10 of My Biggest Wedding Regrets
June 23rd, 2018 was quite possibly one of the best days of my life! My husband and I had been dating long distance for 2.5 years and were so ready to be married and move to a new city together. Our wedding was the beginning of a new chapter for us and we couldn’t wait to celebrate with all of our loved ones. The venue we booked and the wedding vendors we hired were all so amazing and truly made our vision come to life. Despite it being the best day ever, if I had to do it over again, I would change some things. Here are 10 of my biggest wedding regrets so you don’t have the same ones after your wedding!
Not asking the officiant to step out of the way during our first kiss.
I know this might seem like a small thing, but it makes the BIGGEST difference in photos! I don’t know why we didn’t think of this at the time, but now we can look back on these photos and laugh as our officiant, Charles, stands awkwardly in the background while we share our fist kiss as husband and wife. This is something I always mention to couples in our final details meeting. Most couples say they never thought of that and definitely want the officiant to step out of the way for their first kiss. So be sure to ask your officiant to do this one small thing that makes a huge difference!
2. Choosing to get married on a hot Carolina summer day with no shade.
We got married on June 23rd in the scorching Carolina sun. At the time, we chose this date because I was a teacher and I had summers off. We could leave to go on our honeymoon immediately after our wedding since I didn’t have to work. I am not against summer weddings by any means, but I highly recommend not making your guests sit in the blazing sun for a 30-minute ceremony. Looking back, I wish we would have spent the money on a tent so our guests and our wedding party would be comfortable. I mean look how miserable my bridesmaids look standing up there in 90 degree weather!
3. Not hiring a shuttle service to get our guests safely to and from the venue.
Okay, if I had to choose, this would probably be my #1 wedding regret. Our wedding venue was in a rural part of town, 30 minutes away from Charlotte. Upon booking the venue, we were told there were “plenty of Ubers and Lyfts” in the area so we didn’t even question it. The day after our wedding we found out that several of our guests were stranded at the venue late into the night because there were no Ubers or Lyfts in the area. We felt terrible that we didn’t think ahead and provide a safe way home for our guests like a shuttle service to nearby hotels. Don’t worry- our guests ended up finding rides home, but don’t make the same mistake as us! Spend the little bit of extra money on transportation for your guests. They traveled all the way to celebrate you so it is the least you can do!
4. Not having late night munchies to help with the hangover the next day.
This would have been a game changer for the morning after. The majority of our wedding guests were friends our age. Because of this, a ton of alcohol was drank (we ran out of beer actually) and many of our guests (including me) woke up hungover the next day. Offering late night munchies towards the end of the reception or as guests are leaving is a great way to help your guests sober up and feel better the next morning. I highly recommend offering some sort of late night snack at the end of the night!
5. Not investing in a pair of comfy bridal shoes for the reception.
Most brides choose shoes that look great in pictures, but provide zero comfort. I was no different! My wedding shoes were super pretty and covered in rhinestones but started to hurt my feet at the beginning of the reception. I brought a pair of sandals that I had forever and wore all the time to change into before the dance floor opened. However, I regret not investing in a pair of super cute customized bridal sneakers. How cute (and comfy) would that have been? Ladies, don’t worry about how your feet will look like in photos at your reception, invest in the cute, comfy bridal shoes so you can dance the night away and not worry about stepping on broken beer bottles!
6. Not supplying enough alcohol.
My husband and I are huge craft beer fans so instead of doing “his” and “her” cocktails, we opted for “his” and “her” beers. Before dinner was even served, we ran out of “his” beer. My husband was devastated. Although our guest count was under 100, the majority of our guests drank and we did not take that into account when purchasing alcohol for the wedding. This is a common occurrence at numerous weddings I have seen. It is better to have more alcohol than not enough! Don’t make the same mistake that we did!
7. Not hiring a videographer.
Whoever said that your wedding day goes by “in a flash” was 100% right! There are so many details and moments from our wedding day that I don’t remember. Did we have wedding favors? What food did we eat? What did we say in our wedding vows? What song was I singing in the photo to the left? All of these things and more are big question marks I have about our wedding day. This is exactly why I wish we hired a videographer who could have documented what couldn’t be captured in photos. Not every couple wants to spend the money to hire a videographer, but I personally wish we had!
8. Spending money on wedding programs.
The amount of wedding programs we found in the trash or left at the tables at the end of the night was insane! Although programs are a nice touch, they are totally unnecessary and a waste of money in my opinion. My sister-in-law did an amazing job designing our programs and we love them for that reason alone, but we didn’t need to spend hundreds of dollars for something that was going to be thrown out or left at the end of the evening. Looking back, I wish we would have spent our money elsewhere.
9. Not ordering enough food to feed our vendors good food!
If you are reading this and are a wedding vendor, I know you are probably cringing right now. Don’t worry, we fed our vendors but chose to purchase vendor meal boxes for them instead of ordering enough food for them to enjoy our delicious Carolina BBQ spread! Now there is nothing wrong with ordering your vendors boxed meals, but why not share the deliciousness that is your wedding menu with the people who helped bring your vision for your day to life! Five years later, I still remember all of our wedding vendors, including our awesome DJ- DJ Bradley (pictured left). The dance floor was packed all night and he made our night so much fun! He deserved some BBQ!
10. Doing the bouquet and garter toss.
I firmly believe that many couples incorporate certain wedding traditions into their big day simply because it is expected or because everyone does it. Five years ago, the bouquet and garter toss were all the rage. I didn’t want to incorporate them into our reception, but I felt like I had to because it was “tradition.” I am here to tell you that it is YOUR day so you can do WHATEVER you want to do! If you want to have a more traditional wedding and do the bouquet and garter toss, that’s great. If you think it is super awkward and cringeworthy and don’t want to do it, that’s great too!
My wedding day was one of the best days of my life. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have some things I would have changed about it. My goal in writing this blog post was to help you think of things you perhaps never thought of before and to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes as I did like not ordering enough alcohol or booking a transportation service for your guests to get home safely at the end of the night. If you are engaged, I hope you learned something valuable that can you can apply to your wedding day! If you are already married, what are some of your biggest wedding regrets? We would love to hear all about them!
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Photo Credit: We are One Photography
