It’s easy for your wedding day to be a complete blur. You’ve spent months planning everything for this beautiful day only to have it over in the blink of an eye, and you may not even remember much of it.
Often this blur happens because you’re stressed about making sure the details go well, rather than staying present in the moment. When you prepare in advance to practice mindfulness during your big day, you can enjoy it far more and have great memories of the celebration.
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How can you stay mindful in the midst of such a stressful and significant day? Here are some tips.
The biggest enemy of being fully present is feeling like you have a ton of responsibilities. Lean on your friends and family and let them be in charge of things like answering questions from the caterer, helping the DJ setup, and other details so you can have a stress-free walk down the aisle.
Choosing vendors you can trust is another part of keeping your wedding low-stress. With the right vendors, everything will go smoothly, and you won’t even know if there are snags and hiccups. The vendors will ensure they manage it without involving you.
Do you tend to take over even though you don’t mean to? If so, you might assign a close attendant or family member to remind you to step back, let go, and simply enjoy the moment rather than trying to manage the event.
Stress can cause you to breathe more quickly and irregularly, which speeds up your heart rate and can cause feelings of panic or overwhelm. Choosing mindfulness breathing can help.
Take several breaks from the action to take deep breaths and just look around you. Appreciate what’s going on in that moment — whether it’s kids being silly on the dance floor, a vendor efficiently getting dinner in front of your guests, or your spouse looking fabulous in their wedding clothes.
In that moment, practice some deep breathing exercises. Deep breathing has a variety of benefits, including reducing stress and anxiety, lowering your blood pressure, and helping relieve headaches. Focusing on your breath is also a time-honoured mindfulness practice.
Taking deep breaths and noticing the activity around you will help solidify those moments in your memories, which can bring you joy for years to come.
Trying to fit tons of activities in is a recipe for a whirlwind that’s hard to remember. Instead, consider spacing activities out so there’s plenty of time for relaxation and reflection.
When you have fewer activities, you can also spend more time at each one, allowing you to be more immersed in the event. If a wedding planner is helping you coordinate your wedding day and related activities, talk to them about the importance of being mindful and present. They can help build more time into activities, as well as suggest which events aren’t important to include.
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You might also consider creating an event specifically focused on being present and reflective. For example, you could get together with your wedding attendants and share stories of how you met each other, your favourite memories, and more.
When you’re intentional about how you schedule everything around the wedding, you’ll have far more opportunities to be present.
Before a wedding, you may need to do makeup, hair, and other preparation. Take advantage of this time to enjoy being pampered and practice mindfulness.
The skincare routine that gets you ready for the big day can give you a significant mental reboot, allowing you to focus on how getting ready feels. The touch involved in pre-wedding preparation is nourishing and can help reduce stress, and the scents of skincare products can be a delight for your senses.
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As you get ready for your wedding ceremony, practice being present in that moment. Don’t think about the ceremony or reception ahead. Instead, enjoy the luxury and pampering of the pre-wedding activities and soak in the love from your family and friends.
Being on your mobile device, even to share news and pictures about your wedding, can be very distracting and doesn’t allow you to be fully present in the moment. Instead, trust your photographer or guests to take photos that can be shared after the happy event.
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It’s challenging to be without your phone for a day or a weekend, especially if you rely on it during other times. You might consider practicing unplugging in the week leading up to the wedding so that you won’t be so anxious or uncomfortable without your phone.
If you start to feel nervous about not having your phone, take deep breaths and remind yourself it will be waiting for you when the wedding is over. Practice mindfulness exercises to keep yourself in the present moment.
Mindfulness practices like deep breathing, gratitude, and noticing what’s happening around you are all ways to ensure your big day doesn’t go by in a blur. After months of planning, you want to relish every moment!
Enlist those around you to remind you to soak in the moments, from pre-wedding prep to the end of the weekend. It’s an amazing time, and you deserve to enjoy it.