Since we’ve covered the first steps of planning, here’s a guide to the critical steps if your wedding bells can be heard just around the corner.
By Shera Dalin
Get your marriage license. Marriage licenses are valid for 30 days in St. Louis and, typically, 60 days in the Metro East. Once you’ve got that bit of legalese in your hands, put it in a box of other wedding accessories you’ll need at the ceremony and reception, or give it to someone you can trust to hang onto it. Note that both the county (revenue.stlouisco.com/RecorderOfDeeds/) and the city (stlcin.missouri.org/FAQs/displaytopicdetail.cfm?TopicID=144) have websites where you can find out what you need when you go to apply.
Count heads. Give a final reception head count to the caterer and other vendors who need that information. If you have more guests than anticipated, you may need to order extra chairs and centerpieces for dinner tables. St. Louis wedding consultant Sarah Grus recommends adding two to six place settings to the final count if your budget allows. At one wedding she coordinated, a handful of guests were obstetricians who showed up at the last minute when they weren’t needed to deliver babies. “Three or four open slots were filled that night,” Grus recalls.
Finalize the reception seating chart. If you’re having assigned seats at the reception, take the time to create a master seating chart, give a copy to the reception site and make an extra for yourself. Toss that into your accessories box, too, or make sure you have it on hand at the reception. (You might also create an online folder—accessible to both bride and groom—where all documents like this are stored and updated.) A master list helps avoid place-card mix-ups and general confusion. And speaking of place cards, this is also the time to pick them up if you had a calligrapher prepare them.
Confirm details. By now there are a good number of vendors you’re counting on—limousine drivers, tuxedo renters, florists, musicians, a photographer. Call all of them one last time, and confirm all the details. This is also a great time to make sure that readers have copies of what they’re reading and that parents—for whom this is also a big day—feel comfortable knowing where they are supposed to be and when. And remember that some of your vendors—especially bands and officiants—expect to be paid on the wedding day. Designate a trusted person to deliver these checks and any necessary gratuities.
Finalize the honeymoon details. Grus recommends packing two weeks before the wedding. “Tensions run pretty high that week before the wedding,” she says. “I want the couple to spend that last two weeks concentrating on themselves and relaxing.” Before packing, make sure your passport, birth certificate, driver’s license and other important travel documents are ready to go. If you wait until this point to apply for a passport, it’s too late. The State Department suggests applying six to eight weeks ahead of time. And one last reminder: Passports are now required for reentering the U.S. by air from Canada, Mexico and elsewhere in the western hemisphere.
Create a timeline. It may sound tedious, but Grus recommends constructing a timeline of the wedding day—with increments as short as five minutes. This is especially helpful for avoiding last-minute chaos if you don’t have a coordinator. Give a copy to everyone in the wedding party and vendors such as the florist and photographer, so they know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing and when. As an added bonus: You won’t have to worry about hearing the same questions over and over about what’s happening when.
Relax. Move your mind out of planning mode, and get a massage, enjoy a manicure/pedicure or grab lunch with the attendants. Even better, forego spending another dime, and simply have a quiet evening with your partner. Watch a movie, look through old photos and remember—amid all the planning—how and why you fell in love.
