Pick your friends (brains).  Have recently married friends?  They can be a great wealth of information.  What vendors would they recommend?  What did they splurge or save on?  Looking back, would they do anything differently?  Find out what made their wedding day a success and apply it to your wedding day.

Build extra time for hair and makeup.  If you’ve had a trial run, you might think it will take the same amount of time on your wedding day.  In reality, your wedding day will have additional people around you, other details that need your attention and a timeline for the rest of the day.  Hair and makeup can take more time than you planned so do yourself a favor and build a buffer for this part of the day.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  And this is never truer than on your wedding day.  It’s likely that you won’t get another chance to eat for many hours.  A high protein, low carb breakfast will help you power through without the carb crash.

Pack a wedding day kit.  Stopping at the drug store for bandaids, bobby pins and aspirin are probably not part of your wedding day timeline.  Pack a wedding day kit of all the essentials and a few what ifs.  For a suggested wedding day kit list, click here.

Keep formal portraits to a minimum.  Your wedding day is a celebration of your love with family and friends so you’ll want to get pictures of all those who enjoyed it with you.  But a  long list of ‘must have’ shots will quickly consume the time you have for capturing the amazing images you want as a couple too.  Decide what family groupings are the most important (get input from parents too!) and keep your “must haves” to this list.  To help pare down the list, ask yourself what you will do with the picture.  Will you it be in your album or framed in your house?  If not, do you still need it as part of your wedding day story.  For help building your list, click here.

Bustle, bustle and then bustle.  Wedding dress bustles can be quite complicated.  Make sure your bridesmaids have time to practice bustling the dress.  Take a bridesmaid (or two) with you to the final fitting so they have a chance to see the seamstress bustle the dress.  Then have them try it in front of her so they get a chance for instruction.  Ask that the bustle strips be color coded so that it’s easier to match on your wedding day.

Don’t worry about the weather – until you need to.  Right before the wedding you’ll feel the urge to check the 10 day forecast, especially if you are having an outdoor ceremony – but don’t.  Long range forecasts are more prediction than science.  Find out what time the venue requires you to make a decision to move your ceremony inside.  Talk with your photographer in advance about alternative locations in case of inclement weather.

Get credit where you can.  If you will use credit cards to track your wedding expenses, why not get something extra for it.  Many credit cards offer benefits like airline miles and points for rewards.  Just be careful not to overspend, you don’t want to start your marriage in debt.

 Carry important phone numbers with you.  Carry an emergency contact sheet on your wedding day. You probably won’t carry your phone all day, so keeping the numbers on paper can be very helpful.  Make multiple copies and trust parents, coordinators and your venue with a copy.  Your venue can contact your baker or florist if they haven’t arrived by the setup time.

 Get organized.  Wedding planning apps, three ring binders or a simple filing system will work to keep you organized.  Having a single place for contracts, contact info and ideas makes it easy to focus on wedding planning as time allows.  For a free Detroit wedding planner, click here.

 Schedule setup.  Make sure that your contract for ceremony and reception venue clearly state when you will have access for setup.  Don’t assume that the rooms will be available just because you have reserved it for the afternoon or evening.  Many churches and venues also host showers and memorial services.

 Let Go.  You’ve planned your wedding day for months, maybe even years, but you are now past the planning stage.  If something doesn’t go perfectly to plans, let go.  It’s likely that the only one that would notice is you, no one else knows each detail of the day.  You would rather your day be remembered by how happy you were than by having a fit over place cards.  The most important thing to remember is you’re marrying your best friend.  Isn’t that what it is about anyway?