Laura's Super-Duper How-to Guide for Having a Non-Bridezilla but "All-Yours" Wedding Day.

Are you tired just from reading the title? Yeah, well, brace yourself because I'm verbose. This post started as a "quick note" to a friend recently engaged who asked a totally unrelated question of her FB friends.

   After a while I realized HOW much I had written and that I might look like an obsessive, crazy, bossy lady if I sent it all to her. I also wondered if anybody else might have interest in this kind of content for future events. Therefore, I hereby post my comments for all to see. Friends' names have been removed to protect the (somewhat) innocent.

   You have your own friends and family that will be involved but I had so much FUN that I have to share some thoughts. I felt like before getting married, everyone gave me tips on how to do this, that, and the other thing for the wedding. Nobody gave me ANY ideas on how to make it “ours” and have the most FUN with it as the celebration of our marriage, not just an impersonal “wedding”. Riding away in the limo that night, Mike and I both remarked at how laid back things were but how much FUN this celebration had been. I hope that makes sense.

   I LOVE event planning and SERIOUSLY nerd out about our wedding, cost-savings on weddings (if that's of interest), and how to get and keep things running smoothly. I acted as wedding-day manager/planner for two other dear friends. It was even suggested that I try my hand at it professionally, but I'd much rather do this for fun than make it work.

   Average cost for a wedding in Denver/Metro is around $35,000 plus honeymoon. We did ours for right around $10,000 INCLUDING honeymoon, but we didn't care about a lot of fancy minute details/decorations as much as some folks would. I totally understand that, but tight-budgeted as we were, we had a PHENOMENAL day that I have NO regrets about (personally OR logistically.) =D

If you're going to splurge on ONE thing, splurge on photography.

   We love love LOVE our wedding pics, still up in my FB pics if you want to see and/or check out some of the details I’ll talk about later. A lot of people are hiring a videographer too- that’s just personal preference.

   Make sure you find a photographer that you can buy the rights from. When a photographer takes pictures at your wedding, even though they’re YOU, the photographer owns the copyright to those files and images. If you buy “full rights” you will receive a cd/flash drive with all your digital files, with unlimited rights to print, re-print, etc. If you don’t you’re not allowed legally to make copies of any of your own pictures. Any time you want any of them or order some for family members you’d have to pay the photographer their inflated price for prints. A lot of photographers are now either including the “buying rights” in some of their packages, or they will do it as an add-on. We spent almost a third of our budget on photography alone, but it was SO worth it, and in the end we saved a LOT of money not paying print and copy fees.


   Also, buy disposable cameras to set out. Put a well-loved and lovely petite Greek friend in charge of taking pictures with them and making sure others do too. Ok, so not everybody gets to have a “Dora”, but it was still pretty awesome and we got to see pics of a lot of candid moments we didn’t witness.

People can’t tell the difference between real and silk flowers. Really.

   If you look at our pictures, we had NO real flowers. I’m not even “Lutterman” crafty and neither is mom (Kati is) but we had no trouble at all putting together all the bouquets, corsages, and boutonnières for under $200. That’s less than the cost of ONE bride’s bouquet from most places. This also made life a LOT easier, we didn’t have to worry about keeping fresh flowers cool, watered, etc. We made them up well ahead of time then tucked them away a box and didn’t have to think about them during all the last-minute preparations. If you go this route, my best advice is to start cutting out pictures of all the arrangements you like, but be flexible about the exact “background” flowers and take a little time visiting craft stores finding ones that you like.

   If you want real flowers and don’t mind simple arrangements, my best friend ordered orange and pink roses, baby’s breath and greenery from CostCo. She picked up the day before, and we all sat around assembling everything the night before. It was FUN, and they turned out beautifully!!

You’ll save a lot of time/frustration if you

don’t assign seating at the reception.

   People start making demands about who they do/don’t want to sit by, you have to worry about others that you just generally know don’t like each other, etc. Plus, the “small” cost of stationery cards is one of the things that add up really fast. Instead, reserve (still unassigned spots) tables up front for family, and everyone will naturally group with the people they want to sit with. This worked great for all 3 weddings I worked on.

Ceremony- Do it YOUR way. It’s way less stodgy.

   We are NOT pomp-and-circumstance kind of people. We had a lot of fun writing our own ceremony, choosing what music we walked to (Mike’s entrance was the Indiana Jones Theme).

  The ceremony itself included inside jokes and way more detailed promises we wanted to make to each other than “in sickness and in health…” etc. If you have any interest in seeing ours as an example, I’m happy to share.

Eat, Drink, and be MARRIED!

Eat well and HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE

  Don't skip ANY meals the day before, and especially not breakfast the morning of. You’ll have much more fun and feel great. I know a bride who didn’t eat or drink much because of all the excitement, and didn’t take the time to sit down and eat her meal at the reception. She was dizzy, nauseated and she fainted on her wedding day. A few times.

Wear comfortable shoes.

   If you have beautiful heels to wear with your dress and can't bear to wear sneaks the WHOLE time, at least change for walking around at the reception.   Your feet will thank you in the morning, and you won't be hobbling around like a granny as you take off for honeymoon adventures. I LOVED my Skechers, I even decorated them.  My feet were comfortable all day long, and the only reason anybody even knew is because I showed them.

Find Someone Bossy. Mind you, find someone that is diplomatically bossy.

   Put her in charge of ALL "problems" and general logistics on the wedding day. Not drinking enough water? Have her go get you a glass. Caterer doesn't know where to put the cake? She's their gal. Getting a headache? Have her grab an Advil from your day-of emergency kit. (Hmm, I sense another post about Kit contents coming on...) This requires some pre-planning so they know your preferences including, "If ____ goes wrong, I want _____ to happen, but anything else, who really cares (?)..."

Random:

I rented three goats to “give” to Mike as a dowry at the rehearsal dinner. It was hilarious.

Don’t let people change your plans tell you

how THEY want it done if you're not ok with it.

Even if they’re paying.

   If they play that card, tell them that you that you’d really rather have things the way you would like them on YOUR day and if they disagree you appreciate them but you’re happy to pay for ____ yourself (and be prepared to.) We had to do that with a family member and our photography. In that case, we wanted GREAT, not cheap.

FOCUS!

  Arrange everything so that the last (at least 4) hours before, you don’t have to “accomplish” anything. Delegate all the last minute stuff to your bossy friend and take your time getting ready. (Or hire me as a day-of coordinator! (kidding. (kindof. If you wanted to, I'd only ask for travel cost and meals.))) Take a quiet moment to sit down by yourself and write your last “single” note to your hubby-to-be about an hour before the ceremony starts. It's a calming, directed pre-game ritual. Give him the note later.

Go for a Walk...

   After the initial exit post-ceremony and dismissing people, go for a short walk with the photographer. I loved it as a quick get-away for a few minutes of peace and quiet just TOGETHER immediately after becoming husband and wife, and that time produced some of my favorite pictures. It was private, calming and intimate before the excitement of party time.

...But Don't Walk TOO Much.

   Don't worry about walking around making sure you're greeting EVERY person at the reception. Enjoy yourself, mingle naturally and leisurely. People will come to you, and if they don't it means they don't want your special day to be too hectic.

Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Things will go wrong. Enjoy the DAY, not the details.

   The tux place messed up Mike’s measurements and his tux pants were about 6 inches too short before he scooted them down his hips as much as he could. I didn’t know (and didn’t care) until about a week later. Other things went wrong. I don’t remember what anymore. Get the picture?

FINALLY,

Have FUN!

  I snuck over and faux-hawked my nephew’s hair after my sister put gel in it. She was ticked. Jonathan and I thought it was mad funny and I made her leave it for the wedding. Do it all your way.