Wedding disasters do happen. Sometimes the dress gets stained (don’t worry, you can edit it out of photographs and after the celebration bring it to Lily’s Bridal for professional advice on how to get it looking good as new), sometimes the cake melts (keep it in the cooler until it’s time to eat, otherwise just know it’ll still taste delicious either way), or another fiasco of some kind. Here are a few of the more common ones:
1.) It’s raining. Always, always, always have a back-up plan! For many people, rain is actually a good thing (it’s considered good luck!), but no one wants nasty weather to ruin their big day. The second you choose an outdoor venue for your wedding, you need to be asking about option #2. Does your venue offer an indoor service in case of inclement weather? As the day gets closer you’ll be able to take a look at the impending forecast, but you never know. A $200 deposit on an indoor site might just be worth the peace of mind in knowing you definitely won’t be stuck saying your vows in the middle of a hurricane come your wedding day.
2.) Your hair and makeup is ruined. Let’s face it, weddings are a landmine of hair and makeup issues. The weather (hot and sticky, wet and windy), the nerves (sweaty palms matched with fidgety hands), and emotions (tears of joy streaming down your face) of the big day can be a lot for your look to stand up to. To prevent this, it’s important to use smudge-proof and water-proof formulas for your makeup, ask for a quick tutorial on how to recreate the basic look should anything go wrong, and take your pictures as early as possible.
3.) One of you is sick. People get sick; it’s a fact of life. Personally, I’m one of those lucky people that suffers from what I call “stress colds.” Everytime there is a seriously stressful occasion coming up, I somehow arrive at the day with a stuffy nose, a sore throat and a headache. For your wedding day, unless it is something very, very serious like one of you is sitting on the bathroom floor holding the porcelain throne for dear life, suck it up. The show must go on. Take comfort in knowing your pictures will still turn out gorgeous (if you’ve hired a professional photographer…which you always should), since everything will be edited later.
4.) Someone gets drunk and makes a scene. It is possible, especially if you are planning on serving alcohol at your wedding. Thing is though, as the bride, this is where you get to delegate responsibility to your groom, and him to his groomsmen. If someone is drunk and causing a scene? Get them home safely. This is your day, and if someone else decides they’re going to ruin in they can sleep it off in the hotel room.
5.) No entertainment. Every once in a while (and by ‘every once in a while’ I mean very, very rarely), the entertainment either doesn’t show up or the sound equipment doesn’t work(this happened to my wedding). I know, I know, you checked it all the night before and everything worked fine…yada, yada, yada. The prevention of this disaster is much like the prevention of disaster #1: you need a backup plan.
Even if you’re ready to rock out to a band all night, bring your Ipod just in case. And it never hurts to know a good sound man or electrician, if you need to doctor up a down sound system in a jiffy.