Your Wedding Ceremony - 6 Things to Check Off Your List a Week Before Your Perfect Wedding Ceremony

If you finish up your wedding planning at least a week ahead of time, you get to have a wonderful time with your sweetie and your friends and family as they start to arrive. You don't have to be a maniac until the last minute. Check things off your list. Otherwise, it's like cramming for a test, the last couple hours don't really net you all that much. Bless it and be done. And then go have a good time.

1. You've finalized your wedding vows and your wedding ceremony. Trust me. This is really important. You do NOT want to be trying to write your promises or your poems to your beloved at the last minute. You don't want to do them off the cuff. You want to be practicing the things you will say during the wedding so you feel like you always make grand statements about your love in large public settings. You want to have shared them with your beloved so that you can both weep with joy and then be passionate together, which is what you're going to want to be when you hear the wonderful things your partner wants to say. The last is sort of hard to do at a wedding!
2. You've got the wedding reception under control, including seating. Here's the deal. You've hired professionals to do this. They know how to do their jobs. Get them the numbers they need and get out of their way. They'll enjoy it more. You'll have a fabulous time at the party. If you have to sweat the small stuff, do it early. If you're cooking, this is why there are freezers. Do NOT have to make 4000 canapes, party favors and centerpieces in the last 20 minutes before the guests arrive. Finish the seating charts when you have time and when you're not growling at one another. You know, people will have a good time at your wedding... and it's really all about you.
3. You've made the arrangements for your friends and family so they can come out and get together. You can have wonderful time with them. If there are a few last minute errands to be run, they can do that with you (as long as it's not the day of the wedding rehearsal, when your job is having lunch with your buddies and hanging out with your families.) You're not going to have this many people together again for a long time. Why not enjoy them?
4. You've got your wedding clothes and your attendants have theirs. Everything needs to be finished: stockings, underwear, hair ornaments, shoes, jewelry, make-up: everything. If you're not spending the night before the wedding at home, have things ready to go and the bag you're going to pack things out. For the more middle-aged among us, don't forget all your drugs and products!
5. Plan your honeymoon and what you're taking along. why not pack ahead of time? It's always been true: Last minute packing, except for a few essentials, doesn't net you anything other than some forgotten items. Why show up in Bali without your bathing suit. Pack your suitcase, put it in the closet.
6. Have a date or two with your beloved. Talk about your excitement about people coming. Share the thrill of getting married. Giggle over silly things. Do not talk seating charts and dinner counts. Have that finished. Then go home and cuddle and get amorous and then sleep! Remember exactly why you're getting married. You adore one another!