Your wedding day has come and gone and you are finally newlyweds, free from all things wedding planning! Now you can just focus on all the relaxing you will be doing on your honeymoon and all that married life that lies ahead of you. ACTUALLY, not so fast…your vendors still need final payments, your dress might be stained, and your thank you cards won’t write themselves.
The faster you get these things done, the faster you can put all things wedding behind you and move on with your lives together. There are a few things you will need to do to really put wedding planning behind you. Once you get through these final items, then you are really home free from wedding planning! Your to-do list after saying “I do” is the not-so-fun and not the glamourous side of wedding planning, but they are logistics that will be important to get done so that married life starts off on the right foot. Get yourself organized from the start and you will be thanking yourself later.
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Pay your remaining invoices and tip your vendors:
The first thing on your to do list after saying I do, is completing your payments to your vendors. Throughout the planning process, you should be keeping track of which final payments you will need to make on your wedding day or shortly after. These should not be a surprise, but make sure you close out any open invoices.
Whether you tip your vendors is up to you but some of the vendors may add in a tip or service charge in the contract that you initially signed. Make sure you know what is already included in your contract first. If you need help reading through your wedding vendor contracts, here you can find how to review wedding vendor contracts in more detail.
Write reviews for your vendors:
Your vendors will appreciate an honest review, especially if their hard work paid off and lent itself to an amazing wedding experience for you and your guests. You want to make sure you show appreciation because this is how vendors generate future clientele.
You can even ask your vendors where they would prefer you focus your time and write a review. They may have a preference for certain sites where they think they will high the highest number of views for each review.
Gather pictures:
There will be a TON of pictures and videos of your wedding day coming from all different directions. Do yourself and your guests a favor by creating a hashtag so you can find those photos and vides easily on social media or creating a shared album that people have access to. A shared album will allow your friends and family to download their photos and videos directly to that album and get photos and videos from everyone else there as well.
Gather your gifts:
This is the fun part! Make sure you collected your gifts from the wedding venue, go through them, and record who gifted you each gift. Get a google doc going to keep track of this.
Write thank-you notes:
This is yet another daunting task after all that wedding planning you just did. Assign a weekend to tackling thank you notes and divide and conquer the task. You will be thanking yourselves later for getting this over and done with. I suggest following the three-month rule and sending your notes out within three months of your wedding date. Minted is not only great for wedding invites, but you can also order matching thank you cards together with your invites.
Make sure you are all tracking and sending notes to people that gave gifts but were not at the wedding.
Preserve, sell, or donate your dress:
Donating or selling your dress is a great option. You can recoup some costs or deduct some of your wedding costs from your taxes with a donation. However, if you decide to preserve your dress, get it cleaned and preserved quickly after your wedding. Many brides let their dress sit in a closet for months after the wedding, and this gives stains a chance to set and potentially be more permanent. There can even be stains that you don’t see right away and that become more visible with time.
If you can get your dress to a cleaner/preservationist within a month after your wedding, that is ideal. Start by asking your wedding dress shop for a cleaner/preservationist recommendation. Often times they can recommend someone that has experience cleaning and preserving those exact types of dresses. Certain designs and materials require a specific style of cleaning and restoration. You also don’t have to limit yourself to local cleaners or preservation shops because many of these specialized places offer shipping services.
Preserve your bouquet:
There are so many unique ways you can preserve your bouquet and trust me, you won’t regret spending a little extra to do this. I didn’t know this was an option and I am seriously wishing that I preserved my bouquet. Etsy has some amazing shops that can turn your flowers into ring holders, wall decor, candles, and more. Check out my favorite Etsy shops here for flower preservation!
Change your name (if you decide to):
If you decide to change your name, changing your name can be a pain! I was so excited to change my name after our wedding, but then quickly realized all the logistics that come along with making that change. There are so many different places where you need to change your name and I was quickly overwhelmed by the number of calls and the amount of paperwork I needed to get through to make all the changes. Make sure if you are changing your name, to first use your new last name when signing your marriage license!
Luckily my friend turned me on to Hitchswitch, which saved hours of my time. Hitchswitch sent me a folder with step-by-step instructions with pre-filled paperwork. The last thing you should be doing as a newlywed is sifting through paperwork to try to change your name everywhere. Get on board with Hitchswtich to save yourself the headache.
Notify your employer:
Notify your employer of the latest event in your life should just be a quick note to HR or a change you can make on your own in your internal company portal. Your employer needs to be aware of this change because your tax information and documents, and potentially your health insurance, will likely require certain changes due to your newlywed status.
Gather leftover favors, decorations, and any other sentimental items from the wedding:
After the wedding, I guarantee you will have all a bag or box of leftover sentimental items, decorations, and leftover favors left for you to sift through. Your planner or coordinator may drop this off in your hotel room once the reception is over, you will bring this home with you, and most likely quickly forget about it. If you don’t have a coordinator or planner, make sure someone is in charge of grabbing a few of each item you want for memory and anything leftover favors and getting them over to you by the end of the party.
The things you will likely want to keep include a few cocktail napkins, props used in the ceremony, menus, signage, favors, bride and groom escort cards, guest book, or anything that is displayed on an entrance table like photos, etc.
Before losing track of these items once you get home, store them away in a safe place.
If you have a registry, purchase remaining items that you were not gifted:
If there is something on your registry that you really wanted but did not receive, now is the time to go get it for yourself. Many registries will offer a discount for registry completion, so take the opportunity to go on a little post-wedding shopping spree.
Get working on your to-do list after saying I do, and you won’t have any time for those post-wedding blues!
xHappy planning bride babes!x
