Advice From the Married Side – Real Brides Advice From Their Wedding Day

It seems like an age since I put one of these posts together, so today it’s a bumper edition of wedding planning advice in our (not so regular feature) ‘Advice from the Married Side‘
I have so many amazing real weddings on the blog and with each wedding I ask the couple to share with us some of their wedding planning knowledge and experiences. Every month I collect all their advice together and put together this post. Lots of wonderful words of wedding wisdom for you to take on board and put into your own wedding planning journey. I hope there will be something amongst these experiences that help you……….Happy Planning!

photo by  Claire Penn Photography – full wedding HERE

General Advice

• It is about surrounding yourself with the people you love and creating an atmosphere that you will forever dream about.
• Don’t underestimate how many bottles of bubbles you’ll need.
• Cheap glow sticks go down a treat on the dance floor!
• No matter how hard you try there will be things that are out of your control. The big picture is what matters- the rest of your lives together.
• We really felt a bit of a low after the wedding as everything was over so quickly and we had booked our honeymoon for 2 months after the wedding. So meeting up with friends and just chatting about the wedding really helped. It was actually nice to spread out the wedding with a late honeymoon.
• I found that researching the cost breakdown of other weddings and averages were rather eye opening. It prepared us for roughly what different parts would cost so we could work out a rough guide of what our budget could be spent on
• Not all registry offices are created equal – there are some with lovely rooms.
• Make sure the food is good and the wine is flowing.
  Only hire the services of people you like personally. It makes the whole process an enjoyable one.
• I would say to treat the day like a party rather than an event. Sometimes I think brides get caught up in putting on a presentation and forget to enjoy the celebration of the day.
• Take some days afterwards to relax with your guests if you can.
• Stick to your guns to find the dress that you want even if it takes some searching for.
• Book an amazing photographer and an amazing videographer. It amazes me how many couples don’t and then go on to regret it. It’s cliché but the day itself will go SO fast and until we had our photos back I couldn’t remember any of it.

photo by Paul Underhill Photography – full wedding here

Planning

• Enjoy every minute of the planning, preparation and the day itself. It leaves an empty hole in your life once it has gone; so do not get stressed by any aspect, if the little things don’t get done no one will ever know.
• During the planning process actively spend time with your fiancé not talking about the wedding. Invest in one another. Laugh, cry and spend quality time with each other.
• When planning, ask yourself how each choice benefits your guests. There will be some things that should decidedly be about you but remember to think of the guests.
• Set monthly goals to achieve instead of doing everything at once.
• Planning a wedding can often be very overwhelming, so it is important to make planning fun while staying organized. Leading up to the wedding, Matt and I would plan full nights to work on things. We’d order food, have some wine and listen to music.
• It is a big deal and you do want it to be great but the planning doesn’t have to take over your life for months and months.
• It was a great deal of work though and do not underestimate the usefulness of spreadsheets and detailed planning – including, a lot of internet searching, budgets & timetables and contacting of suppliers.

photo by My Beautiful Bride – full wedding here

Making The Day Personal to You

• Make it as personal as you can and don’t get too bogged down in the detail. It is easy to spend hours pouring over magazines and Pinterest and get distracted. Definitely use them for inspiration but put them away once you have an idea of what you want.
• Although it truly should be a celebration for family and friends, your big day is just that, your day! By all means listen to advice and suggestions but don’t be afraid to follow your dream plans
• A few personal touches make all the difference; these are the things you’ll remember.
• Do what you want to do! Don’t let anyone tell you that’s not right or that’s not traditional and stick to your guns. Our wedding was about us. Not what we thought a wedding should look like or what other people wanted.
• Make it about the two of you, and it will be great. There is no way to please everyone so just make sure to put the two of you first.

photo by Paul Joseph Photography – full wedding here

Getting Organised

• Ask friends and family if they’d like to help with anything, people were really pleased to be asked. We had friend’s singing and playing music in the church, guests made cakes, friends DJ-ing.
• It is your day, so do it your way! Don’t let any social pressure or tradition pressure you to do things a certain way. Relax, Breathe and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
• If you’re doing lots of the decorations, flower arranging and food yourself give yourself PLENTY of time because you really don’t want to miss out on spending time with people during the run-up.
• Be realistic from the start about what you want and can afford. Try and give yourself plenty of time to plan. Make enquiries as soon as you can, amazing how quickly dates can be taken up.
• The most challenging part was keeping track of all the small details and coordinating who was bringing and doing what to set up the venue. My advice to current planners is to do as much as you possibly can early on. Even if you think you don’t have much left, things always pile up at the end that you didn’t think of.
• If your doing a DIY Wedding make sure you have a great team of friends or family to help out. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without any of them.

photo by The Shank Tank – full wedding here

On The Day of The Wedding

• Remember to take a little moment, step back and look at day from afar and appreciate being surrounded by everyone you love. It is very rare in life that you will have everyone you in love in the same place at the same time! Relish in it!
• It goes so quickly! Don’t worry about stuff being perfect, just enjoy yourselves.
• Enjoy yourself, don’t stress and take in the moments because before you know it the whole day will over
• Your wedding day will fly by in a joyous blur. It absolutely will feel like a whirlwind. Every couple should make a plan to step away for a moment. Find a place slightly removed yet still in sight of your reception and take it all in as a couple.
• The day and the aftermath Relax, don’t stress about timings or anything going wrong, no one else will notice.
• Don’t underestimate how long it takes to get ready! I’m pretty low maintainance so thought two hours would be more than enough, especially as I wanted to look really natural, but there are so many people and things to consider that the time just disappears.
• Our ‘On the Day’ co-ordinator was an invaluable part of this because it took all the pressure off us on the actual wedding day.

photo by Mike Plunkett Photography – full wedding HERE

I hope you found these pieces of advice helpful. If you are already married is there anything you would like to add ? Was there anything in these words of wisdom that has resonated with you?

Is there something you would particularly like to ask me  for advice? any questions just email me [email protected]

BIG BOHO LOVE

KELLY XX