything Bag
If you’re struggling to find what to do the day before the wedding, consider your everything bag. An everything bag, or a personal bag, is one you bring on your wedding day that has everything you need. There’s plenty to consider when packing an everything bag, especially because you’ll need to plan for what comes after your big occasion. Whether personal items, just-in-case items, or anything in between, here are a few options you should consider when planning out that duffel:
- Perfume: You’ll want to be smelling as fresh as you look.
- Deodorant: Everyone needs some — you especially, considering what day it is and how nervous you may (or may not!) be.
- Undergarments: Bringing extra is a good idea, especially as you transition from one outfit to your dress.
- Button-down shirt: When preparing your wedding makeup and hair, you’ll need a good button-down shirt for the transfer.
- Makeup and hair products: To look your best, bring everything you need by planning it ahead of time.
- Sewing kit: Just in case anything needs a little adjustment, it’s always nice to have a sewing kit on hand.
- Tissues: Everyone will need them, always more likely than you think.
- Toothbrush and toothpaste: Bring some along so that you can be prepared for your morning.
- Phone chargers: You may need your phone charger to keep everything on while getting ready.
- External batteries: An external battery can help if your phone doesn’t charge, or someone forgets to plug theirs in.
- Comfortable shoes: When transitioning out of your wedding shoes, you’ll need some comfortable footwear to slip into after the ceremony.
4. Practice Any Public Speeches
If you have any vows to recite or want to make a public speech about your spouse, now is the time to get in some last-minute practice. You can gather some of your close friends or bridal party members to listen or simply recite your lines by yourself. As long as you can get some of those words into memory, you can’t go wrong; if you think parts of your vows are likely to give your tongue some trouble, give them more attention.
5. Take Some Time Alone
As you list what to do the day before the wedding, consider taking a moment or even a few hours to collect yourself. From fiddling with your engagement ring to spending time outside, do whatever you need to relax. Processing is just as important as doing, so take all the time you need to get in the right headspace for the day ahead with whatever relaxation methods you prefer.
6. Spend Some Time With Your Betrothed
If you prefer not to be alone, the best alternative is to spend some time with the object of your affection. Since it’s a big day for the both of you tomorrow, getting together alone is a big help that can bring you gently into the right romantic spirit for the times ahead. One of the most important parts of taking precious time together is reminding each other of the love that brought you to this point in your lives.
Choose to put away other worries for the time being to focus on one of the happiest occasions you’ll experience with a fully present mind. If you take the time to relax before your special day, you’ll have all the calmness and focus you need to remember the finer details of your wedding, from the smells and the sights to how you felt when you looked into your partner’s eyes at the altar.
Now that you know what to do the day before the wedding, consider the rest of your prep with City Hall Wedding. City Hall Wedding is a business that’s here to answer every possible question about getting married. Whether you have questions about delegating wedding tasks, getting a bridal party together, or sending out wedding invitations and thank you notes, we’re here to help you get everything you need so you can focus on saying, “I do.”