Kathleen's PA State Capitol Pro BAM!

Pros/Advice:

1. HIRE QUALITY VENDORS - I cannot stress this enough. Do your research, read reviews, and meet with them prior to booking. I’m a firm believer that you get what you pay for, so keep that in mind when choosing your vendors and budget accordingly. All our vendors were incredible, we seriously could not have asked for better professionals. Most far exceeded our expectations.

- Our ceremony musicians were phenomenal and guests continue to rave about them. We hired a string quartet for the ceremony. I wish I could have heard more of their 30 minutes of music as guests arrived, but the ceremony music was beautiful.

- Our limo driver went above and beyond. He helped my parents bring in décor for the ceremony, made sure none of us got wet getting in/out of the limo (we had some light, but annoying rain before the ceremony) and made sure we all had a drink in our hand on the way to the reception venue. We also had a 56-passenger bus/shuttle for our guests and while we didn’t have as much interaction with him, guests commented on how wonderful, friendly, and accommodating he was. This may be the UO on here, but if you have room in your budget to do so – I highly recommend having transportation for guests. I realize people are adults, but it was SO nice to see everyone being able to enjoy our wedding and not having to worry about how they were getting back to the hotels. Even some of our most reserved family and friends were able to let loose and not have to worry about driving.

- Our florals were BEAUTIFUL. I gave her a picture of what I envisioned for my bouquet and centerpieces and she knocked it out of the park.

- Our hair and makeup vendors were awesome. My MUA was one of very few people that could calm my nerves while getting ready. My girls, mom, and MIL all felt and looked beautiful which was super important to me.

- Our cake looked amazing and tasted fantastic.

- The photo booth was a huge hit. Guests absolutely loved it. The pictures were amazing quality, they brought a ton of props with them, we got to pick 12 different background options for guests to choose from, guests were able to upload pictures directly to social media and/or their phones, and they gave us a flash drive of all the photos for the night even though we hadn’t originally added that to our photo booth package.

- Our DJ was great – he let DH and I DJ for a little while (we were pretty terrible haha) and even got out on the dance floor a few times to dance with us and our guests.

- Our reception venue staff were freaking phenomenal. I felt like royalty the entire night. They made sure we ate, our drinks were always full, and most importantly – that our guests were well taken care of. The reception space looked beautiful. I am a super control freak. I had the hardest time letting them do their thing and set everything up without my micromanaging but it all turned out so so so beautiful. They even took down everything and packed it up at the end of the night.

- Lastly, as you can see our photographers were amazing. I don’t think I need to go into much detail here, their work speaks for itself.

Once again – choose your vendors wisely.

2. IF YOU CAN DO SO, TAKE TIME OFF WORK BEFORE AND AFTER THE WEDDING - I took the Wednesday and Friday off before my wedding and I really wish I would have taken off the whole week before the wedding. I had my one and only nervous breakdown the Wednesday before the wedding because I was so stressed out between trying to do last minute things for the wedding and dealing with work and on-call responsibilities. Our wedding was over Labor Day weekend so DH and I were lucky to already have off the Monday after the wedding and I also took of Tuesday. It was nice to have that time together to relax and enjoy being married.

3. TRY NOT TO STRESS OVER THINGS YOU CAN’T CONTROL - This was huge for me and I wish I could have taken my own advice. I was so worried about the weather that I broke out in hives 3 separate times early in the week. Rainy/snowy/dreary wedding days are just as beautiful as those that have perfect weather. Another thing I was (stupidly) overly stressed out about was my dress not getting wet (due to weather) and people stepping on it. At the end of the day, dresses can be dry cleaned, most likely no one will notice if the bottom of your dress gets a little dirty, and it won’t ruin your day. Other things you can’t control – guests attire (luckily we only had 1 or 2 people that looked “out of place” and it wasn’t really a big deal) and last minute no shows (we had *I think* 7 and 4 of those were due to friends’ “plus ones” not attending.) However, 2 of those no shows allowed DH’s grandparents to attend the reception. They originally were not planning to be there due to their age, but my MIL was able to arrange transportation for them at the last minute so that was a nice surprise. At the end of the day even if things go wrong, you’ll be married and that’s what matters the most.

4. IF YOU ARE ABLE, OPT FOR AN OPEN BAR – Our venue allowed us to do a prepaid consumption, open bar and it was honestly worth every penny and worked out really well. I believe we came in just under what we had budgeted for alcohol. Even guests that weren’t super into dancing stayed for basically the entire reception and enjoyed sitting around, talking, and drinking. As I mentioned previously, some of our quietest, most reserved friends had a blast and it was so nice to see everyone having a great time. Most people were feeling fantastic by the end of the night, but no one got out of control. Sure, no one NEEDS alcohol, but it sure made for an incredibly fun reception.

5. TAKE TIME TO EAT/ENJOY YOUR DAY – Our reception venue server made a comment to us that she was so glad we took the time to eat something because most couples don’t. Granted, I only ate about half my dinner (if that) but it was nice to sit and talk with FH for a few minutes before making our rounds to the guest tables. It was also nice to sit back and take in the beauty of our reception and all our closest family and friends together in one place. You spend months or possibly years planning this day, take a moment to take it all in and enjoy it.

Cons/negatives:

I honestly don’t really have any cons/negatives to share. Other than some rain, I can honestly say there isn’t a single thing about my wedding day that I would change. Everything was wonderful and far exceeded my expectations. Our guests continue to comment that it was the most beautiful wedding they have ever attended. I am definitely biased, but I have to agree. It was truly a wonderful day and I am so thankful for everyone (including all of you WW members) that played a part in making it so fantastic.

FH is a teacher and head soccer coach, so we are waiting until November to go on our honeymoon. We will be taking a cruise to Honduras, Belize, and Mexico so we are counting down the days to our next adventure!

Okay, enough of my rambling…here are more pictures!

Love the write up! And wow, that picture is showstopper. Can't wait to see more!

Beautiful photo and so glad everything went so smoothly for you!! Congratulations!

Great advice! Congrats!

Ahh! Pictures don't want to load!

Sounds amazing!

Congrat!! I love this photo, your dress is beautiful. Thank you so much for this advice.

Wow your pic is amazing!!! Especially with that background!

Our Capital is gorgeous.. perfect picture! I'm just outside Harrisburg.

Great BAM. I love your advice; very similar to my advice lol. Gorgeous picture!

If anyone has any tips on how to get pictures to freaking load, I'd be super grateful. I've never had an issue until of course, you know, I'm trying to upload my WEDDING pictures. Ughhh

On my PC, I'd hate to try to load them 1 at a time on my phone since there's a ton. They just won't post...nooo idea what's going on

Looks like we're doing this the hard way...

Eureka! I think I figured it out. Standby for more pictures...looks like I have to change how I saved the pics on my computer. Hopefully we'll be up and running here momentarily!

Dresses!

Accessories

The dress!

Getting dressed

.Bridesmaids helping me get ready

First look with my dad!