How do I keep from being so nervous walking down the aisle. I don't think a drink is a good idea. When I get nervous, I laugh. OMG I am gonna be laughing all the way down the aisle and I don't want to be! They are all gonna be staring at me and eeeeeeekkkk.... Help! How did you keep from being nervous during the walk? Any suggestions. You can throw a few jokes in here (I know it is hard to resist LOL) but I really do need some advice. Thanks.

Eat a bit of cracker.. saltine, before you start your day. That light food will help with nervous nausea and prevent you from getting sick.

While you are getting ready, listen to some music that is calming for you. Just focus on the goal (alter) and don't even focus on the people.

I don’t think you can help being nervous, it’s a big day! But definitely eat a little something to settle your stomach, and remember to breathe.
Yes, everyone will be looking at you, but they will be happy for you and admiring you, and there’s nothing wrong with smiling or laughing. It’s a happy day! :-) But you might want to let your photographer know about that beforehand. If you would rather have less-laughing pictures, forewarn the photographer so that they can be aware of when is best to snap the shot.

It's pretty endearing to be visibly nervous. I would have a little something to drink just to ease the nerves a bit - get your bridesmaids to have a little bubbly on hand while you're getting ready and have a half a glass or only a little bit more. Be sure to eat too.

Look for your family and friends and smile at them as you walk down - don't just do a deer in the headlights march. I think the stutter step is stupid... that's a good way to get nervous trying to do something silly like that. I like when the bride just walks slowly and smiles - even stopping to hug relatives is pretty cute. Just don't stop and hug any men in the crowd

Make sure you are hydrated - don't wake up have coffee and then get in a rush and not drink anything that will hydrate you. If you are nervous and it's at all hot you might end up feeling sick or fainting. Gatorade, lemon water, anything with electrolytes and don't forget to drink water or juice throughout the day.

Tell your future hubby to drink some water too... nothing worse than getting into the reception and feeling like crap.

Now don't laugh. I'm serious. The first thing to realize is that the thing you dread is simple and easy, walking sedately a fairly short distance, while keeping your composure. But your dread of it can ruin it. And the dread itself is in your mind. (It is not an external enemy.)

So why don't you defeat the dread, and at the same time do something really meaningful?

Why don't you memorize a really beautiful passage, maybe a poem, about marriage. Then as you recall the lines, think of them being read by a woman's voice -- a beautiful voice, that speaks clearly and regularly, without accent. Then as the words come, think of their meaning.

This is how you will pass the dreadful minutes before the ceremony. And if you pick the right words, it will be a special tribute to the man you are going to marry.

Here's an example, by John Donne. The English is a little quaint, Donne was a contemporary of Shakespeare:

quote:

And now good morrow to our waking souls
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all other love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,
Let maps to other, worlds-on-worlds have shown,
Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Lo so alike that none do slacken none can die.

Or here's another of Donne's in which he says he had an ideal of who his love would be, and it was realized when he met her.

quote:

Twice or thrice had I lov'd thee,
Before I knew thy face or name;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame
Angels affect us oft, and worshipp'd be;
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is
Love must not be, but take a body too;
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid Love ask, and now
That it assume thy body, I allow,
And fix itself in thy lip, eye, and brow.

Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration,
I saw I had love's pinnace overfraught;
Ev'ry thy hair for love to work upon
Is much too much, some fitter must be sought;
For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme, and scatt'ring bright, can love inhere;
Then, as an angel, face, and wings
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure, doth wear,
So thy love may be my love's sphere;
Just such disparity
As is 'twixt air and angels' purity,
'Twixt women's love, and men's, will ever be.

These are complex poems, with lots of images and fancies. This is deliberate on my part. I want to suggest something that will engage your thoughts as you hear the words you have memorized.

And here's a lovely, simple one to think of just before you reach the front of the chapel:

From This Day Forward
by Marianne Williamson

quote:

From this day forward,
You shall not walk alone.
My heart will be your shelter,
And my arms will be your home.

When I got married and had to walk down the aisle, I just focused on the face of my intended, smiled, and walked. I agree the stutter-walk is dumb...just small regular steps work fine and you are much more fluid.

OMG only SIX days left!