Previous Brides- What do you think were some must-have items you included in your wedding or tips you may have

Question

What saved your wedding day?
What were guests most impressed with? it could be food, decorations, etc???

If you had to do it all over again, what could you not go without??

What you would tell a soon to be bride?

Let it all out!!! Cutest Answer gets 10 points:)

Also very interested in what you did for bridesmaid and groomsman gifts:):)

WHOAAA, laptops and iphones, that had to be expensive to get that for all of your guests!!!

Answer 1

What saved my day? The white pair of flip flops I bought. My formal shoes were GORGEOUS but painful, as soon as the post-ceremony pictures were over I took them off and put on the flip flops. I would advise finding something a little bit prettier, because when you're dancing at the reception and hold up your skirt a bit, your flip flops will show up in your pictures and won't look very classy! I had a pair of ballet slippers with me, but I forgot to go from the flip flops to those. Oh well.

I got a lot of comments on the bridesmaids dresses. I picked the color, length and designer and let them each pick their own style. They all looked gorgeous, and their dresses really flattered their figures and reflected their personal styles.

Also, we didn't divide our bridal party up by gender. I have two brothers and my husband has two sisters, and we wanted them in the bridal party, but didn't see the point in putting his sisters on my side and vice versa. But, it worked out well for us because my brother's fiances were in the wedding, as was one of his sister's husbands. So, when we could, we paired people up based on who they are close to in real life, instead of some arbitrary order. It makes for nicer pictures and also a less-awkward bridal party dance.

We were really lucky in that we utilized our friends to save money:
- I hired a friend who is a stylist to do my hair. She did an AWESOME job and that was her gift to me.
- We hired a friend and her friend to be our photographers. They both have other day jobs, but majored in photography and do it on the side. They took AWESOME pictures and were so easy to work with. And because they're our friends, and know a lot of our other friends, they were really able to capture everyone's personalities. I also recommend whoever you do hire for photography, don't do a backdrop and formal pictures during the reception. Leave your photographer free to take lots of candids during that time.
- We were able to be our own iTunes DJs because we had access to speakers, a microphone and a PA system from our friend, and he set them up. If you have access to this equipment and a laptop (or iPod) all you need a good playlists and someone to introduce the bridal party.

Before the wedding, create a "must take" list of wedding pictures - posed formals, candids, ceremony moments - whatever is important to you. Give that to your photographer so they know which shots are most important. Also, try to get all the proofs from your photographer. Our photographers uploaded what they thought were the best shots to shutterfly, but then sent me CDs with every single pictures they took. I found well over 100 more photos on there that I thought were great.

Also, candids are great! The disposable-cameras-on-the-tables are on their way out. Instead, since everyone has digital cameras, create a "collection" on shutterfly, and share the link with everyone at the reception, encouraging them to visit that link and upload their candids. We used magnets to share the link, and got tons of great pictures!

For gifts, we got jewelry for the ladies to wear with their dresses and ties for the guys (we didin't make them rent tuxes, instead told them to wear black suits with black shirts and shoes, and we bought different ties in the our wedding color for them to wear, and keep after the wedding).

Answer 2

That's a lot of questions! lol! But here we go!

My must haves:
my husband of course! lol
the personalized ceremony
memorial candles to honor my family
great food
liquor are the reception
friends & family (most of which like to drink that liquer)

Nothing really saved my wedding day. I didn't have any major issues other than the music stopping just as I started to walk down the isle (someone trying to tell me something?).

Guests were most impressed with the food, my dress (how could you not be impressed by a pink dress!), & the invitations.

If I had to do it again, I could not go without some liquer the morning of (takes the edge off! lol).

What would I tell a soon to be bride...
You WILL want to give up on the whole thing the week before the wedding.
You WILL get through it.
Have someone stay with you the night before to help you with jitters & to relax with.
Something WILL go wrong, but it WILL be fixed by friends & family or it won't matter.
You dress WILL get dirty.
Your dress WILL get uncomfortable about 3/4 of the way through the reception.
Wear comfortable shoes.
Remember to eat!
If you have a family that like to clink glasses to make you kiss, BRING LIP BALM!

Oh yeah, and my gifts to the bridal party were:
engraved items from Things Remembered for the groomsmen
cool purses, lip gloss, fuzzy socks (to wear at the reception), and some fun little things like ring pop's. Each girls stuff was a little different.

Answer 3

If I could go back and do it all again I would keep the band instead of a D.J. It was really the best place to splurge. They were wonderful, everyone raved about them and it really made the reception feel like a formal event and not just a high school dance or something. We spent too much on the cake and don't regret it. So many pictures are taken of it and people always remember it. We didn't do many flowers, other than bouquets and used hurricanes with candles for centerpieces. Much cheaper and I wouldn't change it. I wouldn't have spent so much on the photographer. Once the wedding was over the pictures went into a box and only one of the hundreds of shots is framed and hanging in our home. The best pictures were the ones that family and friends gave us afterwards and with digital pictures now it's not necessary to have an expensive photographer. I would tell you to pick 3 things and splurge on them. Whatever is important to you. For me it was the dress, cake and band. For you it might be the flowers or something else. All of the other things are what you should save on.

Answer 4

Honestly, the best thing that helped was makingt sure that everyone knew what they were doing. We didnt want to seem pushy but at the same time it is an important day. Everyone in the wedding got together for dinner a few weeks before the wedding and we went over the wedding. We made a schedule of our whole wedding.. and it helped. They were happy that they were able to see the line up including the menu, songs, timeline. That way they could still have fun at the reception but made sure they were present for everything. They were impressed.
During the rehearsal dinner we gave everyone a gift. I found some really beautiful frames with quotes for each bm and each one was different. I got them all matching jewelry so they didnt have to worry.
I would have liked to have more pictures of everyone that attended. We got all the pictures of the wedding party but not enough of all our friends and family that I would have liked. I thought about putting cameras on the tables but got so caught up with everything that I forgot.
Make sure that the wedding represents you and your grooms taste. Make sure that you are happy with what you select and if not then change what you need to.
I think we should have put someone in charge of making sure that the little kids didnt keep getting up and running around. That is very important!!!!!
The one thing that did save the day was my maid of honor. (my best friend) She kept me calm and made sure I had nothing to worry about. She made sure everything was taken care of..She also made very sure that the groom did not see me.

Answer 5

Five years later my family is still talking about the harpist I hired for cocktail hour at the reception. It added such an element of elegance to the proceedings.

As for what saved my wedding day? - a Safety Pin! Yep, for some reason the 'pull' part on the zipper of my gown had fallen off so we had to use a safety pin to pull it up and then pinned it to the top of the dress so the zipper didn't fall back down.

Not go without....hmmm, that would have been the wedding pictures we had of our family members - grandparents to siblings - that we framed and had the caterers scatter on the cake table. It just so happened that they put the one of my parents in perfect placement so that when the photog took the pic of us cutting the cake, it's the only picture showing - especially nice since both of my parents were already deceased.

Something fun I did for the bridesmaids - I had bought rhinestone 'tattoos' for them all, and since we had a limo 'bus' there was plenty of room for us to move around in and during the trip from the church to the reception hall we all put them on each others shoulders. The tats didn't show up glaringly, but it put some sparkle on and it was just something fun that we shared.

What to tell you: Organization! It's the key to everything. Find a large portfolio and put everything in there, all organized. From pics of the bridesmaids dresses to samples of fabric to ideas of flowers, etc. Make sure you put copies of any contracts you sign, as well as write down any ideas you have, thoughts of how you want something, odds are you won't remember it when you want to otherwise. The florist will appreciate a copy of the dress pics, as well as yours if possible. My husband had been a project manager on a number of various jobs and we all laughed at him when he drew up an agenda for the day, giving a breakdown time-wise of the entire day from waking up to leaving the reception hall. I mean he had it in 1-2 minute increments at some points, but it truly helped to see it on paper exactly what you want to do and how long it should take just so you know if it will all work together and what it'll take to make the whole day run smoothly.

The most important things to remember :
1. This is an important day, but don't get so caught up in the seriousness of it all that you forget to enjoy it.
2. You are a bride for a day, not a queen! While you will feel like a VIP, please don't expect everyone else to bow and scrape to you.
3. Unless the ceiling caves in or something drastic like that, if something goes wrong 99% of your guests probably won't realize it so don't stroke out over it.
4. Most of all - relax and enjoy your day - you're never going to have another one just like it!

Good Luck and Congratulations!!!

Answer 6

What saved my wedding day.........well let's see my top three things that saved my wedding day were........
1. The first bottle of champagne
2. The fact that my husband showed up on time for a change
3. The fact that we had our son be the ring bearer.

Our wedding was crazy......there were so many things that went wrong that my advice to you is remember that it is one day out of your life........it is a day that people will not talk about forever so if some small things go wrong......take it in and let it go.....then just make sure you alone are in charge of the big stuff.........everyone knows that men shouldn't handle any of it!!!

Answer 7

i dont understand what you mean by what saved my wedding day

i would not be able to go without straps on my dress lol

the thing people were most impressed with were..the cake..the favors..and the food..
the cake was very very pretty
the favors.my mom hand made every one of them..and everyones kept them so thats great..there wasnt even any left for me or my hubby to have one..and there were at least 5 different types!

and the food..i think it was because it was different..we did a taco bar..

for advice..i would say put your own spin on it..weddings get to be sooo boring because everyone is too afraid to think outside of the box..but for my wedding i thought outside of the box in every aspect of it..and to this day we are still getting compliments from people that attended our wedding when we run into them..

dont get over stressed about it..noone likes a stressed out bride..it stresses everyone else out..whatever happens happens..theres no reason to worry yourself over it..and when it happens theres nothing you can do after the fact so just roll your eyes shrug your shoulders and continue partying..

and then..i would say..actually talk to your guests and dont invite so many people that you dont get the chance to talk to all of them
my husband invited so many people that i dont even recall most of the people being there...our guest book was a fire helmet that we had a shield with our names made on it..and half the names on that thing..i didnt even remember seeing them at the wedding..

Answer 8

saved our wedding was cameras on the table, everyone talking about these things.choc fountain,heart shape sparklers,candy buffet our favorite candies like m&ms kitkat bar.kopers and more candy.flower boutonnierer for everyone at church. kids color kit for church. cept the children occupy. We went overboard. but we are only going to be married once in our lifetime.
For gifts we gave everyone in the wedding party laptops and iphones. need to say they were very happy. know I can talk to them anywhere.

Answer 9

i think the best thing is to buy disposible cameras to have at every table, that way u get a wide variety of pictuers of your day