I’m getting married this weekend — it feels so strange to type that out! — and now that all of the final arrangements have been confirmed, it’s been a nonstop party. I took a happy hour cruise with my relatives from Italy who flew in for my wedding and I was treated to massages, brunch and cupcakes with my favorite ladies for my "spa-chelorette" party. Up next: My rehearsal dinner and final fitting with my MOHs.

I could get used to this...in fact, I got so carried away with the revelry that I forgot to do a few things. I neglected to include my fiancé, Jason, and myself in the final headcount (our maître d' couldn’t stop laughing) and finalize our transportation itinerary. Oops. 

Since I’m suffering from a bad case of "wedding brain," I asked Valerie Gernhauser from Sapphire Events to share the most common tasks/items that brides either forget entirely or handle at the last minute before getting hitched. Follow her advice below, and try not to be too hard on yourself; after all, the most important thing is that you both successfully complete your vows. Everything else is just icing on top of the cake, as far as I'm concerned. 

Attention, all pop culture fans! Weddings/365 by Harvey Solomon is a fun, fascinating, and thoroughly-researched read you’re sure to love. 

The book provides a day-by-day selection of some of the most unforgettable celebrity weddings and is filled with little-known tidbits about their big days: what they wore, where they married, who was there and, in some cases, what went wrong! Here’s a quick quiz:

1. Whose tiara broke on the morning of her wedding? (Luckily, the court jeweler was able to repair it.) 

2. Speaking of tiaras, what pop star wore a tiara that had once been worn by Princess Grace? 

3. What country crooner became smitten with his future wife when he first saw her in the movies (hint: about weddings) and then invited her to appear in one of his videos?

4. What hip-hop star had 70,000 white dendrobium orchids flown in from Thailand for the wedding to his pop-star bride? 

5. What actress/fashion icon wore black on her wedding day (and later regretted it)? 

6. What supermodel met her rock star husband on a blind date that was arranged by a hairdresser? 

7. What couple confiscated their guests’ cell phones to ensure ultimate privacy during their sunset service in South Carolina? 

8. What multi-platinum R&B/hip-hop queen married quietly at home without even a band? (A guest played “Here Comes the Bride” on the piano.)      

Answers:

As my wedding inches closer and closer (it’s on Sunday, September 1st!), I can’t stop playing the "Next week at this time…" game with my fiancé, Jason. It’s quickly progressed from "…I’ll be picking up my dress” and "…you’ll be a nervous ball of energy waiting for me to walk down the aisle" to "…we’ll be celebrating and dancing surrounded by everyone we love most" and, finally, "…we’ll be in Hawaii watching the sun set at the infinity pool without a single care in the world."

We haven’t been on a vacation in years, so the mental image of frolicking on a tropical island for two weeks with no to-do list in sight trumps whatever little anxieties I have about our big day. But before we can swim with sea turtles or indulge in five-course meals, we desperately need to pack!

I’m making it as painless as possible by relying on multipurpose items that cover all the bases, from beaching it and taking cat naps to sightseeing and dining out (if I ever make it past the first two aforementioned activities, which I highly doubt). Here are some go-to fashion items I’ve tested and worn several times that are coming along for the ride. Plus, check out some of our best editors’ picks for beauty products and carry-on luggage, too.

Photo Credit: Reflections Creative Photography

May 1, 2013 was just a normal day at work — or so I thought, until I got a phone call from a family member who told me that my father, Walter Schupp, Jr., had suffered a massive stroke and was in critical condition. I was in shock: He's only 47 years old! I rushed out of work and met him at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, where he was being transferred. When I saw him, he couldn't speak, couldn't move anything on the right side of his body, and was highly cognitively-impaired. I was terrified, and it was difficult for me to even look at him. The doctors took me aside and told me that it didn't look good, especially since he'd had his stroke over six hours prior to being transferred. 

My family and I were left with a very important, life-changing decision. The doctors gave us two choices: Leave him on life support (in which case he would be a vegetable for the rest of his life), or have the doctors perform a highly risky procedure that wasn't recommended to be done past a certain amount of hours (and he far exceeded those hours). They told us that he may or may not make it out of the procedure alive, and that if he did make it out, they weren't sure if the procedure would even help.