Take a hike

Many brides and grooms get anxiety before their ceremony, and some use unconventional methods such as family heirlooms to calm themselves.

Spinrad said it could be strange to do something restorative on your wedding day. “It’s already a selfindulgent experience that is already supposed to be all about you, so you don’t necessarily think you need to take time for yourself,” she said. “But that means you have to do things to keep your perspective even more, because everything else seems like the biggest deal.”

Before leaving for her rehearsal diner at the Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton, N.Y., last September, Claudia Davidson, 28, packed a piece of her childhood blanket, which her late grandmother made.

“It’s sort of something I take with me when I feel like I need backup,” she said. She turned to it during her rehearsal dinner, but felt confident enough to forgo it on her wedding day.

Moir-Smith said: “I’ll call that a transitional object. Bringing along something that brings you comfort, why not? You are feeling vulnerable.”

Laurie Mehlman, 31, of Marietta, Ga., let her mother slip a red ribbon, an item that Jewish tradition says wards off evil, into her shoe before her wedding ceremony.

“I had just started getting nervous, and having that little connection calmed me down,” she said.

Her husband, Ross Mehlman, 30, had his own batch of nerves. He dealt with his another way: He and his groomsmen watched his college team play football on television.

“It quickly morphed from me sitting in a temple in a conference room waiting for my wedding to me and my best friends sitting around chilling out,” he said.