We got married 1.5 weeks ago (yay!). Our honeymoon was magnificent and we're so sad to be back to reality now. I'm excited to post about our honeymoon adventures and of course share our wedding photos once we get them from our incredible photographer along with all of the amazing things that went well during our special day. BUT, first things first, I gotta get some things off my chest, because there were definitely some moments that went way wrong during our wedding.
So.... fair warning, this is my super long “complainy” post of what went wrong at my wedding a week and a half ago lol! I just really need to get this off my chest so I can get over it and focus on everything that did go well, and also to offer some comfort to other brides who had some snafus during their big day as well. So, if you will please join me, let the complaining begin....
First, we had 4 guests cancel on us the week of the wedding and another 3 just not even show up. I’m a fairly understanding person, but I kid you not, none of these 7 people had any valid reason to cancel on us. Not one. My favorite “excuse” came from my 22 year old cousin who cancelled 3 days before the wedding and who was flying from Pennsylvania to our wedding in California; her excuse, “I failed the Real Estate Licensing exam again, and even though I don’t retake it for another 8 weeks, I really need to take my life into my own hands and study everyday”. Dumbest excuse ever. She has 8 weeks to study, she couldn’t miss 3 days of studying, or ya know, study on the plane? She then wanted me to feel sorry for her that she was out her $400 plane ticket. Why would I feel bad for her? SHE decided to cancel 3 days before for a pretty ridiculous reason; that lost plane ticket is on her, no one else. The other 6 had equally poor excuses themselves. These cancellations were also frustrating because each guest cost us approximately $120. There is sooooo much we could have done with that extra $840! Or we could have put that towards our honeymoon or into Savings. I’m so irritated we literally threw almost a thousand bucks away because of these inconsiderate guests; needless to say, hubby & I have agreed we don’t need to pursue relationships with these 7 people anymore. Really nothing lost there anyway, other than money of course.
Secondly... we also had a handful of guests that missed our ceremony entirely. They showed up just in time for dinner and left immediately after dessert. I kind of felt insulted by this, like they came just for the food. But whatever. I was also very surprised at the number of people that took off right after the cake cutting and didn’t stay for dancing. We already had a relatively small wedding, so having a handful of guests leave so soon made the dance floor feel empty and kind of sad; although, as you'll read at the end of this post, I guess I understand why so many left so soon. I did, however, really enjoy dancing with the friends & family that stayed (especially enjoyed watching my new husband, who NEVER DANCES, tear it up on the dance floor), but there were moments I’d stop and look around and feel kinda sad at how empty the dance floor & ballroom seemed to be. But I’m quickly getting over that.
I also had some big problems with the new in-laws. From my new MIL "sneakily" steal wine from me and my bridal party (even though we all told her several times that wine was reserved for us), to husband's parents & sister just being in bad moods during family photos, to my FIL literally throwing a hissy fit during dinner because he didn’t get to do a toast (even though we told him several times he was not to give a toast at our wedding, but could give one during the rehearsal luncheon if he wanted; we have good reason for not wanting him to toast at the wedding), to MIL being literally the only totally drunk person at the wedding, and ending with the in-laws all sitting at a table after the wedding drinking even more instead of helping the rest of us try to load vehicles up with all of our belongings in the pouring rain. Just adding to the fact they’ve helped with literally nothing with the wedding. I straight up told the hubs that I’m not seeing his family anytime soon. He can visit whenever he wants, but I won’t be going along. I just can’t even believe the behavior they displayed all day long. So rude.
Now, for the grand complaint of them all, our DJ was HORRIFIC. We found Entertainment DJ’s here on Wedding Wire and on Yelp, where they had stellar reviews, especially for DJ Joey. So we booked him! He’s played our venue “2-3 times a month for years” according to him, so he assured us he knew how the venue flowed and where everything should be hooked up, etc. I had a phone meeting with him the week prior as well as dozens of email exchanges where we discussed certain songs and when they should be played, as well as the timeline. This was all apparently for nothing. Right after the wedding party made the grand entrance into the dance area, new hubby and I cut the cake, to which he was supposed to play the song “L-O-V-E”. He had no music playing at first and then dubbed this song in after we cut the cake and were about to feed each other. Then he left the song playing after we were done and everyone was standing around like “okay, now what”. It was 2 very awkward minutes. Then he finally realizes we’re done, and this is where things go ROYALLY WRONG. He invites my husband and his mother to the dance floor. HE COMPLETELY FORGOT MINE AND MY HUSBANDS FIRST DANCE! He skipped right over it and just went to the mother/son dance. As they begin their dance EVERYONE was looking at me with so much confusion, which was so embarrassing. Then 1/4 of the way into their dance, the music just stops. No explanation, nothing, it just stops. The DJ bolts out the front door of our venue and we’re all standing around the room looking confused as heck. I am LIVID at this point. The DJ finally comes back after about 10 minutes and 30 MINUTES LATER he finally restores “power” to continue the music; to which he admitted was his fault, he didn’t connect everything correctly. What was really irritating is that he didn’t explain what was happening; he could have informed us all that there were some technical difficulties and ask that we all go enjoy the photobooth and dessert bar while he resolves the problem, at least we would have known what was going on and we all would have been happy to go occupy ourselves with other activities until he announced it was all fixed. When it was resolved and he comes over to tell my hubby and I that the music is ready to go, I ask if he’s going to let us have our first dance or if he’s just going to completely blow our first dance off? He made up some lame excuse as to how he “always” does the mother/son dance first, then the bride/groom, followed by the father/daughter dance. I sent him our timeline and went over it with him the week of the wedding to which everything clearly stated that we had cake cutting, BRIDE & GROOM first dance (like every freakin’ wedding), then followed by the mother/son and father/daughter dances. But he tried to argue that’s not what my timeline said and when I asked him to pull out his copy of the timeline, low and behold, the timeline said exactly that; Bride and Groom dance FIRST. Duh. Ugh. Anyway... we all finally get our first dances in and in the appropriate order, but by this point many guests had left due to this fiasco, so our dance floor was dismal and kind of sad, but whatever. I ended up enjoying my dance with my new husband and with my dad. The rest of the evening was meh. The DJ had zero energy; he literally just sat behind his DJ table all night. He played a few songs we requested, but most of his song choices were total duds that caused people to stop dancing. Instead of picking up these vibes and changing the song, he just let every song play the whole way through, which was kind of unprofessional in my opinion. If you clearly see a full dance floor become empty due to the song, then change it. This really soured the end of our wedding experience. I’m still so confused and upset over how awful this highly rated DJ ended up being.
That's everything I had to complain about lol thank you all soooo much for letting me get this all off my chest I already feel better!