What happened?

I had many married friends tell me something would go wrong and to just roll with it. I was in denial and kept saying everything would be perfect. Inevitably, something doesn't go the way you envisioned or planned, be it big or small. I think it's just the nature of things and the way it goes! For me, there wasn't anything major that i couldn't handle, just little things that were annoying. We were late getting our makeup and hair done and had to rush back to the hotel to get dressed. That meant we didn't get good photos of us getting ready. And there were none of the groomsmen getting ready. We got married on a golf course then had the reception inside the country club. They had told me in advance that we could use the golf carts to ride around the course for photos or to drive down to the tent where the ceremony happened. In the midst of everything, we forgot so I walked all around and that was kind of miserable, haha. My 4 year old nephew fell walking down the hill into the tent where the ceremony was, haha. Sadly the photographer didn't capture it. He didn't get hurt, so that's good. We had a big frame with 3 ropes on it to do God's Knot as our unity ceremony. Well my husband was supposed to bring the tie for it and forgot. Fortunately, I had a back up hair tie with my maid of honor. I had bought a fur cape to wear for pictures because it was chilly out and I didn't get that until the photos were almost over. The DJ didn't have the complete list of songs we wanted for the different dances and came up to me to ask while we were in line waiting to be introduced into the reception. There were some other small things similar that didn't quite go as planned, but all in all it worked out and turned out to be amazing!!

The DJ sucked, and consequently, got a negative review on WW. He didn't do anything that he was supposed to, and didn't drive the party at all, even though I had provided an hour by hour breakdown of what to do and when. First off, he didn't announce the bridal party entrance--we just walked in to the song, which was totally awkward--I even had to come out and give him a thumbs up to start. He played rock music during dinner, when I had requested classical--so he plays 3 classical songs (which would have been better suited to the ceremony [who plays 'Here comes the bride' or 'Canon' during the reception?!]) then went back to vocal. He did not ask for toasts or ask the guests to clink glasses for a kiss--NADA. zip. zero. The best man had to do all the leading, including asking for toasts. Then the dummy DJ cuts off a toast in the middle (while the person was still speaking) and starts playing "Celebration." I had to tell him "Cut! "

The worst part was the first dances. Although he knew when and what to play, he went straight to regular dance music. Moreover, the guests were leaving and we hadn't cut the cake yet--my Mom had to go and yell at the DJ. He nearly missed our first dance and the father daughter dance, and that was when I lost it.

It was probably a boil over, but I had a full screaming tantrum where I told the DJ he was an incompetant ass who didn't do anything the way he was told to, even though he had a full list. He never did the requested anniversary dance either, then later cracked an insensitive, racist joke about one of the songs I had chosen (because the song was in a foreign language).

I received an invoice while on my honeymoon. When I got back from my honeymoon, I called the company owner, who tried to convince me to remove my negative review on WW. I told him that "No, I think other brides need to know about this incident." After about an hour of discussion, we agreed to a compromise.

That DJ nearly ruined the reception, and I feel like I missed out on things I had seen at other weddings, like toasts, and clinking kisses, and the actual leading of the party.

There was a lot that went wrong, and basically was just chaotic. I have decided that's just normal wedding stuff. But the following 3 are my biggest regrets:

1) The venue was a disaster ( Central Air in the Reception Area was not working, they had to bring in a portable unit which meant one of the doors had to be open and a huge white hose ran into the building. The kitchen area was not picked up from the wedding prior to mine, food left in the refrigerator, dirty dishes left in the dishwasher, etc.)

2) Our photographer ( family member) started drinking before the ceremony which in turn is very noticeable in the photos. Most photos are of wedding guests or action photos which is not what I wanted at all.

3.) Our videographer was causing trouble the entire day. She wanted this picked up and this cleaned so it wasn't in the video and due to this we were an hour late starting our wedding. Best part is we still haven't seen this wonderful video because she still hasn't delivered. We got married a year ago....

Those are the biggest regrets I have.

We started a touch late because the DJ was having technical difficulties. Processional music started to play and then didn't, my bridal song did play, and the recessional didn't play. Not a big deal as my bridal song did play. Other than that the whole day went swimmingly.

Our cake was wrong! It was beautiful, exactly what I wanted it to look like, which I was super excited about because we had emailed back and forth about ideas, but I didn't have one complete example. But then when we cut into it, I saw immediately that it was yellow cake when it was supposed to be chocolate! Guests raved about it, and since they didn't know it was supposed to be chocolate, I guess that was OK. We were just disappointed because we had decided so early on that we wanted chocolate. I did reach out to the bakery and she was very apologetic, doesn't know what went wrong because everything is in the email chain. But they have offered us a new small cake for our 1st anniversary in the correct flavors...we'll see come March!

Not much, thankfully! The hiccups were small and minor. Wedding party flowers were delivered to the church instead of the hotel initially but were quickly rerouted. This put our photography schedule behind by about 10 minutes meaning we didn't have time to take bride family pictures or many bridal portraits at the hotel. Some of the tuxes for my side didn't fit as well as expected but no one noticed. Our limo got a little turned around going to the church but that was okay because some guests were running late. The church courtyard had a large tent up from another group's rehearsal dinner from the night prior. This meant we couldn't get long shots of the courtyard with the church in the background or long distance portraits. Our reception fell behind schedule because our receiving line took longer than expected, and then there was a sight lag between dinner wrapping up and speeches starting because we had to track people down. The DJ could have done a better job getting people on the dance floor earlier and I wish we had extended our reception an hour longer so we could have had more of a "party", but our guests' day ran from 3 pm (ceremony start) to 10 pm (reception end) and I thought that was long enough. Lastly, we have three people RSVP yes and not attend the reception and plated dinner.

I also have to say, as someone who did not like any of the photos from two engagement sessions, I absolutely love our wedding pictures. Such a relief!