Weddingbee boards

The worst part was probably the dark skies that came just as we started the pictures.  It really ruined the pictures, which was sad.  Getting the pictures back was such a let down, because many of the pictures were just terrible.  I almost cried, but eventually I got over it.

Avocado, I think you're biased because there's photographers in your family. A photographer should be creative and resourceful without prodding from the bride on HER wedding day...in my opinion, that's why the get the big bucks!

A bride has a million things going on that day to worry about what her "professional" photographer is doing. 

If a bride is not satisfied after the fact and the pictures are NOT the quality she paid for...she can rant all she wants. 

The worst part was that I didn't do a Father-Daughter dance. We ended up leaving out the dances, because everyone was having such a good time mingling and we we didn't want to kill the mood. DH and I were disappointed to not have done our first dance (he had even taken dance lessons for it!) but what really depressed me was not dancing with my dad. I had the PERFECT song for us - really the only part of the wedding I had planned before engagement - and I know it would have meant a lot to him AND me. That said, I still think it would have been awkward to break up the reception. I've been thinking about having the dance on our one year anniversary or Father's Day.

Hehe, and we forgot the rings! We didn't realize until the ceremony was started. DH sent his best man to get them (they were just in a back room), but he couldn't find them... so then DH left to get them. So there I was, standing up there alone! I thought it was really funny. The only sad thing is that DH and his best man felt AWFUL, so I don't like it when people bring it up.

There were things that went wrong and our DOC didn't know how to handle unique situations, so a lot went missed.  But my biggest regret was that I was really stressed out with the planning and by the time the wedding came I felt like an overworked housewife instead of a blushing bride. In some ways, the wedding became a negative experience in our relationship.  In the end, I was taking care everything: all the details, schedules, managing both families, and all the plans for the honeymoon.  I think I should have had more conversations with my husband about the expectations for planning and really found something to balance out the workload. 

The best thing that happenned was my mom finally had a conversation with me the night before the wedding, and I was able to relax for the wedding day. I could tell how much it helped because in my rehersal photos I looked stressed out, bossy, and unattactive.  On my wedding day, I completely calmed down and looked great. 

I was actually a bit disappointed that all my girls wanted to get ready in their respective hotel rooms, so I didn't get to have the fun get ready together time that I have seen in many of the bees photos.  Also, since we weren't getting ready all together, everyone had different timelines of their own so some of the girls ended up arriving a little later than I had wanted which cut down on our photo time quite a bit and I didn't really get a lot of bridal party photos.  This just proves to me that I should have been more strict I guess on when the bridal party should arrive to the site. I still have plenty of wonderful photos, but there are a few that I wish we had gotten to do...

The worst part of the wedding for me was the entire day before, if that counts. I live in Mississippi, and I woke up to literal freaking snow. And it rained a nasty, cold, piercing rain the rest of the day. I can deal with the cold (from MN originally), but it made the roads horrid.

Also, we were moving into a refurbished house on the wedding night, so the day before they were just installing the stove and fridge, the heat was not on at all, the house was filthy... I was petrified that we were going to show up on the wedding night and have to scramble for a hotel room because the house was unlivable.

There were numerous other screw-ups and mishaps during the day, so my DH was extremely cranky, and I was weepy by the time it was nearing the actual rehearsal dinner. I was running a little late because I had to just go home and cry for a few minutes because I was so stressed, and then while I'm trying to calm down, my now-SIL calls me demanding to know where I am, because she is at the church and it's locked. Nevermind that her brother (my DH) has the key.

There was another run in with her later that evening, because our photographer had suggested that we designate a relative to be his helper to corral people, since he doesn't know any of them, and DH and I had talked and decided she would be a good choice (she's very bossy and has a loud voice, perfect for corralling people). I thought DH had asked her about it, so when at the rehearsal the photog asks me who is the helper, I point over to her and say, "[SIL's name]." She looks very confused, so I (not thinking) say, "Oh, we thought you could help out our photographer.. blah blah blah..." I don't even know how to put what she said into type.. loud voice, horrified, angry expression, injecting the word "What?!" with all of this venom and outrage. It was almost like a movie -- the room went silent just as she said it, and then everyone just started nervously laughing to try to cover it up as she starts yelling at me about how I need to ask her to do things, not just tell her. I guess DH talked to her about it later, saying it was his fault and she had no right to chew me out about it, but a month later it still really hurts.

Thankfully, like in theater, a horrible rehearsal turned out a beautiful wedding, and I don't even know if she was still cranky at that point because I didn't care. :)

I try not to think about it too much but the worst part for me were my FLOWERS!! ugh... hideous and absolutely nothing like what I had in mind! Flowers were my least important thing to me, but when I saw them I thought to myself "oh wow, wedding flowers can be really UGLY!" It didn't help that all my bride pictures were with my ugly bouquet.  And to make it worse, I wrote a letter (very polite) to my florist saying that she didn't include certain flowers that I specifically requested and that maybe next time in the future she can be more clear about her decisions... and she never wrote back.  That is why I gave her such a bad review!

Also, our church coordinator was horrible! She kept making RUDE comments all throughout the day and at the end while we were taking pictures, she kept saying "are you guys done yet? you're done right? we have to clean up, you have to be done NOW."  It was really aggitating and kept making us all nervous!! We really wanted to write a complaint letter to the church but never got around to it!

The worst part of my wedding was our reverend, that was the worst $75 I've ever spent! He is definitely the main thing I would change if I had to do it all over again. We had an outdoor wedding in a park so I searched around our area for someone to marry us. I called the courthouse for a list of names and contacted the one that was available for our day. I met with 6 months before the wedding and gave him a copy of the ceremony word for word. We met with him again about a week before the wedding to go over final details and come the day of the wedding, he not only showed up late (5 minutes before the ceremony began), he didn't wear what he said he was going to wear and did the worst job actually performing the ceremony. He stumbled over everything like he had never said that paper before even though he had it for 6 months. He add libbed stupid things and I almost told him to skip to the I DOs when it began to rain. It was horrible! The most infamous line that he said was "This rings are awesome, you should see these." as he held them up for everyone to see.

My day was absolutely gorgeous. I had clear skies and 70 degree weather in September. Beautiful! The worst part about my day was my mom. She stressed me out to no end. I couldn't relax all day b/c she was letting me know that everything about my day wasn't up to her standards. I was just happy being able to marry the man of my dreams on a perfect day with all of my family and friends there. But I had to hear about how my photographer made a comment about how my girls would dress me (heaven forbid) or how there were just lobster pieces on top of the filet instead of next to it, or how we spent too much time at the cocktail hour and were taking too long to get introduced, how I wasn't moving fast enough around the tables of over 300 guests. It was insane. The best part was putting her in a car to send her home. I was finally with my husband and my friends without her watchful eye. Needless to say, the honeymoon was amazing

Ooh, this post is stressing me out. I've spent the last 15 minutes reading it, and while it's DEFINITELY giving me insight into what to avoid and what to do to improve the day itself, it's making me tremendously nervous. Especially about photographers because I have my heart set on some truly fantastic pictures...it's a good thing I have a year to plan!!