What do you wish you had/hadn't done at your wedding?

[awkwardusername]

Right down to the tiny details!

Had a smaller wedding. I couldn’t get round to everyone and barely saw my husband. I wish it had been more intimate and private. I was only 23 though, I know my own boundaries better now.

I wish we could have done it before my grandma died. She was so much looking forward to it.

I wish I wore a white dress. We planned the whole thing in less than 3 weeks (had been engaged for a while though) and I said I couldn't be bothered with that bit. Surely I could have found something even if it wasn't a wedding dress.

I also wish I wasn't pregnant at the time. Missed out a whole load of traditions by the fact I wasn't drinking. Still had a typical hen night, but being PG I was drinking coke. Same on the day too.

Everything else was just right though. Small registry office ceremony with a hired out room in a nearby pub after with buffet. 50ish guests.

Got professional photos done. The ones done by a friend are mostly good but we (I) printed out loads and 12 years on they still haven’t made it into an album.
Also, I had a strapless dress which spent the whole day slipping down exposing far too much cleavage. Ruined the day for me.

Just asked my Niece this question and he reply was "spent 30k on one day" It is her 2nd anniversary in 2 weeks time, she and her DH are still blissfully happy but were shocked when the added the bill up. The flat they bought just before the got married cost less than the wedding.

I would only have changed one thing about ours. It was very cheap and cheerful - £4K for absolutely everything (inc. dress, accommodation for wedding party and honeymoon). We had a church wedding with 50 guests, afternoon tea reception at local pub (this was REALLY popular with the guests as no one had to pay for overnight accommodation!) and then an evening meal for ten. Photos were taken by a friend who is a photographer. We didn't have a cake or speeches.
My only regret is the evening meal part as the restaurant messed up our booking and couldn't find us on the system when we turned up, despite pre-ordering all the food. But that's more poor customer service than the idea itself.

Spent hours in the foyer meeting and greeting and saying goodbye to guests!

Back in the days when it was popular to have a day do, then an evening do - so we spent about an hour going back and forth to the foyer to "say goodbye to aunt Mary who's tired and going home to bed" etc, then people started coming for the evening do and we kept getting dragged into the foyer to greet them...this was between 7-9pm...then people who'd been there all day and were tired started to leave! It was mainly FIL who kept coming to find us, at one point he tapped our shoulders while we were on the dance floor!

@SmidgenofaPigeon

Said on the evening invites that there’d be a buffet. All the day guests were too full, and a lot of the evening guests had eaten beforehand incase. It was only allowed to be out for two hours and it was gutting to see so much wasted 😭

We were once staying in a small hotel and were told that the restaurant would be closed because of a wedding. We'd been to another wedding, just a champagne and canapes reception unfortunately, and when were sitting in the bar bemoaning the lack of food, it was a very out of the way place, the waiter brought us a few trays of left over barbecue from the first wedding's evenng buffet!

I was torn between two dresses and I wish I'd gone for the other one. I had a civil wedding and the dress I let my mum and the lady in the shop persuade me to buy was more appropriate for a church wedding. The other one was simpler and had slightly longer sleeves and I still think it would have looked better.

We didn't have a professional photographer either and the photos were a bit hit and miss. However, some of the ones she took were lovely. and we have plenty of others that guests took. So yes we could and probably should have spent more money but on the other hand we have loads of nice pictures anyway.

So my tips would be - choose the dress you want and don't scrimp on the photographer.

Nothing, got married in a registry office 50 years ago. 5 family members there, then off to a pub. Cost about £50. Great time had by all.

Smaller more intimate wedding rather than inviting people we worked with etc.

Oh I would also change my honeymoon. Mauritius is overrated. I wish we had spent that money doing a US road trip or visiting Thailand.

I REALLY wish we had a videographer! My husband was very much ‘no, it’s a waste of money’ but even he’s said we should’ve had one. I’ve got no decent videos of my wedding 😭

I wish I'd had a smaller wedding and spent much less on it.

We were in out 20s, loads of our friends were getting married and we were worried about how a small wedding would compare. I was also the first out of my siblings to get married and my mum was bring an arsehole about having the big do.

I don't speak to half of the people who came anymore. Almost all of our other friends who got married have now got divorced. Lots of fair weather friends have also fallen away since we had kids.

Knowing what I do now, I wish we'd just gone to the registry office that I turned my nose up at because it was next door to TJ Hughes and gone to the pub afterwards.

One of my fondest memories of our wedding day was totally unplanned! We had scheduled outdoor photos in a very scenic park but it absolutely poured down with rain. So instead we told the guests to head to the venue, myself and my husband went to the pub and had a quick drink to spend a few minutes together and to settle our nerves for being the center of attention for the day. We were like Billy no mates sitting in the pub in full wedding attire! We all laugh about it all these years later!

Chosen a different groom/husband.

We had a professional cocktail bar service and we also had champagne for them to serve. They only offered a choice of 3 cocktails which were tiny despite the fact that they were expensive (we paid) and I found out the next day that they were incredibly slow - making each one to order rather than in batches and didn't offer the champagne which could have been poured ready for people to help themselves. I feel awful that people waited too long for drinks. Grrrr!!!!

It was over twenty years ago now. I had a rural wedding in a marquee in early June. The day was lovely, hot and sunny but the evening temperature really dropped and guests sitting near the exit of the marquee froze from about 7pm, so I should have had some heaters.

My DM (who had only ever used a taxi in London) made the mistake of trusting the word of two local rural taxi firms who all said that there was no need to prebook anything as they ran “until the early hours” and would be available to call on the night. On the night neither of them picked up the phone and had shut at 7pm on a Saturday. The mini bus she’s booked and paid for didn’t turn up at all as the guy who took the booking wrote July instead of June . This meant the sober guests had to become taxi drivers for the less sober and drive round rural Suffolk for hours and some guests got really shitty with my mum about being left high and dry . DH and I had disappeared by then so knew nothing about it.

So: heaters and reliable/literate taxi drivers if your wedding is in the arse end of nowhere!

I got married in Scotland and I'm a big tea and coffee drinker. Around 8:30pm the cake was cut and pieces laid out along with shortbread, tunnocks tea cakes, logs and wafers and other biscuits. People still talk about this being their highlight! It was for me!

Had a rehearsal. My dad and I practically ran down the aisle.

Also it was Grand National day and I wish I’d put a £1 bet on every horse for guests as favours as I think that would have been quite good fun (I know lots of people don’t like the National though)

Either a free bar or some free drinks in the evening.

Not got married

Hadn’t turned up 😂😂😂

We got married abroad, just the two of us. We had a party when we got back so our families could meet properly and we could celebrate with friends.

I wish we'd not bothered with the party. Our families didn't mingle at all and I spent most of the night being pulled into conversations with people I didn't know very well or speak to very often (e.g. husband's friend from 20 years ago, a cousin I hadn't seen in years). And all the time I could see the friends and family I'm closest to having a right laugh together on the other side of the room.

The day was perfect but in the run up we had people with demands that we should have refused. People requesting to be in the wedding party, people agreeing to be in the wedding party then complaining how much work it was when they literally did nothing except walk down the aisle before me in a dress of a set colour. People pretty much having us running round after them. We should have just told them to see to themselves.
I wish I'd not let MIL leave DHs uncle with alzheimers alone at the hotel, I didn't know about it, BIL was the only one who knew what was happening and it kills me that that poor old man was confused and alone while his family and even his girlfriend were enjoying themselves.

What we did well was have copious amounts of great food and lots of games, air hockey type things.