Married Gals!

Steph0871 · June 2010

Any words of advice? This can be anything you want. I'd like to add a page to the bio with some tips from the pros

(and Laura's bio may have just sparked this idea again!)

veijes · June 2010

My advice:

First Look:
Wait to see each other until you walk down the aisle. You will have plenty of time to take pictures and it is so nice to spend some time with your family and friends because once the ceremony begins, you will want to be glued to your husband the rest of the night! And the moment you see him when you are walking down the aisle, you know you made the right decision

Do a receiving line: We didn't and we regret it! There are a few people we didn't even get to talk to and there were a lot of people trying to take up your whole night by talking to you.

Timelines:
Print out timelines and hand them out to everyone. This should be a no brainer but we forgot to do it and it would have been nice for everyone to know when things are happening rather than you being asked ALL day long.

Honeymoon Attire:
Bring comfortable shoes for your honeymoon. I brought tennis shoes, high heels, and sandals but none were comfy, walking around shoes that you could wear with a sundress/cute outfits. I got many blisters and often didn't match haha.

Things that surprised me:
I wasn't tired at all after the reception, we actually stayed up for about 3 hours when we got to the hotel

By the end of the night I was really sad that I didn't hold my bouquet longer, I actually MISSED my bouquet the day after the wedding.

If you have a photobooth, try to go in it with you bridal party and parents, friends, anyone. I mostly only did the photobooth with my husband, which was a lot of fun but it would have been fun to have the goofy pics with my sisters and friends.

Eat really slow, I feel like I barely ate the meal but I ate it fast and felt REALLY sick, I was holding myself back from barfing.....oops.

My last word of advice: Try to soak in EVERY single minute! I know everyone says that but it goes by pretty fast and it is literally the best day of your life, so many good things happen, for about 3 days after you and your husband will be in awe of how amazing it went and just being husband and wife. It's so indescribable and I'm still smiling from ear to ear whenever I think about the day! Don't sweat the small things....they will happen and you won't care!

kclepire · June 2010

Take a minute to stop and look around. Do this a few times throughout the day. It seriously goes by SO FAST. It will honestly be the best feeling to look around and see all the people who care about there: your high school buds, your college buds, your grandparents, your family, your best friends now.

You will not get to talk to everyone and people understand this before the day. The next day I felt so bad that I didn't get to talk to DH's 2 aunts who I really like (they live in the metro so we see them quite often). There are so many people to talk to and so little time.

Give someone YOUR camera!!!!! My PA and dad took pictures with our camera during formals before the wedding and it was so nice to see some pictures the next day. I do wish they had taken pictures during the rest of the night...but glad they took some.

Make lots of TIME for pictures. I looked at our timeline and thought we had plenty of time (possibly even too much time). I looked at others timelines and we had an hour extra then most other brides on the boards. The time went by so fast and you'll need to wait 5 minutes for the missing GM and you'll need to wait 10 minutes for FI's family. I thought for sure we'd have time to stand around and chat with the wedding party during pictues, but the time flies.

Add extra time into your schedule everywhere! You think you have tons of time, but seriously I don't know where time went. We were to meet our hair/make up people at the hotel at 11 and when I went to Subway they did not have our food ready so we had to wait and I was late 20 minutes so no one could get in the room. I should have DELEGATED the food. DELEGATE MORE!

Let FI deal with his family and you deal with your family. Determine this right away.

If you're having an outdoor ceremony, make sure you have a back-up plan that you are comfortable with. It had been raining on/off our day and actually was not raining during the ceremony time, but it was 58 degrees out and everyone was freezing but me so we had the ceremony inside.

You will be exhausted the day after. Everything in your body will hurt. I was so glad we did not have something planned that next morning.

kclepire · June 2010

Another one:

Do a receiving line. DH and I did not want to do one because we hate them when we have to wait in the church to be ushered out. We are so glad we did one. During cocktail hour, we stood near the bar. It was quick (10-15 minutes), we were able to see many people and didn't have to talk long to the people we didn't want to. Also, people did not have to go through if they did not want to.

kclepire · June 2010

Another after reading veijes's -

DH and I saw each other before and I'm so glad we did. He and I saw each other and went to another location with the photographers and 1 of our BM's. It was the only 45 minutes of the day I got to be with him, talk with him, and really enjoy the day with him without tons of people around. It was nice to have some time with him. If you're going to go somewhere with just DH and photogs to take pictures, bring your PA or a BM with. I brought a BM with in case I needed to use the restroom

, but she ended up holding my bouquet for pics we didn't have it in or held our umbrellas (because it was on/off rain).

kclepire · June 2010

Some more:

Walk SLOWLY down the aisle. If someone is walking you down, tell them to control the speed because at the time, I thought I was walking slowly, but after watching the video I was running down the aisle. I wish my dad had slowed us down.

We had a great time on our honeymoon and loved it, but we do wish we had gone for lesser amount of time. We went for 7 nights/8 days. We wish we had gone for 5 nights and spent the other days back home relaxing together, eating at our favorite places, etc before giong back to work. Also, people do actually go to Mexico in June. We thought we'd be the only people there since it was June (because we have MN weather and who would go there), but the resort was 100% booked. Forth of people were honeymooners and the rest were couples from the south on summer break because it's actually cooler in Mexico than the south in June.

We decided to not get a videographer and even after I'm still good with the decision. My aunt actually used my sisters video camera and taped the ceremony for us and taped a few things throughout the night. I'm so thankful she did this. So if you don't get a videographer, ask a family member to tape some of the night.

Steph0871 · June 2010

Thanks! Oh, I should also ask the engaged girls, too. Any great advice you've picked up along the way?

hkiesling · June 2010

I didn't plan on doing this, but right before I was set to line up to walk down the aisle, I shoed everyone out of the getting ready room (I wanted to run through my vows). I ended up really taking a moment to just let the whole day and gravity about what I was about to do sink in. This was literally the only time I had to myself for the rest of the day (a friend even came with me to the bathroom to help with my train and crinoline). I'm so glad I took that moment to breathe and enjoy.

wittyschaffy · June 2010

If you do photos beforehand (we had to - no other option because we got married at the Conservatory and had an hour and a half to do EVERYTHING), be sure to do it in a way that is private for you and your DH. We sent out an email to our bridal party and let them know that we needed to spend 20 minutes or so doing our first meeting together with just us and that the rest of the day was really for our friends and family but we wanted to keep this small portion of the day to ourselves so it didn't get lost in the shuffle.

Genuinely thank all of the members of your bridal party as well as your parents. It seems like a small gesture but they, often times, work really hard on your wedding too and deserve to be recognized. We did it at our rehearsal dinner and people are STILL telling me about how cool it was that we did that. My ILs were pains in the butts, but I still found something to be grateful for and recognize them for.

Remember that your bridesmaids have feelings and may want to be heard. Listen to their insight but ultimately, it is your day and your decisions so if they ultimately aren't in love with the dress or shoe you pick, it is for one day.

If they love you, they'll deal with it without complaints!

Eat and drink well before your day gets moving. Stay hydrated all night.

You will be wiped out the next day. If you're holding a day after brunch, don't feel pressure to be there right at the start of it.

No matter how well you plan, how many times you run over things, something will go wrong. Try to plan ahead for how you want to handle the hiccups and identify a person you can hand it off to if it is major. You need to celebrate, not find an extra chair or figure out where cousin mel's vegan plate went.

And I think everyone has said this - but take a few minutes to really look around and take in the sights and sounds of your friends and family celebrating your new life with your husband. It really really does go by so quickly and you can't have those moments back. If you dont' make time to see them, you'll miss out on so much.

jtothelee216 · June 2010

I agree with kclepire -- seeing each other before the ceremony was one of my favorite parts. That was the only time during the day that we really got to enjoy being alone. I honestly think that was one of the most memorable times of the day for me.

I'll post more advice later.
Heading down to the basement...these storms are getting scary.

leggwilliams · June 2010

Designate someone to keep you hydrated and drinking lots of water! At the wedding I was at last night the groom got dehydated and was puking throughout most of the reception. The bride and groom ended up leaving a little after 10. It was sad!

chou_chou · June 2010

Everyone kept telling us how quickly the night goes by, stop and look around, and that is great advice however I think DH & I were really lucky in that we really got to experience our entire evening. We got tugged here and there by family wanting pictures, doing toasts, talking to people, etc -- but we both remember every single thing about our day & night......maybe we are just lucky, and maybe going into the day trying to pay attention to everything helped - prob both!

We didn't do a first-look (we went back and forth many times about this) and I am so happy that we didn't see each other until the ceremony --- the emotions that were surging in those moments were amazing (and the anticipation was actually a lot of fun). You can see in the pictures our friends & family took the progression of emotions I was going through during the processional -- started out trying not to cry (and looking like I was going to barf LOL) and by the time I got to the bottom of the stairs/aisle I was grinning from ear to ear and our eyes were locked on each other. Might not have been any different if we saw each other before, but it could have been a lot different. Who knows -- but I don't regret not doing the first look.

I would agree with Veijes about the timelines -- we printed one for every person involved in our day and gave them out at rehearsal. I am so happy that we did this, we didn't have a single person asking us what time they needed to be where or what they should be doing......yay! Didn't want to answer the same question a billion times that day, so spelled everything out for everyone. It worked, they all got where they needed at the right time!

Finally, if you can, leave at least a few days in between the wedding and the honeymoon. We just had our minimoon this past weekend (about a month to the day after our wedding) and are so happy we waited! We both came down with colds about 2-3 days after the wedding and our honeymoon would have been terrible to get through sick if we had left right away! Plus, exhaustion didn't hit us until that same time and we just wanted to stay in bed and sleep. (if you wait to go on your honeymoon it also makes the magic last longer!)

Steph0871 · July 2010

I think I added them all

Let me know if you've got any others... and don't forget to fill out the Married questionnaire!

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