The big day finally happened! After 2 postponements and almost two years of planning, replanning stress and drama, we FINALLY had our destination wedding in Saint-Emilion, France!

The week was absolutely incredible and my husband and I are overjoyed we finally got to celebrate our love with our friends and family. If you don’t know our story, we started planning our wedding in June 2019, and even went on a full wedding planning trip in November 2019. We toured the venue, did our catering and cake testing, makeup trials, and literally everything! We postponed our dream French wedding and ended up having a private elopement. But we still had our hearts set on the beautiful day we planned, and luckily we were able to pull it off!

I’m going to work on a separate blog all about the wedding day and planning tips for brides affected by the pandemic, but today I want to dish a little about some of the small wedding details you can often neglect. There are tons of things that will get thrown on your plate in the planning process, so here are a few things to make sure you don’t forget about in the weeks leading up to the big day, and of course on your wedding day itself. Keep reading for 5 Wedding Planning Details Not to Overlook!

5 Wedding Planning Details Not to Overlook

Your Day of Stationary

I realized I needed to find my own wedding stationary after our planning trip. After reviewing the options that the local vendors offered and the prices they wanted to charge, there was just no way! It would have been easier to just skip the day of stationary or use a lower quality local vendor, but I decided to do some research before making the final decision. I found Shine Wedding on Instagram and fell in love with the elegance and style of their designs. The printing is luxe and they have beautiful finishing details, like wax seals, vellum jackets, and real silk ribbons that made our day of printing look next level.

The team at Shine Wedding graciously gave me a credit to order my day of printing in exchange for this blog post and social media shares. They also offer really great discounts for reprints, since a lot of brides had to change their wedding dates and get their stationary reprinted.

Making Sure You Have a Steamer

Real talk, the day before my wedding one of my bridesmaids asked if we had a steamer. I assumed we did, but since it was an old French chateau I had no idea where it was. I searched the laundry room and where the cleaning supplies were and found an iron and ironing board, but no steamer. Turns out the venue never had one! Luckily our wedding planner was able to purchase one that evening so crisis was averted! But definitely check in advance if your venue has a steamer, or better yet, pack a travel one! It would have been nice to have more than one between my dress, super long veil, and the bridesmaid dresses.

Giving Yourself Time to Eat

Everyone says that brides forget to eat, but not this girl! I made sure I had a light healthy breakfast the morning of the wedding, and a small salad before I started getting ready. We missed the cocktail hour as most couples do, because we were taking photos, but some of my amazing friends snuck me appetizers so I at least got to get some snacks in. And yes, we made sure to eat our entire plated dinner! I know you want to socialize and catch up with all your guests, and will be pulled in a hundred different directions, but no one wants a hangry bride! Do yourself a favor and make sure you eat during the day and during the wedding!

Actually Rehearsing at Your Rehearsal Dinner

We kept our rehearsal dinner super laid back, but we did run through the ceremony details a few times before starting the party. And I’m glad we did because some moments would have been incredibly awkward if we didn’t have one!

Having Adequate Signage

In addition to wedding invitations, programs and menus, Shine Wedding also makes seating charts, welcome signs and other signage that will help your guests navigate the big day. That would come in super handy, especially if you are getting married at a small venue and don’t have ushers to show everyone around. All their designs are incredibly stylish, and it will make your life so much easier to get everything from a one-stop shop!

Hope this post helped with you brides to be! If you are starting to plan your wedding and looking for printing, make sure you order a FREE Shine Wedding Sample Kit. Once you see and feel the quality of their materials, you will be 100% convinced they are the perfect vendor for your wedding printing needs!