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Original poster

What is your best wedding tip?

91 replies

PlaymobilPirate · 09/12/2019 00:45

Booked our wedding a few weeks ago for July. Registrar and venue sorted but nothing else!

OP posts:
GunpowderGelatine · 09/12/2019 01:10

Congratulations!

Best tip: invite who you want to be there. Don't stress over having to invite great aunty Val who you only see once a hear in place of a good friend.

Don't leave too long between the ceremony and food and if you do lay on canapés I always notice the main MN wedding grumble is how hungry people are waiting around

Also, when doing the seating plan make sure you sit friends with each other and not strangers. People want to enjoy the day with people they know.

TheCraicDealer · 09/12/2019 01:37

Create a wedding email address-ours was (initials)and(initials)[email protected]. Means all the details are kept in one place (I had folders in the mailbox for venue, catering, music, bar, flowers, etc) which you can both access if/when you need. There's then no arguments about "I would do it but sure you have all the details" nice try DH Grin if you have an online rsvp system as well it's handy for that.

Also when the wedding is over you won't still get spam from suppliers or whatever in your normal inbox.

Pipandmum · 09/12/2019 01:41

Yes agree with above - wedding, drinks and pics, meal, dance in short order (I mean don't have hours in between). Have your side and his side photos done before the ceremony and just the combos afterwards.
Invite people to the whole shebang not just part of it (I didn't even know this was a thing until I went to my first wedding here).
Assign someone to take cake/flowers etc after you leave. We gave the centerpieces to certain people.
Do not allow your photographer to run the show. You tell then ahead of time what you want photographed and who you want included.

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Weddings
FlashesOfRage · 09/12/2019 01:47

Hire the most expensive/best reviewed photographer you can afford.

The day itself is like a half remembered dream. Beyond what the human brain can process in one day.

Our photos arriving was when it seemed real and it put the vague snippets of memory into a coherent order 👍

For clarity: I don’t drink so that’s not why I could hardly remember it 🤣

Kinsters · 09/12/2019 04:36

Get suppliers that you trust to sort everything out for you. We gave really free reign to our florist, venue manager, etc. and it meant we weren't stressing about things because we'd paid someone else to do it. We used suppliers exclusively from the venue's recommended list as we figured they would be familiar working with the venue so it would be much smoother all round.

I had no idea what everything would look like until I arrived to get married and that was perfect. We did a few bits ourselves but kept it really simple - we did the table plan and favours/place settings but that was it.

Enjoy every minute of it!

readingismycardio · 09/12/2019 04:44

Get the best photographer and videographer you can find available - this is the only thing you'll have after the wedding
Make sure the food & the music are great
Make sure you invite only people you love or like a lot
Make sure you get a great make up artist & hair stylist

FenellaMaxwell · 09/12/2019 04:45

Don’t mention the W word when booking and paying for things unless you need to - it adds extra zeros to most price tags.

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 09/12/2019 04:52

Agree with a lot of things.

Always have plenty of food. We put out a mini buffet when guests arrived (all bought from Costco so not too expensive) as some had travelled quite far. Always canapés whilst waiting around and don’t do all of the speeches before eating when guests have already waited hours. A hangry guest is your biggest critic.

Don’t swan off for ages with couple photos and leave your guests meandering about. We had only a few group shots and I said I only wanted about 20 minutes worth of couple photos. That was enough. We put on live music for that section with the canapés too so guests weren’t bored.

A wedding is not a team building exercise. Sit people with who they know! Just because they both ‘like rugby’ doesn’t mean they want to spend a couple of hours with awkward chitchat. They’ll all go back to who they know the second they can.

ShortHairSuitsYou · 09/12/2019 05:25

Get a dress you can go to the bathroom in unassisted and practice walking, sitting, stairs in it before your wedding day. Have fun Smile

villainousbroodmare · 09/12/2019 05:28

Keep an attractive bit of your house or hotel room tidy so that you can send the photographer there to take pics while you are frantically trying to tit-tape your dress on get ready.

tectonicplates · 09/12/2019 05:38

My best wedding tip is that no matter what you do, somebody will be offended and make your wedding about themselves. You can't please everyone so just do what you really want.

dinodiva · 09/12/2019 05:44

Choose a really awesome second song that gets everyone on the dance floor.

If you need to cut costs then you don’t really need favours or a massive cake. Instead of favours, we put a bottle of port on each table (we had cheese rather than pudding) and I bought plain cakes from M&S and stacked them myself.

katmarie · 09/12/2019 06:06

Ask your venue to make sure there is some food in your room for the end of the night, we didn't get chance to eat a lot in the evening and we were starving.

Lots of things can be done diy, but remember that the few days before the wedding will fly by. Dont give yourself too much to do.

GnomeDePlume · 09/12/2019 06:16

Remember that what most wedding guests want is something to drink, something to eat, somewhere to sit and a bride and groom who are happy.

If what it takes for the two of you to be happy is colour matching the ushers' socks with the wedding favours then go for it but likely your guests wont notice much less care.

Congratulations, have a wonderful day.

BikeRunSki · 09/12/2019 06:24

Do your own hair and make up

AlwaysCheddar · 09/12/2019 06:27

Don’t spend loads on photographer and videographer as you will look at them 5 tines in 20 years! Get decent ones but not the most expensive.

remember its YOUR day....

Mumdiva99 · 09/12/2019 06:30
  • Just keep remembering why you are doing it.
  • You and your fiance need to be on the same page about what you want out of the wedding. Just have a little chat about your key objectives and keep this in mind when you make all your decisions. E.g. ours was happy, fed, relaxed, guests - this guided decisions on where we spent our budget, how the photographer worked etc etc
  • Work out what you can afford to spend. Take 15% away for contingency. (There will be some things you forget to add in, and some things will be more than you plan for.) Then stick to it.
  • Remember this is just one day. £1500 on flowers starts to sound reasonable if your budget is £20k - but sense check yourself all the way..... seriously - do we need to spend this on just one day.
  • If you have lots of kids there do not skimp on kids entertainers!! (We had the most amazing balloon man - he was only £150 and worth his weight in gold for the entertainment value. Amazed and entertained the kids for 2 hours solid! And the adults.)
MrsPandigital · 09/12/2019 06:31

One of my favourite parts was sitting alone at dinner and not having a top table. This meant we could talk and not have to make conversation with others and was the only time in the day it was just the two of us.

user1493413286 · 09/12/2019 06:38

Now you’ve got the main things put together your budget and a list of what you want then go through the list and decide what is and isn’t worth the money and what else you could use the money for. We decided against a sweet cart and wedding cake as we didn’t think either would be worth it and get eaten and the £500+ could be used towards our wedding rings which we’d have forever.
Don’t get too worried about who you have to invite and do things your way; if you don’t want to do things traditionally in some ways then don’t. Parents had their wedding day and they don’t get to tell you how to have yours

user1493413286 · 09/12/2019 06:40

Also if you have the getting ready photos taken by a photographer buy a nice white dressing gown; it makes the photos

BeingATwatItsABingThing · 09/12/2019 06:42

I would make a list in order of priority.

Must haves
Would like to have
Can live without

Organise things into those categories based on what you want. Someone above has said do your own hair and makeup but not having to worry about that on the day was a bonus for me. I could never have done it as well as my hairdresser and makeup artist and I would have looked no different from any other day.

I spent nearly £2000 on our photographers but we wanted them. We’d been to a wedding they’d photographed and their photos were amazing. We knew we wanted them so were willing to pay.

SweetSally · 09/12/2019 06:43

One tip

Don't overplan it. And enjoy

SweetSally · 09/12/2019 06:45

Oh few more things

It's not a typical wedding ritual but:

Make sure you do: dance father and bride
Dance: groom and mother
Dance: mother and bride

Your mom will be forever thankful!

PrettyPurpleFeather · 09/12/2019 06:52

Don't charge your guests for their meals or any other part of your wedding. It's your wedding so it's your responsibility to ensure you can afford it, if you can't then trim down the luxuries. I've read so many threads on here about guests being charged for their reception meals. Yet the bride turns up in a £3k wedding dress, that's not acceptable and can't you tell that I was one of those guests!

rabbitwoman · 09/12/2019 06:58

My wedding day was lush. But we had argued about the guest list - husband's stepdad wanted to invite second cousins and great aunts I did not even knew existed. My mum insisted on getting decorations - I didn't care, but spent the wedding morning running about to get flowers, tie them in bunches, putting them out - no one remembered.

We didn't want a seating plan, but my mum did and said she wouldn't come if we didn't do one. She did one anyway!

My mum also did my order of service for me. I walked down the eisle to the beautiful song from True Romance - its called You're So Cool, but mum refused to put that on the order of service. I guess it doesn't really matter.

So everyone will have an opinion. It doesn't matter. Do what YOU want.

Also, I had a brilliant bit of advice - take everything in, it goes so quickly. I tur Ed on my internal video camera as I walked into the church, it was amazing, made a real effort to remember every second. Such a precious memory!

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