THE WEDDING ADVICE I’M GLAD I RECEIVED
Yesterday, I was unpacking after a recent move and found a beautiful Megan Preece Photography image that was taken at our wedding.
It was a group shot of everyone who attended, just after the ceremony, in the vineyard where we were married. The print got me thinking and reminiscing about our big day.
While I remember advice being plentiful from others, almost 8 years and 2 children later I remember only a few pieces of advice I was given by loving family and friends about the day that have really stuck with me.
One of those pieces of advice was to, “Plan, plan, plan and then let it all go.”
Yesterday, I was unpacking after a recent move and found a beautiful Megan Preece Photography image that was taken at our wedding.
It was a group shot of everyone who attended, just after the ceremony, in the vineyard where we were married. The print got me thinking and reminiscing about our big day.
While I remember advice being plentiful from others, almost 8 years and 2 children later I remember only a few pieces of advice I was given by loving family and friends about the day that have really stuck with me.
One of those pieces of advice was to, “Plan, plan, plan and then let it all go.”
I am a planner. I love to plan in advance, to know the plan, and to execute a good plan. It makes me incredibly happy.
Side note: Did you know that research shows we get more enjoyment out of the days leading up to a planned event than the event itself? Think about that as you plan your big day.
For our wedding, we were living abroad and returned just in advance of the big day. We had quite a bit to pull together before we boarded the plan (the day after) to return to our home in Europe.
I knew that I needed to plan as much as possible (to both keep my cool and manage executing a wedding from abroad). The great piece of advice I received was that I needed to let the plan go the moment I woke-up on the big day, and just be 100% present in each and every moment and enjoy watching my plan in action (hiccups and all). A wedding has so many moving parts (some were obviously not going to go perfectly), but at the end of the day the very best part would be that I would be married to my best friend (cheesy, but true).
I followed the advice, I planned my heart out (a timeline of events, a list of photographs I wanted Megan to capture, a detailed seating plan with images of how I wanted the centrepieces set-up, and I communicated the plan to everyone and anyone who would listen). The morning of our big day, I woke-up and I let it all go (other than following the timeline of events, of course).
Everything did not go perfectly, but as I look back on that day I remember perfection. My favourite moment was walking down the aisle and looking out over everyone assembled there; I knew every, single face smiling back at me. It was a moment I will treasure forever. I am so grateful I was there, present in that moment, and not worrying about the rest of the plan.
Megan Cosgrove was Megan Preece Photography’s first wedding in 2011!
She is happily married to her husband Andrew and together they have two wonderful children.
