Weddingbee Blog

If I had to guess, I would say there are roughly 438 decisions that go into planning a wedding. There are the big decisions—picking the date, the wedding colors, the attendants, the vendors—and smaller decisions—white napkins? or ivory? Now that I’m on the other side, I thought I’d share the best wedding decisions we made along the way. Granted, I didn’t know at the time that we were making them that these were the best decisions, but looking back at how our wedding unfolded, I think these 10 decisions had the most positive impact. I realize I can be a bit wordy, so let’s break it into two parts, shall we?

1. Day-of coordinator: Without a doubt, this was hands down the best wedding decision we made. If you aren’t sure you need one, you do. And the fact that you don’t know that you need one probably means you need one even more! I plan events for a living—events that are far larger, more expensive, and much more complex than our wedding—but the last thing I wanted to do on my wedding day was to be in charge. While I put together all the details for the wedding, the DOC ran the show from the wedding rehearsal to the end of the reception. It seemed like every time we turned around, he was checking in to make sure we had what we needed (food, drinks, you name it) or was giving us an update on things we needed to know—”Two more songs and then it’s the last dance!” It was also a huge relief to give our DOC’s cell phone number to all our vendors the week before the wedding and tell them to give him (not me) a call if they needed anything the day of. Our DOC fielded the questions, and only relayed to me the things he couldn’t answer (like when he called to ask me a couple of days before the wedding what drinks King Hippo and I wanted to have waiting for us when we arrived at the reception… sweet!). While having a professional DOC might be helpful, I definitely don’t think it’s absolutely crucial. Our DOC was the cousin of one of my best friends, and I knew that he had played the role of DOC at a couple of other weddings for friends and family. He used to work as an event planner for a non-profit organization in Dallas, so I knew that he could “speak the language” to vendors. I also knew he had a mean creative streak and wasn’t afraid to make decisions. And since he isn’t a full-time wedding coordinator and was able to give me a friends and family discount, it made having a DOC within reach. If you know someone who fits the bill, hit them up. But, I would say it should definitely be someone who you wouldn’t normally invite to the wedding. If your DOC is good, he or she will be working their ass off and not enjoying the party or visiting with family or friends, so I would caution against having it be someone you would otherwise invite to the festivities.
2. Ceremony Venue: King Hippo and I really wanted our wedding to be unique, and our art gallery ceremony venue completely and totally fit the bill. It was a little bit more work to figure things like chair set-up and a “bridal room,” since it was a non-traditional venue that doesn’t traditionally host weddings (ours was only their second), but it was absolutely worth it. We knew from the reaction of the groomsmen at the rehearsal that we had totally hit a home run with the venue.
3. Detailed Timeline: I mentioned here that I was working on a really detailed timeline for the weekend (a script or “minute-by-minute”), and it. was. painful. I spent many hours getting every tiny detail down on paper—from our arrival in Dallas on Wednesday to our flight out on Sunday—and in the end, all the time and energy was totally worth it. The week before the wedding, I emailed personalized timelines to our DJ, photographers, day-of coordinator, point people at the ceremony and reception spots, officiant, and every member of the wedding party. Basically, I took the huge (14 pages) timeline, and highlighted the portions that were important to each person, so that they could easily see what pertained to them and skip the parts they didn’t need to care about. Since everyone had the same document, there wasn’t any question about who was supposed to be where when. So, yes, the groomsmen may have laughed at it, but in the end, they followed it! And isn’t that what we really want?
4. Ring Warming Ceremony: I mentioned here and here that we were planning to do a ring warming at the start of our ceremony, and I have to say, this was the most meaningful part of our ceremony for me. Since we did the ring warming before the processional, our bridal party wasn’t with all the guests at the time, so we did separate ring warmings with them—me with the girls and King Hippo with the guys. Passing our rings with my closest girlfriends, Mama Hippo and Sister Hippo is one of my favorite memories of the day, and our officiant did an awesome job of incorporating the meaning behind the ring warming into the wording for our ceremony. This is definitely one part of our ceremony that I will always, always remember.
5. Photographer Selection: I read somewhere during the planning process that chemistry with your photographer is a huge deal, and it’s completely true. I saw our photographers more than three hours before seeing King Hippo … that’s a lot of time with a vendor! Mama Hippo and I met with three different photographers that were within our budget, and while we liked our photographers’ sample photos the best, we also just seemed to “click” with them. And since they were with us during the getting ready time and throughout the reception, the fact that we genuinely liked them made it actually fun. We absolutely love the preview photos we have seen too, which makes us even more sure that we chose the right vendor.

Up next… part 2.

Married bees, what was your hands-down best wedding decision?