Things That Help You Feel Your Best on Your Wedding Day

Wedding planning tends to revolve around the big, beautiful decisions: the venue, the dress, the flowers, the food. But when the day finally arrives, it’s often the smallest choices that make the biggest difference to how you actually feel.

A little forward planning can help you feel comfortable, calm and completely present, leaving you free to soak up every brilliant moment. Here are some of the little things worth thinking about before the big day.

Wellness in the run-up

Make time to slow down

The final few weeks before a wedding can quickly become a blur of appointments, admin and last-minute jobs. While those beauty appointments might be firmly in the diary, make space for some genuine downtime too.

Protect a few evenings from wedding planning, go for a walk, switch off your phone or simply spend some time doing something completely unrelated to the wedding. Arriving at the big day feeling rested and relaxed is worth far more than squeezing another task into an already packed schedule.

Prioritise sleep and hydration

It might not be the most glamorous pre-wedding advice, but getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water and eating well can make a real difference to how you feel in the final run-up.

Rather than experimenting with new skincare or booking a last-minute treatment, stick with what you know works for you and concentrate on the basics. Your skin, energy levels and mood will thank you for it.

Make the morning feel good

Eat something – even if you’re nervous

With hair, make-up, photographs and a steady stream of people coming and going, breakfast can easily become an afterthought. Add a few pre-ceremony nerves and it’s surprisingly easy to reach the aisle having eaten very little.

Plan something simple that you know you’ll enjoy and make time for it in the morning. Keep a few easy snacks nearby too, particularly if there’s a long gap between the ceremony and wedding breakfast. A glass of fizz might calm the nerves, but it’s much better enjoyed after you’ve eaten something.

Give yourself more time than you think you need

A wedding morning should feel exciting, not like a race against the clock. Build a little breathing room into your getting-ready schedule so a delayed hairstylist, tricky button or emotional moment with your parents doesn’t suddenly become stressful.

And don’t feel you need to fill every spare minute. Ten quiet minutes once you’re dressed – perhaps with your mum, bridesmaids or simply by yourself – can be one of the loveliest parts of the morning.

Put comfort first

Choose shoes for the whole day

Those dream heels might look incredible with your dress, but remember that you’ll potentially be wearing them for hours of standing, photographs, mingling and dancing.

Wear your wedding shoes around the house beforehand to break them in and consider having a second, more comfortable pair ready for the evening. Once the dance floor fills, you’ll be very glad you did.

Give your underwear a trial run

Don’t wait until the wedding morning to discover that your underwear digs in, slips down or doesn’t quite work beneath your dress.

Try everything on together well in advance – dress, underwear, shapewear, shoes and accessories – and move around in it. Sit down, walk, bend and dance. Something that feels perfectly comfortable for five minutes in front of a mirror can be a very different prospect after eight hours.

Think about the easily overlooked details

Glasses or contact lenses?

If you alternate between glasses and contact lenses, decide what you’re most comfortable wearing well before the wedding rather than leaving the decision until the morning itself.

Some brides might prefer contact lenses for a long day of photographs, hugs and dancing, while others feel far more themselves in their glasses. Whichever you choose, give it a proper trial beforehand so you know you’ll be comfortable from the ceremony through to the last dance.

Have a weather plan

You can’t control the Cornish or Devon weather – and worrying about the forecast won’t change it – but a simple backup plan can take away a lot of unnecessary stress.

Talk through wet-weather and hot-weather options with your venue or wedding planner in advance. Think umbrellas, somewhere sheltered for photographs, layers for a chilly evening or water and shade during a heatwave. Once you know there’s a Plan B, you can stop obsessively refreshing the forecast and concentrate on enjoying yourself.

Prepare for the long haul

Pack a little emergency kit

You don’t need to prepare for every conceivable disaster. A small bag of genuinely useful essentials should cover most eventualities: think safety pins, plasters, tissues, blotting papers, deodorant, mints and any make-up you’ll want for touch-ups.

Put it together a few days beforehand and ask someone you trust to keep hold of it. Chances are you’ll barely use it – but knowing it’s there can be reassuring.

Plan for touch-ups

Your wedding look needs to last considerably longer than the getting-ready photographs. A few strategically chosen essentials can help you feel fresh right through the evening.

Keep lipstick or lip balm, powder or blotting papers, perfume and anything else you might want close at hand. Ask someone in your bridal party to look after them so you don’t spend your reception wondering where you left your bag.

Give yourself permission to enjoy it

Let somebody else answer the questions

Where should the flowers go? Has the photographer arrived? Which table is Uncle David sitting at? None of these questions need to reach you on your wedding day.

Give your suppliers, venue and bridal party the name of someone who can make small decisions on your behalf. Whether that’s your maid of honour, wedding planner or a particularly organised friend, having a designated problem-solver means you can concentrate on getting married rather than managing the event.

Steal five minutes together

Wedding days have a habit of moving extraordinarily quickly. Between photographs, speeches, greeting guests and hitting the dance floor, it’s perfectly possible to spend surprisingly little time alone with the person you’ve just married.

Ask your photographer or coordinator to help you find five or ten minutes away from everyone else after the ceremony or wedding breakfast. Take a walk, have a drink together or simply stand back and look at the celebration you’ve created. It’s a tiny pause, but it might become one of the moments you remember most.

And finally…

Feeling your best on your wedding day isn’t about looking flawless or trying to control every last detail. It’s about removing the little niggles that can distract you from enjoying it.

Break in your shoes. Get some sleep. Eat breakfast. Drink plenty of water. Build some breathing room into the morning, hand the questions to somebody else and steal a few precious minutes alone with your new husband or wife. Then forget about the schedule, the weather and whether every detail is exactly where it should be – and soak it all in.

After all, the photographs will capture how everything looked. What you’ll remember is how it felt.