Hey Lovebugs,
I am finally reacclimated to the real world after being in lovely wedding and honeymoon bliss. So here's my RECAP of my 10.20.12 wedding:
I flew home to Louisiana on Monday as I knew there would be tons left to do as my mom and I did plenty of DIY projects for the wedding. And good thing I did! On Tuesday I get a call that my venue, City Park New Orleans, is worried that it will be too hot for my guests to be on the balcony and want to know if I would consider switching to another of their venues (Pavillion of Two Sisters) so that all guests can sit inside during the reception. I had toured the pavillion during one of my visits but had not really paid it any mind since it was not the one I chose. So my parents and I hop in the car and roll to New Orleans (which is about an hour away) to see the pavillion again. Now the room is just GORGEOUS, there really is not anything to dislike but it took my some time to rethink my vision and to now see my reception being in here. I was worried that my decor would not match the grandness of this new space. It had much higher ceilings and felt more formal than the space I originally chose for my morning brunch wedding. But my parents were able to help me see that this would be a great option and everyone being inside was a plus so they sold me. Just by happenstance I venture off to see the tree where my ceremony was supposed to be and realize that it looks NOTHING like it did when I had seen it before. Every year they have an event in City Park called Celebration of the Oaks where they light the trees and the whole park just looks beautiful. Well little did I know that they had already started setting up for this which means the beautiful, majestic tree I had chosen now had weird black strings hanging from it which were the lights. Now I am sure that at 7pm, the tree looks AMAZING all lit up and such. HOWEVER for my 10:30am ceremony it looks like weird black strings and I was not pleased. So I started asking about other options for my outside ceremony and eventually settled on a beautiful space right outside of my reception venue. So let me just tell you, my nerves were completely shot. I mean what bride changes their entire ceremony location and reception venue 4 days before the wedding???? However there was not much time to dwell as there were projects left to complete, etc.
Friday night was the rehearsal and dinner and why was DH and 3 of the 6 groomsmen, and DH's family 45 minutes late for the rehearsal. You know I was too done. After all the stress of projects, wedding plans changed, etc I couldn't take it. The tears began to flow but one of my bridesmaids quickly helped me to pull it together and I was ok. We had the rehearsal and then the dinner at Copeland's of New Orleans and it was delish!
The morning of the wedding, I was eerily calm. My hairdresser through everything off by being 45 minutes late but were still able to get to the park on time and get all of the pictures taken. The other story behind City Park is that 2 weeks before my wedding I randomly find out that the Susan Komen walk is in the park the same morning as my wedding which means that major streets are blocked and parking is limited. So when I arrived to the park I hear loud music blasting and all kinds of noise. Luckily, they were able to get the sheriff to go over and ask them to turn it down so that by the time our ceremony started it wasn't an issue but it did make me a little on edge before that happen.
DH and I decided to do a first look and it was sooooooo amazing. I really feel like that set the tone for the rest of the day because we got all our jitters out, took all of our pics and were able to spend some time together before the chaos of the day started. When it was time for the ceremony, my matron of honor gave me the BEST advice. She told me that no matter what, as I walked down the aisle to keep my eyes focused on DH. I knew I would be tempted to want to look around and see who was there but I didn't and didn't focus on anything else besides him. After the ceremony, people told me they heard hecklers and someone on a cell phone while it was happening and I hadn't heard any of it because I was so focused on him. I think the first look helped with this as well. Our ceremony was officiated by my older cousin and he did an incredible job. It was so touching and personal and turned out to be one of my favorite memories of the day. DH teared up as he said his vows to me and that was also a very sweet memory. After the ceremony, which lasted about 30 minutes, we moved right into the reception and it was so much fun! I had been very nervous about our first dance as we hadn't practiced very much but it turned out wonderful. We first danced to beautiful surprise by india arie and then had the dj switch it to the second verse of adorn by miguel. We were singing to each other as if we were not in front of all these people and really had a blast with it. The food at the venue was delicious and plenty of guests commented that it was the best wedding food they had ever eaten. Our menu was passsed tea sandwiches, chicken and waffles, omelette station, jambalaya, and a pasta station. One of my absolute favorite moments of the day was the second line band! I always knew I would love this moment of my day but it was even better than I expected. The crowd really got into it and it was just awesome. We had our second line to close out our reception, so they played a few songs inside the venue and then led everyone to the parking lot where we made our getaway in a classic royals royce. It was really just a beautiful day and turned out so much more wonderful than I could have ever imagined. We flew back to ATL that Sunday morning, repacked and regrouped and then flew out to Curacao for a week to honeymoon which was a beautiful and relaxing way to wrap it all up. Below are a few pics we have received from friends and our sneak peek from our photog followed by some closing thoughts for all of you beauties waiting on your big day!
1. Hire a wedding planner if you can!!! My wedding planner was soooo helpful to me, especially the day of the wedding. She basically set up the entire reception hall just the way I wanted it to look and kept the entire day running smoothly.
2. Hire a videographer if you can. Although I have not received my video yet, I am more excited about getting this back than my pictures. There are so many things I can't remember about the day and I know the videographer was able to capture all of this. My videographers were also a husband wife team so I got 2 for the price of one so that expands the moments they were able to capture and I can't wait to see it.
3. Have a detailed list for your photographer. My photographer sent me a list of typical pictures the bride takes throughout the day that included all the normal family shots, etc. However, what wasn't included on that list were things like pictures of the bride alone which means that I did not take a single posed shot by myself that day in this ensemble that I had stressed soooo much about putting together. Now granted, that was not something I anticipated wanting ahead of time but I guess just assumed it would be included and it was not. I am sure she got great candids of me but in terms of posed shots there were none. Someone recently sent around a great list and that seemed pretty exhaustive to me!
4. Lean on your bridal party. Hey you picked them for a reason so allow them to help you when they can. I was able to delegate all kinds of task that needed to be done so then I didn't have to worry about it. Of course I guess this only works if they are reliable folks, which mine were.
5. Go with the flow. Trust me I know how it is when you have a plan and it's what you have been thinking about for months, but without a doubt, things will come up that you have no control over. It's easy to get caught up in problem solving and event planning and miss the true purpose of the day which is to marry your true love! Which brings me to the final point:
6. Focus on your partner! Like I said this was the best piece of advice I got in all of the wedding planning because at the end of the day that's what all the planning was about. You and them having an amazing start to the rest of your lives. In the end, no one will remember what color your linens were or how big your bouquet was, but they will remember how in love you two looked and how much love was in the room. Focus on capturing that and I promise the day will be amazing.