Oops! Planning Mistakes you Made?

Not budgeting in tax and gratuity!! Sales tax @ 7.5% and Gratuity @ 18-25% can murder a well planned budget if you don't think about it in time. I remembered early enough to correct my mistake, thank God.

I booked three vendors for the wrong date!

But it was only for the celebration we're having, not the actual wedding so I wasn't too worried - I caught it far enough out to be able to make changes

@Chip -- I get dates easily confused, so I've been pretty paranoid about doing that!

Didn't pay a deposit fast enough for a photographer we loved, so our date was booked with her for another couple. Luckily we found a photographer with a very similar style so we put the deposit down right away!

I left wayyyy too much stuff until the last minute. I was a mess after the rehearsal dinner and didn't go to bed till 3 am the morning of the wedding. All our families from out of town were here the week of the wedding so obviously we wanted to spend time with them - and I ran out of time to get way too many things done.

Try your best to get all this stuff done the week before the wedding week if you can:

-Finish gift shopping

-Wrap your gifts

-Write all your thank you cards and letters to your parents or fiancé if you're doing that

-Figure out if you need any cash (for hair and makeup etc) and go to the ATM

-Pack your bag for the night before (if you're staying somewhere else) and a bag for the day of the wedding with essentials

-Make sure all dresses are steamed and ready

I booked my venue before checking on the church's availability, and so we had to switch to the weekend after. It worked out fine as the reception venue still had that weekend available and didn't charge us to change the date that one time, but it was my first official bride freak-out haha.

I booked my MUA for the wrong day...TWICE! smh.

My biggest mistake was letting stress get the best of me. Get plenty of sleep, eat well, limit alcohol and drink plenty of water in the weeks leading up to the wedding. I was getting sick (or my allergies were acting up, I guess I don't know which it was) on the day, and I lost my voice. I'm convinced it's because I wasn't taking good enough care of myself. Thankfully my BM gave me tea and bourbon to help my throat!

1. I forgot to put stamps on the return envelopes

2. I forgot copies of the 2 ceremony readings. My sister & friend had to read from their phones

3. My dad's speech (this one stings the most). He is a shy guy (he didn't want to say anything at our engagement dinner) and I assumed the same for the wedding. NEVER ASSUME. DH's parents didn't attend, so it was only my MOH and DH BM that gave speeches. After that my step mom said that my dad had a speech prepared and that he was practicing all night. I tried to convince him that he can still do it, but he was kind of relieved that he didn't have to. He ended up giving it to us instead and we read it in front of him at our table. Tear. I have it in my wallet to this day and I had it printed on 2 handkerchiefs (one for me) and the other I gave to him for Father's Day.

Ordering an invite for every guest, instead of one per couple.

Forgetting the bridal party in head count numbers(this was caught pretty early)

I haven't (yet) but my sister was married last year and she called me crying at 9am the day of... She had forgotten to buy her bra!

I went to 3 different stores hunting for a white strapless bra size 38DD. Finally found one and rushed it to her.

Planning a wedding we didn't necessarily want (large, local wedding), and having to lose out on deposits when we finally found our voice and talked it over with our families (now we're having an intimate destination wedding in Kauai)! Fortunately we weren't super deep into the planning process, but it still wasn't fun to lose out on $1500 (which also could have been worse, but still that's a good chunk). So yet another lesson learned about being more assertive (a constant struggle I have been battling)!

My biggest mistake is sharing my plans with my MIL... Don't do it

Hmmm probably sending STDs to everyone. I locked in my guest list in January(!!) for my semi-DW and I regret inviting several people.

We didn't save at all for the wedding the first year we were engaged. We intentionally had a 2 year engagement in order to save but didn't so this year has been stressful and tiring living on a very limited budget.

There will be more I'm sure! Just trying to stay calm, drink water, and exercise.

Choosing my bridal party too early. I didn't think anything of it, and of course that was before I discovered wedding wire. There are reasons you don't choose too early and I wish I knew that before. But having never been married before, I just went with the excitement of getting engaged and thought people would be asking me who is in the wedding, so I chose. Wish I hadn't done that. But, what's done is done and I'll make the best of it!

So far we've been good but it's still early and after lurking here I've got notes written worth helpful hints and to dos

Asking my bridal party too early- it was before I found ww. Making my accommodations cards too soon. The hotels I wanted to use, aren't the ones we have a block at. So now I get to redo those. That's all so far. I'm pretty sure there will be a lot more as we get closer.

On the flip side, I'm already thinking of when to take time off from work before/after the wedding.

I spent $150 on decorations before I had our venue. They're lovely and fit aesthetically, but we don't really need them anymore because our venue provides so much stuff. I feel like I need to use them because I spent money but figuring out what to do with them is stressing me out.

We worked so hard to find a date that we thought would work for everyone but of course it didn't. Apparently in Tennessee school starts the Monday after our wedding, which is super early in August, so some kids aren't coming and people are annoyed. I wish I'd internalized the mantra that you can't please everyone earlier.

I thought I was going to DIY my makeup, and realized very late in the game it was a bad idea. I found a MUA off instagram, but all the popular people in my area had been booked for months.

I second not budgeting for taxes! We are spending $650 in taxes for the catering that we did not budget for. Ugh.