Top Tips for Wedding Season
Who better than to give us some top tips for surviving the wedding season, than a friend of LucyLovesThis who last summer clocked up six weddings in seven weekends! Here's her survival guide...
Weddings are, of course, a wonderful thing. A day for people to come together and celebrate love with their friends and family. There’s free food, drinks and dancing, usually in a lovely location somewhere. The only trouble is that they do tend to come all at once. A friend went to THIRTEEN last year, and my most intense wedding season was six weddings over seven weekends, each in a different corner of the country. On day three of wedding four (a particularly alcoholic Irish wedding) I found myself in a badly decorated BNB sobbing onto my boyfriend’s shoulder, “please don’t make me go to any more, pleeeease!”
With this in mind I've collected some top survival tips so you can enjoy the season as a gracious guest, rather than as the wedding grinch.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT ALL
Weddings often last more than one day. There’s the night before drinks, the day itself and often some kind of hungover brunch the next day. And if you’re at a destination or Indian wedding you can probably expect that to pad out over a week. It might feel rude to skip a bit, but bear in mind that the happy couple have so much to organise and so many people to deal with that they really aren’t going to mind if you miss the pre or post party. Just make sure you let them know in advance and you’re there on the big day.
WEDDING GAMES
To save you from repeating the same small talk over and over again, have some activities up your sleeve to keep the day fun. Wedding Speech Bingo is a great way to make friends at your lunch table; each person gets given a word that might appear in the speeches (for example, ‘bride’, ‘marriage’ or ‘thank you’) and takes a drink whenever that word is spoken. Other variations involve a sweepstake guessing the length of the best man speech, or my boyfriend and I compete to see how many times each of us will be asked when we’re getting married throughout the day.
BEWARE THE PHOTOS
This is the most dangerous time of a wedding day. Photos are being taken, drinks are circulating freely and you haven’t eaten any food yet. This period always seems to last for hours and if you’re not careful you’ll have drunk a whole bottle of prosecco before you know it. A top tip is to stick to soft drinks through this time to avoid slurring your way through dinner.
BE OPEN, BE SOCIABLE
It’s tempting to stick with the people you know at a wedding, and the prospect of a seating plan dumping you next to Great Aunt Nora can be a bit intimidating. But rest assured the couple will have put a lot of thought in to where they sit you. See the wedding as a chance to meet new people and find out about them and you’ll have a lot more fun. It often turns out that Great Aunt Nora is in the same line of work as you, or has the most wicked sense of humour and all the best gossip on the family.
FOOTWEAR
You’re not supposed to change trainers before a marathon, and similarly you don’t want to be buying brand new shoes just before a wedding. Make sure you’re in a pair which has been thoroughly broken in and you’re sure can get you through the day and into the small hours of dancing. Ladies should also consider the stiletto-on-mud risk, if in doubt wedges always win.
Good luck, enjoy, and if you’re searching for a perfect wedding present take a look at LucyLovesThis location prints. A pair of locations makes great gift to celebration two lives coming together and all our prints are now available in white frames for a more delicate, wedding day feel.
