Just like anything in life, nothing always goes completely as planned.  When you’re planning for your big day, no matter how many checklists you have in your binder, there will always be unexpected things to expect the day of the wedding.  A recent AskReddit thread posed this question and we compiled some of the best answers below:

You will be probably be too pestered by others to actually sit and eat your meal.  My wife had boning (support structure) in her dress and it was uncomfortable for her to sit in and eat. We sat down to try and eat and her aunt and grandmother came over and were pestering her to see if everything was going fine. My wife was already irritated from trying to sit in the dress and now her family wouldn’t leave her alone for a minute. So I said, “Let’s go to the other room and eat.” and we grabbed our plates and went to the dressing room. I unzipped her dress so she could slouch and eat and we lounged around for about 20 minutes watching college football.  That 20 minute break was just enough for us to take a breath and relax before going back to the party. My wife wasn’t irritable anymore and she and I both had a great evening after that.

Something WILL go wrong. It is unavoidable. The car that was supposed to drive us away from the venue after the reception didn’t show up.  You gotta just roll with it and realize that the only thing that matters at the end of the day is that you are married to your best friend and love of your life.

Guests not adhering to the RSVP. Like bringing extra people instead of the agreed upon number. Which in turn brings about shortage of seats and of food.  Some weddings i’ve attended had the couple request the guests to not bring kids.

The real wedding reception starts when all of those relatives you didn’t really want to invite anyway go home and you’re left with just your friends. You just raided the leftovers, and the DJ still has an hour that you paid for. He’s blasting a song that would have given Grandma a heart attack, and someone is drinking straight from a champagne bottle because they couldn’t find a glass. You lost your tie long ago, and your wife just changed out of her dress. Finally, after all the ceremony and tradition, it is your night. No one is going to give you unsolicited marriage advice, and you already forgot that offhand comment someone made about the food. It’ll hit you then, through the exhaustion and merriment. You’re married now, and for tonight at least all is right with the world.

You will not remember any logistical details after the fact.  Did you tip the caterers? No idea.  Did you give the marriage license to the officiant? Uhhhh.  Basically, have other people in charge of ensuring each of those things gets covered because even if you make it happen, you won’t remember and will scramble around for days after trying to get everything straight.  I have deadly allergies. The only time I’m more than 3′ from my epipen is when I’m in my apartment. No idea where it was that day. I vaguely know I’d planned to have it on hand on the day of, but I didn’t have any idea where it was.

If you’re the groom, make a point of telling your bride how beautiful she looks. You’d think it’d be something that will come naturally, but that day is so full of stress and events and tons of people, you need to make a point of doing it so it doesn’t slip your mind.

At the reception, MOMENTS after getting married (whether you have kids together already or not) someone WILL ask when you’re having children, or if you had a short engagement they’ll ask if the bride was pregnant.  My sister dated her high school sweetheart for 8 years before they got engaged but once they were engaged they did a 2 week engagement and got married at a courthouse on 11-12-13. EVERYONE freaked out and asked if she was pregnant. No, she just wanted that date.  I got married after a 2 year engagement and was asked “why don’t you have kids yet” uh.. we JUST got married, like 30 min ago… wtf.

White dress + anywhere = stains. Bridesmaids, bring chalk. White chalk. Cover any smudge of makeup from Granny’s hug or that little bug that got squished with a little bit of chalk. I’ve used this so many times I bring chalk to weddings even when I’m not in them.  Also, fully expect at least one person you didn’t invite/ RSVPed no and showed up anyway/ said no date, brings date to come to the wedding. Most catering options will let you round the number up to the nearest five without too much cost. It’s worth it.

Someone who said they would not be at the reception will show up. Make sure you either have a place ready or have other contingency plans. Also, something weather related will probably go wrong, because the universe has a weird sense of humour.  In my case, our dog bit my thumb to the bone about 20 minutes before I had to leave the house. Blood everywhere. Loads of fun.

Remember to choose bridesmaids and groomsmen who can discreetly handle awkward situations for you. My friends got married recently and my girlfriend and I were both in the wedding. Just like any wedding, things went wrong the day of, but we were able to take care of all the problems without the bride and groom even noticing.

Bad weather, misbehaving children, illness in the wedding party, the building engineer forgetting to turn on the air conditioning, pictures taking longer than expected, wedding guests coming with children when there is no child care available. I’ve seen all of this at other weddings — my wife is a professional event planner and made sure none of that happened (or mattered) at ours. I recommend hiring a planner if you can afford it, they’ve seen it all and can anticipate problems.

You will forget something. Make sure it isn’t the $500 cash your husband put in his rent-a-tux coat pocket.  We got it back but our best man had to drive an hour back to our hotel to drop it off.

You will be super busy, take a moment and just you and your SO go stand in the corner of the reception hall and just look at everything. Take it all in because it will fly by and you will barely remember it.

The day is going to go fast. Really fast. Give serious consideration as to how much money you really want to spend on something that’s going to seem like it is done in three hours.  Very very glad me and the wife changed our plans to a budget wedding. The second we canned the free bar, a lot of our relatives were suddenly “busy” on the day of our wedding and couldn’t make it.  Instead, we asked permission for family members who donated for the wedding, to let us re-name it the Baby Fund. This allowed time off work with no worries about drop in pay due to maternity/paternity leave. Money much better spent in my opinion.

You will have drunk relatives at your wedding. It will be awkward, and it will most likely cause a scene.  If you don’t serve alcohol, you will probably still have a drunk relative at your wedding.

Someone might try to steal your thunder at the wedding, for example someone declaring their pregnancy or engagement, to make the day be a bit more about them than you. Then a lot of the focus on YOUR day will push over to other people. There’s not a lot you can do in this situation aside from try not to invite the jealous centre of attention types.

Your until now quiet and sociable child will decide that on this particular exact day that hanging out with Grandma is no longer something they really really enjoy but something that they really really hate and will scream bloody murder about at the loudest possible volume for several hours unless they have the undivided attention of their parents

The most unexpected thing for us was our families hitting it off. My husband’s conservative American family and my ultra-liberal British family getting blind drunk and laughing at outrageous jokes was delightfully unexpected!  Point being, you probably don’t need to worry about your family. They want to have a good time and celebrate with you!

Know that, 10 years from now, the unexpected things will be the ones you will most remember, that you’ll look back on fondly or laugh about. Leading up to the wedding all the focus goes into the small details. But years later? I don’t remember what our centerpieces looked like, or what font we chose for the program, or what song played when we came into the reception. But I do remember when one friend threw a cream pie in the other one’s face. Or when our DJ tried to play the whole Thriller album straight through. And countless other strange/funny things.   It’s going to be a wild day; don’t stress, just soak it all in and enjoy it.