The long and winded post wedding breakdown with lots of pics!!
It’s been an entire week since 8/23/19 when I married my amazing HUSBAND. Still weird saying that.
Here are some important things I took away from my wedding. Firstly, it’s not going to work out according to plan. No matter how type A you are like me. For the most part everything went smoothly and what didn’t ended up working itself out. It’s true what they say it’s not worth getting worked up or upset over. Laugh it off, have another glass of champagne and remember the bigger picture.The Perfect: I married my best friend!! And a full week of wedding fun!
The Good:
We had such a blast on our Bachventure pre-wedding weekend. It was sunny and couldn’t have been better with the use of his BM trailer and us upgrading to a private hot tub campsite (if you stay at a KOA and have the option, do it!) I went caving and hiking with my girls and we may have bonded over skinny dipping in glacial waters which is as cold as you think. The boys rented a party pontoon and we all had a blast tubing and boating, and they surprised us with SUP boards.
Andrew loved all the things I planned for him – the stand-up comedian first night of our trip to the surprise grooms cake with otter toppers.
I got to spend a lot of quality time with my girlfriends I hadn’t seen in forever, as well as time with my mom – bonus this was her first trip in about 20 years due to long-term illness, and I was so blessed to see her finally pulling through the other side and enjoying the trip and week with us.
The wedding was gorgeous, the weather was gorgeous, I felt gorgeous and there was so much love happiness surrounding us. All family and friends got along and future trips have been plotted out! It was also so much fun taking the ski lifts and doing photos on the mountain top, that 30 mins before the ceremony with my fiancé was bliss.
All my hard work on myself the last year paid off. I felt stunning and wonderful and comfortable in my dress and had so many compliments, I made myself proud for really sticking with my goal and was glowing on my wedding day, not one bit self-conscious being videoed and photographed.
Everyone complimented me on my cool as a cucumber attitude the entire wedding day, heck week! I was stressed but seriously, YOLO, and didn’t let it get to me. Apparently I was the most chill bride ever, I was just having a blast.
Our choreographed first dance was a hit and surprised everyone my man can tap dance! Take a few dance lessons if you can, so fun.
All the guys pulled together to help assemble the chuppah and décor, it was wonderful! Even installing the bistro lights I didn’t think could reach an outlet and it really made the dance floor pop.
My husband found a cake smashing loophole and smashed a whoopie pie in my face, I got him back though.
The Bad:
We had to fire our caterer the week out. Then did DIY catering which the BBQ we had delivered tasted great, unfortunately - find a good caterer!!! The bar and appetizers were such a headache for everyone trying to help us, and once I let go of type A everything broke, lines of communication were skewed and many many things were forgotten or not done. I noticed but just stopped caring, my DOC was a rockstar trying to help piece together everything that broke but I could tell it was stressing her out. One of our mixed drinks didn’t turn out and there were only nuts and crackers to munch on – which at that point I was starving so that bummed me out. Everyone loved the dinner buffet, but I did wish we had actual catering and bar.
The centerpieces weren’t great, I paid my florist for what I am assuming is my amazing bouquet and our sweetheart table because everything else lacked. This was also because so so so many of the rentals were missing, including the cake cutting set, when packing up the next day it turns out no one opened the décor suitcases even though they were heavy to find all the missing rentals – also no one brought us the mule mugs I had custom made for us to use.
Speaking of missing centerpieces, DOC didn’t put up table assignments or escort cards and when the DJ announced we’d be taking our seats for speeches before the dinner it was a mess getting everyone in the right place.
DOC also dipped out for a couple hours for another job obligation – that bugged me some, but everything got put together, I only wonder if this hadn’t of happened would the things that didn’t go well have actually gone well?
HUGE regret. Not insisting on a photographer especially after the fiasco with the catering. We did have a videographer all day and hopefully once we get that back there will be plenty of picture stills to pull off it, but until then.. his sister took our photos and while they’re okay, some of the phone camera photos were a lot better. And all my getting ready pictures aren’t good at all. Love her but her photography skills are not great.
My bridesmaid misplaced my husbands vows and our marriage license, it was a rush for two guys to run back during the ceremony to get it and bring it to us literally as I was finishing my vows… which wouldn’t have stressed me out but…
No one was listening to my timeline and all the boys were running late because even though I sent everyone the address they went somewhere else and we were late for pictures which made us 30 mins late (aka right on time) for the ceremony. But the Rabbi wasn’t pleased and very visibly upset, and almost left before we even got there. This also made us rush down the aisle and I HATE rushing, it really took away from that bridal moment and I am so sad I missed out on a slow tender walk, I can’t even remember looking at my husband as I was basically running to the alter. The rest of the ceremony I really had to get out of my head because it did stress me then and only then, since I hate being late to things.
My maids had a dress fiasco which involved tears and I finally had to offer up backup dresses but (pic included of us 4) it worked out in the end due to sharing of resources.The Moral:
Being type A and planning a wedding is a headache, even worse when you want to control things yourself and no one will let you because you’re the bride. But it did force me to let go and enjoy the chaos of the day. Everyone said it was the best wedding they’d ever been to and the dance floor was never empty. My favorite part other than marrying my one and only was after our epic sparkler exit at sunset and peeling off in a shiny blue Charger Hellcat we escaped to a closing bar and they provided us with Corona and water and it was just me and him, having a beer and enjoying each other. The moments we took for ourselves were the best, I’m so glad I had an unrushed first look, the extra alone time on the chair lift, the 15 min Yichud post ceremony and the getaway and post-wedding beer at a bar.
Just try to soak up every little moment with your man, don’t stress about long conversations with people because you can chat and dance like I did and the day really is about you and your husband.
Budget…uh. It was $15K, he wanted it around $12K. Total, I mean we kind of went YOLO after the catering was done away with, We totaled in at least under $15K because we ended up paying for the bulk of everything (probably everything realistically) with our wedding party expenses and Bachventure Weekend, the extra EXTRA costs it takes to DIY catering, the dinners out, flights and loft for the weekend, plus excursions. Now planning out a 20 day honeymoon (gift from hubby) from Madrid – Marrakesh – Athens – Romania – Prague – Paris (in lieu of Panama, for now). And now relishing all the moments good and bad because it was one hell of a party and week, and was over in the blink of an eye #samdrewsayido !
