The Good!
- Our wedding was perfect. Things didn't all go exactly according to plan, but at that point I really didn't care any more or it was stuff I didn't notice until a day or two after. So clearly nothing earth shattering
- It didn't rain! According to various sources, there was 0- 60% chance of rain on Saturday. We went ahead and had our back up tent set up just in case, but totally didn't need it- There were a few sprinkles during our first dance outside, and a storm passed close to our area later that night, but nothing that slowed us down.
- My MOH, brother, and BIL really were amazing on Friday and Saturday... I was expecting that they would help a little, but all three went WAY above and beyond.
- My MOH, who was kind of hesitant about doing a toast, totally brought her A game- I didn't cry all day, but once she started her speech I immediately teared up. One of the best moments
- Our vendors LOVED us. I felt like we were incredibly scattered and had no clue which end was up, but all we kept hearing is how calm, cool, well prepared, and easy to work with we were- Fooled them, I guess ;p
- There was a LONG saga to make our fireworks happen- DH was going to order online, but there was a $100 S/H fee. Then we were going to get them at this one place we found when we got into town, but it was closed. Finally found a rinky dink kind of shop off the interstate- We ended up getting easily $650 worth of fireworks for $300. They were incredible- Not quite pro- grade, but pretty darn impressive. Money that was TOTALLY well spent.
- Our guests seemed to really enjoy themselves- The photobooth was hardly ever empty, people were plastering themselves with our temporary tattoos, playing the lawn games, and eating their weight in bbq. Also lots of positive feedback- SO relieved that people liked what we did.
- I ordered bulk flowers from Costco and was a little paranoid about the whole thing- The flowers turned out to be perfect. Out of 100 roses, there were only 2 that were unusable. VERY pleased.
The Bad!
- Guys. My dad's pants totally fell down during the father/ daughter dance. Fortunately he's the kind of guy that can totally pull off having that happen to him- Definitely memorable ;p
- After all the trouble I had finding foundation, I flipping forgot my makeup bag at the place we stayed the night before. Fortunately MIL was able to pick it up on her way to the venue, but it kind of pushed back my getting ready because she ended up being about an hour late
- Our DOC was not so awesome. Lots of things didn't get done- Most notably she didn't have the servers cut the cake. Guests were hesitant about cutting their own, so we had a TON of cake leftover.
- We had a TON of people leave early. We're not sure if it was a combo of heat/ people living/ staying an hour away or what... But we really had to push up all of our events- I'd guess we were done about an hour ahead of schedule. The quality of the people that stayed was amazing, but I was really shocked that so many people left so early.
The Plain Old Ugly!
- It was bleeding, stinking HOT. We set up the venue for about 8 hours on Friday, and there was a nice little breeze with all the heat. I thought as long as that kept up, we would be fine on Saturday... Of course, the day of the wedding was not breezey at all.
- My mom had some of her friends help us set up. In general, they were crazy helpful- But they made some decor choices that I thought were kind of tacky but that I didn't have time to fix. The thing that made my soul shrivel up and die a little was how they bunched babys breath into the BM rose bouquets and into the single rose bouts and corsages- DEFINITELY not what I wanted.
The Amazing:
- DH's uncle & aunt let us stay in their multi-million dollar beach front house in Seaside. What. The. Heck. They told us at the RD, and we both had to scrape our jaws off the floor. The house was amazing, and we got to save SO much money.