A non-guidey guide from a soon to be bride part six-the finale

As you may know, Leigh has been writing a monthly blog each month chatting about all things weddings, the highs and lows of wedding planning and passing on her tips for other brides to be. This month will see Leigh marry her man so this is her last blog as a "miss", and it's a good one...

‘See you on the other side’

Surveying the blank computer screen before me with an obligatory glass of wine to my side, I feel notably different today as I bring you the finale of this short series of Non Guidey advice. With just over a years planning under my belt I now feel not quite as novice-y as I once was, and perhaps finally I am qualified to share just a few, select pieces of advice with my readers.

You see, for the past twelve months I have been relishing in this meticulous planning process, skipping weightlessly from dress shopping (swoon), to menu choosing (not so swoon), to cosy nights at home choosing music into the early hours of the morning. Slowly but surely, we have been creating what is soon to be the most personal 24 hours that we will ever get to experience. Simply put, I have been living and breathing our wedding for more than a year. A YEAR! I actually worked out if that I have spent [a conservative] 10 hours per week on wedding prep, I have spent a solid 22 days preparing for this day…

I’ll just leave that one there.

And now here we are, with a serious case of wedding brain firmly established, we’re getting married soon and ready or not ready- here it comes.

Allow me. Visualise a pie chart- with lots of different segments. Work, socializing, general ‘lifemin’, etc. The pie is relatively well balanced however a new ‘wedding’ segment develops and grows like wildfire until this intrusive wedge overtakes all and oops! You’re almost leaving the house without your skirt on…

This evening as I sit here- with the bottom part of my clothing firmly attached- I realise that actually, tonight is the first night in several weeks that I have excused myself from any form of ‘wedmin’

(I’ll admit I have slipped off of the wagon just a couple of times this evening to again analyse the need to polish my crystal just once more before the day and to check the transport arrangements again, just in case wedding brain was at large when it was put together).

It’s those little things, the finer details that come together at the end but believe you me there are hundreds of the little blighters, and they will keep you busy in those penultimate weeks! (Of course I wouldn’t have this any other way).

In fact, that brings me nicely to one of just a few new snippets of advice that I’d like to share with you before we part ways. If you and your significant other are brave enough to loosen that tight grip of control (assuming you are anything like me which I sincerely hope you are not), I encourage you to think about the possibility of delegation. Those personal bits and bobs are your baby, but anything of a purely practical nature- those bits that can (forgive me) feel a little chore like- delegate to one of those lovely people that keep offering you help. (Aha, I bet you wish you didn’t offer to help now did you, Susan?!)

But thanks to Susan (anon) and to a year of sheer wonderfulness, we’re almost there. It’s wedding month- and I have decided that it must be time to indulge in the excitement sometime soon, right? Now that I’m (roughly speaking) 22 full days of planning in, I’m going to try and focus on restoring a little bit of sanity with a little bit of a what will be will be approach. The important things are well and truly done and the rest will work themselves out. Note: ‘It will all work out’ is a commonly spoken phrase. Prepare to have it said to you 100 times, mostly by the already married population, however I understand that never a truer phrase has been spoken. For now, enjoy everything whilst you can.

Set your own expectations | Do whatever you want to do | Invest in those things that matter to you | Dare to be different | | Push Boundaries | Have no regrets.

See you on the other side!

Written by Leigh Messenger

23 days to go and counting…