There are lessons that can be learned from each and every wedding. At every stage of the wedding process, from planning to the day-of, there are moments that any bride wishes she could change or have better planned, no matter how perfect the wedding actually is. Rather than living with regrets, take a moment to talk with any friends or family who have been or are married and learn from their “mistakes.”  The key lesson I learned from my wedding, and my best advice to brides-to-be, is simple: enjoy your wedding day and don’t worry about the little things.

Let’s start at the beginning. My husband and I were searching for our perfect wedding venue, which happened to be a beach location in southern California, where we were living at the time. Like any couple, we had budget restraints, which made finding our ideal beach location fairly difficult. However, after searching for a few months, we found our dream spot In Malibu, CA!

We contacted the wedding venue and they offered a package that included everything we wanted and was within our budget. The only problem was the venue was booked more than a year out, but we loved the location so much we were willing to wait. Our package fortunately also included a wedding coordinator who was great and completely understood our vision. She seemed to be very attentive and knew tons of great vendors to help us make our wedding absolutely perfect.

We signed our wedding package agreement in May 2010 (for an August 2011 wedding) and the planning began. We had 3 or 4 great meetings with our coordinator during the first several months after signing the agreement, but then she started to become virtually unresponsive. Though naively, we didn’t think it was a big deal because our wedding was still so far off. So we just did as much as we could ourselves and tried to keep her in the loop, while praying that our emails and voicemails were not being ushered off into the ether!

Fast forward to June 2011, just 2 months before our wedding, and our wedding coordinator was still non-responsive and unreachable. She still hadn’t confirmed our caterer, deejay or florist. And, because we had the “all-inclusive” package, we had to use the coordinator’s preferred vendors who were willing to work within her set packages. Literally, heart attack!

Suddenly, our wedding was just 20 days away. Our coordinator was still not responsive except for occasionally sending my husband and I an email saying she’s working on everything and everything is going to be great. At this point, my A-type personality was in full-effect and I could no longer wait. I took everything into my own hands and began contacting each possible vendor myself. This probably would have been completely fine, but many of the vendors said our coordinator never discussed our wedding or pricing with them and they didn’t really know anything about us except for the date. OMG! Now, it was two weeks before our wedding and I was truly having a panic attack.

Thankfully, I have the most amazing husband who was not going to allow the wedding coordinator (who we once thought was so wonderful) ruin our wedding. He worked diligently with every vendor ensuring that they worked within our all-inclusive package and delivered everything that the coordinator promised in our agreement. All I can say is thankfully there are truly great people out there, because each vendor came together just weeks before our wedding and pulled it off.

Two days before our wedding, our coordinator asked if we would prefer to have someone else coordinate the day-of services because she knew how upset we were. Although I so badly wanted to say, “Yes, you just about ruined our wedding!”, my husband and I realized that (a) karma matters and (b) we would need to update a new coordinator, in less than a day, with all of our details, plans and vision we discussed months earlier with our coordinator.

So, we moved forward using the current coordinator and our wedding day of was nearly perfect! There were of course certain details that were not executed correctly. For example, our wedding colors were purple, black and white and our wedding cake randomly turned out white, brown and green. Also, some of our tables and seating charts were not set properly, so some of our guests ended up sitting in the wrong spots. But in the end, none of this mattered.

Looking back, I realized that no one noticed these small details nor that we weren’t able to plan everything until only weeks before our big day. Only I did (and my husband was obligated to lol). No one cared that our menu wasn’t what we originally wanted, or that our wedding cake was the wrong color scheme – they were just happy to be there with us and have a good time.

So my advice to brides-to-be is just that. Don’t worry about the small details or that your hair may not turn to be out exactly what you had envisioned. It might be better and you just don’t realize it. Let the small things go, enjoy your day and all of the great people who come to support you!

Your wedding (hopefully) happens once in your lifetime. If you worry about the little things, you’ll miss out on the great ones.

P.S. When you start your planning, make sure to do your research! Speak with wedding vendors first-hand at Las Vegas’ upcoming Bridal Spectacular bridal show in January. Or visit Bridal Spectacular online for more Las Vegas wedding planning information: http://www.bridalspectacular.com