I'm in the airport on the way back to New Orleans where I live from our wedding in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where I was born and lived most of my life. I have so many thoughts and feelings, and definitely did NOT have a perfect wedding by any means. Many, many things went wrong even though I was INCREDIBLY organized the entire process. My Day of Coordinator, even though having many positive reviews, was incredibly disappointing. She owned her business with her husband who was also the dj, and while he was a good dj, his master of ceremonies skills left tons to be desired. Many things I communicated to them both never came to fruition, and my friends and family ended up having to step up to make sure things happened the way I wanted. For example, the DJ did not tell people to go up to the buffet once dinner was ready, my mom had to tell him to announce it. I wanted to get to the reception in the middle of cocktail hour and mingle before doing an "official entrance." Instead, he announced us when I got there at the half way point and then immediately went into toasts. I had to sit there for 20 minutes when all I wanted was A DRINK!! My family also said the coordinator was flat out rude to my guests before the ceremony. I am pretty sure if I didn't have a coordinator, just a dj, I would not have missed having one whatsoever, that's how disappointing she was.
Other things that went wrong: We pushed our alter to the back of the stage to take pictures, no one ever pushed it forward for the ceremony. The PA system at the ceremony venue didn't work properly and everyone sat in silence for 5 minutes while my friend was trying to fix it. The Officiant, a mutual friend of ours started reading the ceremony script before the processional! I had to scream at my coordinator to stop him and it was incredibly awkward and embarrassing. For those thinking about asking friends, please THINK HARD about the person you ask because it really can go disastrously wrong.
HOWEVER, I will say, after the music finally played and I was on stage reading my vows to my almost-husband, everything that went wrong magically melted away. Two of my best friends gave AMAZING readings, I could hear many, many people crying while we were reading our vows, and the music worked perfectly for our recessional. The reception was soooooo fun, everyone said they loved the food, and while we only had 63 people, tons danced and everyone said they loved the music. My husband and I took a pedi-cab from the reception to the after-party and people cheered us as we drove by the entire way. It was magical!
I'm here to tell you, that not everyone has a perfect wedding, but it will STILL be magical and memorable. I am not sure how I would have known my coordinator and dj would have turned out so disappointing, since literally every review they got was 5 stars. I think that just boiled down to bad luck, or maybe a bad day on their part. I plan on doing a full budget breakdown in another post, but we spent roughly 14k with 63 people RSVPing and attending, although a few people ended up leaving very early on in the reception.
Some pictures:
