It's true -- even as a wedding expert with tons of experience in planning and an arsenal of de-stressing tips, I couldn't help but worry about some elements of our wedding day [which was gorgeous, on a beautiful spring day in April]. Even when I was pulled together, I was getting worried calls from family and friends, and my groom had his moments of "Let's just elope!" I did as well. On some days, all I wanted was just to BE married to Joe and skip all the chaos that no one -- no one -- can ever fully eliminate. There are just too many facets to a wedding to ensure a completely stress-free wedding planning experience. The best you can do is handle the stress as it occurs, use the tips here in my blog to help yourself and others through the season of chaos, and remember to enjoy.

Which we did.

But I can report that I worried about some things for nothing. The things I worried about never came to pass, and the things we didn't think to worry about did happen (a crasher, missed photo opportunities, the kids stealing all the tabletop cameras and snapping 300 photos of themselves -- which actually turned out to be a good thing...we have lots of pix to share with their parents!). We can laugh off the snafus, and we laughed them off during the wedding day too, because we weren't going to let anything or anyone steal our joy. That's the best wedding gift you can get: your own ability to experience every moment of happiness on your own wedding day.

Just shrug off what goes wrong, grab your new spouse, and get out on the dance floor. The day goes by so quickly...