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Our wedding day was nothing but magical. Looking back at pictures, especially as we approach our second anniversary has me all giddy inside. It truly was one of the most special days of our lives. As perfect as it was, there are still a few things that I wish I had known and I wish that I had pre-planned for. I'm sharing ten things I wish that I had pre-planned for on my wedding day, and maybe this post will spark a little inspiration for you as you're planning your magical day. One // Set out a detailed schedule I'm a very schedule oriented person. I schedule out every day to the max, and somehow, I failed to schedule out every little detail of my wedding. Everything in the ceremony was planned down to the minute, but the reception slipped my mind. During rehearsal the night before, I wish I had gone over how the reception should have gone. There were some details that I failed to mention to my entire family that caused a little confusion. I wanted an announcement made during our first dance to invite our parents out to the dance floor with us, because they have been married for our whole lives and set amazing examples of marriage, (my parents have been married for 40+!), so it was supposed to be a special moment. Well, because I didn't have an announcement made, it turned into me awkwardly waving my mom to come up, and then other people thought it was a good idea to come up, too...Oh well. At least our photographer got photos before that catastrophe. haha! Two // Printed out playlists/timing for DJ We didn't exactly have a DJ, we had family bring sound equipment and then friends and family were bouncing onto the mixer. I was being cheap frugal, and didn't want to hire a DJ, and looking back, I wish I has just coughed up the $1,200 or whatever it would have been to have a rockin' dance floor. It was a weird mix of running to the soundboard, I was making announcements I shouldn't have, and songs repeating since no one was really DJ'ing. Three // Relaxed More You can't really plan to be relaxed, but I wish I was. In all honesty, I didn't start to enjoy my wedding until I was three glasses of wine in, and could actually breathe and calm the freak down. Planning your own wedding is no joke. It's one of the most amazing, yet stressful things you will ever do. So tell yourself things are going to go wrong, but ya just have to enjoy the day anyway. After all, it is your day! Four // Hired a Day of Coordinator Ladies, just do it. Just hire the dang coordinator. It costs what another $500?! Suck it up and pay up. It's worth it. Literally every. single. one. of my disasters could have been avoided if I had just spent the money on a day of coordinator. It's literally their job to make sure everything goes smoothly on your wedding day--that way you can freaking relax and enjoy it like you're supposed to. Five // Had a special place to remember passed family members I wish that I had two frames sitting in our venue to remember my grandparents (Dad's parents) that passed away when I was really little. It's something I didn't really think of in the moment, but I feel like it would have been a really special thing to do. I had my grandmother's (Mom's Mom) pin attached to my bouquet, and I wish I could have honored my grandparents more. Both sets of my grandparents had/have long & happy marriages, and it's so rare to have grandparents who have been married for more than 65+ years. Six // Stuck with my gut You know when you have a gut feeling about something, and you don't stick with it, and you over analyze it until the end of time?! Yeah, that's how I am with a few details of the wedding. I ended up DIYing all of my flowers--bouquets, centerpieces, and my floral arch. The biggest thing I wish I had stuck with my gut on is how I wanted the arch styled. I had all greenery on it at first, and I wanted to add in roses dispersed throughout it to add some color. As I started adding in the flowers, the more I didn't like it. I wish I had taken them all off and left it with greenery, but everyone said it was perfect the way it was, so I believed them. Granted, it was gorgeous, but it's not what was in my head. My husband thinks I'm crazy (for many reasons haha!) but when I was telling him I was putting this in my post, he was like babe--it was perfect. In the end, it was still a perfect arch, but it wasn't my vision. So I say all of this to say, trust your gut, and stick with it. Pin Me For Later! Seven // Got more getting ready photos My husband and groomsmen were able to get tons of photos, because they got ready at our venue, and our photographers were already there taking photos for hours. I so wish that I had the photographer send over his second shooter to our old apartment where I was getting ready, because I have literally no getting ready photos. It's totally not my photographer's fault at all, because I told them that we could just fake shoot some getting ready photos at the venue, but you know me...I was all stressed out, and couldn't focus on anything once I got there except for everything I needed to fix. It's okay though--I have the memories in my head. To add to this a little further, I wish that I took photos on my phone to document the morning! I have no fun selfies with my girls, husband, family--nothing. I'm always taking photos, but I didn't take any on my own wedding day. I guess Chris and I are going to have to re-live it again and take some selfies. haha--jk...kinda. I'd love any excuse to put my wedding dress on again. Eight // DIY Flower test-run If you're having a DIY wedding like I did, make sure you test-run everything. I so wish that I had ordered flowers to do a tester bouquet instead of an on-the-fly bouquet making moment that I had two days before the wedding. I still love my bouquet, but I think that I would have loved it, even more, had I done a test-run and gotten all the kinks out when designing it. Nine // Had an engagement shoot with our photographer It's pretty normal for you to have an engagement shoot with your same wedding photographer, however, since we got married seven weeks after we got engaged, we didn't really have time for that. Our engagement shoot was a spur of the moment shoot with a friend, and he took lovely pictures, however, my whole point to taking an engagement shoot with your wedding photographer is to get comfortable with them! After all, they are photographing your wedding day for heaven's sake. I think this would have also calmed me down a little and assured me that the photos were going to come out right--hi, I'm Kristen, and I'm slightly controlling...sorry, not sorry. But for real, it could help you calm your nerves, and your photographer can learn your best and preferred angles before your wedding day! Ten // Made a rainy day plan They say it's good luck if it rains on your wedding day...I guess we have tons of luck, because it rained and dropped to frigid temperatures at the end of April. It was gorgeous weather leading up to our wedding, and of course, on the morning of our wedding, the clouds came in, and it started to get windy and rainy. I so wish that we had made a rainy day plan--heck, I didn't even have an umbrella to walk under as I walked from where I was getting ready at to the aisle! I literally held onto my Dad and covered my head as he helped me walk across the driveway--all while trying not to trip, lose my breath, and start balling, because wedding day emotions are real, friends. haha! My in-laws thought ahead and brought a coffee maker and hot chocolate for peeps since it was freezing and wasn't supposed to be...so at least our friends and family had some yummies to warm up with. No matter what, if you think it's going to be gorgeous weather or not, make a rainy day plan. Have an umbrella, discuss with your photographer how your photos might change if it rains, and just go with the flow. The rain threw us for a loop, but our wedding was still as perfect as ever. Always remember, no matter what happens on your wedding day (cause believe me--crazy things will happen), it's still your wedding day, and it will be one of the greatest moments/days of your life! What is something you wish you had pre-planned for on your wedding day?!
Everyone wants to have their dream wedding. From the perfect dress to the vows, getting married is an experience with a lifetime of buildup. It can also be extremely expensive, which has some couples wondering how to plan a wedding for under $5000 to fit their budget. Most importantly, your wedding represents crossing the threshold into a lifelong partnership with the person you love. The amount you spend on your big day does not matter. It's totally possible to spend less than $5000 on your wedding and still have a beautiful day! Not everyone can or wants to break the
For all of my friends out there who have gotten married already, I'm sure you are with me when I say I wish there was a list of things to expect that I'm not expecting. Well, here it is. For those of you who are reading this that are getting married soon or have yet to get to that part of life, trust me, you're going to thank me later. ONE // Not all insurances cover pre-marital counseling Christopher and I found this one out the hard way when an $800 bill came our way. For some reason, the counseling service we used said that my insurance covered premarital counseling, but it turned out that they only cover marriage counseling, not "pre" marital. OH the specifics. PTL that Christopher's insurance covered it and we only owed a small amount to cover the copay, but it was pretty scary to get that bill in the mail just a week after our wedding. So, moral of that, double, no, triple check with your insurance company before heading to any counseling and make sure you won't be charged an arm and a leg. TWO // At rehearsal, run through ALL of the ceremony & reception I wish we would have done this in full detail. For the ceremony we pretty much went through everything and I knew what was happening for the most part because I wrote the ceremony script except for the message that our Pastor had prepared and our vows we wrote for each other. The reception was another story. I left this in someone else's hands *cough Christopher cough* and it was a little less than organized. It's not his fault--we just didn't think that we would have had to go through everything for it and that it would have been common sense. Eat. Speeches. Dance. Party. Alas, it was not. There was a lot of waiting around until I told people what to do. I really took on the wedding planner title--even during my own wedding. Related Reading: Ten Things To Do Immediately After Your Wedding | Newlywed Checklist THREE // Type and print out all announcements and special songs for the reception GAH. This one makes me have a mini heart attack just thinking about it. SO many disasters could have been averted if we would have just remembered to print out the dang paper. It was on Christopher's laptop at the DJ table, but no one thought to acknowledge it. I was super OCD and made different playlists for different times of the night, cocktail hour, dinner, special dances, dancing, etc. I had it all down. But, that wasn't followed. It was kind of music craziness at one point until I went up and changed the songs. Oh well. Not the worst thing that could have happened. As for announcements, no one was designated to announce tables for food or when speeches would begin, or anything--our DJ was my brother-in-law and we never went over these things with him--totally our bad. Learn from our mistakes! My last vent--and hopefully it will save a special moment for you as well--during our first dance, we wanted our parents to come on the dance floor during the second chorus with us a symbol of the love they have for not only us as their children (and we for them), but for the love they have for each other. Chris and I are both lucky enough to have parents that have been married for a very long time 27 for his and 42 years for mine, so we wanted them to be with us in our special moment. Since we had no one announcing that, peeps thought it was an invitation to come out on the dance floor with us. Oh well, it gave us a few laughs. FOUR // Practice your first dance This kind of piggy backs on my last point. Practice it. Have an announcement made if you will be doing something non-traditional like we did. But, most of all, practice with your groom. Chris and I basically rocked back and forth (neither of us can dance at all!). Praise GOD that the video footage came out perfectly! But with all that said, take a dance class. Watch a YouTube tutorial, something! FIVE // Have people designated to refill drinks & food As you know by now, Chris and I had a very simple diy wedding. We didn't have caterers that stayed on site to take care of the food and drinks if it got low. My biggest piece of advice is designate people you trust to help refill the drink buckets and the food when it gets low. Related // Our Wedding Videographer & Photographer SIX // Set aside tips for deliveries We knew that it is proper etiquette to tip delivery drivers as we had tipped the guys that delivered the tables and chairs, however, it completely slipped our minds to leave money with someone for the food delivery drivers. We had our local Qdoba cater our wedding (jealous aren't ya?! ;) It was amazing haha!) so it was easy to go back and get the tip in the right hands, but it would help a lot if you set this aside beforehand! SEVEN // Do your RSVP's Online RSVP cards are the biggest waste of money. Sheesh. I cannot stress that enough. I so wish that we would have just done them online. We ended up calling and texting the majority of our guest list to see if they were coming anyways, because the RSVP cards kept getting lost. (You can read about that adventure in this post.) Anyways, save yourself the hassle, the stamp money, and the printing fees and just set it up online. WeddingWire is an amazing site not only for planning, but for RSVP's as well! The next wedding I'm involved in, I'm definitely suggesting this! EIGHT // Get a day of Coordinator I'm one of those types of people that are far too controlling to let plan my wedding (obviously). One thing that would have helped immensely would have been a day of coordinator. Their fees aren't that expensive and they will save a lot of headache. I think if I would have had someone to pass the planning and details baton to, I would have relaxed a little earlier into my wedding and some of the finer details wouldn't have slipped through the cracks. So, if you're in need of a day of coordinator, I got you ;) NINE // Get all of your family pictures taken before couple pictures Ah. Yes. The pictures. The part of the wedding that I barely remember, because I was going crazy about everything else. The one thing that I wish would have gotten taken were pics with my Mom & Dad with just me. I'm a Mommy & a Daddy's girl. I love my parents so much, but time just flies by so fast and things get forgotten, and this was one of them. When my parents come up to visit in the next couple of weeks, my Mom & Dad are going to bring their dress and suit and I'm going to put on my wedding dress again and we are going to have our own little photoshoot. Plus, this just gives me an excuse to wear my dress again! TEN // Review everything in detail with your groom Men are men, no matter what. No matter how into planning the wedding he is with you, there will always be a set-back. He's a dude and he hasn't been dreaming of this day since he was five like you have. And hey, that's okay. It's not his fault. It just becomes your duty to train him on all of the research and planning you have done for the past twenty years. Even though Chris was heavily involved in the planning, I took on planning our wedding basically as my full-time job. I was only working a few days a week, so I had plenty of time to devote to our special day. My best piece of advice is just go over every detail and write him a list if there are any items that you need him to do or complete. All in all, our wedding day was a dream not only to us, but for our guests that attended. We had sixty guests attend our wedding, super small, and intimate, so no one had a clue that anything was wrong. They just went right along with it! I think the fact that they knew we planned everything in under seven weeks gave us some automatic grace. Just take my mistakes and lessons learned as your starting ground while planning your own wedding. You'll be glad you bookmarked this for later. ;) Any wives out there going YASS! I wish I had done that!? Haha! We've all been there. It's all good. It's like it's a part of the wedding planning process. What would be wedding planning advice that you have for others reading this post? Leave it in the comments! In case you missed my previous wedding posts, I'll link them for you below! Why I'm Choosing To Have A Small Wedding Wedding // Part One: Flowers & Centerpieces Wedding // Part Two: Our Naked Wedding Cake Wedding // Part Three: Wedding Recap (This one has our wedding pics & video!) Stay Classy. xx, Kristen
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