Review your wedding day

ampafc

Hi all,

As a groom to be (August 10, 2012) I am excitied and nervous about the big day! So it's great to read all the pre and post wedding tips on this forum, so that I and others can have some sort of expectations about what will happen on the day (although every wedding is of course different).

So could we make this a thread for those that are married to remember and review their big day? What was the best/worst things about your wedding? Anything that you would have done differently? Anything that you wish you had spent more/less money on?

Would love to hear the story of your day!

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continualdiamond

Well background info:

Wedding: Fri 26th Aug 2011
Venue: Small village pub
Guest: 25
Bridal party: Best man + bridesmaid

Best things: My parents + sister being here. I'm from Australia & they visited England for the 1st time since me moving here 8 years ago. Our wedding came about because of the holiday so I'd have my immediate family here. Having the wedding we wanted and enjoying every bit.

Worst things: Weather....Friday 26th for us was a wash out, lucky we didn't get married outside. It rained from the moment I got up to arriving at the venue. So at least I managed to walk inside without it raining, rain also held off for photos, but mean't we couldn't go down to the river and have photos with the lovely river and countryside in the background, due to the ground being soaking wet + muddy. Were restricted to photos at the venue only. Also couldn't have photos outside as we left for the venue, all photos with my parents + sister had to be taken inside.

Differently: Missed out on some photos, should of written a list and handed it to the photographer. We also forgot to take photos of the reception, just general ones. Loads of people had cameras, but were just having a great time that not many were captured in the relaxed atmosphere.

If I had a choice, I would of loved allll my family back in Australia to have come over. All my cousins, aunties/uncles and my grandparents. We tried having it set up live over the internet, but the village pub didn't have good internet reception.

Budget: Nope, can honestly say I don't wish we had spent more or less money on the actual wedding. We had a low budget wedding (Just over £2,500) and it was perfect. Even though the weather wasn't kind to us, it created memories and the day is what you make of it. We didn't have a honeymoon as funds didn't stretch that far. But we did have a fab August with my parents & sister.

floss2

Date: 3rd September 2010
Venue: Blackpool Town Hall & The Imperial Hotel Blackpool
Guests: 42 / 85

Best things were the tram ride for all the guests from the Town Hall to the venue and the band doing an acoustic set outside on the terrace as it was such a beautiful evening.

Worst thing was not having my parents there (both deceased) and having the reception on the hottest day in September, in a room with one wall of windows that faced west with no aircon, which made for a very warm room in the evening.

The only thing we would have done differently was to arrange to have the band outside all evening, as it was too warm in the room & not everyone saw our first dance.

We wouldn't have spent any more or less than we did, as we had everything we wanted and the extra bits on top that I arranged to surprise DH.

ampafc

Tram ride sounds fab! Great idea!

RainbowDrops

A few things spring to mind that might be of use to the OP.

I'd have gotten married earlier - just so we could party for longer! We got married at 3, though, and it worked out good with food timings. Alternatively I'd have added an hour at the end of the night for more partying!

We spent £1,000 on a band, which I was concerned about becaus of the cost. However, they were worth every penny & more - the dance floor was never empty, and a few friends have since used that band for their own parties.

I'm glad I didn't go over board with decorations & favours. At the end of the day, although it's "cute" to have little personal accessories, the things that people commented on that made the day "US" was the venue (a farm), the food, and the partying. Excluding flower arrangements, my only accessories / deccies / favours costs were:
£40 for personalised love hearts
£20 for seed favours
£5 for glow sticks (we had a final hour of rave!)

The only other "regret" was leaving OH to get thank you gifts for the groomsmen. He didn't bother, which is fair enough, but I felt sheepish that everyone else on the top table got something except for them.

And speaking of Top Tables, I totally reccomend getting a round one - far more relaxed & social.

neenaww

On the beach
In Mauritius 3weeks ago
Just me and him
Perfect weather
Perfect day
Relaxed (sunbathing morning of wedding!)
Stress free
Amazing!!!!

Wouldn't change a thing!

Party for family& friends to follow!

katini

neenaww wrote: »

On the beach
In Mauritius 3weeks ago
Just me and him
Perfect weather
Perfect day
Relaxed (sunbathing morning of wedding!)
Stress free
Amazing!!!!

Wouldn't change a thing!

Party for family& friends to follow!

That sounds amazing!!

neenaww

it was Katini ... there are some pics in the thread somewhere!!

MaggieBaking

ampafc wrote: »

Hi all,
So could we make this a thread for those that are married to remember and review their big day? What was the best/worst things about your wedding? Anything that you would have done differently? Anything that you wish you had spent more/less money on?

Where - Manchester
When - November 2010
Guests - 60 day/80 evening
Budget - £6-7k

Best advice:

Best money saving tip - have a last minute, off season wedding for ultimate reductions. Off season meant all guests could attend too.

Don't let anyone tell you what a wedding "needs" - eg, if you think favours are useless don't do them.

If you have a good instinct, trust suppliers who are "inexperienced", some really can work magic.

Best things about our wedding:

It's difficult to plan a wedding as a bride trying to keep the groom in mind. In the end I kept reminding myself that even though I disagreed with some of his ideas, what mattered to him should be important to me. It was the best day of his life and that means a lot to me.

The tasks I gave my friends and family to do helped make the day feel so much more personal and special. It's easy for me to say as I didn't do them :rotfl: but I enjoyed releasing some of my inner control freak and it was wonderful to see the talents of them being appreciated.

I laughed, a lot. Our wedding was fun and slightly whimsical, as we are and I tried hard not to lose what made us special.

Do what matters to you when arranging it. I budgeted not just for the basics we could afford, but what I knew we would want. Allow your splurges. I get really great satisfaction from the expensive touches that I really appreciated, like our table decorations.

Do make sure you get the digital copies of your wedding photographs. There's so much I have done with mine, and so much I have yet to do, a year later. I couldn't bear to think of ordering prints directly from the photographer.

Worst things about our wedding:

People did bug me with things on the day. It's extremely stressful having invested so much in the planning for it, on the day I lost my ability to think and say "I don't give a !!!!!!, go bother someone else".

I was getting a little overwhelmed on the day - my Aunt came up to me and said - "I remember what my day was like, it can feel very immense. Don't try and take it all in, just flow with it." Sound advice.

What I would have done differently:

We got married on the Saturday, flew away on Tuesday AM. If I could do it again I would leave it till Thursday maybe, so I didn't have to stress about packing before the big day.

Do take a couple of days off from wedding planning in the week run up. I got very sick from being run down. I would have gone to a spa.

Some of my favourite things

I bought my husband a card from here http://www.etsy.com/transaction/37695212 that said "See you at 2", along with a small present of some smiley face cufflinks that he was given an hour or two before the wedding.

I did an "eye-spy" with some disposable cameras and printed off the card for my bridesmaids - http://www.marthastewartweddings.com/article/i-spy-conversation-starter
I then made a personalised photobook for them called "My Day as a Bridesmaid" filled with the professional pictures and then a small section on the photos they took on the day.

Venue lighting made a dramatic difference to the look and feel. It was a couple of hundred but made the place look amazing.

A cheap way of unifying our theme was to use some straws http://www.papermash.co.uk/products/striped-paper-straws We used them in the reception drinks and the venue swapped out their regular straws for ours at the bar. A great inexpensive way off adding colour.

Floralytes in the centrepieces looked great in the evening.

A home-made photobooth was everyone's favourite part of the day! It's definitely in my top 3 moments.

The speeches were my favourite part of the whole day - I have a digital copy of both and I hope to immortalise them somehow. Perhaps I'll write them up in my photobook.

Idiophreak

Wedding: Sat 30 July 2011
Venue: Church then marquee by the river
Guest: 130
Bridal party: 3 bridesmaids, 2 best men, 2 ushers, 1 groomsman.
Honeymoon: Month in America

The Day: Stayed overnight near the venue...Church wedding. Then on to reception venue (in lovely Jag) for rolling canapes, dish food and stir-fry cooked to order. Champagne (well, sparkling wine ), mojitos and wine served all night. Live music with iPod disco inbetween and after.

Best things: Just the whole thing, really, but especially:
Loved spending time with my mates in the build up - they were so supportive and helpful.
Got a great present - awesome TH watch that I adore.
My beautiful bride - she looked so amazing.
Food - I ate shamefully little, but the few things I had were yummy.
Music - great live band.
Cocktails - I was unsure about Mojitos on arrival - but they went down very well!
Seeing everyone - a lot of people I'd not seen for a shamefully long time, so nice to catch up.

Worst things: That it had to come to an end

Differently: Honestly, in this world, I don't think I'd have done a single thing differently. The whole thing was just perfect for us. In another life, where we were rich, it would have been great to give everyone attending the wedding accommodation so it could have gone on a bit longer...But it ended around 2AM anyway, which isn't too shabby.

Budget: Spent far more than originally intended (3x as much). Splashed out on some things, missed some things out altogether - but think we got pretty good value overall.

Idiophreak

(by the way - a great idea for a thread...I've been meaning to start something similar. I find it interesting how different people react to their wedding days after such a lot of stress and planning )