Yes, brides are perfect. Grooms are more perfect. Ok, nobody is perfect and we all make mistakes. Brides are not an exception and I explore the most common ones I have seen over the years.

1. Figuring the Bride’s Inner Circle of Peeps will be as Excited as the Bride about the Wedding. Unfortunately, bride’s minds operate in a different way than the average person. They have a task to do and they want everyone to be on board with those conversations. Bride’s can be the “most perfect bridesmaid” for their friends wedding, but do know the behavior will not be reciprocated. Therefore, a bride needs to be selective when tossing around names of friends to be their attendants. They need to choose wisely. Large wedding parties are not always the best avenue to pursue. This tends to lend itself to “being married by committee” and most brides do not like that. In addition, this allows more opinions that most likely will not be accepted and the result is hurt feelings and uncomfortable conversations for the bride. Hence, this lays the groundwork for a bridezilla. No one wants that:) really, they don’t.
2. Assuming that the Groom wants to be Invested 150% in Every Conversation. Grooms are amazing! However, they are limited in their focus on the wedding. It is not that they don’t want to be involved, they just do not want to talk about the wedding 24/7. They want their future wife to be happy, but they also want to watch sports, play video games and go on the lake. It is just how they are wired. They bought the ring, made it through the proposal and BOOM- they have done 75% of the wedding work:) . Brides know the church. The wedding tasks they tend to be limited to: music/entertainment, menu tasting and cake tasting. They can be forced to like to talk about what they are wearing, but honestly, they would rather just be told what to wear. So, where does a bride go from here? They are encouraged to try these things: 1.set aside time to talk about the wedding 1 time per week 2. give the groom tasks and don’t micromanage them 3. continue to ‘date’ during the planning process by going out to dinner, walks, movies etc and don’t talk about the wedding.
3. Selecting Dark Nail Polish to Wear on the Wedding Day. Don’t. I appreciate that every bride has their signature color of nail polish. I am a fond lover of OPI and Esse myself. OPI has some amazing red shades : Unrepentantly Red, Big Apple Red and Got the Blues for Red. However, when it comes to the wedding, it is time to put the dark color away for photos sake. When a bride has dark nails against a wedding gown, in the photo it looks like drops of blood on the gown or as if someone took a sharpie and drew dots on the gown. I am pretty confident that OPI realized this and as a result, they created their bridal line. OH YES THEY DID! Perhaps a bride can select Mimosas for the Mrs., Second Honeymoon, Alter Ego, At First Site or my personal favorite, Bubble Bath. These soft colors blend well in photos that you will look at forever.
4. Telling Bridesmaids They Can Wear Their Gown Again. Yeah.. they won’t:) even if a bride allows them to select the style. It is not necessary to go through the extra nonsense of saying “Don’t worry, you can wear this again”. The bride is wasting valuable air saying it. It is not necessary for them to have false hope this frolic will be worn again. Select the gown that you would like to have in your photos for the remainder of eternity. If they hate it, they will tell you (another reason to select your wedding party wisely:). If they are your good friends, they will roll with it. If they can’t roll with it, you might need to consider where they fall on the friendship train.
5. Making the Wedding Consume Their Thoughts, Time and Workload. There is an amazing life for the bridal couple after the wedding. Although the bride has enjoyed each moment of the planning process, it is prepping the couple for the beginning of their new life together. The bride needs to take a breath and enjoy the planning process but also enjoy the people around her who are along for the ride. This is an incredible journey and it should not be experienced with any other emotions than joy, excitement and fun.