[caption id="attachment_14037" align="alignleft" width="300"] Matthew Christopher gown, $2,510 to order at Avenía Bridal[/caption]

Putting together this magazine, in many ways, is a lot like planning a wedding. There are themes and color palettes to choose, vendors to hire, photo shoots to schedule, gowns to be fitted, and, high on the list of priorities, cakes to taste. But things don’t always go as planned.

While working on this issue, we encountered a few snafus along the way. Snafu no. 1: The day before our big fashion shoot, one of our sample gowns was MIA. After multiple calls and e-mails to the designer and shipping service, we finally tracked it down—but at that point it would have arrived too late. Snafu no. 2: The morning of our desserts photo shoot, one of our cake designers sent a frantic e-mail explaining she’d spent all night in the hospital tending to a relative and hadn’t had time to make our requested cake. Our hearts went out to her, and we scrambled for a Plan B.

But, in the end, everything turned out beautifully with both photo shoots. Our Great Gatsby–inspired fashion shoot with Elizabeth Messina (page 54) is stunning, regardless of the missing gown. We never had to put Plan B into action for our seasonal desserts feature (page 64)—to our surprise and delight, the cake designer showed up the afternoon of our photo shoot carrying a towering confection. She’d worked all morning to whip up the sweet for us to photograph. Talk about tiers of joy.

You’re bound to encounter a few bumps on the road to wedded bliss, but they don’t have to ruin your special day. Take a deep breath and get back on track. Be calm and  drink champagne  carry on. If there’s one piece of advice I could offer, it’s to stop and smell the roses—or the peonies, orchids, dahlias, lilies. You get the idea.

Don’t just take it from me: all of the couples in this issue’s Real Wedding features say, looking back, they wish they hadn’t sweated the small stuff or worried so much while planning their nuptials, and on the big day itself. Despite hiccups here and there, they should have just enjoyed the ride. I hope their words encourage you, and their gorgeous celebrations inspire your own lovely event.