I've been looking at my wedding pictures at least once a day since I got them back from my photographer (if you haven't seen my pictures then you should look at my previous post and check out Kayce Shoffner's work. She is awesome!). It's all still sinking in that I really am married. I love looking back and reliving the day that I married my best friend, but in all my reminiscing I have come up with a list of do's and don'ts that I have learned from planning my own DIY wedding.
1. DO! Eat! Seriously, have someone who will be willing to nag you, pull you away from doing things and shove food down your throat. I can probably give you a list of the things I ate on my wedding day and had it not been for my dear friend sticking food in my hand and saying "EAT THIS!", I wouldn't have eaten anything until dinner. They also bribed me and said if I didn't eat I wasn't allowed to have any champagne. It worked.
2. DON'T! Forget to give everyone their gifts! I gave my bridesmaids their gifts, and remembered to send my gift to my groom but completely forgot to give my mom and my mother in law their gifts! Whoops. :/
3. DO! Make a list of everything that needs done! And then make copies of that list and give to your maid of honor, your groom, your mom, your mother in law....anyone and everyone! After I was taken to get my hair and makeup done there were things that never got done. It's nobody's fault, they didn't know. So we didn't have a nice glass for communion, and the juice wasn't poured, and the bread wasn't taken out of the bag. Ya know, just little details that made a sacred moment just a bit tacky. Nobody else cared but I did.
4. DON'T! Let people talk you out of doing something you want to do! I knew I wanted to do a first look as soon as I got engaged but then I talked to a couple different people about it. I was told that seeing your groom before the ceremony took away from the moment when he first see's you walking down the aisle and I didn't want to miss out on that. After meeting with my photographer she sent me an article to read about first looks and how so many couples say that it doesn't do that at all! That "this is happening!" emotion is still just as genuine and real if you see your groom before or not. Do what you want to do and don't let anyone's opinion change it! You'll only regret something if it's something you didn't really want to do.
5. DO! Delegate! Seriously, you are one person and cannot be in ten places at the same time. This goes for the day of and all the planning leading up to the wedding. I really didn't ask for much help throughout the planning process until the very end. I realized how important it is to ask for help when I had to make 150 wedding favors. Had I done it myself it probably would have taken me a couple days, but since I had a great group of friends knock them out, it only took about 2 hours! And it was super fun!
6. DON'T! Let tradition hold you back from doing something original. If you are really back and forth about keeping a tradition, look up the history of the tradition. Ten bucks says you'll be like what the heck and then want to do your own thing even more! Do you know how the tradition of the bride and groom not seeing each other before the wedding started? It was to make sure the groom didn't run away after seeing the bride! So if you're certain you got a keeper, do yourself a favor and see him before the ceremony. Seriously, it's one of the best choices I made!
7. DO! Have someone else do your hair and makeup! Yes, I could have very well done it myself but I wouldn't have looked nearly as great and I wouldn't have gotten to have a chance to just sit for and hour and a half and just soak in the day. It forced me to just sit still and let everything happen. I didn't pay big bucks for a hair stylist and makeup artist but I did ask a wonderful friend who is gorgeous herself and I really wanted to be part of my day to come make me look gorgeous. And seriously, she did an amazing job! If you have a friend who you love the way they look, chances are they will make you look good too.
8. DON'T! Buy one of the cute personalized wire hangers with your married name or bride off of etsy! I love etsy and found so much stuff for my wedding on there but save yourself $20 and make the hangers yourself. They are so not hard and for $11 I made five of them! I not only had a cute hanger for myself but also for my three bridesmaids and flower girl. They each had a hanger with their name and it was adorable! So go buy the supplies, get on youtube, find a tutorial and DIY!
9. DO! Have a wedding coordinator! No, not a wedding planner. I was completely against paying someone to do what I knew I could do but I didn't know that a wedding planner and a wedding coordinator are two completely different things! A wedding planner helps with all the planning and decorating and food and stuff. A wedding coordinator makes sure everything happens on time and everyone is where they need to be. I was so lucky that one of my dear friends was able to step in during the rehearsal and run the whole show! She took the load off of my shoulders and made sure everything was happening smoothly. I am convinced had she not been there I would not have enjoyed my wedding as much as I did.
10. DON'T! Stress if everything doesn't go exactly as planned. It rained during our reception. Not just a little shower, it poured!! We didn't end up doing quite a few things that we planned. We were gonna do a first dance (my husband wanted to do that), we had written songs for each other
to sing during the reception, and we had s'mores to make! We ended up just scratching the dance and the songs and only the people who waited out the storm got to make s'mores. Heres the thing, yes I when I was dreaming and pinteresting these things sounded like things I just had to include in my day but when it comes down to it your wedding isn't about what you did or didn't do during the event, its about being married to the one you love. As long as that happens, then I'd say your day was nothing less then perfect!
Happy Wedding Planning!
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