And finally my would / wouldn't do... Definitely not as long as my G/B/U post lol
Would Do
DESTINATION WEDDING!!!! - I am soo glad that I stuck to my plan of having a wedding vacation. Even after all the challenges and majority of my family backing out it was perfect. It truly was a dream and I can't imagine having it any other way!
Bring my own photographer - Not only am I madly in love with my photos, our photographers are people we will forever consider friends. They spent the last year getting to know Louie and I and when they met us in the Dominican we felt like we were old friends. I introduced them to my family as friends would and they clicked with everyone! When their job was over they even partied with us. I think the fact that we were so comfortable with them made our pictures even better... especially my TTD shots ;-)
Hire a Videographer - I splurge a little too much on this one, and even though I haven't seen the video yet, I know it was worth it. We had 2 guys (Diego and his second shooter from Cores films) covering the wedding and they were EVERYWHERE and super nice. Our videographer even had great ideas for pictures... He was mainly responsible for our canopy pics... he is the one that calmed me down with the rain and wisked us away to the 2nd floor
I loved having him around. He is based in the DR so any future puntaa cana brides should definitley consider him.
Have the wedding off resort! - I am 110% glad I decided to change my wedding and not do it on the resort. While we were staying at the resort I saw about 6 weddings... and they all looked very similar and weren't very private. Our wedding was held at a beach restaurant and although we didn't pay to have the restaurant closed for only us, there were very few vistors. We had the first floor of the restaurant and the beach all to ourselves. It was great to not have to move locations between the ceremony and reception. And this place only does 1 wedding a day, and everything is customized to your theme. Not to mention the food was top notch! Again, any future DR brides the Jellyfish Beach Restaurant should be something you check out.
Hair Trial on the Resort - the day before the wedding I opted to do a Hair trial (it was included in my package). Taking the time away from being with friends and family was a bummer... but it allowed the hair stylist to work on the style I wanted and get it right. during the hair trial I must have had her change it 2 or 3 times. But on the day of the wedding she knew EXACTLY what I wanted and it came out nice, fast and lasted all night. I was very pleased.
First Look - I would definitely do a first look again. It was awesome to surprise him and here him talk about how gorgeous he thought I looked right away. it really did help calm down any nerves I had
Wouldn't Do - There really aren't a lot of things I wouldn't do... I loved how everything turned out... but there are a few.
Not write my own vows - I really really wish we sat down earlier to write our own vows. I just felt like it would have more sentimental meaning. Our vows weren't the traditional vows, and they were nice, but I still felt like I was saying someone elses words. Time just got the best of us and we never made it a high enough priority ;(
Let my mom leave early with my kids - Around 9:30 my mom wanted to leave (the party ended at midnight) and she wanted to take my 2 younger ones back to the resort with her because of my son's tantrum earlier. I really wish I would have said no or just let her leave with out the kids. I let them go because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to really keep an eye on them and still be with all the guests, but I just wasn't thinking. There is a group picture at the end of the night and everyone else's little kids are in it buy my 2
my oldest daugther stayed out with us and I had a good time dancing with her.
Let others put my stuff away - I spent a lot of money on my barefoot sandals and I wore them for the ceremony and I really wanted to wear them for my TTD session the next day. But after the glass had shattered I had to take them off and put regular sandals on. I didn't remember who took them off of me as my husband was putting my sandals on for me. The next day I looked through my stuff and they weren't there and I couldn't use them ;( Turned out my SIL took them with her. I didn't get them back till were were back in Chicago.
And that's it!