If you talk to any bride out there, she can probably tell you a few things that went wrong on her special day! I'm sharing my major wedding FAILS to help you avoid these mishaps on your big day! Some are funny, most weren't noticed, and one that *almost* happened and would have ruined ALL of my photos! Read my full wedding recap. Here are my tips for wedding day success to be a care-free and happy bride!
1. Don't procrastinate! (super helpful tip, right?!) But I'm serious! I'm the queen of procrastination, but that's the wrong vibe for your wedding week! I was STRESSED before my big day because I had so many small loose ends to tie up the week of. I also chose to plan my wedding and get married in 2 months, so keep your timeline in mind when you're deciding what to take on and what to skip! (OR outsource to your wedding planner!) I definitely took on a lot!
Rhonda Fail: Invitations
We had a major issue with our invitations! One guest didn't even receive their paper invitation until AFTER the wedding! Ha! Read the whole invitation saga post and you'll see what happened, but we had a vendor issue that caused a huge delay in invitation printing! aka I was GHOSTED!! Invitations were one thing that was really important to me, so I ended up doing a lot of the work myself to make up for lost time, and since we used a wax seal on our envelopes and the addresses were in calligraphy, not printed, they had to be hand-sorted at the post office, which I assume also slowed things down. Of course, we were on a very short timeline, and I did what I could, but we ended up also creating a wedding website to collect our RSVPs and didn't really use our RSVP cards.
2. Do a FULL wardrobe test run! Sounds pretty obvious, but you would be surprised how many brides don't try *everything* on together and have to pivot on their wedding day because something didn't quite work, including myself! THIS INCLUDES THE UNDERWEAR you plan to wear under your gown.
Rhonda Fail: Spoiler alert. I didn't do this! It seems so easyyy, so why didn't I do it?! See tip #1...I think I just ran out of time! Ha! Long story short, I got dressed at the venue, went upstairs to do our first look, then family photos, then regrouped and got ready to walk down the aisle.... my wedding planner comes around the corner and gives me one last look before sending me down the aisle. She said very seriously "ARE YOU WEARING BLUE UNDERWEAR?" Yes. Yes I was...the lightest blue, but yes. QUIICKKKKKKK I ripped them off and threw them to my wedding planner and she put them in her pocket. Serious. Then I walked down the aisle. LOL. so. test your WHOLE outfit. Everyone would have been able to see them in the daylight at my outdoor ceremony!
3. Along the same lines, DO A HAMU TEST RUN! (hair & makeup!) This one is in all caps because it's that important. The LAST thing you want on your wedding day is to hate how you look- not good!! So pay the extra money, spend the extra time and do a test run with your hair and makeup artists. If, for some reason, you absolutely cannot do a trial run, have your hair and makeup done in front of a mirror so you can see everything as it's happening and call out any adjustments needed as the artists work, as opposed to seeing the full look at the end and wanting to change something that would mess up the rest of the look!
Rhonda Fail: I had a destination wedding in Austin and I used a local Austin hair and makeup artist, so unless I wanted to drive to Austin before my wedding, I couldn't do a test run. With the holidays right before our December 5th wedding, there wasn't even a free day to do it (or I would have!). Here's the thing: my hair and makeup looked great....BUT it wasn't *quite* what I wanted. Since I knew that it looked good, I wasn't going to be upset about it because there wasn't time to make any changes. I'm so happy with how everything turned out, but only because I made a choice to move forward and think about changing it.
4. Don't skip the rehearsal! When you're having a smaller wedding, it's so tempting to skip the ceremony rehearsal. I mean, we've all been to a ton of weddings; can't be that hard to repeat after the officiant, right?! WRONG.
Rhonda Fail: Spoiler alert...we skipped the rehearsal. LOL we didn't have a bridal party, so we figured we would just roll with it. We were a mess! First, my dad dropped me off at the altar, but didn't stay for the "who gives this woman..." part! Then we took communion and our musicians didn't play any music! Ha! AND of course it was raining at our outdoor ceremony, so our officiant (thankfully!) cut things short so everyone wouldn't get wet and we just rolled with it and had an 8-10 minute ceremony!! LOL bonus tip: have a rain plan. We did, but didn't want to use it, so we got wet! ;)
5. Plan out your vendor tips a week in advance! The LAST thing you want to do on your wedding day is hand out cash to vendors, so you definitely need to hand that off to the wedding planner! Grab your cash in advance so you're not rushed at an ATM with a daily limit (that is undoubtedly less than you need for tips!)
Rhonda Fail: I'm too embarrassed to tell you the whole story, BUT basically I miscalculated the tips and hadn't gotten enough cash. Luckily we made it work and I was able to hand everything over to my wedding planner, but WOW it was stressful! Again, see tip #1!
For every one thing that went wrong, one million things went right! With all of the mistakes and running around, our wedding day was still absolutely perfect! I hope my tips help you prepare and that my stories remind you that things WILL go wrong and you just have to roll with them and decide not to let anything upset you on your wedding day!