Please post on this if you are married & have thoughts! These are smaller, random things. Obviously I'm happy I did SO much planning & vetted all the vendors & took a lot of time to budget/plan/etc. but these are smaller things I wouldn't have thought about prior.
Things I'm Happy I Did:
- We were busy our ENTIRE wedding weekend. We spent every second we could with friends & family. Thursday dinner, Friday lunch, Friday after the rehearsal dinner in the hotel bar, Sunday breakfast. In addition to the rehearsal dinner and wedding, we made every effort to include everyone and invite them to everything. Everyone co-mingled prior to the wedding and it made the wedding even better!
- I didn't have an unplugged ceremony. I put an FAQ on the website asking guests to keep phones/arms down so they don't block views, but that's it. I think this is a group-specific thing, but no one was in the way or holding phones down the aisle or messing it up. I'm really happy for the few pictures I was sent from guests during the ceremony (especially since we have to wait 5 more weeks for our professional pictures).
- I printed menus, programs, welcome pamphlets, and bought favors. Our favors were a small potpourri bag (my parents had the same favor at their wedding) with a personalized ribbon and wine corks with the Colorado mountains on them. Almost everyone took both favors. The menus & programs & welcome pamphlets made everything seem more personal to me.
- We had a hotel block and made welcome bags. I know this isn't for everyone, but we had a TON of out of state guests so we had 46 rooms in our block. Our bags cost around $10 each. Again, it made the weekend seem more personal & festive.
- I spent the night before the wedding with my fiance. We were calm, both slept well, we got ready like normal, then I kissed him goodbye at 8:30 AM and saw him as I walked down the aisle at 5:45 PM. We both cried, the moment was very special.
- We didn't do a first look. It was super important to us to have the moment I walk down the aisle be the first time he sees me in my bridal attire. It was such a special moment.
- We had a DOC! So happy we did, I had no time to set up everything or communicate with everyone the way she did.
- I worked hard on our website. I know at least 40 people looked at it (10 RSVPed online) and a lot of moms/aunts/etc. made comments about things I had put on the website. It also put all our information in one place.
- We ate quickly & walked around to every table. I hate receiving lines, so we didn't do one. We ate quickly (our meal was already on our table & guests went to the buffet) while guests got their food then we walked around to every table and greeted everyone. We had 125 guests, it took about an hour but we split it up before toasts & after.
- We left for our honeymoon two days later, not the next day. We got to go home Sunday, bring everything home & drop off my dress at a dry cleaners. We drove to the airport the next day stress free!
- Every step of the way we thought about guest & wedding party experience. We paid for everything we could, involved people every time we could, thought about how we feel as wedding guests, etc. I think it reflected in what we spent the most money on and how much our guests enjoyed themselves.
- My fiance put my garter around a football before he tossed it. To me, garter tosses seem awkward. Just flinging it into the crowd seems weird. The football made it way less weird (in our opinion).
- We took dance lessons. I'm so happy we did, we did a two step and it was super fun!
Things I Didn't Need/Wish I Hadn't Done/Didn't Do But Wish I Did:
- I rushed pictures after the ceremony and let our photographer talk me into couples pictures prior to family & wedding party pictures. We took so long doing couples ones, we barely had time for the rest. I wish we would have got family & wedding party ones out of the way first to make sure we got all those, then used the rest of the time & at sunset to take the other couples pictures.
- We did midnight snacks, but didn't need them. Our wedding was delayed, so cocktail hour was 6:30-7:30, guests sat at 7:30 to a plated salad and had dinner at 8:00 and desserts at 9:00. Midnight snacks came out at 10:00 (mini hot dogs), no one needed them. We had SO much food and everyone was focused on dancing and drinking.
- I didn't buy cute umbrellas. The weather forecast kept saying it might rain, I assumed it would but for a short time and we would be fine. It RAINED for 2+ hours and we moved our ceremony. I wish I would have bought the cute clear umbrellas on Amazon even if I returned them after if we didn't use them. It would have been easier for outdoor pictures & walking around the venue.
- I got our dog a "dog of honor" bandana, I wish I would have done a flower collar. Not a big deal, I just think it would have looked cuter than the bandana.
- My dress was HEAVY, I spent all night pulling it up and my bustle broke. I knew it would! Both weddings I've been in, the bustle broke. I brought safety pins so the bustle was fine. I bought dress tape, the dress was too stiff for it to even work against my skin. I'm not sure how I would have fixed it? Maybe thin spaghetti straps? I'm not sure, but it didn't stay where I wanted it all night which bugged me and I hope wasn't too noticeable or in too many pictures.
- We didn't take ENOUGH dance lessons. We took 4, but we are NOT good dancers. We should have taken 5-6, or practiced 2-3 times the night before. We were so rushed the whole weekend we didn't have time.
