Your wedding day is coming up & you couldn't be more excited! You probably have at least 17 different to-do lists from organizing family members as they come into town, to tying programs, to bagging lavender for your guests to throw at you. I've compiled a few points to consider that sometimes get overlooked, especially in those last frantic days, that can really help make your wedding day go so much smoother.

A few of these things are items that you can take care of in advance, put them to the corner of the room with the rest of your wedding decor that needs to go to the venue, & forget about them until the big day.

1. Prepping Your Wedding Dress & Veil
2. Pack an Overnight Bag
3. Pack an Emergency Kit
4. Pack Your Jewelry & Special Accessories Bag
5. Pack a Complete Invitation Suite

Besides your glowing faces, the dresses are one of the focal points of the day. While they might be beautiful, the wrinkled, smooshed, & just-pulled-out-of-a-bag look ruins the whole affect. (This applies to the wedding dress, the bridesmaids' dresses, & the mothers' dresses! It even applies to brand new tuxedo shirts!) Here are a few tips to help your dress look its best & fullest.

Planning a bridal session? Make sure you prep dress & veil for your bridal session too!

hang your dress up high

In the week or two leading up to your wedding (or bridal session!) pull your wedding dress & veil out of their bags or box & let them hang. If you can, hang your dress up high enough so that the train doesn't drag the ground. The weight of the dress should be enough to help pull most of the wrinkles out.

I know you may be worried about the wrong people seeing it before the big day, so hopefully you have a back room with a door. I was lucky enough to have vaulted ceilings in my bedroom at my parents' house which also was the farthest room to walk to from the front door!

The day of your wedding, pull it out of the bag & hang it up as soon as you arrive to your venue, just make sure to keep drinks away!

Separate the layers

Pull each layer apart & straighten the wrinkles. This is especially important if you have tulle layers giving you volume! Tulle can very easily become crunched & stuck together, so separate those bad boys.

I recommend doing this several times–when you first pull it out of the bag both before your bridal session & after you've arrived to your venue the day of, & most importantly after you've put it on.

steam everything (& don't forget the guys' clothing!)

This applies to your dress & your veil! Ask your venue (or hotel, or wherever you're getting dressed the day of) if they have a steamer. If not, ask around to local friends & family before purchasing one.

This is another thing I recommend doing multiple times, primarily to make sure the steamer works!

In a pinch & don't have a steamer? If there's a bathroom with a shower handy (& preferably a door to keep the steam in), hang your dress(es) in the bathroom & turn the hot water on.

Like I mentioned before, steaming or ironing applies to guys' clothing as well! It's very common for the groom & groomsmen to rent complete suits which usually come in nice hanging bags. But that doesn't mean they'll come out of the bag without any wrinkles! Did you buy a brand new shirt & it's still in the compact packaging? Take that out several days before & give it a good ironing! You can bet that it will have severe creases.

bonus tip #1

As with most things associated with wedding days, do not every underestimate how long it will take you to separate 10 layers of tulle & steam an entire ballgown style dress.

I remember at my sister-in-law's wedding, not only did her very fluffy & gorgeous wedding dress need steaming (she had ruffles everywhere!), but there were 10 of us bridesmaids all with floor length chiffon dresses that were wrinkly from traveling. Because this wasn't my first rodeo, I knew we shouldn't put that off too long, so I enlisted the help of another bridesmaid to help me start steaming everyone's dresses early. I'm pretty certain it took us an hour to get everything steamed (there was only one steamer).

bonus tip #2

Steam before you get your hair & makeup done! My sister-in-law's wedding was in September, so we were already melting. Couple that with an hour of steaming & we were hot messes!