3 months down and forever to go! I’m not going to be one of those people who says, “WOW MARRIAGE IS HARD WORK” at this point in time. Because, literally, it’s been 12 weeks lol. I will say that I’ve LOVED getting to finally live in the same city as my husband (eeek, that’s a fun word to say). After being long distance for 3 years in a 5-year relationship, I’ve been counting down for a while. June 2nd, 2019 was one for the books. You can catch a full list of our wedding vendors here and watch our wedding video here.
I wanted to wait to write this post until it had been a couple of months so I could accurately look back at our wedding. We were blessed to be able to work with a wedding planner who CRUSHED IT (shoutout to Shatila). But that doesn’t mean that there still aren’t things I wished I could’ve changed. Hopefully, this post can be a guide for future brides in the midst of planning their big day. No event can be perfect. And with so many clashing ideas and large guest lists, you’re bound to have a thing or two go awry.
My advice for future brides: remember what this day is about. Your wedding day is a blessing and marks the beginning of a new stage in life. While you’re planning try and identify stressors, delegate tasks, and limit the opinions of others. All that matters is that you and your partner have a day filled with joy and love. I shared these words of wisdom in my recently engaged blog post. Here are a few things I didn’t plan for and wish I could go back and change if I had the chance.
I’m a true extrovert. And after we finished our rehearsal dinner, we went to a rooftop bar for the after-party. While we were back before midnight and had a cushy, 9 AM wake-up call. I still woke up feeling the “effects” hehe. My best friend Seth (and very talented nurse) took me to one of those IV bars for a boost. That was my first time trying anything like that and it was amazing! I honestly would recommend everyone start their wedding day with the portable service that comes straight to your room. Along with an oxygen pump, It filled me up with vitamins and antioxidants to get me ready for the big day ahead.
This is the one that kind of breaks my heart every time. I had planned to have Latch by Sam Smith as my first dance song the moment I first heard it. We’re both huge fans of Sam Smith and thought it’d be a perfect choice. Unfortunately, the DJ played the disclosure version instead of the acoustic, romantic version. I thought it’d make too much of a scene to change it at the moment, as we were already behind schedule. On our video, you can see the look of shock on my face and confusion from some of the guests at the song choice LOL. I’m trying to laugh about it now but your first dance is something special that can’t really be replicated. We did get to dance to the right version at the end when everyone left for the exit though.
I have seen multiple wedding blogs talk about photography being their biggest regret. From poor planning to lack of research on the photographer, it can sometimes make or break your day. However, I had the BEST photographer. The issues that we had with the photos stemmed from a shortened timeline due to a thunderstorm that literally came out of nowhere. Seriously, it said 0% chance of rain right up until the start of the ceremony. We planned to take photos with a lot of extended family after the ceremony, but they all had to sprint inside.
Once the drinks start flowing and the tasty food is passed around, it was hard to find a chance to grab them. We captured photos with our immediate family, but it still hurts. I’d also suggest taking bridal portraits without the bouquet so you can really see your dress! These are just small regrets, but things I’d wish I could do again regardless.
The last piece of advice I would say is to think carefully about your honeymoon travel. We chose to leave straight from Atlanta because it was closest to our venue. But when we came back from our week in St. Lucia, we still had to drive 4 hours to Charlotte. In retrospect, we would’ve planned to get a family member to drive our car to Charlotte while taking a connecting flight back home.
At the end of the day, I had a pretty near perfect wedding. Thanks to a lot of wonderful people in my life, our vision was well executed and allowed us to have a great time. I hope that sharing these moments of planning has been helpful for all of you in the process. I wish you all nothing but love and support on your wedding countdowns and marriage afterward! You can look at a full list of my wedding-related posts here.
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