I just had my wedding last October 30. We are still on a high. Just wanted to share some bits and pieces I have learned. All your posts have been helpful. I recently moved to Nh and started planning our wedding. It took us only 4 months and our day was just perfect. Never had a dream wedding until I had my own. I initially thought, wedding day is just like any other party. Most important to me was my family be there and that's it.
Some say it's all about the dress, flowers, etc. For us, I tried to be practical. I told my husband that there are only 3 things that I want to really invest on.
1. Rings- thank God we were civilly married before moving here so we got the rings beforehand. It was not included in our Church wedding budget.
2. Photographer- these are lasting memories. We have interviewed 4 photographers despite little time on our hands. We initially booked one and when we were having trouble communicating with them, we just said no to them. We hired another one 1 month before the wedding, which was the best decision we made.
3. Videographer. My videographer asked me if a video is something that is nice to have or must have. I said must have. My husband was not too convinced but he was extremely grateful we got our videographer.
These are the lasting things we can share to our family and hopefully kids and grandchildren.
Here are some pieces of advice I have learned.
1. Be practical. Yes, it's stressful but stick to your budget and make the most out of it.
2. Follow your gut feeling. Since I have very little time, I wanted to book them as soon as I liked them. Then I second guessed 2 of my vendors. I changed my mind and probably wasted good amount of money for deposit. The thing is, I did not have a coordinator and all I did on the wedding day was trust all my vendors. And I am so happy I changed my mind.
3. Vendor alerts: If they do not reply to your email/call within 24 hours, that spells ALERT! If they do not make themselves accessible to you, that for me is TROUBLE! It's just basic business rule to answer to your client within 24 business hours.
I would post separately my reviews for my vendors, who were all fantastic.
Have fun planning and on the wedding day itself.
