TL;DR – I have our wedding planned in full but time is getting the better of me and I’m not sure if I change any of the details. For those who are married already, what did you realise after your wedding that you should have changed? I am trying to think whether anything needs tweaking.
To summarise our wedding, FH and I will be marrying in the sandstone courtyard of a 19th century mint (coining factory) in the late afternoon. There is an elevated garden on which the ceremony will be conducted under a cherry blossom tree. ‘Doors’ will ‘open’ to guests 30 minutes before the ceremony during which time they can mingle in an undercover (and air conditioned) open patio before taking to their seats. Afterward, there is a 30 minute gap to allow time for guests to travel to the reception venue for cocktail hour (the journey is about 15 minutes on foot or by car so 30 minutes will allow a little bit of time for stragglers). We will have about 2.5 hours for photos before and after the ceremony.
At our reception venue, a 19th century grand Victorian ballroom, cocktail ‘hour’ will run for about 30-45 minutes before guests are ushered to their seats. Favours will be waiting for guests at their tables – shortbread cookies I will make which have ‘Mr and Mrs [name]’ embossed on them. Guests will be offered canapes and drinks from a full open bar. Once the reception kicks off, guests will be served a 3 course meal plus additional foods at the table to share (i.e. salads, caviar on blini etc) and wedding cake at the end of the night. We have a 5 piece band who will hopefully get people off their seats and onto the dance floor.
In a nutshell, the vision we have in mind is black tie opulence (and yes, I know that by American standards it is not ‘black tie’ since our ceremony is at a separate location and outdoors but by Australian standards this is a pretty swanky affair!).
Time is getting the better of me and I’m trying to decide if there is anything I should change or add on. I feel like it all will go seamlessly as is and works out but I’m not sure if there is anything that could benefit from tweaking. So my question is, for the married ladies – if you had a chance to do it again, what from your wedding would you change? Trying to see if there are any lessons to be learned which I can apply ahead of the big day!
