Im back, It has taken me some time to think about how to write about my wedding. It went great, ceremony was beautiful. I was not nervous at all to walk down the aisle. I was completely calm and ready. My bouquet toss was one for the record books. I told the ladies to stand back because remember I was a softball player and sure enough i chucked that thing so hard it landed at the table my husbands cousin was at and she caught it. My husband said it whizzed past everyone like a bullet lol. One of my bridesmaid was a no show and I had my flower girl bump up to jr. bridesmaid. Surprisingly I was very calm as a lot of chaos was going on. I allowed myself to let go, stop being a control freak and to enjoy every moment. My family and BMs also commented on how shocked they were at how calm I was with everything going on. Caterer was 2.5hrs late, didnt let it bother me, wedding planner was a nut, didnt let it bother me, my dad forgot his white shirt to his suit and ran to kohls 30 mins before the start of the wedding, didnt let it bother me. I was ready to marry Miguel! Our vows were almost identical which was very scary and even the pastor said how freakishly alike we were with our vows.
My CONS wedding planner dropped the ball majorly. Before I release my vent Here are some pictures.
We both reached for eachothers faces lol
centerpieces
My son and I after he got out of his monkey suit
our cake, there was NOTHING left of it
My husband and my daughter
My crazy cousin but one of my fav pictures of my dress
chairs prior to ceremony
the pool all lit up
our custom monogram
view of some of the tables
and now for the LONG vent... Yes its long. No you dont have to read it. I know im going to get some people who think i nit picked the F out of the wedding but in reality I allowed myself to have a wonderful day and wait until almost a week later to let the thought process come together and write this out.
Weeks leading up to the wedding I had sent K (we will call her K, wedding planner) multiple emails and Facebook messages in regarding meeting and going over wedding info, the emails were not replied to nor the messages until almost 2 weeks later after I had to email K's husband to get in contact with her. She told me she didn't have the internet to access the emails or messages but had posted multiple pictures and posts on Facebook during the time frame I was trying to contact her. K was a NO show to rehearsal, day before didn't show up until 8:30pm and that was after 7pm I told her not to come because we had already completed all set up that she was supposed to help with (chairs, tables, flowers, centerpieces and linens). Once K showed up I went over the ceremony, the walking of bridal party to cueing the dj. Went over the seats to be moved to tables, the canopies over dance floor to be removed. K also had a print out of the days timelines and itinerary. I showed her where cake, candy, gift, bar, guest and welcome tables were located. They were already set out expect the welcome table. K left after we went through the day of events and made sure all was inline and in order and what needed to be done the morning of. The day of she showed up late, was to arrive at 9am and didn't arrive until 9:20. She came with 1 assistant D (call her D). After a brief run through of what needed to be set up I was then on lockdown until the start of the ceremony. K came in over 10 times to tell me about concerns, warnings, people that were late etc. I had asked her to not come to me and to direct any ?s to miguel or my matron of honor. I addressed this with her the day before. After the 4th time of her still coming to me with ?s i just didn't stop her anymore because K was going to come to me regardless. Example: The night before I had set out all boxes that contained everything needed for the day of set up; plates, silverware, napkins, decor. K came to me and told me we had over 40 missing plates that K could not locate. One of my bridesmaids left my aunts room and searched through the boxes to find the "missing" plates. They were in the boxes that were set out the night before labeled dinner plates. At 1:30pm I looked out the window of my aunts room and saw that the tables were still not set. Our ceremony started at 4pm. I sent out Matron of honor and BM to please get the tables set. Once all the girls were in full hair and make up they were still out until 3pm setting up whatever that needed to be done. Once it was time for the ceremony things went off without a hitch, we then signed our license and went to the park for our pictures. I sent bridesmaids and groomsmen back to the house to get out of the sun and relax before introduction of wedding party. Once the groom and I came back D came in with the envelopes of the people who did not attend the wedding. About 30 people No showed. I had everyones table numbers written on the envelopes with their names and favors inside. I gave my wedding party their envelopes since they were obviously not walking up to the welcome desk. D and K handed out drinks to the wedding party and went outside. I had to announce to my bridal party to please line up next to their bridesmaid or groomsmen to be in order for introduction.
Once Miguel and I were introduced is when I was able to officially give the exterior set up a good view. The canopies that were over the guests for the ceremony were not removed as discussed the night before. Miguel and I danced with the canopies still up and having to watch for poles. After the first dance Miguel and I addressed K that we wanted the canopies removed and they were supposed to be. K acted shocked like K didn't know. Miguel and I mingled and K offered us drinks again. 30 minutes later I had to ask the DJ to announce dinner is served and before Miguel or myself could eat K and D had already had their plate of food and was eating. The canopies finally got removed by my groomsmen and family members.
After an hour of eating, mingling, I had to have the Dj announce for everyone to please take their seats that we were going to start speeches. Part of a wedding planner is to follow the itinerary given to them and not have the bride continue to come up to the dj and have him announce. The dj also had an itinerary that was the same as K's. After speeches we proceeded with bouquet toss and garter toss, special dances, and cake. My aunt mouthed to me when i wanted the cake out and I said after the father daughter dance. K never got the cake and my aunts had to get the cake and place the cake topper.
Around 7:30pm is when we had gotten through everything and it was dancing and mingle time. Throughout this time K and D were on their phones constantly and sitting talking with the dj. I had asked them to not clear any tables decor but to remove any trash that was left on empty tables. My aunts constantly came up to me with ?s because K was not available.
As the night dwindled down K and D were drinking and dancing, but once there was only a few people left the tables were still not being cleared and my family was already doing the clean up. Since most people were gone I decided to end things early and asked the dj to play our last song. Afterwards I was standing near the bar. My aunts house has a game room that you can see into windows all the way around. K and D were glued to their phones that they had to charge. My family STILL cleaning and removing table decor, moving presents inside, and the clean up of garbage. We left my aunts at 11:30pm and K and D were still there.
The next day I returned to my aunts to help with any clean up that needed to be done. My family then told me that they practically did all the set up and take down. I never asked when K and D left. As I was going through boxes of what needed to be brought back to my house i started to empty each one so i didn't have to bring so many home and i could fit as much as i could in a box. As I did so i found that my bubbles were never placed out, the jersey (guestbook) did not get put out on the welcome desk until well into the reception so a lot of people did not sign our guestbook, our fake flower petals were still in their packages that were supposed to be spread out throughout the cake table as decor, I had an unopened box of floating candles which meant tables went without proper decor, and now that i think of it i thought i saw a table with a votive inside the top of a vase instead of the floating candle, all packages of my cocktail napkins 300napkins to be exact were never placed at the bar, 140 wine glasses were not placed on the bar and everyone who drank wine had to bring up their cup over and over again to be refilled, 60 candles, 5packages were not used on the tables. My mother inlaw also told me the next day D turned away a guest because they did not see their name on an envelope when they were a guest of an attendee. K had the entire guest list of everyone attending by name. We are under contract with her but I am glad we made it where we would negotiate prices after the fact. I also had my family who helped the day of and my BMs who helped to write a "review" for me of what they exactly did and what K did or did not do. Here is some of them. All three of us worked on the chair bows for about 2 hours, then set the place settings, filled the tea and lemonade during the wedding, got out the jersey for signatures, carried out the wedding cake, after the wedding mike helped with clearing tables of garbage plates, etc., taking down tables and chairs and carrying them to the side of the house, took all ribbons and chair covers off the chairs. BM and I went out at one point and also BM and put out the table settings and helped with bows on chairs. What I did was help at rehearsal, kept a list of every thing that was needed, helped do the table setting finalizing night before, steamed dresses & bows & table runners, decorated the arch with rob, moved tables. I think I mostly helped with all the smaller tasks that she should have been in charge of. Like knowing what you wanted. Where you wanted stuff. Reserving chairs for family. Scheduling speeches. Oh, and I am also the one who told the groomsmen to come back inside after pictures were taken until we were all announced. I felt like all she kept doing was running back and fourth and asking people if they wanted drinks. She basically did what any one could do. The point of having a wedding planner is so that the bridal party, family and friends and the bride and groom don't have to raise a hand. She (both of them actually) seemed timid and afraid to take initiative. Kept asking you questions instead of asking anyone else in the house. She should be able to take initiative and get things done without continuously having to check in and make sure things are right. This was the most frustrating part. I found that I was running back and forth checking things and making sure they were right (plates and napkins set correctly for example, you and rob not having a ridiculously high table to eat at for another). If she was confident in her job, you wouldn’t have been worried and double checking everything she was doing. It was her attitude that made us keep double checking her work. She seemed to move very slowly also. I think that it all could have been set up in much less time if she had been more involved earlier. (coming the day before to get everything organized would have helped- She could have counted the plates/tables whatever and made sure she had everything ready to go the next day. Debbie wouldn’t have had to bring more table clothes, if she had been able to see what was missing the day before, or at least earlier when she did show) The runners could have been ironed the day before as well) Dani & and I made sure that the chair ties were all the same, evenly pulled out instead of some of them spread out and some of them scrunched up. Your aunts tied most (if not all) of the bows on the chairs. She was ironing the table runners and leaving big water spots on them, so we stopped her and told her to just put them on the tables un-ironed. She should have used a towel between the runners and the iron to prevent the water spots.Dani, Serena and I put on most of the runners and the vases. She did put all the little beads into the centerpieces with the flowers though. I believe she made sure they were even on the tables.