Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Wedding Retrospective: What I'm Glad I Did and Wish I'd done Differently

This post beings my "Wedding Retrospective" series on the wedding. This post is the full list of "Things I’m glad I did", "Things I wish I’d done differently", and "Things I have mixed feeling about" now that I'm looking back on our Wedding. You have to tell me which one(s) from each category you want to hear more about and I will do another post about the top ones and explain them in detail...


Things I’m glad I did:

  • Had a Day Of Coordinator (with a detailed agenda/checklist)
  • Had a Videographer
  • Saw each other before hand and did pictures
  • Had a girlfriend stay at my parent’s house with me nights before the wedding
  • Had live music and danced until the end of the reception
  • Hired a photographer that let me own my digital negatives
  • Did DIY stationary for all of the wedding ceremony/reception itesm
  • Did not do chair covers/ chair upgrades (because the stock chairs were fine)
  • Had a Smashed Potato Bar at Midnight (so fun!)
  • Involved our faith and families in our wedding ceremony
  • Had beautiful turquoise and tangerine uplighting in the ball room
  • Had a day-after brunch (did not leave for our Honeymoon right away)
  • Did charity favors for wedding favors
  • Had simple elegant centerpieces
  • Had bouquets without a lot of greenery
  • Gave each other wedding gifts (besides rings)
  • Made out-of-town gift bags/buckets for the guests
  • Did dance lessons for our first dance
  • Did our own vows
  • Actually ate our food at the wedding
  • Had a Sweetheart table (let attendants sit with their family/boyfriends/wives/etc.)
  • Created a "Play" and "Do Not Play" list for the Band
  • Changed into sandals for the reception
  • Put out pictures of us and our families
  • Gave the band an iPod to play at breaks
  • Had my dad make me a big omelet the AM of the wedding
  • Had beautiful bright bridesmaid dresses and flowers
  • Did a Bridesmaid Brunch and Mani/Pedi the day before
  • Did the Rehearsal Dinner at my parents house
  • Did assinged seats/escort cards

Things I wish I’d done differently. I wish I’d:

  • Got ready earlier
  • Had them box the cake to take it to go
  • Had more group pictures – USC people, HS people, me with each bridesmaid, etc. and more photos of guests
  • Bought a professional makeup mirror to check my makeup in
  • Not ordered cake for every guest
  • Reapplied makeup before the reception after being out in the sun/wind for hours
  • Paid more attention to the guys tuxes and not gotten the ugly cheap ones
  • Not stressed out so much morning of the wedding
  • Told my bridesmaids/groomsmen exactly how to enter the ballroom
  • Instructed the cake servers of how to serve the 3 flavors of cake
  • Gotten a few more “traditional” photography shots to add to all the creative ones we have

Things I have mixed feeling about:

  • Getting married at a hotel
  • Doing my own makeup
  • Not doing a receiving line, instead doing table rounds
  • Doing a big, expensive wedding
  • Wedding blogging

1 comment:

Snaves said...

Oooh...this is interesting to see. I'm curious about so many of them and your reason for putting them into the category they're in. Definitely something to keep in mind...

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