You’ve followed most experts’ planning tips for your wedding by staying organized, crafting and sticking to a realistic budget, vetting your vendors, and reading the fine print before signing contracts. You selected your wedding party with care, found a trustworthy officiant, and ensured that your attire fits both your body and your style standards. Yet like most nearlyweds, you aren’t planning to get sick on the big day. So what do you do when illness strikes? Heeding some wise advice can either help the show go on, craft a backup plan if it can’t, or prevent you from getting sick in the first place.
An Ounce of Prevention
Martha Stewart Weddings writer Jaime Buerger stresses the importance of taking care of yourself by getting enough sleep, exercising, eating healthy food, and staying hydrated as well as adhering to good hygiene practices. Inside Weddings suggests that you could regularly take vitamin C and try zinc tablets if you feel the common cold developing, but make sure you consult your physician for specific recommendations. To make sure you’re ready for showtime, follow some other important tips the day before:
- Drink plenty of water.
- Limit your alcohol consumption, especially during the evening.
- Avoid trying unfamiliar foods and go easy on anything that’s fatty or spicy.
- Cut your caffeine intake after lunch.
- Stop mobile device usage about an hour before bedtime.
Honestly Evaluate Your Condition
Should you become ill in the days before your wedding, you must honestly assess your health and determine whether holding the ceremony is a good idea. You can likely soldier through the big day if you’re dealing with an illness or injury that isn’t debilitating or contagious. Yet if you must cancel due to a more serious condition, The Spruce’s Nina Callaway recommends getting in touch with your guests and hired professionals to let them know as soon as possible.
Keep in mind that vendors may allow you to reschedule and make alternate arrangements, but you’ll need to thoroughly check your contracts for each one’s specific policies. NerdWallet contributor Lacie Glover reveals that wedding insurance may cover losses if you’re forced to cancel, but be sure to elect cancellation or postponement coverage as part of your policy.
Handling Illness on Your Wedding Day
If you decide to carry on with your celebration, you can get by with a little help from your friends, a few schedule adjustments, and a greater focus on self-care. Medications may provide needed relief, but you must use them wisely. Observe any directions and precautions with over-the-counter remedies and try to steer clear of any drugs that cause drowsiness. Moreover, watch your consumption of products that contain aspirin, acetaminophen, and other painkilling compounds so that you don’t inadvertently overlap and overdose. Finally, follow your physician’s instructions when taking prescriptions and caring for injuries.
Adjusting the day’s schedule will also allow you more time to rest, and you can enact modifications such as shortening the length of the ceremony or removing nonessential elements from your reception. At the same time, remember to contact your venue, vendors, officiant, and entertainers right away to communicate and set up a new itinerary. Don’t hesitate to rely on your friends and family for extra backup, whether it’s fetching a chair for you or dealing with an ornery guest.
Embrace Healthy Strategies and Flexible Approaches
With all your diligent pre-nuptial preparations, you don’t expect health problems to impact your plans. Should this happen to you, swiftly communicate cancellations to the appropriate parties and pay attention to vendor contract clauses and wedding insurance policies that can aid with reimbursement and rescheduling. Meanwhile, adopting wise self-care strategies, accepting assistance from your inner circle, and adjusting the day’s schedule may help you make it down the aisle in case you do get sick.
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