Build Her Room Days Before, Not Hours
A home wedding turns your cat's territory into a venue: furniture moves, strangers rehearse, flowers arrive, and doors stand open for deliveries. The cats who cope are the ones whose alternative world was ready early. Choose the room farthest from the celebration, ideally with no shared wall with the music, and furnish it over several days with her bed, litter tray, water, food bowls, a scratching post, and a blanket carrying the household's familiar scent. Let her use it as an extra room before the event so it smells like hers, not like exile.
Settle her in there before the first guest or vendor arrives, with her morning meal, and close the door on a calm house. A cat installed early experiences one closed door; a cat carried through a crowd experiences the whole invasion and remembers it.
Protect the Room From the Event Itself
Make the door unambiguous. Lock it if you can, and if not, hang a clear sign and tell the wedding party, caterers, and anyone coordinating that the room is private and the cat is not part of the day, however charming a photo sounds. Well-meaning guests open doors; a named rule stops them. Brief one trusted person, not the couple mid-ceremony, as her checker: they visit quietly a few times, top up water, confirm she has eaten, and report anything wrong.
Think about what the event sends into the house. Amplified music and bass travel through floors, so her room's distance matters more than its door. Floral arrangements, candles, and potpourri should stay out of her room entirely, since many common arrangement flowers are unsafe for cats to chew and a stressed cat investigates with her mouth. Keep windows in her room latched against the day's general openness.
Guard the Doors of the Whole House
Events defeat normal door discipline. Guests drift outside with drinks, caterers prop doors for trays, children explore. Decide your outer-door rule in advance and announce it: doors opened one at a time, never propped, and her room's door closed before any exterior door stands open. If the house layout allows, a hallway door between her room and the party creates a second barrier, so a single lapse does not become an escape.
Keep her collar on for the day even if she usually goes without indoors. In the unlikely event of a dash through a garden door during speeches, identification is what brings a frightened cat home from a neighbour's hedge.
Plan the Day After as Part of the Setup
When the last guest leaves, the house still smells wrong to her: perfume, food, moved furniture, strangers' coats. Open her door and let her inspect at her pace, tonight or tomorrow morning. Restore her usual furniture positions and feeding places promptly, wash the party out of her blankets only after she has had a night to re-mark them, and expect a day or two of caution from even a confident cat.
If she did not eat during the event, offer a favourite meal in her normal place once the house is quiet; an appetite that does not return by the following day, or hiding that deepens rather than lifts, is worth a call to your vet. For the day itself, handing her checker a KinsLe Care Pass gives them her feeding times, tray location, and vet details in one clear view, so her care runs smoothly while you are otherwise occupied being married.