The Best and Worst Decisions We Made When Planning On Our Wedding Day

When I look back on our wedding, I can honestly say it nothing short of amazing. We had beautiful weather, everything went smoothly (for the most part – lol), I married my best friend, we danced under the stars and celebrated our love with our closest friends and family. It was perfect.

With that being said, I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t do a few things differently if I could go back in time. Thank goodness that list is super small…..but still!

Any who, since so many of you are Brides-to-Be, I wanted to share our list with you!

The Best and Worst Decisions We Made When Planning On Our Wedding Day

“WORST DECISIONS”

-Picking a Venue that Wasn’t Fully “Wedding” Equipped 

Even though are venue is primarily used for events and weddings, it still wasn’t set up for a lot of required wedding elements. For example: We had to bring in a kitchen for the caterer and even though they were the sole caterer for the venue and do events their every weekend, we still had to pay to bring in the kitchen. We also had to bring in more restrooms, lights and other random things that you would just assume a venue that does this every weekend would already have.

-Picking a Venue with So Many Rules 

Maybe this is this case with every venue, but I just really feel like our venue had more rules than the rest. It was beautiful and seriously SO amazing but towards the end, more and more crazy rules kept popping up and I felt like we were being nickel-and-dimed and told no for everything.

-Not Splurging or Putting More Effort into the Glam Squad 

This may come to a surprise (or maybe not – lol) but when it comes to my hair and makeup, I’m actually really relaxed. I don’t wear a lot and I don’t do a lot – I like a more natural look! So when it came to picking a Glam Squad, I didn’t put a ton of thought into it and went with the most convenient and least expensive team. While they did do a great job and all of my girls truly looked beautiful, I just wasn’t over the top impressed. Especially with my hair and makeup. It was fine and I still felt beautiful, but like…. I could have done my own hair and makeup better? And that’s just not how you want to feel on your wedding day.

-Not Giving Our Photographer a Shot List

I want to preface this by say that our photographer, Jenna, is one of the best photographers I have seen. She is an angel and I LOVE (I mean, love) all of the photos from our wedding. With that being said, no matter how amazing your photographer, like our amazing Jenna, may be….they are not mind readers. If there is a certain photo you want, with a certain group or etc. You need to tell them! This sounds like a no brainer, but trust me… In our case, Jenna asked me before the wedding for a list and for some reason, I never sent it to her. It just super slipped my mind. I remembered the day before and thought “Oh, she’s a professional – she knows!” But no…. Jenna (& your photographer) is not a mind reader and has no idea that you want a certain photo with that one group of friends from college or your favorite cousins or etc. A shot list is almost essential.

-Having My Bridal Party Get Ready in My Room 

I talked about this in this post but I have to mention it again because I still 100% stand by it. Have your group get ready in another room or rent out a different area. You’ll want to have your own room to go back to as a place to escape, regroup, finalize letters, pray and etc.

-Writing My Letter To Colton the Day of the Wedding

For some reason, writing my letter to Colton was hard. Writing my vows were easy and just came to me on day..but I had trouble writing my letter and kept putting it off. Finally, I told myself I would just write it on our wedding day when I really felt “inspired”. While I had the right idea, when our wedding day came, I had a hard time finding a quiet space of my own to write, my adrenaline was rushing and wish I wouldn’t have had to worry about it.

“BEST DECISIONS”

-Hiring a Wedding Planner 

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – I could not have planned our wedding without a planner! Even if you don’t have a planner the whole time, at least have one the week or day of. You don’t want to have to worry about timing, making sure everything flows properly, setting up, or etc. You just want to show up and everything fall into place.

-Writing Our Own Vows

I knew from the beginning that Colton and I would write our own vows and I am so glad that we did! They were heartfelt, personal, funny and loving. We bawled our eyes out and they were so unique to us. We still did the traditional vows, but there was something about also writing our own and reading them to each other in front of our loved ones made the whole ceremony and sacrament even more special.

-Hiring a Kick-Ass Band over a DJ 

We had THE BEST band and I am telling you, every single one of our guests would agree. Our band brought everyone (& I mean everyone) out on that dance floor and kept them their all night. Every bride has their thing and mine was making sure my guests were on that dance floor. Nothing in this world makes me happier than dancing and listening to a live band and I wanted that at our wedding. There is just something about a band that brings so much more life to a party.

-S’mores Bar over a Groom Cake 

Instead of doing a traditional Grooms Cake, Colton chose to do a S’mores Bar instead and it was so fun! Especially since our wedding was outside and on a chilly night. It was interactive and something different for our guests to experience.

-Not Opening the ‘Open Bar’ Until After Dinner 

Up until dinner, we were only serving beer and wine. Then as soon as dinner was over and the dancing started, we opened up the ‘open bar’ and were ready to boogie. This gave our guests the opportunity to really get their party on, while avoiding them being completely sloshed. I mean, our wedding started at 4:00…. can you imagine what everyone would have been like if they started drinking hard liquor at that time? lol.

-Hiring a Videographer

Once again, our photos were unbelievable but it wasn’t until I saw our video that I broke down crying and was able to really relive the night. The video truly brought the wedding to life for me and as a Bride, the whole night goes by so fast. Trust me on this one, the investment is worth it.

You can see our video here!

-Keeping the Whole Theme Simple and Classic

I feel very at peace knowing that I kept our wedding as classic as possible and didn’t do anything over the top trendy. I wanted a theme, colors, dress and decor that I wouldn’t look back on in 30 years and cringe over. It made planning a little bit easier and I never had to worry about certain flowers or a ridiculous amount of decor.

-Letting My Bridesmaids Pick Their Own Dresses

I will do a whole post on this, but basically, instead of picking one-certain kind of dress for my girls, I picked a color and designer that had a large collection, then let them pick the style and fit of their own dresses! It was important to me that they all felt comfortable and beautiful that day. Plus, I didn’t want them to have to pay for something they didn’t love!

Do you agree or can you relate with these?

I would love to hear some of the best and worst decisions that you made while wedding planning!

xo,

Lauren

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