Wedding Regrets/do Overs?

Made more of a plan for photography/agree to the pictures they suggested/relaxed a little more. I shot down 2 of their ideas. They let me walk outside wearing my veil so it got soaked and had to take it off. Then they suggested veil shots but I said no it’s wet I also turned out umbrella shots because it had already stopped raining 🙄 also because I was slightly stressed I didn’t know how long we had taken or what time it was. (We still had to drive to the reception)
We were unfamiliar with the area around our venue. We live about a mile away now and there are many cool photo opportunities that were missed because we didn’t know. I also wish we would have gotten a few photos outside after it got dark and a better shot of just me in my dress.
As a result of both these things we didn’t get a good variety of shots.

There are three things I wish I would have done differently. Otherwise, everything was perfect.

1. Hired a different florist. My husband even tried warning me that he wasn't a fan of the woman I hired and I definitely should've listened to him. She messed up so much. She got the wrong color roses, purchased items for our wedding without asking then expected us to pay her back for those items. used bouquet holders that she had no experience using which resulted in our bouquets falling apart, and she forgot the pin that was supposed to go on my bouquet which was my something borrowed. By the time I wanted to fire it our wedding was less than two months away and my husband thought it would've been too difficult to find a new florist.

2. Let the girls pick their own dresses. I had wanted everyone in the same dress, but I really wish I would've just picked a store for them to get their dresses at and I would've told them a color and length and let them decide their own style. It would've been so much easier. Instead we went to about five different stores because the first four stores had barely anything in stock and I wanted to see them in the dresses that day before ordering. Then a week before my wedding my sister who was my MOH refused to wear the dress because she hated how she looked in it after alterations. I ended up going to David's Bridal and purchasing a different dress for her in the same color as the other bridesmaids dresses.

3. Not shared a room with my grandparents the night before. My grandparents decided to book a hotel room with two beds because they weren't sure if anyone in our family would need an extra bed. They ended up offering the bed to me since my husband and I didn't want to share a room and he was bunking with the best man. It was a huge mistake for me to take them up on their offer. My grandmother was freaking out the morning of the wedding because I got up super early to shower and she was worried about me waking my grandfather. She ended up rushing me out of the hotel room with my all of my items in my arms and as a result my jewelry got lost in the mix up. I didn't realize my jewelry was missing until I went to put it on so then my mom and bridesmaids spent 30-45 minutes searching for it which cut into picture taking time so I didn't get as many getting ready photos or bridesmaids photos as I wanted. Plus my grandmother's worrying caused me additional stress I really didn't want or need.

Only regret was not hiring a videographer.

View Quoted Comment May I ask why? We went back and forth with this and thought we likely wouldn't watch the video more than a couple times so we decided save the $1500+ we would've spent on a videographer

View Quoted Comment

Photos don't show much in the way of emotions. They are pretty, but they are static. Even smiles don't really look like they do "in motion" in photos to me. There is more to faces than just their final image. The way a person's face changes as a smile takes over is something pictures don't capture.

Photos don't have sound. I can never hear our vows as they were spoken again. I'll never hear my dad's voice again (he died last year and I have no video of him anywhere). I've forgotten my mom's speech, despite how beautiful it was. Photos will never give me any of that.

My own opinion is that the "we won't watch it more than a couple times" is a silly reason. You'll only look at your photos a few times, too. After the fifth or sixth time flipping through your wedding photos, you'll stop looking because you'll know what they all look like.

In my experience, photos are for everyone else after the initial excitement of getting them back wears off. After seeing my wedding photos half a dozen times, I really don't need to see them again. I use them to show people "this is what my wedding looked like" every now and again, but I don't ever look at them just to look at them for myself. In contrast, I have a minute or two of video on a crappy camcorder - us leaving at the end of the ceremony, and some of our cake cutting. I don't think I've ever even shown it to anyone. But I watch that footage for myself.

Agreed on the regretting not getting a videographer!! Wanted to have a video of the day but too expensive for us, and i should have talked to my brothers better about recording the whole thing with my moms camera

View Quoted Comment We also weren’t going to hire a videographer because of costs. But then I realized that I would never be able to see the processional (since I would be last) and wouldn’t have the option of listening to the vows again. Also, I want to see my FH’s full expressions (he has the most beautiful smile) and, as another poster mentioned, photos are static & don’t capture the whole story. I was able to find a videographer that faves us an hourly rate. So we hired him to capture the pre-ceremony & ceremony only for $800 (3 hrs coverage, drone, editing, raw footage, and highlight video). I am relieved now that I changed my mind.

My FH doesn't think we need a videographer but after reading this I am more convinced that we need to add that in our budget.