12 Things We'd Do Again at our Wedding

Back with another wedding related post, since I'm calling this my wedding week series! I hope yesterday's post was helpful. Last year I had some sweet ladies share what they'd keep and change about their wedding day here. But today I wanted to share the things I would do all over again, just the same! These are in no particular order :) 

1. Hire a wedding planner. Allison from Engaged & Inspired (she just sold her company and it's in capable hands but I just loved Allison and Audrey!) are the biggest reason our day went so smoothly. Not only just the day of, but also the 6 weeks leading up to our wedding. I had lots of questions that they answered quickly, they took care of ordering things for me, making sure deliveries would be on time, did our timeline, and set up all of our decor perfectly! I would have been stressed, not to mention my family would have been stressed, had we not had them!!
2. Our timeline. I got tons of questions about our specific timeline, so I'm actually giving our exact timeline to you right here. You can download it and use it for your big day if you want! It's REALLY specific, so beware ;) A few of the biggest things we did in the timeline that I loved were build in extra time for getting ready, giving McCann and me 10 minutes to be together just us two right after the ceremony, being really specific about leaving and arriving times for the bridal party, putting every single detail in the timeline (because it was so comprehensive, I sent it to all family and friends involved in the wedding so they knew exactly what to expect! This also helped my parents be able to visualize and walk through in their mind what the day would be like), we loved being able to join cocktail hour with our guests (more on that below) and I love how we did my dad's speech as a welcome toast at the beginning of the reception and the other two toasts after guests got their dinner.

3. Doing a First Look. This is where the bride and groom see each other before the wedding ceremony, in order to get their portraits taken care of beforehand. The two big reasons I would HIGHLY recommend doing a First Look are 1. You get all of your bridal party pictures done before the ceremony! This saves so.much.time later on in the night. So much so, that you get to join cocktail hour and spend time with your sweet guests who traveled from all over to join you! 2. It really helped calm both of our nerves. Our First Look are some of my favorite memories of the entire day, because we got to talk to each other, he got to spin me in my dress, and we got to be together before the ceremony. I was really nervous about just seeing him at the end of the aisle, so this totally helped relieved those anxieties! You can see our first look here.

4. Getting my hair changed. You'll see in the timeline that we actually scheduled in my hair change, because it was really important to me to have my hair down for the reception. That's how I usually wear my hair, so I knew I'd love pictures of myself with my hair the way I feel most comfortable. (The funny thing is, I actually love our portraits with my hair up! :)) But I'm really glad I did this because it gave me a few different options for our pictures to choose from. We had my hair stylist stay in town until the hair switcharoo, which was super nice of her!! The whole change took about 15 minutes.

5. The Foot Washing Ceremony. When we told people we were doing this at our wedding, we got mixed reactions. We both felt strongly about doing it, so we held our ground and I'm so glad we did. As Christ Followers, it was meant to symbolize serving one another and putting the other above ourselves, humbling ourselves as Christ did for us. Jesus washed his disciples' feet and commanded us to do the same, so it was a meaningful first act as husband and wife to us.

6. A poraroid camera guestbook. We have both pulled this book out multiple times and looked through it, remembering everyone who came to our wedding! So fun! I only wish I had given someone the job of making sure EVERYONE did the guestbook ;)
7. Getting married on a Sunday! I'm not sure why I loved this so much, but I did! It was A TON cheaper and I loved that our ceremony was almost like a church service :) The song we walked out of the ceremony to had the lyrics "Hallelujah, Sunday morning. All I ever needed, wanted..." (an adorable country song by High Valley) I also feel like this is the same concept as a Friday wedding-- your guests will probably need to take a day or two off work, so why not?!

8. Spending a little more on flowers. Let's be honest, I love flowers. I kinda went overboard with our wedding flowers, but I'd absolutely do this just the same all over again!! All of our guests told us this was the most beautiful wedding they've ever been to because of the venue and the gorgeous flowers. The whole day and evening felt like an enchanted garden. My florist Michelle Lywood made all my flower dreams come true and then some! She blew me away. I may have gone over budget on this, but to me (and my mom, maybe not my dad...ha!) it was well worth it.

9. Getting lots of photos. AND hiring an amazing photographer & videographer! These two go hand in hand, because they are the only thing you're really left with after the wedding day is over (other than your new spouse, of course!) Photographers are one of the things I would say to make sure you don't skimp on. Follow along with them for a while and ask to see full wedding collections from them, so you know exactly what to expect for your day. I've known our wedding photographer, Danielle Poff, for years and I loved her style, her timeliness, her casual yet professional demeanor, the fact that she shoots film, and the fact that she blogs full weddings so I could see what her work was truly like. A vendor we decided on a little last minute was our videographer, John of United Media Films. Looking back, I'm not sure why it took us this long to hire him. He was INSANELY talented and our wedding video is so precious to both of us! He also filmed our ceremony and speeches, so we'll have those to watch every year on our anniversary. You can see our video here.
I remember my mom being a little confused as to why we would need to leave the reception during dinner to take more photos. Sorry for calling you out, mom ;) But another thing I'm so glad we did and made a priority because our sunset pictures are some of my favorites! The light is stunning! You couldn't even see all the bugs that were flying around us while taking them. And everyone was eating, so we weren't THAT missed. 
10. No bouquet or garter toss. We both find these things a little awkward and cheesy. At our wedding, it was pretty clear we wouldn't be doing them as we didn't have anyone who would catch either thing! But even if we did, I'm glad we opted out of this "tradition".

Photos: The Poffs
11. Putting time into the special details. From our signature cocktails to our vignette seating on the lawn outside of the dancing barn, to the rosemary at each place setting clipped from my grandma's garden, it was just so special. I loved that we printed photos of each of our parent's wedding days and had those set up at the reception. This was a way to honor them and to remember my husband's father who was already in Heaven at the time of our wedding.
12. Going with an amazing caterer. I'm putting this on here for us + my parents because I know this is one of their favorite elements of our wedding day!! Our food was insanely delicious if I do say so myself. We used Paradise Catering and everything from our tasting to the communication throughout the engagement to the food on our actual wedding day was incredible. We even had an ice cream bar and it was so fun! I think the food is something that people come to a wedding to enjoy and so if you have delicious food, your guests are happy!

Those are a bunch of the major things I'd do just the same on our wedding day! What would YOU do the same if you were to get married again?!
xoxo


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