4 Things I Would Change About My Wedding

My wedding will always be my favorite wedding ever. In that one day, I saw so many of my dreams come true! Marrying a handsome, godly man, feeling beautiful in the perfect dress, my dad tearing up for our last dance...

But everyone has things they would do differently if they could go back, even if they were to go back to a nearly-perfect moment. So I'm going to share 4 things I would do differently if I could plan it all over again, for 2 reasons: 1) so that I can process my regrets in a healthy way instead of getting salty about them and 2) to hopefully give new brides a few tips!
This post is not to complain, or to express my saltiness (I don't lose sleep about these little regrets!) but only because I think it is interesting to hear about what other brides would have done differently, so hopefully this is interesting to you, too.

1) Have a wedding planner/mistress of ceremonies

My mom was a rockstar when it came to pulling everything together. My family really did help me create everything I wanted/needed. But when the day itself came, it would have been really nice to have someone else to communicate everything and make sure everyone was where they needed to be. All of the groomsmen showed up late, the musician started singing late, the photographer took pictures in all the places I didn't want pictures, and Jon didn't even show up until guests started showing up!

None of these things truly stressed me out, and everything turned out fine. But everything would have gone smoother if I had a "go-to girl" or someone who could have handled these things for me or started chasing people down when they didn't show up on time.

Having someone else who understood my needs and vision for the day would have been helpful to answer the questions my mom and I weren't available to answer before the ceremony.

My brothers were the only groomsmen that showed up when they were supposed to!

2) Spend more time with my bridesmaids

I tried to be a low-maintenance bride and not ask too much of my bridesmaids, or girlfriends who weren't in the wedding. But I realized later that I missed my chance to spend some really great time with them! Part of it was because of the lack of time from planning a wedding in 2 months, and part of it was because most of my friends were still single and couldn't help with wedding stuff too much.
BUT I am finding now that hanging out with girlfriends is much much different as a married person, and being a bride is an awesome opportunity to get those last moments of single-girl time.

All of my bridesmaids - and girlfriends who couldn't fit in the bridal party - were all SO so important to me, but I don't know if they ever truly felt like they were important because I was rushing around so much. These are the people I don't get to see very much any more, and I wish I had realized that sooner.

All my lovely bridesmaids at our rehearsal dinner.

3) Get a full-time/professional photographer 

Even better, have two photographers!
Daytona was an awesome photographer, and gave us a great deal because she was a friend of ours. However, she was not able to do everything we needed her to do because she was not a full-time photographer. We have pictures in the wrong places because she couldn't come to the rehearsal, and we have no pictures from the rehearsal dinner because she was at her other job. 

Like I said, her photography was great, but I didn't realize before I hired her that she was not going to be as available as I needed her to be because of her other job.
(Also, there are certain moments/angles that can only be captured by more than one photographer. And if you ask me, it's worth the stretch on your budget!)

A side-note to this regret is not getting the ceremony recorded or video-taped in any way... again, partly due to not having enough planning, but I terribly wish I could at least listen to our vows again!

My "first look" with Dad... such a big moment, in such a bad location!

4) Invite more people

I know it isn't budget-friendly, but I definitely regret being so tight on the guest list. I especially wish I had invited more of our parents' friends who had poured into our lives when we were younger, and invited ALL of the high school kids I was close with when I was leading at Deep Creek High. There were definitely some people that I didn't realize were important to me until I missed their presence at our wedding.
The plan for a wedding is for it to only happen once (i.e., plan for a lifelong marriage!). So it makes more sense to invite everyone to a once-in-a-lifetime event in your life.

(Besides, the more the merrier, right?;)

My friend Scottie from Deep Creek and my teammate Heather helped out by taking our guest book pics!

______________________________________

There are things I wouldn't change, too. Our DJ was the bomb, our cake was phenomenal, our musician (Shiloh Soto) has the voice of an angel, my youth pastor and mentor was able to marry us, the sparkle lights were perfect, and our caterer was awesome about providing gluten free options. The Lord blessed us so extravagantly by the people who were able to come, my parents and in-laws being so supportive, and my cousin being so selfless to be a bridesmaid, hairdresser, and makeup artist (what a trooper). I was even able to find an off-the-rack perfect wedding dress 7 weeks before the wedding date! If that's not the Lord's provision, I don't know what is...

Again, none of this is a complaint. So many good things happened that shouldn't have happened, and I have so much to be thankful for. But hopefully these 4 things can be helpful to a few new brides:)

(Did you miss the wedding pictures?? You can find them all on our wedding page or on Instagram at #CountdowntoCapra! If you want to check out where I got my inspiration, my wedding Pinterest boards are now "public" instead of "secret"! Go check them out;)

SaveSave