Maybe some "still planning" bride out there can learn from my experiences.
We had tons of fun at our wedding and nothing was a disaster, but with that said here are a list of things that I didn't pay enough attention to or let slide when I didn't have to.
Water bottles – didn’t get them done, but I should have. There was only soda, coffee, and alcohol to drink no water. This was fairly large blunder on my part.
Out of town bags- we only had about 4-6 rooms so didn’t need them. Could have used the brochure that we created and handed them out at the Thursday party. Or better yet mailed them out to the guests who RSVPd that they were coming from out of town. Or we could have even emailed them out as a .pdf.
Table names – I should have created the list for the DJ to call out (we didn’t get all of our mountain pass pictures, but we could have done colors). This led to a line at the buffet. [if you are having more than 50 guest this could be frustrating, we had 150]
Menu cards – didn’t create but should have, I thought about it but time ran out. Not too big of a deal though.
Photo sharing cards - didn’t get done but should have, perhaps I would have seen more pictures from our guests.
Picture List – I didn’t give the photographers a list of pictures that I wanted to get, so we didn’t get one with me and all of Marc’s family, didn’t get the one with all of the bouquets around the hem of my dress, had too many of the kids on the dance floor. I should have given Lora more direction, introduced her to Nicki and Cousin Jen and had them organize the photo ops. There weren't enough pictures with us and our guests.
Alcohol – we needed more mixers, more vodka, and more red bull. No one told the bartenders which cups/glasses to use with each beverage i.e. scotch in the shot glasses not the 12oz beer glasses, (shouldn’t have needed to). No one told them to serve the clear beverages to the kids and save the Coke/diet Coke for the mixers. I should have gone over this with catering manager.
Kids room – I should have assigned someone to be in charge, and someone to purchase the nuggets. I had it set in my mind but didn’t specifically talk to the teenager about it.
Décor – I gave my new sister’s in law free reign over the decorating of the reception, loaded up several crates of the décor that I’d either purchased or made and delivered it to her house Saturday morning (should have done it the day before!). I should have created a list of things that I wanted and how to use them: they didn’t use the yard signs, used the wrong letters on the sweetheart table (not a big deal), didn’t use our charger plates. No one was able to bring the tall vases to the reception from the church, again not a big deal. Glass basket that mom brought out didn’t get used on top of cake (but was on the table), so I should have specified someone talk to the florist or the cake baker about it.
Favors – I bought the "Brides" packages and didn’t use the bows or labels that I'd printed, but they were a hit!
Programs – I made way too many, and I should have had someone handing them out at the doors.
Lisa,
Happily married now for 6 months.