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

This afternoon we are back with our regular feature ‘Advice from the Married Side,‘ real life wedding planning advice from all the lovely brides and grooms I have featured on the blog.

I get to feature so many amazing real weddings here on the blog and with each wedding I ask the couple to share with us their wedding planning knowledge and experiences. This post is a super useful collection of wedding wisdom from those who have just got married, to help you on your own wedding planning journey. I hope there will be something amongst these experiences that help you. Happy Planning!

Photo by Anna Obermeier – full wedding HERE

General Advice

• Wear your shoes in before your big day! I suffered with my beautiful wedding shoes as they gave me horrible blisters throughout the day – it was very painful!
• Take dance lessons if you want to do a special first dance. We had so much fun during our lessons and it was a great surprise for our family and friends on the night!
• Make sure you get enough time on the dancefloor!
• Go with the flow, because whatever happens it will be perfect for you.
• It’s easier for me to say this as I work in events, but I think it’s really important to remember that you can keep things simple on your wedding day – the detail is important, but mostly your friends & family are there to enjoy the day with you, not to judge on the kind of favours you have.
• Don’t take the day too seriously.

photo by Darin Collison – full wedding HERE

Planning

• Do your research and choose your vendors (i.e. cost, style, personality) wisely but try to forget about the financial output. Everything wedding related is expensive, and it’s so hard to contemplate spending so much in one day. But honestly, you’ll enjoy the day 100 fold if you let that financial pressures go.
• Wedding planning can be stressful especially if you are planning it yourself but always remind yourselves not to spend energy on things that wont matter in the long run.
• Pick suppliers that you trust. This gave us so much peace of mind on the day as we knew that everything was under control and we could just relax and enjoy ourselves.
• Utilise your friends and family. They really do want to help so delegate any jobs you can to help share the load and reduce stress.
• Trust those in the industry, if they have a good reputation and reviews, then trust their word.
• There are lots of couple out there who will sell expensive items on after their big day. You can get a real bargain keeping an eye on online selling sites
• Plan ahead, attention to detail will not go a miss, no matter how minor the detail – the satisfaction from seeing all the reactions from guests faces is priceless on the day.

Photo by Off BEET Productions. – full wedding HERE

Make the day your own

• Stay true to yourselves as a couple and don’t be swayed into anything you don’t want to do. Remember it’s your day!
• Only invite the people you want to be there – it’s your day and you should be surrounded by the people that make you the happiest!
• Make sure your wedding reflects who you are as a couple. Just because something is a tradition, doesn’t mean you need to include it in your day. These personal details will make your day unique and memorable – nobody else in the world is like you and your wedding should reflect that.
• Put as much of yourselves into the day as possible, rather than doing/having what you think you are supposed to. We broke with a lot of traditional, even if it got some raised eyebrows, and were so glad we did.

Photo by Megan Ann Photography – full wedding HERE

Getting organised

• To avoid having to instruct suppliers and groomsmen/bridesmaids on the day, I found that giving them all a very detailed spreadsheet of ‘who’s doing what when’ really helped take any worries away and let me focus on just enjoying the day.
• Don’t underestimate how long it actually takes you to do things if you are doing a lot of the decorative stuff yourself.
• Prioritise what aspects are most important to you as a couple. Unless money is no object there will have to be some compromises, so make sure it’s not on the areas that matter most to you.
• Book vendors as early as you can as dates go quickly.
• Keep it relaxed, there is no need for a jam packed schedule or over tight timings. Enjoy every moment of the day!

Photo by Duesudue – full wedding HERE

On the day

• Make time for each other on the day and try and be together throughout the day so you have the same memories together.
• Things may go wrong but don’t get upset or let anything bother you, at the end of the day you’re marrying your best friend with all your favourite people around you and that’s all that matters, everything else is a bonus!
• Everyone says it, but ENJOY. EVERY. SECOND. It really did feel like the whole day was over in the blink of an eye so it’s so important to just take a moment every now and again to just drink it all in.
• The things you worry about leading up to the day no one will even notice.
• Roll with the punches, things may go wrong but it all makes for better funnier stories afterwards.
• Keep calm. There will always be things and details that cannot be controlled, the moment you see your future husband standing and waiting in front of the aisle makes every little thing that might have gone wrong before disappear.
• Make sure you eat. Put snacks aside for when you get home/to the hotel. Treat yourselves all day.
• You don’t want to be stressed or bothered on your wedding day. Don’t forget to delegate and give contact details of your maid of honour/best man to suppliers.

photo by Serena Genovese 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