Looking back at your wedding - what would you do differently if anything?

Let's not derail this good thread with ANOTHER 'gifts for weddings' argument!

Wedding Band:
To me this is / was one of the most important aspects. I think most "good weddings" have a good wedding band. Ours did DJ as well and definitely worth the money.

Chair Covers:
I could never understand this expense. The ONLY time they look the part is before anyone enters the banquet room. For the meal, they're covered by whoever is sitting on them, then for the dancing, they're off to the side so I don t see any benefit whatsoever in them.

Car
We were lucky in that a relative got a "classic" car for us. But again if that hadn't happened, we were going to go with a Black Audi belonging to a relation - I suppose it s personal choice but we didnt spend any money on it.

Wedding Video
Again, we were fortunate that my sister d& boyfriend did this but looking around forums before hand, I noticed that this was the most common regret people had after their wedding,

My friends got married & did a fabulous thing with the photos. They got everyone to email their favourite photos to them ( some burned CDs) & after they asked if people had photos of X or Y that they could send to them that they didn't have. Which they followed up with phone call!! Hard to ignore!!!
They then went to an online photobook site which provides samples & layout templates; uploaded & organised everything they wanted& have a fantastic wedding book; hardcover; professional layout; in a box-sleeve that looks amazing & only cost e150.
And with their " permission" online ( " settings/authorise") anyone who would like can also buy one ; aunts; long lost friends living in Oz etc!!

Ive sat through a fair few very formal wedding albums but this one was amazing cos it had everyone & everything in it & covered the professional " grouped" & Alter shots,& the whole night & cos they got friends to post in photos had the " good" photos ofthe right friends, relaxed together, and some great " personality" & a few crazy dancing/ misdemeanour ones too... : )

Id only ever seen the cheep 10 page ones before for Christenings etc but this was a U.S. Design company templates & at about 80 pages long ; thou you could choose size, shape & design type. It Looked amazing & could be put with the other hardbacks on the bookshelf ( no need for a shrine!) & live safely in its fancy protective sleeve on the bookshelf. And at e150 I think this was a good price ( thou I wouldn't know myself!!)

The photographer ( prof) also agreed to uploadthe prof shotsfor this so that was v good; not sure if this was organised in advance or after but would be agood negotiation to have before selecting one!!!

Best wedding album I've ever seen!!

After having had our wedding I really wanted to come back to this thread, cos there were a few things that I was kicking myself for.

We had a civil ceremony on the grounds of the hotel. Everything went great. However, the hotel had suggested providing finger-food for 80% of the guests after the ceremony, which is apparently standard and we agreed. The guests, as I'm sure you can guess, were starving well before dinner-time. We should've insisted on having finger food for 100% of the guests and extra!
If you have a church wedding, I'm supposing not everyone heads to the hotel early enough for the finger-food and sparking wine reception, hence the 80%. In our case everyone would've been there early already anyway. Dunno why I just didn't think of that. That's my biggest regret.

There was also a change-over of coordinators during the day as one was leaving on holidays (just bad timing for us really), so a few things fell through the cracks. I'd noticed it that morning, but said nothing assuming it'd get fixed. Don't assume these things and let someone know! It all got fixed no problem later on when I mentioned it, but would've been easier if I'd got it sorted earlier in the day. Some tables were missing candles, as I was supplying some of them but not all, and some of the tables at the back were arranged different from how I'd wanted them laid out. So if you notice things amiss, don't leave it assuming someone knows, they might not.

Rest before your wedding day! I left lots to be done the night before and it all took far longer than I thought it would. I was so tired the following day I was tempted to sneak off upstairs for a snooze after dinner! Only stayed up cos of the first dance and once the music got going stayed on the dance floor for the night. The high energies of the evening carried me through, but it was tough going at times.

Good music and good food are appreciated by the guests. Got lots of comments from guests on that, so if you can afford it, don't skimp on it.

Take a few minutes out during the day to think and recap on events to that moment, it flies by so quick you could forget moments you wanted to be memorable.

get a bigger cake and go on honeymoon maybe four days after wedding as opposed to two days.

We also found the cake to be an extra expense that went mostly unnoticed. We made sure it was big enough for there to be portions for everyone and extra (as per some websites info on number of portions per cake size). Over half the cake was not eaten and we gave it out to friends/family the day after. I'd say air on the side of smaller than larger for the sake of the price.

Also, I wouldn't agree that you shouldn't try to talk to everyone. I certainly wouldn't stress if didn't get around to everybody but had nice comments from couple of people who said how nice it was that we spent a bit of time with everyone, so it wasn't unnoticed and was appreciated.

I'll be 3 weeks married this Saturday, already I regret not making the money for a video. We couldn't spare it but I'm annoyed I didnt get one anyway.
Apart from that i wouldnt change a thing, it was the best day and id love to do it all again tomorrow

Make sure the best man(thats why we gave you those envelopes full of cash at the start of the day) knows he is supposed to pay the balance to the band/dj and other people hired on the day.
I being the bride was approached numerous times because the groom or best man were nowhere to be seen and i in my big white dress was easily spotted,No idea where they thought i had my purse on me,Also look after the bride when she is standing at the bar trying to ask for a bottle of coke and the barman charged me i had to ask a guest for 5e,not one person offers to pay i think its common sense the barman should think oh the bride ill just put it on her room tab nope not a chance.

This isn't regret or anything but the one thing I tell people that I accidently found out - I stayed in the hotel with my maid of honour the night before and used this time to meet relatives that travelled from abroad - which made them feel special and was very relaxing for me as we had a great laugh that night. That's one bit of advice to consider but not the main one.

We used our being there that night to run into the people who really run the show - not the coordinaters, the staff! There was three ladies who were tasked with putting the room together the next morning for our wedding - we met them outside the function room and got chatting. They were dealing with an absolute Bridezilla and were having a bad time of it. We toddled up to them with a plate of cake and a pot of tea, they were delighted!

They were, by pure luck, just back from a training session in the Dubai wedding fair and had learned a whole new way of presenting the tables. They hadn't planned on using this with our room as it was supposed to cost extra but we got so friendly with them that they did it for us anyway - they went all out for us!

On the morning of the wedding we popped into the room with a few plates of brekkie for them to see that each table had a display with lights and glass beads and the chairs were tied in this fantastical fan shape - it was beyond anything I was planning - they even went that bit further and did an elaborate table seating plan!

They dragged the photographer in to photo it all before people arrived and even set up the cake with extra real flowers, the fresh bouquets from the wedding and more beads for him to photo!

It was all just wowee! It really pays to get to know those who have to do all the hard ground work and be super nice to them.

Of course we had them all with us at the 6am after wedding singing session and they lugged out a huge platter of sandwiches for us (and them)!:D Brilliant night!

The wedding experience seems to vary hugely between people, naturally I suppose. Only thing I would have changed about the day was that I'd have made sure I had everything I needed in the Bridal Suite, I had dropped a case into the venue the day before, which was in the room, but I had the last few bits and pieces that I needed the night before and the morning of the wedding in a bag in a boot of a car. It was after 5.30 going to bed after the wedding when I realised I didn't have that bag, no toothbrush or hairbrush, ended up wiping my teeth with a baby wipe just to get the sugar coke feeling off them Didn't get the bag until after saying goodbye to the guests the next morning, I got to greet them with a birds nest of hair and yucky feeling teeth. Not the end of the world though

As for advice, I say stand your ground and go with your gut instinct, many choices we made went against the grain particularly with the parents but I am more than delighted that we went for what we wanted, they all worked out perfectly and made the day extra special. Think through how you want the day to go, we went for a candid style photographer as the last thing we wanted was to be bossed around and told to stand a certain way for hours on end, he was like a ninja for the day and great craic to chat to. I really think that made a huge difference, I've been bored to tears at other weddings standing posing for photos or waiting to be called, I find it very uncomfortable. We had a relative doing the driving for us which was also amazing, we had such fun in the car laughing and joking, I think it would have been a lot quieter and awkward with a stranger.

Do the little things, I had read so often that guests won't notice the little extras, the DIY bits, I spent a lot of time in the year run up to the wedding making DIY things, I couldn't count how many hours I spent cutting and glueing things but it was completely worth it, they did get noticed (I'm sure not by everyone but by enough) and I'd do it again no problem. Don't be afraid of getting stuck in and don't mind people putting you off doing things in the few days before the wedding, 'you'll tire yourself out', well yeah I could have sat on my arse but I enjoyed doing the personal touches. Same for the honeymoon, headed off 2 days after the wedding, went straight into a busy enough week of activity and loved it, wouldn't have changed it for the world.

If something goes wrong there's not much you can do about it so try to not let it bother you. Dance your heart out, chat and have a laugh, stay up as late as you can, don't miss the craic at the end of the night and above all just enjoy your day!