Lessons We Learned From Our Own Wedding

Advice, Personal

Nate and I got married on March 5th, 2011 and that was the best decision, EVER!

But If I’m totally honest there were some things about our wedding that I would go back and redo if I had that superhero ability.

I Regret NOT hiring a videographer.

My dad gave a horrible speech! Like it was so bad it was unbelievable, and up until my wedding I’d never really seen my dad dance, he’s the guy who sits in the back and makes fun of everyone else dancing. So we just winged it, I figured we’d just sway back and forth for 3 minutes, but He ended our dance spinning himself around like a ballerina complete with a curtsey. I wish we had the video for blackmail purposes (hehe) and so I could rewind and replay and relive. Sure, we wouldn’t watch it every day, but we’d totally watch it once a year on our anniversary. I wish we had it to share with our daughter, Finn when she gets older. I don’t know; I can’t say exactly why but I do wish I had a video. We had a Photo Booth at our wedding, and in retrospect, I wish we would’ve used that money on a videographer. It just would’ve served us better in the long run.

300 Guest Count

We were so excited to be getting married we wanted to share our day with EVERYONE we loved and so we did. But If I were to redo my guest list it would be shaved by 150 people at least.

Chairs

Our venue had these crappy chairs, cheap white flimsy folding chairs. I hated them then but for some reason, I drew a line at paying for 300 chair rentals. I made the choice to live with them, but darn it I wish I would’ve spent that money! Now when I look at my reception photos first I see the happy moments but then I think UGH! those ugly chairs!!

Bridal Party

It wasn’t traditional but we did it anyway, my brother and my good guy friend Blake stayed on my side as bridesmen. They hung out with me all morning and were on my side during the ceremony and photographs too. We could’ve trimmed our bridal party down some because straight up, there are people in our bridal party that we don’t talk to anymore so clearly we made some poor choices there.

Album

We didn’t order an album from our photographer because we were photographers and we could do it ourselves. Bad idea! It took us 6 years to get our stuff together and print a dang album! We’re happy to report that we have one now and I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! But I should’ve paid someone to do it long ago.

Ceremony sides

Traditionally, at a ceremony as a guest you sit on the side of the person you’re there supporting. The brides parents sit on the brides side and the grooms parents sit on the grooms side and I get why but it sucks in execution. Because during your ceremony your faced in the opposite direction. I couldn’t see the look on my parents faces or exchange a smile with my bridesmaids because they were behind me. Instead I made eye contact with Nate’s weird college buddy that I didn’t want to invite in the first place! Of course, I make eye contact with THAT dude! If we could go back, I would flip sides during the ceremony for sure.

Thumbprint tree Guest Book

We had one of those trendy thumbprint guest books but 300 guests meant this thing had to be huge, I thought it would be framed in our house somewhere. Nope, It’s rolled up in a tube in the garage. An engagement guestbook would have served us better, we could at least put it next to our wedding album and flip through it every now and then.

Nate’s Men’s Wearhouse suit

It was just bad, he looked like he had tree trunk legs because it was just too big it didn’t fit him correctly. I wish we would’ve spent the time and money into making sure he had a suit that fit him properly.

Okay, I’m toning down the Negative Nancy now and waking up Positive Polly because we didn’t hate our wedding at all! WE LOVED IT!! We had so much fun! It’s the best feeling in the world having everyone you love the most in one spot supporting you. Here are some things that we did that we felt were the right decisions for us.

We got our families involved. It worked for the rustic theme of our wedding, we decorated our venue with quilts, antiques, and family heirlooms. It felt like home. We homemade apple butter as our wedding favors and even though that took a lot of time and work we loved the time we spent with family making them.

We hired Station Identification as our DJ. These guys are so fun!

We roasted each bridal party member before they were introduced at the reception to their own special song and that was so fun that many of our friends have kept this tradition going at their own weddings.

We also played a newlywed game right after our first dance that was great entertainment. We sat in the middle of the dance floor with two flags a pink one and a blue one as our DJ asked us questions like “who is messier”. It was different and something that our guest still talk about.

We did a first glance and took most our photos before the ceremony! It was awesome and helped relieve a ton of nerves and we got to spend most of the day together too. If you need help making the decision on a first look you should read this post.