Wedding day regrets or highlights

[Musicalmistress]

Second wedding for us both so there are a few things we've decided we don't want but just wondering what other folks would say were the things you would absolutely not do again (choice of partner excluded 😜) and what were the surprise hits or highlights.

I loved my wedding day.
I am glad we did everything we did.

But that was a long time ago. Things have changed, and opportunities are FAR greater than they were back then, and people getting married today I think have less pressure to do things 'because that is what you do'.

So, if I were getting married now, I would very much do a DIY wedding rather than a 'wedding venue'. I'm horrified by the cost of some of these places.

I'm a Church goer, so I'd still have my service in Church (can't beat an organist playing for a packed Church). I'd have tea and coffee and cake after the service, so it is lovely and relaxed and saves paying £££ for canapes at a venue- . I'd still have a sit down meal. I'd still have speeches. I wouldn't bother with a cake. I wouldn't have favours or 'chair covers' or anything else I don't particularly notice at weddings I am a guest at.
I would have a spotify play list and some speakers to dance the night away.

So nothing really wild, but it would be somewhere where I could invite everyone we wanted to.

At our evening do we had a ceilidh band, which was really good fun. But one thing I hadn't anticipated was that we had to do the first dance (not a barn dance type one - just a 'usual'). We hadn't practiced anything and it was a bit of a disaster. So with hindsight I would've prepared something.

Make sure the bar and the dance floor are right next to each other. Or at least in the same room. Dance floor was always full, mostly with blokes holding pints as their wives pulled them on for a dance. Was so much fun.
Also I completely forgot to eat the buffet. Make sure someone gets some food for you. I was starving at midnight. I am sure the venue would have plated something up for me what with me being in the big posh frock and therfore quite important to the proceedings but it just didn't occur to me.

Oh I’m interested to see all the thoughts in this!

Married in lockdown, limited ceremony guests but invited anyone who wanted to join us afterwards on a nearby park. We had the best time. Though people didn't enjoy the fresh buffet we had paid a fortune for. I'd probably do supermarket sandwiches next time, if there ever is next time..

A close relative attended and passed away totally unexpectedly a few months later. I'm so glad he got to the wedding, it's why I always say to people for events, if you think you should, or you want to, make that effort and go, we never know what's around the corner.

We eloped, with my adult children as witnesses.
Dressed in jeans, me with a beautiful white linen shirt and a huge bouquet of native flowers, husband in jeans and a nice tailored linen shirt, no tie.
We went to a beautiful park, full of native trees and very quiet.
The marriage celebrant said it was the most relaxed and enjoyable wedding she had ever done.
We all had a great time, laughed a lot and then went to a little pub for lunch.
Told no one.
The fallout later reinforced our decision to marry without other relatives.🙄

We loved ours :) it was relatively small (45 people including us) so we felt we had enough time to talk with everyone, who were all very dear to us. We didn't fancy dancing etc., so we swapped the band/DJ for a couple of casino tables, which was so much fun! You are given chips rather than losing money. They set up in another room while we were eating.

A nice thing we did was not having a big top table. We just had a little table just for the two of us. It was only part of the day that we got to properly spend together which was really nice.

Feed your guests properly and don’t make speeches too long. Went to a horrendous wedding last year with awful food, awful set up, and speeches were 50 mins. No one needed the full biography of bride from her dad.

Congrats :)

We got married the first weekend you could in 2021 after lockdown was partly relaxed. I wish we hadn't. We were worried that, after two postponements, if we did so again, it wouldn't happen or the next date would be full lockdown again.

As a result, lots of family couldn't attend, lots of friends couldn't because they lived abroad or were worried about the virus.

Our original guest list was 200. We got married with 65 people.

Couldn't have flowers in church, or bell ringers. Didn't have the car I wanted. Hair and make up wasn't done as make up artist had to get a normal job due to Covid but I didn't know this until a month before so was too late to book anyone else. No honeymoon. No stag or hen. Hated the reception venue. No one could dance. Cake we ordered turned up nothing like what we ordered. Venue left it in a kitchen while they made the buffet food so it was wonky.

My advice is don't rush it. Don't accept second best. It's your day and you should only do it once. I don't even have wedding photos up at home because I look, in my view, a state. I had no one to help my get ready so I didn't know my style of dress, bought from eBay, was meant to have a hoop under it.

Plan everything, and remember the people providing things are being paid by you,so make sure they know what they're doing and following your instructions.

I loved our wedding, it was more like an old fashioned garden party really. The vintage ice cream van was amazing and is something people still seem to mention over ten years later. It was all quite fun and relaxed, which I think helped to make it enjoyable.

Regrets- choice of husband

Made me happy - keeping costs down.

Believe it or not, if I had my time back, I'd have sacked our photographer! He was over the top!! I told him we didn't want too many staged photos. We spent most of the day posing for photos that didn't even turn out great! Majorly put a downer on the day for me! I didn't get much chance to mingle with our guests at all!

I would definitely have a smaller, more intimate wedding with just very close friends and family.
No adult bridesmaids (more hassle than they’re worth!)
No speeches, just a couple of toasts.
I’d make sure the photographer was less bossy and demanding (they took up way too much of our day and were really intrusive).
I’’d spend less on the wedding day and more on the honeymoon!

I wish I had been more stubborn about what I wore.
I wanted a hippy style top and jeans....my mum said I had to wear a "nice dress" - which came from Debenhams. It was nice I suppose but I never wear dresses and I felt a bit weird and self conscious.