• *I vow to make my wedding personal. It's your wedding! Make it reflect your personality and who you and your fiancé are as people. Trends are wonderful and can provide inspiration but you don't want to look back on your wedding in ten years and laugh about some of the decisions you made.
• *Do burlap and mason jars only if you want them. Burlap and mason jars have become a default decorative theme for wedding receptions in the past few years in our area, Eastern North Carolina. If that's you, go full steam ahead. It's a fantastic look. If that isn't you, don't do it! See: Tip 1, make your wedding personal.
• *Don't cave to expectations. Your mom wants you to do only posed photos, your sister wants you to have 15 bridesmaids and your maid of honor wants you to wear a pink dress. Don't be afraid to say no! After all, it's your wedding!
• *Stand up to your mother-in-law. Demand respect! In a nice, polite way of course. If she doesn't understand this whole wedding thing and just wants you to get married at the courthouse, respectfully disagree... and then uninvite her to the wedding. (Just kidding on that last part.)
• *Compromise. OK, so sometimes you can't make the noble stand while keeping peace in the family. It's one thing to tell you not to cave and to stand up to your mother-in-law but it's another thing to do it. If your mother is really adamant about a couple items, try to find a way to fit one of them in a way that doesn't ruin your grand vision.
• *Put down Pinterest one month before wedding day. Seriously, drop the phone and slowly back away from it. (I think they probably have a medication for Bridal Pinterest Withdrawal Syndrome at this point.) We say this in jest but we do mean it. You'll drive yourself, and your wedding planner, crazy if you keep hatching ideas right up until wedding day. You can't possibly do everything you see on Pinterest. Be realistic. Speaking of that...
• *Be realistic. In addition to the Pinterest stuff mentioned above, budgets need to be maintained. You can't hire the best pros in North Carolina and feed 300 guests on a budget of3,000. (Ramen noodles for everybody!) Eventually everybody has to put aside something from their dream wedding because they can't afford it or because they don't have time to accomplish it. You might also need to make changes. Raise your budget. Lower the guest count. Eliminate the Cinderella ice glass slippers with sorbet.
• *Hire pros and do it right. We hear horror stories from brides who had their cousin photograph their wedding or their uncle as the iPod DJ. We also see a lot of these horror shows first hand. They're not pretty. The reason that the best wedding professionals charge a lot of money is because they're really good at what they do. They'll make your life easier and your wedding better.

Happy New Year to brides around the world! Now that it's 2015, it's time to make your New Year's wedding resolutions. This is something that needs to be taken seriously... or, at least, as seriously as you can get in an article on a bridal website.

Please raise your right hand (you'll just have to scroll down with your left hand) and repeat these eight resolutions:

You may now lower your right hand. Now that you've resolved to follow these eight wedding-related items, get to work! Go plan that wedding! (Or, better yet, hire a wedding planner to do it for you.)