Wedding Season Advice from a Groom

I got married this past Sunday (Hooray!) to Colleen, the girl of my dreams. As my Yiddish-speaking Mom would say, I am shepping nachus and everyone is kvelling. This means that life is beautiful.

Our garden wedding was spectacular and blissful. However, the year of assembling the countless moving parts of the climactic Big Day did not always warrant such adjectives. There were spreadsheets, to-do lists, and anxiety nightmares galore.

Now that Colleen's and my year of wedding planning is over, I have garnered some tidbits of fresh-from-the-trenches advice to share with soon-to-be brides, grooms, and their people. Perhaps these tips can nudge your celebration day a smidge closer to heaven, and a little further from the stress-addled limbo of event planning:

#1: Take pictures before the ceremony rather than after. This means the bride and groom will have to see each other before walking down the aisle, but you can still arrange a romantic first sighting with the photographer. You will be less crunched for time during the photo session, and seeing each other will cut some of the potentially mind-twisting tension.

#2: VERY IMPORTANT: If your reception immediately follows your ceremony, skip your own cocktail hour. Go somewhere private, just the newly married couple, and eat a quiet, ecstatic first meal together. These moments to breathe are critical and special.

#3: Tell your groomsmen to be there extra-early. Sometimes men run late.

#4: This is personal taste, but I recommend picking an upbeat song for your first dance. We used "I Hear a Symphony" by The Supremes and it kicked off an all-night dance party.

#5: Have an extremely reliable friend mop up the end-of-night logistics. Arrange to be spirited away during the last dance. The DJ or bandleader should announce your grand departure, and you should wave, cheer, and climb into the backseat of an awaiting car. As you go, the waving celebrants will send you a wordless, satisfying message: Hooray for love!