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BEFORE 1. How long did it really take you and your bridesmaids to finish getting ready? I had my makeup appointment at 8:00, the girls started their hair at 8. We only had on person doing everyone's hair. I had my hair appointment at 11:00, but everyone was done early, so I got my hair done early, which meant to "getting ready" photos with the hair dresser, I was a little bummed about it, but wasn't a real big deal. 2. Did your wedding party follow your timeline pretty well, or did your group end up falling behind? We followed the timeline fairly closely, we did start out a bit later than we thought, and then also forgot the bouts for the guys who didn't get dressed at the reception place, so DH's mom had to run there and bring them to the church. But, we followed the timeline, got to the church on time, and had plently of time to relax before the actual ceremony. That was a really fun part of the day. I was in the basement of my church, talking with my BMs, and them my sorority sisters came down when they got to the church. It was fun being able to talk to them pretty much one on one, which didn't really happen any other part of the day. Plus I got to sit and relax, my feet were hurting a bit, so it was good to sit down. 3. What’s something you spent too much/too little money on? I was pretty budget minded through the whole process, I didn't have a budget for a videographer. I had a larger (around $3000) budget for a photographer, because I thought of that as one of the most important venders. At one point, I thought about getting a cheaper photographer, and also hiring a videographer. However, that didn't happen, I fell in love with Kate Botwinski and her photos, and decided I'd rather have an amazing photographer, and honestly hadn't looked much into videographers. As the wedding got closer, I decided that we still needed to have our ceremony at least videotaped, and began looking in depth into videographers, asking on here for referrals, etc. Of couse, at that time (2 months to go), and the good cheap choices were already booked. It was about 2 weeks before the wedding when I finally sent in a deposit for our videographer. A big leap of faith for a type A like me. It's through a company that hires free lance videographers, so I never got to see any of his work, he doesn't even edit it, The company does. But, I was running out of time and choices, so I hope it works out.
Short version: I hired a videographer when there was to budget for it, we'll see if it was worth it when we see the video. It was a fairly cheap package: $695 for 1 hour pre-ceremony, the entire ceremony, and 4 hours at the reception.
4. What is one detail that you sort of overlooked that you wish you had paid more attention to? What is something that you put tons of effort into that ended up being mostly unnoticed? I don't know that I have an answer to this one, I was pretty detail oriented, so I thought of most things. I also had lots of people telling me how they liked my details, so I don't know. DURING 5. What was a small detail from you wedding that really had guests "oohing and ahhing"? I think people really liked our personal vows, I had many people tell me that they really loved our personalized ceremony. People also liked our rustic themed details. I had made a wooden wedding sign, a cake stand, dessert stands, and unity candle stand. Our reception place was a bit more rustic, so it fit the theme and people liked them! 6. Did you or your FI drink too much/too little/just right/not at all? DH didn't drink a whole lot, and I didn't really either. Though I drank more than what probably should have been okay for how much I ate that day (not very much...). We spilt a bottle of wine at dinner, and I think I had two or three mixed drinks, but that was over the course of our 6 1/2 hour reception. 7. Was there a piece of music that surprised you as a hit at the reception? What were the guest favorites? We just wanted to dance, I think this was the most frustrating points of the day. Our DJ had his own agenda, and kept wanting to slow it down before playing a good upbeat dance song. It took a good threat from one of DH's cousin's to get him to just play some day music. When we had that going, there were lots of people on the dance floor. Lady Gaga, and the other new songs were on the top of the list. 8. Best compliment you got from a guest? That our wedding was the best, well thought out wedding that they had been to in years. They loved all the details, the paper items, the good food, tons of food, and everything. I got several comments like that. It made me feel good that all my hard work was worth it. 9. If you didn't have a DOC, did you have much to worry about that day? I didn't have a DOC, and never felt a need for one. The woman I'd been working with at the reception, had everything there under control, I didn't need to worry. I also had pretty much everything set up the day before, so there wasn't a lot to get done the day of. I think the only thing a DOC could of helped with was to remember to bring our flowers for the other GM and ushers. AFTER 10. What was the best part about your big day? I think the best part of the day was our first dance. Throughout the whole day it felt a bit surreal, like we were practicing for our wedding, not that it was actually our wedding day.
Before the ceremony I started to cry, I really didn't want to cry at the ceremony, since we were doing personalized vows and would have to speak in front of this group, I wanted to be able to speak clearly. MOH did her job of distracting me, and I got though the ceremony without crying.
But our first dance was when it started to feel all real. That's when I cried for the first time that day. We danced to our song, that's been our song for so long that it's almost lost meaning when you hear it, but it really got to me. It made me feel like a bride and so happy! 11. What was something you were really stressing out about but turned out to be not a big deal/totally fine? What is something that ended up being a waste of time or money? The biggest stresser in this whole process was our caterer. I didn't write about it on here, because I wanted to be able to disclose all information, and therefore had to wait until the wedding was over. His big thing was professionalism, he wanted things to be wonderful and perfect, but did not have the best customer service. If some of you watch some of those cooking competition shows, you know that some of those chefs have a bit of an attitude problem, well mine did too. We had our food tasting, and his food was amazing, so I tried to take everything with good faith that it will all turn out. Those last few days were stressful with me talking to our reception coordinator about well, if he doesn't show up we'll have to order pizza, kind of thing. I'll write more about it in my vender review. In the end, he showed up, everyone said they loved the food, he charged us more on a couple things that was previously disclosed, but it all worked out. I didn't worry about it the day of, I got to the reception, and saw him there, so it was all good! 12. What time did you end up leaving the reception? 12:00, it was pretty dead by then, a few die hard dancers and us. It was fun though! 13. What is the most important/first thing you did/needed to do once all of the wedding craziness subsided? Honeymoon, I'm so happy we did one right after the wedding, it was nice to have a break from all the stresses that we had with the wedding and everything else! 14. Who was your favorite vendor now that the wedding is done? Kate Botwinski Photography, and our reception place: the Bug Bee Hive Resort. Kate has so much energy that I just love being around her, and Laurie from the resort was so helpful in working with the caterer those last couple of days that I didn't have any added stress from it! 15. What was one highlight from the big day that will remain in your memory every time you think back on your wedding day? My MOH have me a beautiful speech. She was an english major, and it was sweet, personal, and much better than what I could have written. She also had a slide show of pictures that I hadn't seen, she did an amazing job on that as well! BONUS 16. Where did you go for your wedding night? The famous Paynesville Inn and Suites. 17. How long did it take you or your FI to get all of the pins out of your hair on the wedding night? not real long, I only had 30 in my hair, so it took about 5 minutes. 18. What is one piece of advice you would offer to a bride on her wedding day? Don't stress out about the little things, it's too late to really do anything about it except to go with the flow. There will inevitably be something that goes wrong, but don't let it ruin your day.
19. Favorite picture from the day? (extra credit for PIP!) I just got a sneak peek at our first professional photo link below
http://www.katebotwinskiphotographyblog.com/sneak-peek-laura-zach-married-minnesota-wedding-photographer/
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