Any advice from past brides?

Don't rush! Make sure when you make a decision, it's because you want it (or it is required to properly host your guests) and not because you felt pressured or rushed.

Have the wedding you can afford!

ETA: I'm not a past bride, but as a guest to many awful weddings, I feel this is especially important. Whatever your budget may be, you want to host your guests properly so if you're on a tighter budget, lower your guest list, cut back on things that aren't as important to you. You want to thank your guests for coming, so host in the best possible way.

Make sure you get all the professional pictures taken with everyone you want! (I realized my mom and I didn't have any with just us)

EAT the day of your wedding.

Steal FH away for a second and watch your wedding from a distance and take in the love in that room.

Do a first look.

Aaaand don't be like me and forget your bouquet coming back up the aisle and leave your poor MOH with 2. Ooops! Guess I was super excited to be a wife I forgot.

@KDoubleU I love your second suggestion. I feel like that day is going to go by so fast and I want to be able to remember that special part!

One of the best things that DH and I did was at our photographer's insistence, he asked that we step away for some late evening shots of just us while everyone was eating dinner. Our photog really just let us get away from the crowd and talk about the wedding and how we were and just be together while taking a few pictures. It was the best part of the night and seriously, my favorite photos came from that time.

Don't do any DIY unless you really enjoy it and are good at it. What you think might be less expensive, may not be. What you think will take an hour often takes a couple of days.

Get everything you can done a week before so you can enjoy the week when visitors are in town.

Bring a handkerchief down the aisle.

Have makeup ready for touch ups after the ceremony.

Make sure all bridesmaids dresses are steamed/ironed before the morning of (sorry mom) lol

Make sure people who are giving toasts know it's a toast....not a speech

It goes by sooo fast. Soak it in.

"Bring a handkerchief down the aisle." I love this one!! Yes!

If you are staying at a hotel your wedding night, put your bag there ahead of time! My MOH warned me about this one, at her wedding she didn't have clothes to change into after the wedding, so she wore her husband's clothes to come downstairs and hang out with everyone after the reception and for breakfast the next morning!

Keep things in perspective.

No one is going to notice if your linens don't match exactly, if someone is wearing the wrong color shoes, if your table numbers are the wrong color, etc. Have good food, alcohol and DJ.

Read reviews, meet your vendors and then trust in your vendor team.

You are marrying the person of your dreams in front of those who are most important to you. Enjoy the day.

Following

If you just got engaged, I highly recommend taking at least a month and enjoying being engaged before you start planning!

I'm now a week away from my wedding and feel like the venue was dishonest at first to get us to sign the contract. Don't get me wrong I like it but it seems like they implied things were included that were really an extra cost. Take your time and don't jump on a vendor or venue too soon, I feel like that was possibly my mistake.

Budget for a DOC! No matter how organized you are or how great your timeline is; people are still looking to the bride for answers to various questions...and you won't have time to deal with it :o

Only plan on spending 85% of your budget. Things are forgotten or unexpected things happen, etc.

I just got married this past Saturday. The day went so quick. There were people i didn't get a chance to talk to and there were pictures I wanted and forgot about in the moment. Make a list of pics you want now and give it to the photographer the day of. I wish I had done that.

Lots of great advice and I won't repeat any of what's been said, but I do strongly encourage you to scenario plan and really think through logistics, especially when thinking about guests' comfort and their experience. The worst weddings I have been to are the ones where, as a guest, the couples' lack of planning and thoughtfulness made things uncomfortable and annoying for guests. If you're having an outdoor wedding, think about temperature, lighting, parking, transportation etc. Think through how to handle food allergies and dietary restrictions for guests. What is the bathroom situation? Can grandpa or ladies in heels navigate your ceremony site if you have your heart set on getting married in the middle of the woods? Thinking through these types of situations and planning on how best to handle them instead of a "people can figure things out" or a "winging it" attitude goes a long way toward making your guests comfortable and happy and takes stress off of you the day of in case situations crop up.

This will be my second wedding so I've done it once before. My first wedding I wasn't into it at all, he planned everything except I did the cake, favors, and my dress. So looking back here are my tips: 1) make sure you have everything you need the night before (I'm super super organized about things yet I had so much to think about the night before a lot of things slipped my mind and I forgot the marriage license at the house and someone had to run for it. Thankfully it was only a few blocks away.) 2) If you wear hair ties on your wrists designate someone or a few people to make sure you take it off, my pictures looked god awful with that black thing on my wrist, its the only thing I noticed. 3) make sure you plan everything out ahead of time and have a schedule, I didn't the first time around and ending up being awake until 1am making favors in a panic. 4) make sure you have a DOC or assign someone (i'll be using FMIL) to take care of the little things that pop up during the day. I didn't have one last time or assign anyone and things got totally looked over. Those favors I was up until 1am making the night before? Someone sat them completely at the back of the room in a corner and no one knew until almost everyone had left and then when I said about it someone said "oh, you wanted those out?" My ex MIL was in charge of playing the wedding march and purposely started playing it before my photographer was there so I didn't even get the one picture I wanted (first look of him seeing me in my dress), please just do yourself the favor of everyone coming to you with a bunch of stuff thats going to stress you out and assign someone you trust with the details or hire someone, you'll thank yourself in the end.

The best piece of advice I can give is to buy wedding insurance! Not only for liability but also for cancellation and/or postponement. I was supposed to be married 09/30, and without wedding insurance, I would have lost thousands of dollars. You never know what could happen, and it will be the best $300 (along with a DOC) that you ever spent!