I think your awesome maid-of-honor would love to help with any details. Being a former bride myself, I may be able to help you with things. Also, living much closer to the location than you do, I have ample access to whatever you need. John can be available for any heavy lifting (even if it is the lifting of lights into the trees) that you and Chris may need from him.

I’m sure this isn’t the last of these “aaaaaaaAAAAAHHHH WEDDING!” posts.

One person told me that when she’s feeling overwhelmed by her feelings, she tries to imaging that the emotion is like a storm raging outside her windows. She’s inside the house, she’s fine, she’s just watching this storm.

I’ve tried this technique and it can really help me calm down and not self-sedate with food.

No one told me about it until the next day.

Trust THOSE kind of friends with your planning and you’ll be much more relaxed.

Krista’s advice is spot-on. Find someone to help you with all the little details (one of those bridesmaids, perhaps) and focus on things that are either REALLY important to you or fun for you to handle (for me I would love the shopping for gifts, but it sounds like that maybe something that should be delegated to the husband in your case). Or fork over the cash and hire a party planner to help get you to the finish line.

And then ENJOY YOUR PARTY! Ours was a lot of fun, but it was a later-in-the evening cocktail party with hors d’oeuvres and we spent so much time making sure we talked with everyone that neither one of us got a chance to eat or drink anything…and after all that stress over the menu! And no one is going to care where the lights are hung or if the chairs are perfectly placed (I’m a Virgo so I get your need for perfection and control) but they will remember if you are having a good time.

Now, do you have someone you trust implicitly? I’m asking this because it will be hard as hell to be the guest of honor AND be in charge of all the details on the day of. I highly recommend from experience that you create a party book with all the numbers of all your vendors, details about who’s showing up when, where stuff has to go, how much people get paid and when (with appropriate tip money already doled out in envelopes). Give this party book (after going through the whole thing with them) to your day-of coordinator and make them swear that they won’t tell you about anything that goes wrong until the day after the party.

If you try to run everything yourself on the day of, you will not enjoy your guests. There’s an incredible amount of freedom to preparing for every circumstance and then letting it go.

Plus, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. H20 combats stress and fatigue, flushes excess fat and makes your skin glow. Congratulations and good luck with your party!