Hi all! It’s been just over 5 weeks since my wedding and I
haven’t gotten my pictures (did get some previews) or video back (they are still within contract time)
My photographer said I should have my pictures by 6/20 but in the meantime I am
driving myself crazy thinking about the pictures we might have missed/didn’t
get. I am by nature a person who has to be in control and plan things out. I
totally trusted my photographer and gave her a little bit of direction
beforehand but on the day of I just let her do her thing and now I am sort of
regretting that because I know we missed some things I would have wanted 
So here’s my recap of the weekend starting
with the Friday rehearsal.
Rehearsal was a hot mess. The guy we rented the chairs from was late and was setting up while we were trying to do rehearsal. Plus, he was a jerk and acted like I was inconveniencing him to set the chairs up on the far end of the property. The kids (2 flower girls and 2 ring bearers) were crying and/or acting crazy. Everyone else in the bridal party seemed like they weren’t paying that much attention and having side conversations. My dog wanted nothing to do with being led on a leash by one of the flower girls and broke loose out of her collar and ran towards my Grandma (lol) I had no idea how the day of was going to turn out.
Setup was also chaos that Friday evening. I was the only one who knew how I wanted everything setup so I had 20+ people pulling me in every direction to ask where this went, how this get setup, etc. I wish I would have had a little group meeting and gave everyone a certain task so that I wasn’t so stressed and being pulled every which way.
The weather forecast was different on every weather app so we didn’t know what it was going to do as far as rain and being chilly. I had always imagined an outdoor ceremony so I was really torn on what to do/where to setup. The venue owner suggested we setup outside how I want it and then day of make the call by noon if the weather didn’t look promising. I was stressing about it the entire evening.
Wedding Day!
We woke up to a gorgeous sunny day. It started to get overcast by around noon but there was no rain in the forecast anymore until after 6pm, so we moved forward with the outdoor ceremony. Honestly, the weather was perfect both temperature wise and with it being cloudy it worked better for outdoor pictures. During our ceremony, the sun even peeked out for a little bit.
Hair and makeup for the girls started at 9:30 a.m. but I didn’t get started until around 11 a.m since I didn’t have to get in my dress until 1:45. I was running right on time, but to me, it felt like we were behind (you know because I’m always early) My hair and makeup was done at 1:30 but I still had to put on my lipstick and jewelry. Realized my mom and maid of honor were still in their “getting ready” clothes so they had to hurry and change quick. My photographer was taking pictures of me without my shoes on or jewelry and I kept saying to her I needed to do that but she kept saying it was ok to have some without? My bridal portraits were in the same spot the entire time so I hope those turn out ok.
TIP: put in the timeline/schedule when your mom and/or bridal party needs to get dressed. We didn’t have bridal party pictures until 3:15 and family pictures were after the ceremony so I never even thought about them needing to be dressed in the pictures of them helping me get into my dress.
After my bridal pics, the photographer went outside to get Daniel set in place for our first look. I felt like she was gone FOREVER and again had me freaking out about time. When she came and got me I walked outside and never grabbed my bouquet, not a huge deal, but that won’t be in our first look pics/video. Daniel didn’t have his boutonniere on yet either. They had me put my hand on his shoulder but for pictures wanted me to leave it there for a few seconds before he turned around so hopefully that doesn’t look weird in the video or they can edit some of that time out.
Couples pictures went well I think? We were in the same spot the entire time so hopefully I don’t regret that. I did want to get some pictures behind the barn with the natural wood but honestly everything goes so fast I didn’t even think of it on the day of. I wish I would have told my photographer that beforehand, I just assumed she would make that happen.
Next were bridal party pictures. Again, I hope we got enough of those because I felt so rushed for time even though we allowed the 45 minutes suggested. We lost 10 minutes or so because midway through we realized the guys didn’t have their boutonnieres on! I am also sad because we had an uneven bridal party and I wanted to get more of the modern bridal party pics where the guys and girls are mixed on each side vs. guys on one side girls on another, but again I didn’t even think of it until afterwards and hadn’t specifically mentioned that to my photographer.
TIP: put in the timeline/schedule when the guys are to put their boutonnieres on. We realized they didn’t have them during bridal party pics and spent 10 minutes of our picture time trying to get them on all the guys.
Guests started arriving early while we were outside still taking pictures. The venue owner was supposed to keep them from walking out where we were (near the ceremony site) but apparently that didn’t happen. So the bridal party surrounded me and tried to hide me while we walked back to the house.
For the ceremony, somehow, everyone ended up pulling it together, including the kiddos, from our chaotic rehearsal the night before. My sister (one of my bridesmaids) ended up walking the dog down the aisle since I got to thinking the flower girls couldn’t hold her leash, and toss flowers. It ended up working out great. The ceremony seemed to go so quick. I could swear the minister skipped an entire part (I put our ceremony script together) but everything was also a whirlwind so who knows? I wasn’t as nervous or emotional as I thought I would be. I think the first look really helped with that. I was annoyed afterwards though because the minister forgot to tell everyone to sit down so they stood the entire time. Honestly, I didn’t realize it though until someone told me. Also, I messed up repeating my vows AND messed up during the ring exchange too, lol.
We had family pictures after the ceremony and that felt like complete chaos. I had a list I had put together of pictures we wanted to get (groups) Well, all of our family members (specifically the older grandparents) started coming up to us and asking to get their picture taken so they didn’t have to stand and wait and/or because they wanted to join cocktail hour and get food. And then we started thinking of things we missed getting pictures of prior, i.e bridal party pics with the ring bearer and flower girls (because they weren’t there yet when we did pics) and also individual pics of bride with each groomsmen and groom with each bridesmaid. So the list went out the window and we were just basically taking requests! I wish I would have politely made an announcement that we have a list and want to go in order so that we don’t miss anything. I hope we didn’t? I quickly scanned the list but felt so rushed because people were telling us everyone was getting antsy for us to get into the reception and I still hadn’t bustled my dress yet!
TIP: plan to get grandparent photos FIRST before other ones because they don’t want to stand there waiting.
Dinner was a disappointment. I spent a lot of time contemplating what to do for our meal because I didn’t want the traditional buffet. We know the owner of a really nice upscale restaurant near us and hubby had said something to him when we first got engaged about catering. I talked with him several times and when I mentioned food stations he said he could do it and tried to work with us in our budget. I really wanted to have wood fired pizzas (we knew of someone with a mobile oven) but couldn’t find someone to co-cater with additional food like salads, pastas, apps, etc. plus Daniel wasn’t huge into the pizza idea, so I ended up using the owner of the restaurant because I felt like I had to at the point since I had gotten him involved. Also, he was the cheapest for the food station setup. I had spoken to him through the entire planning process and then found out 2 days before the wedding he wasn’t even going to be there, which was annoying. On the day of the food just ended up being not what I was expecting. Also once the line started down the stairs, everyone didn’t realize there were other stations so the line got long and backed up. I got mixed reviews from guests, some agreed with me the food wasn’t that great but others said it was fine.
The reception was great, but it went by SO FAST. There were so many people I didn’t get to talk to and I felt like I was hardly even with my new hubby because we kept getting pulled in different directions to talk to people. I was drinking but I didn’t drunk, however I keep trying to remember certain parts and it was seriously all such a whirlwind. I can’t wait to get our video back so that I can relive the day because I feel sad I don’t remember a lot of it!
So I know this sounds like I was complaining the entire time about things that went wrong. But guess what? All of that stuff doesn’t even matter. At the end of the day, I married my best friend. Also, NOBODY else knows any of this stuff. I got so many compliments after the wedding about our beautiful it was, how much fun they had, etc. Hopefully when I get my pictures and video back I will be able to agree with them (haha) but in the meantime I am just stressing myself out about all of this stuff!
Here are a few of our previews
Wedding Day
We just got married!
wedding day
bridal portrait
with our furbaby
