Wedding Advice From My Own Experiences (LONG)
-No matter how much time you budget into your day, whether it is hours of pictures beforehand or an extended cocktail hour and after-party it goes by in a blurry flash. Literally.
-I did not have a videographer since I felt I would never watch it and wanted to save money. Due to the first bullet, I wish I had one. The day was so fuzzy as I was dazed and overwhelmed and it went by so fast that it was hard to remember anything. I wanted to immediately replay it and could not.
-You don’t get all the photographs you want. Therefore it is also good to have that videographer mentioned above so that you can see different things that may have been left out by the photographers and see yourself in action.
-Speak up in regards to your photographer. Some of the best photographs came out of the shots my bridal party suggested and a lot of pictures were missed that I wished I requested on that day.
-Some brides say don’t forget to eat. I say make sure you don’t overeat. I was so nervous and the bridal attendant kept bringing me huge plates of food, that I was just stuffing it down and by the end of the night I was almost unable to enjoy myself as my dress felt so tight.
-If you are using a salon for hair and makeup, try to avoid telling them you are a bride if possible because they try to nickel and dime you every way they can. I was told at my very expensive trial it would be one price, no ifs ands or buts, however, once that day arrived it was DOUBLE that already overpriced amount due to many “becauses”.
-Also if you are using a salon, go an hour or two earlier than you already would. I was told it would take two hours and budgeted three. However, they had me run almost two hours later than they said (about 4 hours total), which put me about an hour behind schedule and made me a very panicked and frantic bride (unable to fight about their ridiculous overcharging).
-You might be surprised by your friends/bridal party. My MOH dropped all of her responsibilities on the day-of and my bridesmaids who were more absent during the planning process really came through and shocked me with their amazingness. I was really disappointed by my MOH but really happy with my BMs. And one friend who wasn’t even in the bridal party stepped up and also made the day wonderful.
-You will have last minute cancellations and non-gifters. We had 2 people cancel one day before the wedding. We also had 5 guests who didn’t even bring a card.
-If you are good at taking care of things yourself, then make sure you are in charge of it all. I only delegated a few responsibilities to others. However, every responsibility I did delegate got messed up in some way. Someone forget to bring one item, another person lost another item, another person did their task really sloppy... etc. If you want it done right, just do it yourself. All of it.
-Making photo cards is useless. We had a card asking for people to send us photographs (e-mail or facebook) and placed it with the favor. Two weeks later and the only one who posted pictures was the best man. We now have to try and remember who was taking photos (which was almost everyone) and hassle them for the photographs.
-If you are crazy about getting your guests photos that they took at the wedding (like I am), I recommend having a member of the bridal party go around the room and make a list of everyone taking photos so you know who to contact after the wedding when you don’t receive any.
-The stress and money may not seem worth it in the end, so just try to hold onto those fond memories of you and FH and all those little moments you shared throughout the day that made it worthwhile.
That’s all I can think of now, I know I had a bunch more to say... if I remember them, I will add them to this post and bump it.
-I did not have a videographer since I felt I would never watch it and wanted to save money. Due to the first bullet, I wish I had one. The day was so fuzzy as I was dazed and overwhelmed and it went by so fast that it was hard to remember anything. I wanted to immediately replay it and could not.
-You don’t get all the photographs you want. Therefore it is also good to have that videographer mentioned above so that you can see different things that may have been left out by the photographers and see yourself in action.
-Speak up in regards to your photographer. Some of the best photographs came out of the shots my bridal party suggested and a lot of pictures were missed that I wished I requested on that day.
-Some brides say don’t forget to eat. I say make sure you don’t overeat. I was so nervous and the bridal attendant kept bringing me huge plates of food, that I was just stuffing it down and by the end of the night I was almost unable to enjoy myself as my dress felt so tight.
-If you are using a salon for hair and makeup, try to avoid telling them you are a bride if possible because they try to nickel and dime you every way they can. I was told at my very expensive trial it would be one price, no ifs ands or buts, however, once that day arrived it was DOUBLE that already overpriced amount due to many “becauses”.
-Also if you are using a salon, go an hour or two earlier than you already would. I was told it would take two hours and budgeted three. However, they had me run almost two hours later than they said (about 4 hours total), which put me about an hour behind schedule and made me a very panicked and frantic bride (unable to fight about their ridiculous overcharging).
-You might be surprised by your friends/bridal party. My MOH dropped all of her responsibilities on the day-of and my bridesmaids who were more absent during the planning process really came through and shocked me with their amazingness. I was really disappointed by my MOH but really happy with my BMs. And one friend who wasn’t even in the bridal party stepped up and also made the day wonderful.
-You will have last minute cancellations and non-gifters. We had 2 people cancel one day before the wedding. We also had 5 guests who didn’t even bring a card.
-If you are good at taking care of things yourself, then make sure you are in charge of it all. I only delegated a few responsibilities to others. However, every responsibility I did delegate got messed up in some way. Someone forget to bring one item, another person lost another item, another person did their task really sloppy... etc. If you want it done right, just do it yourself. All of it.
-Making photo cards is useless. We had a card asking for people to send us photographs (e-mail or facebook) and placed it with the favor. Two weeks later and the only one who posted pictures was the best man. We now have to try and remember who was taking photos (which was almost everyone) and hassle them for the photographs.
-If you are crazy about getting your guests photos that they took at the wedding (like I am), I recommend having a member of the bridal party go around the room and make a list of everyone taking photos so you know who to contact after the wedding when you don’t receive any.
-The stress and money may not seem worth it in the end, so just try to hold onto those fond memories of you and FH and all those little moments you shared throughout the day that made it worthwhile.
That’s all I can think of now, I know I had a bunch more to say... if I remember them, I will add them to this post and bump it.
