Your big day has come and gone, so now what? You probably spent a significant amount of time prepping and planning, focusing most of your time and energy on making your wedding day special and unique. Don’t worry, the fun isn’t over post-wedding! There are a few checklist items for you to take care of – mostly fun, although some not-so-fun. Either way, we’re here to help you out! We have created this brief post-wedding checklist to guide you along the way and remind you of the little to-do’s you may have forgotten.
Take The Cake
Don’t leave without your leftover wedding cake, be sure to take it home with you! For many years, couples have traditionally saved the top tier of their wedding cake in the freezer for a year. Then on their first wedding anniversary couples take the cake out of the freezer and eat it. Sometimes the cake still tastes good a year later… but sometimes it doesn’t taste so good. It’s hit or miss. Either way, saving your wedding cake for your one year wedding anniversary is a great way to reminisce and celebrate all the happy memories from your wedding day and your marriage.
If you’re hoping for a good tasting cake on your one year wedding anniversary, you will want to ensure you properly preserve it. Wilton has this brief guide with step-by-step instructions for preserving your wedding cake.
Return Rented Equipment
Paying late fees on your wedding rental equipment may not be the best way to start off your marriage. It depends on your specific contract and the item you rented, but many rental companies give a grace period of a few days to return the item.
A few items you may have rented for your wedding that you don’t want to forget:
- Attire
- Tables and chairs
- Linens
- Florals
- Lighting
- Signage
- Glassware
- Dance floor
If you’re off to your honeymoon soon after your wedding (or just want to relax), assign someone (or a few people) you trust to gather and return various items you rented.
Upload All Your Wedding Photos to Your WaldoWed Album
You will want all your wedding photos stored in a safe location for you to easily access and cherish forever. Brides who use WaldoWed by Waldo Photos are given a unique QR Code for their wedding guests to scan. Once their wedding guests scan the QR Code, they will be prompted to submit a selfie and can then upload all their wedding photos to the album. Waldo uses its facial recognition technology to organize the photos and directly sends photos to guests if they appear in the photo. Uploading your wedding photos in the album is a great way for everyone to reminisce about your wedding day.
P.S. wedding guests do NOT need the Waldo Photos App to upload their photos, it’s totally optional!
Have Your Wedding Attire Cleaned
Chances are that no matter how careful you were to not get your wedding attire dirty… it’s most likely (definitely) dirty. Luckily you have several options for cleaning your attire. If you want to save money and clean your wedding dress yourself, wikiHow has easy step-by-step instructions you can follow. Or if cleaning isn’t really your thing and you don’t want to go through the headache, search for a local dry cleaner near you and they can make your attire good as new. Trust us… whether you clean the attire yourself, or hire someone else to, you’ll be so glad your wedding attire is clean for you to preserve long-term and cherish.
Send Thank You’s!
Writing wedding thank you cards by hand is still the popular choice. It shows you took time to write a personalized thank you note and you appreciate the time, money, and energy your wedding guests spent to help celebrate your big day. You could make the cards yourself, check out a local store, search Etsy, or let Waldo handle it. (FYI: You get 50 free thank you cards with WaldoWed Platinum.)
Regardless of where you choose to get your thank you cards from, be sure to customize each thank you card with a personalized and handwritten message to your friends and family. They will love it!
Officially Change Your Last Name (If You Want To!)
Many new brides are choosing to not take their husband’s last name. If you fit this category and are keeping your last name, you’ll want to skip this step. It’s totally up to you! But – if you want to officially change your last name, now is the time to get started with *shudder* paperwork.
If hunting down all the necessary paperwork and personally doing the research to change your last name isn’t your thing, NewlyNamed makes it simple and easy with their NewlyNamed Kit. You can browse their website to select the kit that best fits your needs, fill out a short online form, your personalized name kit is created for you, then your kit is then delivered by mail with all the necessary paperwork for you to complete. Save yourself countless hours and check out their kits to easily change your name.
Take Down Your Wedding Website
If your wedding website isn’t free, choosing to take it down after your wedding would be a good way to save a few dollars each month. Some newlyweds love their wedding website so much they choose to keep it active for a year after their wedding, sometimes even longer. The decision is yours, but if finances are tight after your wedding celebration, this could be an easy way to cut unnecessary costs.
💡Pro Tip
If your wedding guests are still purchasing items from your registry after the wedding, you may want to consider leaving your wedding website active for a little longer.
Make New Plans
Making new plans often sounds like the most fun checklist item, but once reality hits and life gets busy, sometimes it can be challenging to find time for new plans. But – even though time can feel limited, making new plans is something you won’t regret. This can look like having a dinner date night, watching a new movie at home, or visiting the local farmers market. It doesn’t have to be complicated! Even better, making new plans can help you beat the post-wedding blues. Your marriage is just getting started – don’t forget to have fun and make new plans once the excitement of your wedding has calmed down. If you’re looking for inspiration when it comes to new plans, we have created a guide with 52 bucket list activities for your first year of marriage
