Ask a Bride is here! | Q: Was the groom stressed on the wedding day?

Was the groom stressed? Evgeniya, one of my brides-to-be, asks. Her wedding to Paul is only a couple of weeks away so I had better get one of my brides to answer her long list of questions! Not many things stress out grooms, from my experience, when compared to potential things that stress a bride. But grooms do have one of the biggest ‘stressors’ of the day. Ilona’s answer nails it on the head. Read on….

Today’s Throwback Thursday is from my new Ask a Bride feature where one of my brides-to-be asks some questions which are then answered by one of my recent brides who, not so long ago, was in exactly the same position as her, busy planning and preparing for her wedding day.

Ilona and James had a big wedding in the Cotswolds complete with horse and carriage, and they planned it all in 4 months along with juggling work, life and everything in between! You can see their full wedding photos here and their engagement video below. Ilona and Evgeniya are good friends and so I asked Ilona to answer Evgeniya’s questions (without telling her who they were from).

E: How far in advance did you do your hair trial?

I: I think it was about a month beforehand – it was in a salon where the wedding was and not near where I lived, which made it harder to organise. I had time to arrange an alternative if it didn’t go to plan though.

E: What are your key tips to minimise stress on the day?

I: I actually found that on the wedding day itself I felt totally peaceful – the 4 days beforehand were very stressful (even though I was very well prepared) but on the morning and night before I realised that nothing else could be done. On the morning of the wedding there was a small disaster with the bridesmaids’ hair flowers, but I just let my bridesmaids sort it out and they did – new flowers were delivered and I thought by that point – even if there are no flowers in their hair, it doesn’t matter. I guess my top tip would be have good people around you on the morning and don’t have anyone there who will stress you out!

E: Was the groom stressed on the day? 🙂

I: The groom was very stressed on the day before the wedding – he had left his speech writing to the last minute and looked ashen at the night- before dinner! His best man took him for a pint on the way back to their hotel and he stayed up until 3am writing it! He was also stressed before I arrived at Church according to the Vicar! Once his speech was out of the way he visibly relaxed.

E: How long did you chase people to respond to your wedding invites?

I: We only had 4 months to do the whole thing so there wasn’t really time for save the dates and invites – we did text/e-mail/Facebook save the dates and called people and then got our invites out ASAP. We didn’t really have to chase many people as we put a “reply by” date and as it was a short time frame I think people were more on the ball. We also made it easy for them to RSVP and had options to just text/e-mail etc as I know posting a reply can be a task that gets put off (personally speaking!). We had a mixture of responses by post, e-mail etc which was nice.

E: Did you try to hire a photobooth?

I: I looked into lots of options but in the end we went for a bigger package with Lily which came with a photobooth and it was great fun – the photos look professional too and we didn’t have to organise anything extra (bonus!).

E: What did you do the next day? Anything special for a family or for just the two of you?

I: We wanted it to be just us two the next day-we had spent a lot of time and energy planning and we really wanted to just crash out with no plans on our first day of marriage! We had a breakfast in the sunshine at our hotel then drove back to London to catch our honeymoon flight the next morning. We also had lots of friends driving back to London the next day so it would have had to be an early breakfast event – not something I wanted to do the day after!

E: What is your top tip for the day?

I: Make sure you have the people you really want there and you have a good team around you who will remove stress, not add it. It really does fly by on the day, so ask people to take videos etc if you’re not having an official videographer as it’s nice to see the moments you miss, such as flower girls walking down in front of you etc. Above all, enjoy and don’t put too much pressure on the day – it is just one day and trying to make it perfect will only add stress!

{Delegating jobs to a great team you trust is one of the best tips on a wedding day ever. Thanks Ilona! Lx}

If you or anyone you know is getting married soon and have some questions or seeking tips and advice from brides, send them in and I’ll ask one of my lovely brides to answer them. Follow me on instagram lilyrsawyer, twitter @lilysawyerphoto and Facebook for more creative and wedding features coming up!