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Looking back at your wedding
Is there anything you would have done differently, or was it absolutely perfect and you wouldn't change a thing?
Me: I wouldn't have spent hours agonizing over how to word the invitations with my divorced parents....in the end it didn't matter and its not like anyone remembers to this day what was on my wedding invitation anyway. Also, I did some things that seemed to be very common on the knot but no one IRL ever did them. This sounds bad, but I wish I hadn't spent so much $ on giving my parents gifts. They both looked at me like, "huh? what are you giving us a gift for? Its your wedding" and we really could have used that money since we were stretched pretty thin paying for stuff.
Oh.....and also. I would go back and tell myself to put down the one drink I was nursing all night. Because in all these photos of me I am holding that same drink and I'm sure I look like a lush.
ETA: I probably also would have extended our cocktail hour by another 15-20 minutes to get some more good photos. I mean, I did like my photos, but I feel like I was rushing through them to go talk to friends and family I hadn't seen in ages. I see some people's wedding pics and I'm like "damn, I wish we had gotten that shot."
Re: Looking back at your wedding
We were working on a really small budget. If that budget were larger, my wedding would have been completely different, starting with a different photographer, a different venue and a video package. We received a gift of having our ceremony filmed, which was great, but I will always regret that I don't have my Dad's toast recorded.
On a more superficial level, I'd probably have done my hair and makeup differently. I'd have kept my wedding party smaller, not because we don't care about those people but because it was just such a mass of people - it was crazy. We're lucky that they're all still in our lives and important to us, at least.
Oh, and I'd add an hour or two to the reception. And invite my NestieBesties.
ETA: I agonized a lot over the papergoods and those tissue paper pom poms, but I'd do that again. No one except me remembers those details, but they mattered to me and I was pleased with the end results, so it was worth it.
Overall, I loved most things about my wedding. The one thing I would def change would be to allow my good friend to make a toast. I told her no since my MOH was offended about her asking. Hindsight is 20/20 and my MOH wouldn't have been my MOH, but such is life.
Like Dani, I would have invited my nestie girls!!
I get it. I agonized over my centerpieces, emailing my florist and changing them several times. I doubt anyone remembers them, but they were unique and they still make my heart pitter patter when I see them in pics
Mine was only a couple months ago, but I would definitely change things.
If I did it over, I would probably do an entirely different color scheme. I did dark red and black and white damask, I kind of wish I had done a pink and yellow or purple and gray or an overall lighter color scheme.
I would have asked my photographer for more specific shots.
I wouldn't have paid so much for my dress and budgeted more toward the bar.
I would have used a different florist -- I don't like how my centerpieces turned out, and the boutinnieres fell off the groomsmen almost immediately. She was really highly recommended on the Knot message boards too.
I wouldnt' say I regret anything about my wedding because it was really a fantastic day, and everyone had a great time. It's just little things that I wish I could replan.
~ Kelsey Jean ~
Cooking with Crouton: A Food Blog
Uhm, not fair to say that and not describe them - or better yet, share pics!
Yes, I'm still a little obsessed with wedding details.
I don't necessarily regret a lot of the wedding because it was still an awesome and special day, but yes I'd do things different knowing what I know today.
Photographer would be the 1st thing for sure no doubt
People in the wedding and the amt invited to the wedding...i would have kept it smaller
Those are the 2 main things.
I know....my bad. She found a way to satisfy my orchid obsession without blowing the bank....she incorporated them with these tall spiky plants called horsetail or something. My wedding CD is at home in my desk, I'll add a photo later so you can see what I am talking about.
I loved my wedding, and there are very few things that I would change. The main thing would be the photographer. I'm happy with our portraits and ceremony photos, but we don't have many good reception shots because of lighting issues. Along the same lines, I don't have a single photo of me with my grandmother, which is a huge regret. She was on the list of family portraits but no one reminded her to stay after the ceremony- I blame myself for that. I also blame myself for not reserving a few minutes of time to hang out with just my mom and sister.
But as far as details, attire, venues, food, wedding party, etc, I would do it all the same.
I would of most likely gone to our cocktail hour. We missed it because we were taking pictures. Ugh... I really wanted to mingle and have a drink with all of our guest.
Also I would of pushed for a different reception time. Ours was early, but that's all the times they had left in August. Oh well can't change the past now.
I probably would have picked another photographer- not that I was unhappy w/ our pictures, but I would have liked someone who was better at wrangling/organizing that ours.
I would have told my friend who did my hair, that it sucked and to do it over. Because it did suck.
MH thinks that we should have skipped the big group shots we got so that we could have spent more than 10 minutes at the cocktail hour - but the pictures with our entire families in them are some of my favorites so I disagree.
I think instead of skipping them I might have put a note in the program for the families to keep their butts planted after the ceremony for quick group shots so we wouldn't have had to send runners out to wrangle Aunt Betty or Cousin John.
We did three group shots - one with my entire extended family, one with his mom's side and one with his dad's side. IMO they are the kind of pictures that you pull out at a family event in 20 years and everybody loves to look at. The pictures of the cake and the flowers and the two of us posing by the fountain are great and all...but the whole point of having the big wedding was our big families so I love those shots.
My other quibble...I'd have been a lot more specific with my florist. I didn't think that if I said "I want x, y and z" in my bouquets that he'd think that meant "I want mostly x, y and z and feel free to add a metric ton of baby's breath around them."
My Goodness...another food blog. Featuring: Macarons from a old post with a photo taken by my mom for a break from my crappy food photos!
Although I love my wedding photos, I would've used a different photographer. He was too expensive and I didn't see a single photo for almost three months. Then it took another two months to get the DVD.
They were supposed to save me bruschetta and they didn't. I'm still bitter about that.
Other than that, I love my wedding!!
This and hired a real videographer... a friend hired a student at a discount, which was very nice since I didn't even think we needed a video, but every time I watch just my back through the entire ceremony and don't watch the parts that he forgot to hit record (like the bouquet toss), I wish I would have anticipated wanting to have a video.
I wouldn't have necessarily gone with another photographer but I would have been more specific with a "must take list." I kinda wrote it off figuring he knew what he was doing but in the excitement of the day, there are a lot of people that are non-existent in my pictures that were really important to me being there on that day. (We didn't even get a family shot of me with my parents and my brother all in one picture). This was totally my fault, how would he have known I wanted these pictures if I didn't tell him.
I would have kicked one bridesmaid to the curb (had I known when I asked her how she was going to act the week before and day of the wedding...) and asked another long term friend that I had been on the fence about. The girl I asked was DH's cousin and I didn't feel obligated, but I thought it would be nice since I have a small family (no sisters or cousins) to ask her. Big mistake.
Overall, I loved my wedding and wouldn't do much different. DH still wishes we would have had a destination wedding on an island somewhere. I still don't know if I would have been able to do that because there are a lot of people that are important to me that probably wouldn't have been able to make it. It is interesting to reflect back though.
MyBio
Making ours a destination wedding would mean that the bulk of my family wouldn't be able to make it thanks to budget concerns (my sister would have to pay for her family of 6 to fly and stay wherever we went) or inability to travel (my grandparents) or just a fear of flying (my Dad).
It all mattered in the end, no matter how much time or money I spent on it. It all culminated in my wedding day, which celebrated my husband, our daughter, and our extended family and wonderful friends.
I adored my day. I wouldn;g change any of the details.
The only thing I would have done differently was the day before the wedding I became aware of several last minute guest cancelations... I should have swallowed my pride (and my shyness) and put out an APB on the knot, and asking if any of my Knottie friends wanted to come since I had already paid for the seats! (I was way too afraid to do this, becuase I was afraid of looking like a desperate loser with no friends.) I had about 10 - 12 empty seats.
But, in hindsight I probably should have spent less, because the trifecta of wedding, honeymoon and special needs preemie baby has destroyed our savings.
miscarriage on 11/26/09 at 5w6d
DH and I still talk about why we didn't have our wedding in Alaska. We had it in Maryland so the majority of my mom's family could attend, when in reality I (still) don't know/care about them as much as the friends who became family in Alaska. A lot of friends flew from AK to MD for the wedding which meant a lot, especially because they were broke 20-somethings...and I know that not nearly as many of our very well off middle aged family members from MD would have flown to AK for the wedding. I would have rather had the people who really meant something to us there. (This is kind of a generalization of course, because there are a few family members that I am really, really glad were there and could only attend if it was in MD.)
Other than that...a new photographer, definitely. I love about 10 of the 10000 pictures we have from that day. He was a pain to deal with too.
I would have been more specific about the flowers, and maybe even hired a completely different florist...I loved my bouquet and a lot of the arrangements but the cake flowers and bridesmaids bouquets were starting to brown a bit and that still bothers me in pictures. :P
Probably would have had a different/smaller BP but no one I completely regret asking.
I loved almost everything about our wedding, we actually just went to a wedding at The Belvedere this past weekend and it was so fun being there again!
Photographer, not becuase the quality was all that bad - it was an evening wedding and overcast, so we weren't going to get pictures of us walking in the sun in a field, I didn't realize that before; that I wanted pics with a lot of natural light-but there is not ONE picture of my sister and I, my MOH. We were behind schedule and took bridal party pics and pics with parents, but they (and I, but I feel like they are the proff's, they've done this tons of times, they should be more on top of things like that) never got one of my sister and I and to this day it makes me really upset and mad.
I would have had removable straps sewn into my dress. By the end of the night my dress was so weighed down by the bustle that about half an inch of my bustier was showing, it makes me cringe when I see it in pictures.
Other than that I loved everything about our wedding and would do the whole thing over, we still have people tell us our wedding was one of the best they've been to, just to toot my own horn.
I loved my wedding but would change 2 things:
1. My hairdresser did an *awful* job. She did nothing like the picture I brought...I wanted 50's style waves and she just curled my hair like I do every day. And by the reception it looked like I had been in a rain storm.
2. I would have extended the reception an hour or 2.
Holiday Card 2011
The Baloney Bug, A Blog
I would've relaxed more the day of! I should've hired someone to take care of all the things that went on at the reception. I wouldn't have let the stressful things get to me and just enjoyed the great day that it was.
I would've hired a different photographer all together and ordered more flowers for the centerpieces I made.
Oh well! It doesn't matter as much now
There is very little about our wedding that I would have changed - I loved everything about that day.
1) If I had any control over it, I would have stopped the rain.
2) I think I would have worn my hair up.
3) I would have hurried the photographer along a little so that we could have enjoyed more of our cocktail hour.
Someone's getting a little brother!