*Advice for Other Brides*
Planning
*Be assertive about what you want from your vendors
-While most brides dread being called "bridezilla" and will do everything to avoid that title, it is still important to let your vendors know exactly what you want and expect from them. After all-you're shelling out beaucoup bucks for them to provide YOU with a service.
*Try to spread out your big ticket "checks" so that you're not too overwhelmed with having to get a ton done when you get down to the wire. I booked all of my venues within a month of getting engaged and had all of my major vendors (florist, photographer, DJ, and Cake baker) booked with 9 months to go.
*Don't be afraid to ask for help. As long as you aren't demanding and EXPECT your bridal party/family/friends to help, I found that most of them are more than willing, all you have to do is ask (nicely). It doesn't hurt to throw in some incentive such as food/drinks.
*Look for and use reviews when choosing vendors
-I planned my wedding from out of state and had to rely on others' reviews to carefully choose my vendors. While I did in the end meet with most of them before booking, I used feedback from other brides to narrow down potential vendors. Plus, some vendors are great sales-people, which isn't necessarily indicative of the actual service they'll provide. I will say that every single one of my vendors I found via someone else and I was beyond satisfied with all of my vendors with the exception of one.
-While most brides dread being called "bridezilla" and will do everything to avoid that title, it is still important to let your vendors know exactly what you want and expect from them. After all-you're shelling out beaucoup bucks for them to provide YOU with a service.
*Try to spread out your big ticket "checks" so that you're not too overwhelmed with having to get a ton done when you get down to the wire. I booked all of my venues within a month of getting engaged and had all of my major vendors (florist, photographer, DJ, and Cake baker) booked with 9 months to go.
*Don't be afraid to ask for help. As long as you aren't demanding and EXPECT your bridal party/family/friends to help, I found that most of them are more than willing, all you have to do is ask (nicely). It doesn't hurt to throw in some incentive such as food/drinks.
*Look for and use reviews when choosing vendors
-I planned my wedding from out of state and had to rely on others' reviews to carefully choose my vendors. While I did in the end meet with most of them before booking, I used feedback from other brides to narrow down potential vendors. Plus, some vendors are great sales-people, which isn't necessarily indicative of the actual service they'll provide. I will say that every single one of my vendors I found via someone else and I was beyond satisfied with all of my vendors with the exception of one.
Wedding Day
*Drink LOTS of water!
*Eat!
*Don't worry about this or that happening, trust the people around you to take care of whatever you need.
-One of my bridesmaids had a terrible dress malfunction that was not easily fixable. While they tried to hide this fact from me (they are such amazing friends!), I found out inadvertently from a not very well hidden text screen. All I knew was that one of their zippers broke. I thought to myself, my girls are smart-they'll figure something out and then COMPLETELY forgot about. I later found out 30min before the ceremony that they had to get a replacement dress delivered from David's Bridal and that the whole time we were taking pictures, her dress was broken!
*Don't get too wrapped up in following a timeline.
-I was fine with our timeline until it got to pictures and I started to stress a little bit about getting all of the pictures we wanted done in the time we had alotted, especially since we started pics 25 min behind schedule. Because I was so worried about this, I think it affected some of our pictures. Take a deep breath and know that they can't start without you and your photographer, wedding coordinator, etc are all professionals who have done this millions of times and know what they are doing.
*DO have some sort of receiving line
-We excused guests by pew to ensure that we said hi to, hugged, and thanked each and every one of our guests. I'm SO GLAD that we did! Tried as we might, we didn't get a chance to go around to each table after dinner and chat with as many people as would have liked to. I felt so bad that many people travelled just to be there and I only go to chat with them for 15seconds. (My mom assured me that people expect that and not to worry, no one was offended). I will add that my dad ended up giving a 40 min(!) speech/toast which by the he finished and we did our first dances, it was already 9:30 and a lot of family/family friends started to leave.
*Eat!
*Don't worry about this or that happening, trust the people around you to take care of whatever you need.
-One of my bridesmaids had a terrible dress malfunction that was not easily fixable. While they tried to hide this fact from me (they are such amazing friends!), I found out inadvertently from a not very well hidden text screen. All I knew was that one of their zippers broke. I thought to myself, my girls are smart-they'll figure something out and then COMPLETELY forgot about. I later found out 30min before the ceremony that they had to get a replacement dress delivered from David's Bridal and that the whole time we were taking pictures, her dress was broken!
*Don't get too wrapped up in following a timeline.
-I was fine with our timeline until it got to pictures and I started to stress a little bit about getting all of the pictures we wanted done in the time we had alotted, especially since we started pics 25 min behind schedule. Because I was so worried about this, I think it affected some of our pictures. Take a deep breath and know that they can't start without you and your photographer, wedding coordinator, etc are all professionals who have done this millions of times and know what they are doing.
*DO have some sort of receiving line
-We excused guests by pew to ensure that we said hi to, hugged, and thanked each and every one of our guests. I'm SO GLAD that we did! Tried as we might, we didn't get a chance to go around to each table after dinner and chat with as many people as would have liked to. I felt so bad that many people travelled just to be there and I only go to chat with them for 15seconds. (My mom assured me that people expect that and not to worry, no one was offended). I will add that my dad ended up giving a 40 min(!) speech/toast which by the he finished and we did our first dances, it was already 9:30 and a lot of family/family friends started to leave.