Lets cut to the chase – at no other time on your wedding day will emotions be so highly charged as when you walk down the aisle. So take the time to think about your arrival and aisle walk. More weddings go awry on the aisle walk than in any other element of a wedding.
Emotion. It’s a beautiful thing. But too much too fast it is a bride’s worst enemy.
Yes, any bride would be in the vast majority to hope that they and their loved ones would experience a great deal of emotion as they arrive at their ceremony, but I’m giving you the heads up right now: be super aware of the danger of emotional overwhelm as you arrive and walk the aisle, and do everything you can to prepare for the emotion for your walk.
No matter how much you prepare for it, it will likely be the most moving experience of your life.
The danger is this: if you are overwhelmed with emotion you risk compromising your whole experience of your day with symptoms like dizziness, uncontrollable crying, inability to speak, tripping, fainting, short and long term memory loss and the very common “jabbering”, where you blurt out things you regret at the altar.
Am I trying to scare you? No. Let me be clear. Emotion is very good. But when it comes on very fast and you have to be effective at the same time, you need to be prepared.
What I’m asking you to consider is not reducing the amount of emotion you feel. I’m actually asking the exact opposite. I’m asking you to prepare yourself so that your emotion builds steadily and you can actually handle and process far more emotion as you walk down the aisle, whilst reducing your risk of overwhelm at the same time.
I’m trying to get you to take some actions now so that you are fully prepared for the experience and can experience it from a position of gratitude and joy.
Preparing yourself for a peak of emotion is very easy if you know how. Your top 3 actions as a bride are:
1: Visualisation: In the days before your wedding take 15 minutes each day to close your eyes and imaging yourself walking down the aisle in great detail. The best time to do this is when you wake up in the morning. Close your eyes and imagine in second by second in graphic detail. This allows your brain to process some of the emotion in advance. It’s also a super nice feeling when you do it. If you feel a little teary as you do it that means you are doing it right!
2: Practice your vows with your groom. Doing this will make you more relaxed at the altar as you have been there together in the practices, and will also allow you and your groom to experience and process many of the emotions before the day.
3: Consider doing your reveal with your groom before your arrive at the ceremony. Seeing each other ready to go will allow loving words to bolster your confidence and also provide a special experience for you both before the rabble arrive!