Mrs. Butterscotch, Seattle
Age and Occupation: 29, Advertising Sales Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, City Worker
Engagement Date: September 24, 2006
Wedding Date: August 11, 2007
Blogging Since: June 19, 2007
Venue: church ceremony and private club reception
About Me: I am marrying my high school sweetheart 11 years after high school ended! I am a self professed shoe fanatic with a closet full of shoes and only two feet. Planning a wedding has been my fun project since he surprised me with a proposal in Paris. We are spending our last few months preparing for our big day by wrapping up all the small things, buying a house and best of all preparing to live together for the first time.
Can I Get A Re-do?
November 5th, 2007 @ 12:05 pm by Mrs. Butterscotch
Last week I talked about what I would not change. But there were a few thing that I would have loved to have a do-over on.
1. Guest pictures. I really wish I would have had our photographer take photos of each table at the reception. I can remember most people that were there but, a handful of people I cannot for sure remember.
2. People in my dressing suite. I really wish I would have set better boundaries for who I had coming into my bridal room. It was chaos at some points. Finally I had one of my bridesmaids ask everyone to leave. If I could do it over again, it would have been just me and my bridal party.
3. Make up touch up. I don’t know how this slipped past me but I wish I would have remembered to reapply my lipstick before I started my formal pictures. I was wearing a long lasting lip color but the color was much more vibrant in pre-ceremony pictures. Have one of your BM carry your lipstick with them. Trust me you will be too excited and you will forget to reapply.
4. Rethink inviting “crazy” relatives. While I am not saying I wouldn’t invite them, I would have had better “just in case” plans set up. If you have a family member or a friend that you really want to be included in your special day, have a plan for anything that may come up with them.
5. Plan for the gifts. I knew we wanted to take the gifts home with us, I just didn’t plan for so many or for the larger packages. If I would have thought about it, we would have either cleared out the car better or had my family take them home and we would have just gotten them the next day.
6. Ok this one isn’t really a wedding day lesson learned, but a pre-wedding redo. Go dress shopping the first time alone. WHAT?!?! I know this sounds crazy, but I took friends the first 2 times then after that I went alone and it allowed me to really figure out what I liked. Friends and family will ohhhh and ahhhh at many of the dresses you try on, or they may just tell you how much that dress sucks. Either way you cannot listen to your inner voice with everyone else putting in their two cents. Now all that said, I still wouldn’t change getting my “most important” family and friends to help me narrow down my choices to my final pick.
7. Practice dancing. Sure I jumped up and down, twirled and swayed in my dress. But I didn’t practice dancing in it. So before the big day, try a few of your moves out in your dress just to be sure you can move the way you want on your dance floor.
8. The night before, I think I got 4 or 5 hours of sleep. Luckily I was so excited on the wedding day that I wasn’t dragging around the next day, but I know it can really put some brides in a bad mood. I didn’t sleep in my normal bed that night so between the excitement and unfamiliar surroundings, I was wide awake. Figure out what you should do just in case you cannot sleep the night before. I wouldn’t suggest sleeping pills but maybe some soothing tea, a warm bath or bringing a book. DON’T DO MORE WEDDING PROJECTS. The idea is to get some sleep not keep going.
9. Have a place for the kids. The kids in my bridal party were next door to my dressing room. Overall it was fine, until they reached the 1 hour mark. I think I would have had a few other locations (away from me) for them to run wild and free.
10. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Overall I didn’t worry about anything all day but when I did, it was normally silly. Please relax, enjoy the day and enjoy the moments. You can fully relax on your honeymoon!
What suggestions would some of you offer to brides to be?
6 Responses to “Can I Get A Re-do?”
Great advice on the dressing suite issue…i would have never thought of this until it was too late and the room was swarming with people.
Great advice. I couldn’t sleep the night before either but surprisingly it didn’t ruin my wedding day at because i was just so happy (normally if i dont get enough sleep, i’m really cranky!)
I wish we would have done some type of receiving line. I was so absorbed in DH that I didn’t talk to my guests as much as I thought I would.
Like you said, make time to touch up hair, powder, and lips at least two times during the event.
*Ask your photog and videog to get shots of the grandparents. My grandpa died 5 months after the wedding and we have almost no shots of him and it kills me.*
Ask the caterer to make a special food box for you two after the wedding.
Don’t assume your vendors will do certain things. Always ask.
Good lighting = good photo and video. Particularly if you’re having an outdoor reception, take extra care to light things well (ie. spotlight on the cake.) The stroby lights and disco balls that DJ’s can provide look good too.
Don’t sweat the small stuff (or the big stuff, for that matter.) I sorta did, and it still bothers me.
Great post! A few things of mine…
1. Manage my time better. I made my own cake, seemed to have forgotten how much time that actually took. I went to sleep at 1:30 that morning. Oh, and I had waaaaaay too much cake left over.
2. Hire another photogapher. Ours was awesome, but we realized that since they were both our videographer and our photographer, they spent most of the day juggling between the two, and we didn’t get a lot of ceremony shots. The video was my main thing, but I would have liked more pictures of our guests and the setting.
3. Put someone in charge of the CD’s. For some reason, I thought I had done this, but they sat in the car the entire time. Our ceremony band actually played for the reception…sweet, sweet guys!
4. Buy a nice hanger for my dress. Sounds simple, but for some reason, I forgot to do it. So all I had was the cheap plastic one that came from a dry cleaner. Not a big deal I suppose, but it would have been a quick fix and would have looked nice in photos.
5. Put up signs for the wedding. I thought mapquest would be enough, but I guess people expect signs. That would have helped everyone show up on time too.
6. Have someone keep us on track for our timeline.
7. Have programs with information about our attendants. We skipped programs all together since it was just another thing that needed doing, but if I had time, they would have been a nice-to-have.
Don’t drink too much the night before. I never, never thought I would do this… but the excitement of having all my friends and family in one place was too much fun and I wasn’t willing to go home for my beauty rest. I was hungover on my wedding day, DOH! I still totally enjoyed our wedding day and I looked fine but it was a tough morning.
