1.) weddings are not a one size fits all! Everyone has their own “vision” of theme, what just offered, traditional/non traditional, ect. The biggest thing for us was to stick to our guns on what we wanted and not let anyone tell us otherwise which leads me to my next point.
2.) DONT BE AFRAID TO SAY NO AND SAY WHAT YOU WANT! I was way too relaxed and wishy washy pretty much up until the day of. I was too worried on hurting people’s feelings and making the wrong decision that I said yes to things I should have said no to. Example being having my husbands stepmothers aunt come to the rehearsal dinner when we didn’t invite his siblings. It’s a long story but I completely regret inviting her. It was not worth it. But can’t go back now. The photographer was great, but I should have asked for certain photos. I felt like I was going to insult her if I asked for specific shots. It’s so stupid, if you want a photo just ask lol!
3.) listen to your body the day of. If you need to drink water, drink water. If you’re hungry sit down and eat. My biggest thing was to sit down, eat dinner and take our time. We did and it was the best decision we made for ourselves. We had more than enough time to greet everyone at their tables, so it was not an issue.
4.) if you fluctuate in size, be safe than sorry, order a size up! This was a hard lesson for me. I told myself I would lose weight and I’ll be ok to order an inch smaller instead of an inch bigger. Boy was I wrong. Thankfully I found an amazing seamstress that worked magic and made everything work. She was amazing and my dress was beautiful and it fit!
5.) be careful on cutting corners! I am not a huge flower person and only needed flowers for bouquets, boutineeres, corsages and an orchid. I went to a local grocery store and used their floral department for our flowers. It was a huge mistake. I should have spent the money and went with a real florist. My bouquet was falling apart within an hour, the color of the roses were horrible, and then corsages were absolutely horrible. They took the boutineeres (sorry I know it’s spelled wrong) and just added wristlets on them, so the very long stem was poking on the mother’s arms and were very uncomfortable.
aside from everything that happened, it was a beautiful day. It was not overwhelming and I was able to cherish it all. I never felt rushed or pulled in too many directions. We had about 90 people show up, all friends and family.
