Your wedding day.

[Gothgrrl]

Inspired by reading Rosetta's post made me think. Did your wedding day go as planned? For those who had a less than perfect wedding, tell your story and how many years have you been married. If this has been done already, I apologize.

 

[maplefemme]

My first wedding was a disaster of epic proportions, I'll bullet point for ease, it'd be a small novel to touch on everything in story form so these are the fundamentals:

~ My venue flooded from 2 week long rains.
~ I had to find a new venue 2 days prior to the wedding = a community hall was the only thing available, postponing was not an option, we had large amounts of overseas guests coming, including our Best Man and Brother in Law.
~ Both bridesmaids didn't fit their dresses (one gained and one lost weight) we had to find new dresses for them within weeks of the wedding.
~ The afternoon before the wedding my florist called to say she couldn't do my flowers but she'd found another florist who could, I had no idea what my bouquet would look like, we had no time to meet. I wasn't thrilled with the results but it could have been worse.
~ The caterer showed up at the venue hours before they said they needed to be there, they threatened to leave if they couldn't get in, resulting in a mad scramble to get across the city before they left.
~ My makeup artist made me look like a drag queen - I had to wash it off and re-do. Why I didn't do my own first I'll never know, I was an independent editorial makeup artist for 10 years and have done more bridal shoots than I care to count, but I thought this would be a nice treat...not so much.
~ My Maid of Honor didn't get her alterations done, I was 30 mins late for my wedding trying to pin her into the dress.
~The sound system worked the night before, on D-day - no music.
~ My friend's 3yr old daughter was my flower girl (I got talked into that) and her Mother gave her a HUGE stuffed toy cat to hold before she arrived, which she then refused to let go of and screamed the roof down hysterically. She had to go down the isle with it in tow, much to everyone's amusement.
~ She then proceeded to talk and laugh through our entire vows, my Maid of Honor gave her a bracelet to play with to distract her - she threw it, it hit me in the head. The JP stopped the service so my bridesmaid could retrieve it from my foot.
~ My photographer's camera broke half way through pictures - later, she lost half the film also.
~ That night our Best Man slept with a colleague of mine, my Brother in Law slept with my bridesmaid - all were married, all divorced as a result.

It was ghastly and NOTHING went as planned in any way, it was a cautionary tale, but I never lost my cool once or got upset, I refused to be a crazy bride.
A month after the wedding I lost my diamond from my engagement ring whilst rescuing a dog.

At the end of the day I think this was all one big collective sign - we divorced after 4 years.

But I wouldn't change a thing, the man in my life now is amazing, whatever it took for us to find each other was worth it!

 

[zoebartlett]

We didn't have any major mishaps on our wedding day (our 3 year anniversary is in 2 weeks), but there were things that we wished had worked out differently.

1. Our DJ
Our DJ was awful, and we were really disappointed in him that day. We had met with him a few times and he assured us that he had the things listed that we really wanted to have included at the reception. Well, he thought I had said that I didn't want to do a father/daughter dance, so he had my husband's parents dance instead. Um, they don't dance. At all. It was so awkward when they were called to the dance floor. I had to go up to the DJ and tell him that of course we were doing a father/daughter dance, and my dad was waiting for me next to the dance floor. No, it wasn't the biggest deal in the world, but it irked me.

The DJ also forgot to introduce the best man and have him give his toast. To be honest though, my husband and I weren't thinking of it at first (the schedule was the DJ's job to look after, right?). The best man came up to us to ask us if he could speak and we felt horrible that we had forgotten. By the time he gave his toast, it was towards the end of the reception.

2. Our photographer
I really like our photographer, but she didn't do nearly as many artistic shots as we had wanted her to. Also, the grounds of our venue are gorgeous, yet we only had pictures taken in one of two places: in the gazebo where the ceremony was, and under a certain tree. The photographer didn't "branch out" (HA! ) and do pics in other areas of the grounds. I don't think I really noticed it at the time though. As we were looking through our proof books a month later though, we noticed how ALL our pics were taken in pretty much the same 2 places. Oh, and she forgot to take pics of one of the tables at the reception. She had taken pics of everyone seated at each table but she forgot the one where my sister sat. This was also the table where a close family friend sat. She passed away 7 months ago, and I don't have any pics of her. I still haven't ordered any pics from our photographer, almost 3 years later.

3. Not our wedding day, but we actually want a do-over honeymoon. We went to Quebec City and we were stressed most of the time, for some reason. It wasn't a relaxing honeymoon, and we bickered much of the time. Sad to say, but it was the worst vacation we've been on.

 

[jaysonsmom]

There were minor hiccups....

-My makeup was shiny., my makeup artist used silvery shadow on my eyelids (totally inappropriate for an AM wedding), but I was running late, and not time for a re-do. Luckily we had a photoshoot pre-wedding (with rented gown) so the pre-shot wedding album was beautiful.

-My pastor was so carried away by the emotions going onm he forgot to say you may kiss the bride! We did not seal the deal with a kiss. The photographer later took a picture of us kissing at the altar but it was a post-marriage kiss.

-Since we had a lunch reception, there wasn't as much alcohol or dancing as I would've liked, ended way too early I believe we had the DJ and site booked until 5 PM, but everyone was done by 3.

 

[iheartscience]

We got married 2 years ago (almost-our 2 year anniversary is on the 11th!) and we actually didn't have any issues! I was too worked up to eat, but I knew that would happen. The food was from my favorite restaurant and I'd had it all before so I knew it was delicious!

My only major complaint was that it had to end-I was having such a good time I wanted it to go on all night!

 

[MustangGal]

I got married almost 10 years ago (9/15/01), and had a few things not go as planned:

-My brother brought our honeymoon suitcase to the reception and left early, with the suitcase still in the trunk. He didn't have a cell phone and lived 4 horus away.
-My mom was late and I didn't get any pics of me before the ceremony because I didn't want to get dressed until she arrived
-The make-up lady made me look like a prostitute. I scraped it off but didn't have any lipstick of my own and all the other ladies only had really pale colors so I don't look like I have any lips in most of the photos.
-A wisdom tooth decided to grow in that day. Dispite 2 of my bridesmaids working in dental offices, no one had origel on them.

And the biggest wrench, 9/11 was 4 days before our wedding. While I really feel for all the people that died that day and their families, it caused us quite a few issues. 13 guests couldn't make it, including 2 of the groomsmen. And we had to cancel our honeymoon and find an alternitive within 2 days. We changed our first night reservation to be two nights becasue of that, but the hotel didn't book it correctly. When we showed up in a tux and wedding dress at 1am they asked us if we wanted one bed or 2 we did end up with 2 queen beds but in a better room at least!

 

[NOYFB]

I completely forgot to set aside 2 roses to give to our moms during the unity candle ceremony. We had to pluck 2 roses out of the centerpiece on the table.

My grandmother passed away 10 days prior to the wedding (which devastated me) and my mom refused to smile in any pics. It was a very bittersweet day for me, as I was very sad over the loss of my gram and happy to be marrying the love of my life at the same time. It really irked me that my mother couldn't muster at least one smile for my pics. I should probably add that I no longer have a relationship with my mother, but not as a result of this. She's a very selfish person and this should have been a clue for me.

I also wanted more artistic shots from our photographer and was a little disappointed with our pics.

One of my best friends got lost and never made it to the ceremony OR reception.


Luckily we didn't have any major snafus!!!

We've been married 10 years.

 

[yennyfire]

Other than the fact that the Rabbi got lost on the way to the ceremony site (a beautiful B&B in the mountains) and almost didn't make it in time to marry us, it went really smoothly. I think it helped that it was a small wedding (40 guests), all of whom were family and close friends, so I wasn't worried about "things", I just wanted to be married by the end of the evening. It was one of the best days of my life and I remember dancing under the chuppah after everyone had left (we stayed in the bridal sweet at the B&B), in our p.j.s because neither of us wanted to the day to end. Afterwards, we snuck into the kitchen for a 2am snack.

We've been married for 9 years.

 

[Mayk]

Married two weeks tomorrow. Funny thing the day before when my best friend cut my finger in a cheese board mishap. Of course it was my left hand. It took off the top of my fingernail. Bled like crazy but was easily covered with an artificial nail. Ouchy!

Our wedding day....was absolutely perfect... The Only snag... Catering tossed the top of the cake after the reception?
Guess we order a fresh one next year to celebrate. fresh is better!

 

[Italiahaircolor]

-Fired my photographer the week before my wedding, he was inappropriate and exceptionally rude.

-Two of my bridesmaids went MIA the day before the wedding, huge fight ensued, haven't spoken to one since the wedding.

-DJ didn't play some key songs for key moments...like the cake cutting.

-A waiter stepped on my train on my way back from pictures, and ripped the a** out of my dress, it was a big dress, but still, everyone saw. I admit it, in the bathroom I screamed "that wasn't part of the f****** plan".


It was still the very best day of my life!

 

[marcy]

We just celebrated our 20th anniversary on Wednesday.

We had a few mishaps.

DH lost his job about 3 months before the wedding and we couldn't afford the dinner for everyone anymore so we printed out out a new version of invitations on a dot matrix printer inviting everyone only to a reception with cake and punch. We still have the relatives come to a luncheon.

DH was unemployed when we got married and we often wonder what my folks thought of that.

DH was at army guard annual training and I had to meet my in-laws without him. His unit toyed with the idea of kidnapping him during the ceremony but luckily they passed on that idea.

My parents were fighting like crazy before the wedding (my mom stressed easily) and on my wedding video you can hear my mom loudly complaining about my dad.

My niece (she was 3) didn't want to be a flower girl so she just threw all the pedals on the sidewalk and walked off.

My BFF from college (and quite obnoxious) was standing by my BIL (equally obnoxious) during the ceremony and when the judge asked if anyone object to this union I could see my mom giving her a dirty look. In the video you can see my head pivot about 180 degrees to see what they were doing. The judge later told me he'd never had that happen before at a wedding. I told him he didn't know my friend or BIL.

My nephew fell in the fountain at the reception.

My honeymoon suite was "decorated" by my college friends with off color materials that and DH had no idea who those people were.

DH's suit had a stain on it from the dry cleaners so he had to be at the mall when they opened and spent another few hundred getting a different jacket.

The groom's cake had my name spelled with an "i" instead of a "y"

But all in all we had a nice ceremony and reception and have many pleasant memories from that day.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

A few things didn't go as planned, but I didn't really care. The biggest issue is that Byron (dog pictured in avatar) took a bite out of our wedding cake. I stuck a couple of flowers in the bite and avoided that part of the cake--luckily we had more than enough and now it's one of my favorite memories of Byron. I'm glad he got the first bite

Oh, and I ended up driving my BIL to the emergency room at 1 a.m. because he hurt himself and I was the only one who didn't have anything to drink, so I needed to drive. My husband, who is not a drinker at all, ended up having WAY TOO MUCH to drink and I found him sprawled in the bathroom when I got home from the hospital at 6 a.m. I was beyond livid at the time, but now I find it hilarious.

 

[diamondringlover]

I was in a triple wedding, me and my sisters got married and for the most part considering the size and chaotic nature of a triple wedding it went off with out too much of a hitch, the biggest thing that did happen is when my MOH was zipping up my dress the zipper broke I freaked out, luckily for me my MIL just happen to have a needle and thread in her purse (why I have no idea lol) and was able to fix the zipper, I was scared to move alot after that lol, the only other thing was we had a food buffet style, just cold cuts and potato salad and stuff like that, nothing fancy, but we ran out of food, I guess we under estimated how much people would eat, however we did not run out of booze and we had an open bar...so that was good, lol. Oh yea I have been married for 27 years.

I just remembered something else, the preacher keep getting our names messed up during the ceremony and we forgot to exchange rings, he announced us as husband and wife and were whispering at him you forgot the rings, so after we announced us as husbands and wifes then we exchanged the ring...it was a long and kinda of comical wedding, he keep calling us couple #1, couple #2 an couple #3

 

[chemgirl]

We had two venues for our wedding and both tried to cancel on us last minute! There were miscommunications on the part of both vendors.

First we were supposed to have the ceremony and an afternoon reception at a winery. When my sister (MOH) arrived they knew nothing about the ceremony. They knew the reception was going to be there, but the staff didn't know about the ceremony. The woman I was dealing with was on vacation and couldn't be reached to clarify. They don't usually do wedding ceremonies for people who aren't directly associated with the winery so they were going to turn us away. We had special permission, but I didn't exactly print out the email trail and bring it with me to prove it! Luckily my sister "lawyered" them. She has this wonderful way of making her point of view seem completely reasonable and every other viewpoint horrible and illogical. I don't know how she does it, but it worked!

The second part of the wedding was an "after party" in a private room at our favorite local bar. We reserved a private room and placed a food order for appetizer style food (this was really an after hours party, it started at 9:00pm so we didn't feel a sit down meal was necessary). I heard back from the venue the day before telling us that we had to make a minimum food order, and since we didn't do that, our event was cancelled (there was a UFC fight the same night so part of me thinks they were trying to get out of our reservation for something larger). The amount per person was ridiculous considering entrees on their menu start at half that cost. I talked to the manager on the phone and said "I booked this event months ago and sent you the menu weeks ago. You now tell us the event is cancelled the day before? This is ridiculous." The manager really latched on to the word "ridiculous" and yelled at me and called me all sorts of expletives for daring to call him "ridiculous." He did agree to keep our reservation after my awesome sister called him back and pointed out the exact lines in the emails where he confirms our booking and accepts our original food order. He wouldn't speak to me or even make eye contact with me through the entire event. His staff was lovely though so it doesn't matter! Everyone had a great time so it all worked out in the end. The only bad thing is that we had to find another "favorite bar" because I sure wasn't going back there again!

My sister is fantastic!

ETA: We were married in November 2010 and I've already forgotten about all of the stress and in my mind it was a perfect day!

 

[somethingshiny]

We've been married for almost 12 years. The whole "happiest day of my life" is absurd to me. I have had MUCH happier days! lol

My trial hair appt was fantastic, but of course, the day of the wedding, not so much. I hated my hair so much.
My dress, that my aunt made, wasn't quite finished. I had pins in appliques and an unfinished hem on the underneath layer.
The rented tuxes were a disaster. Half of them didn't fit, the other half needed mending. Luckily we have many sewers in my family and were able to keep everyone contained.
Unity candle broke before the ceremony. DH tried very hard to glue it back together.
It was a hot day and I was very nervous. I succeeded in passing out outside the sanctuary. I was dragged into the men's bathroom where my dad threw water on my face and asked me if I wanted to leave. The whole time, my aunt is screaming, "her makeup!"
When my dad passed me off to DH at the altar, I nearly took all of us down. My dad and my FIL sat on the edge of the pew ready to jump up and grab me throughout the ceremony.
The reception has some problems but the first I recall was the DJ. The DJ sent a buddy instead, he didn't have half the music that was requested, and he brought a ho-bag with him.

The honeymoon

DH and I were so excited to go to Jamaica for our honeymoon. We took a limo to Chicago after our reception and stayed at a hotel close to the airport. We had to get up really early and we were both too tired for the consumation process that first night. On the plane, a migraine started and continued through the first 3 days of our 5 day honeymoon.



Our wedding day and honeymoon was just a blip in our lives. I have had much happier days. Obviously the births of our children, but also random days hiking together, going to the zoo, hanging out in our backyard. And, I've felt much more beautiful on other days as well.

 

[stephbolt]

We've been married 14 months. Almost everything on our wedding day went perfectly. The only issues I can thing of are.

1. MIL forgot her letter for our wine box ceremony. She was panicking trying to get someone to get into her hotel room and look for it, but I ended up telling her just to get an empty envelope and we could switch it out later.

2. My mom forgot her shoes and started majorly freaking out about it. I ended up snapping at her because her stress was starting to rub off on me, and my brother, father, uncle, and aunt were all still at the house and would be able to bring the shoes before the ceremony started.

3. One of my aunts requested the song "I'm on a boat." Luckily the DJ had an edited version, but almost half the song was bleeped out and several people walked off the dance floor in shock. But my aunt and cousins were having an awesome time dancing, and the video from it is hilarious.

 

[bee*]

Everything went to plan with ours-it couldn't have gone better. I did get completely drunk the night before the wedding as I was having such a good time but luckily I had no hangover on the day itself!

 

[Gothgrrl]

Wow, I had no idea that many of us had things go so wrong. For those newly weds, congrats. And for those who have been married a while....yeah!

 

[chemgirl]

Married two weeks tomorrow. Funny thing the day before when my best friend cut my finger in a cheese board mishap. Of course it was my left hand. It took off the top of my fingernail. Bled like crazy but was easily covered with an artificial nail. Ouchy!

Our wedding day....was absolutely perfect... The Only snag... Catering tossed the top of the cake after the reception?
Guess we order a fresh one next year to celebrate. fresh is better!

New cake is definitely better! We were saving part of our cake in the freezer and decided to thaw it out and eat it on our 6 month anniversary (we were hungry, it was tasty, 6 months is close enough right?). We ended up with horrible food poisoning. Now I don't trust food that's been frozen longer than a month or two.

I guess that could be considered a wedding related problem.

 

[Echidna]

I'll let you know this time next week...

 

[wannaBMrsH]

We had some mishaps...some were very sharp in my mind then (23 months ago) and now I can laugh, others, I fear that I will simply have to live with because I can't get over them:

-My sister was a complete disaster for our wedding. She forgot her bridesmaids dress, then jumped in the pool immediately after her hair was done. I completely regret having her in the bridal party and even having paid for her to come to our wedding. I know my dad was thrilled she was there, but I keep thinking that I could have done so much more with the money we spent on her bridesmaid dress and shoes, travel to the DR, hotel room, etc. I can count on one hand the number of times I've spoken to her since the wedding.

-My flower girl wore crocs to our wedding. They are fine for whomever likes them, I HATE THEM and I cannot believe that my SIL/MIL thought that crocs would be okay for her to wear to our wedding. Especially since DH and I paid for her dress, shoes and tiara. I've skillfully photoshopped every picture that went into our album to exclude photos of her feet.

-The resort photographer was obnoxious and rude and kept interfering with our contracted photographer. Luckily, our photographer was very graceful and just worked around him.

I was very disappointed initially, but I think it was because I had this expectation that it had to be the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE and I felt awful that I couldn't muster the BEST DAY OF MY LIFE from our experience. Now that it has been nearly two years, I can say that we had a very beautiful wedding in a gorgeous location. It was such a priviledge to share our experience with our close friends and family. Knowing, like somethingshiny, that I've had MUCH better days with my DH, really takes the pressure off that one day of our lives together. I look back at the day he proposed to me, the day we saw a baby shark on our honeymoon, the Saturdays we've stayed in bed and watched cheesy movies, even the day last week when we went for a night swim in Cabo and I am just so grateful that we got past our wedding day to really get to the BEST DAYS OF OUR LIFE!

 

[DivaDiamond007]

My husband and I have been married for 6 years.

The biggest snafu on our wedding day was the florist. They arrived 5 minutes before the ceremony was to start, barged into the church and literally dumped the flowers in the aisle and said "here's your sh!t" and left The bouquets looked nothing like we discussed and were the wrong color. I kept my cool and used the flowers anyways, even though my SIL's then boyfriend hurried to a local grocery store and bought a few dozen white roses in case the florist was a complete no show. After the wedding my mom spoke with the owner of the shop and got a partial refund.

On the morning of the wedding there was a miscommunication between the bakery for the cake and the reception hall that resulted in us almost not having a cake at all - not good when you're expecting 300 people! My "second mother" - my mom's best friend - called both venues and gave them each a piece of her mind and it got worked out. I was in tears though when the bakery called and told me they were unable to deliver the cake. Thank goodness for Juleah and her mouth

Another thing that sort of ticked me off was the decorations on our cake. We went to a very highly recommended (and expensive) local bakery for the cake and were specific with pics and all of how we wanted the cake decorated. When we got to the reception hall we noticed right away that it wasn't quite what we wanted. We didn't say anything because it still looked great. Tasted sooo good too!

 

[zoebartlett]

WannaBMrsH -- I completely agree with you that there's so much expectation that one's wedding day will be the best day of her life. For a lot of people, it is, but for others, I'm sure other days outshine a wedding day.

I loved our wedding, but I wrote recently in another thread how before our wedding, we got so much advice to step back and take it all in. As I said in the other thread, I felt like I ended up studying the day almost, trying not to forget anything. What resulted? A very foggy day for me. Don't get me wrong, it was great advice, but I was TOO focused on paying attention to everything all at once and in the end, it became a hazy, blurry day.

My husband and I have often remarked that our favorite parts of our wedding weekend (somewhat of a DW) were actually the days leading up to the big day. We actually had time to hang out by the pool and beach with friends and family, go out to dinner with them, relax, and enjoy everyone's company.

 

[Natylad]

In general, i think that our wedding day developed very well and i have the best memories from it. My only problem was the dj who didn't respect any of my wishes and played whatever music came to his mind My guests seemed to enjoy it but i got very upset about it and i still can't forget it. Also, the guy who was supposed to make the dvd of the reception was a very bad choice...Fortunately, another photographer who is specialized in such things told me that with the material that we have in dvd and the pictures of the wedding he can totally transform it and make it much better, so i'm definitely going to do this.

BUT: My brother and SIL who got married a few months after us weren't as lucky as we were...
The SIL's family traveled her from the other side of the world in order to attend the wedding and her brother (23 years old at the time) had just broken up with his girlfriend. So he thought that it was alright to be crying (yes, crying ) during the entire reception...The guests didn't know what to think of it. In the mean time, his mother who was sitting next to him got so upset because of her son's situation, that she got extremely sick...We carried her to the washroom were she kept throwing up for hours and afterwards my parents took her to the hospital, so the reception didn't end in the best possible way
After that, the bride's mom didn't want to return to her hotel room, so she asked if she could stay with my brother and SIL at their home.Of course they couldn't refuse, so they spent their wedding night playing nurse for the poor mother of the bride...how lovely...

 

[Tuckins1]

Some small things were missing, like votive candles lining the head table and some other decorations.... But overall, everything was awesome! There was a moment when we were doing the ceremony (outside, on the water at a yacht club) when a boater drove by and shouted for my husband to "jump in the water" over and over... One time was funny. Twenty times was a little annoying. But that couldn't ruin our day, we enjoyed every moment!

 

[jstarfireb]

The wedding was successful in general, but there were little issues. The sound system kept cutting in and out during the ceremony, so at times we couldn't hear the music or the people speaking. It was also an outdoor wedding after some heavy rains, so the ground was muddy, and anyone with heels sank into the ground with every step, even though I told people to wear flats or chunky heels (the bridesmaids had picked out their own shoes). We knew this would happen and bought some cardboard for the bridal party to stand on, covered by an iridescent sheet, but during the ceremony, the bridesmaids' heels kept popping through and making people laugh.

The honeymoon was a lot of fun, but we had several major issues. I got really sick on the first day and couldn't kiss my husband for the whole 5-day trip because I was worried about getting him sick. Then there was construction going on at our hotel, which meant that the wireless internet they had promised us was down, and my husband was really upset because he had to do something work-related online during one of the days and didn't want to go to a coffee shop or library to do it. So he made a big deal about it, got out of our hotel reservation, and made us move to another hotel that was not nearly as pretty or romantic. He was making those arrangements while we were on a tour of the town, so he kept hanging back and talking on his cell phone while the tour guide was talking. I got really upset because I thought that was rude and he was missing out on the events we had planned for our honeymoon, and because he made us move from a beautiful hotel that I had picked out and really liked. I understand why he was so upset at the hotel not having internet when it was advertised to us as free wifi, but come on! It's our honeymoon! You're not supposed to care about work!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

We eloped in Vegas so we had were pretty relaxed about the whole thing and it all pretty much went as planned (the only was I didn't realize we had to take a taxi to go get our liscense and stand in line - lots of people getting married that day lol

ETA - oh, and our photos turned out bad...I don't consider those apart of our wedding as they were taken another day, but we had to go with a family photographer to avoid hurting feelings and they photos turned out really bad. They were taken from the wrong direction so the sun was in our eyes and we were squinting in many of the photos.

 

[Pandora II]

Where do I start...

1) MAJOR falling out with the venue coordinator who went back on all sorts of thing that were agreed right from the start. Very stressful couple of weeks which eventually ended up with her being removed from my wedding (and very nearly from her job). Fortunately resolved around 3 months out and new coordinator was wonderful.

2) My mother has MS and decided to have a major spinal operation at the beginning of June (wedding was July 26th 200. Operation was a success but triggered a major MS attack and she was in a wheelchair and off her head on diamorphine (heroin) for the next 3 months.

3) Mother had offered to make the bridesmaids dresses (3 small children) and as she is normally superfast at dressmaking my father and I didn't worry about them being done in time. We did offer to help and she kept saying it was all under control - stupidly we believed her and it turned out that she was still trying to sew one of the sashes an hour before the ceremony! (Nothing that can't be fixed in 30 seconds with a stapler and double-sided sticky tape!)

4) My mother's former cleaning-lady 'S' is also a flower-arranger and she has been my third 'grandmother' since I was about 12 and had always said she wanted to do my flowers. I wanted yellows and golds with a touch of orange and big full-bloomed English roses with scent. I even bought her a big bunch of silk flowers to show exactly what I wanted. I stated that I absolutely did not want tight budded Hybrid-T roses in salmon or coral shades...

Flowers turn up on the Thursday evening to go into my parents cellar till Saturday - not a single yellow flower, all the roses are EXACTLY what I said I didn't want. Mad phone-call to English Country Roses to send me what they have, supermarket sweep on Friday morning to buy every bunch of yellow roses they had (luckily lots) - on way out of the door bump into S who looks very unamused by my buying more flowers!

5) I made my own cake - 4 tiers of fruitcake which I had made the previous October and fed with large amounts of alcohol every fortnight since, then marzipaned with real homemade marzipan the month before and iced the final week.

- First I forgot to buy tier separators and the town my parents live in didn't have a shop that sold such things. In the end I went to the local DIY store and bought the ends thingys that plumbers put on pipes! White, plastic, right shape, 4 for $1.50... hooray!

- Second, decide to Royal Ice the cakes - forget to put glycerine in the icing so it's like concrete. Can't get it smooth even with sanding machine! Buy roll-out fondant and stick it on the night before the wedding! Looked great but when we had to cut the cake the icing underneath was so strong the knife wouldn't go into the cake! Photos are hilarious - white knuckles on the knife and crying with laughter.

6) I'd also DIY'd all the Orders of Ceremony, the favours, the decorations, table-plans and centrepieces. I was then DIYing the flowers with S and a couple of others. We finished at 1.00pm (wedding at 3.30pm), I succeeded in cutting my hand open and breaking 2 nails.

7) Got home superstressed, hairdresser turned up. In the middle of having the rollers put in my hair, my pig of a SIL decided to cook a massive meal for herself and my brother in the same room. My father was having a massive row with my mother who refused to see reason about leaving the dresses as they were and to go and get changed. My father tripped over the flex for the curlers and sent them flying. My mother collapsed and had to be carried upstairs - and the photographer turned up... took one look at me and said he'd see me at the ceremony! Thank goodness!

Hair done, trying to do my make-up kneeling on the floor in the sitting-room with my BIL reading the paper on the sofa and his 2 year-old son throwing Lego at me. I had specifically asked my mother NOT to fill the house with a gazillion people as it would be too stressful. Did make-up in 10 minutes flat...

9) Was so stressed that my arms had swelled up and they wouldn't go into the sleeves of my wedding-dress - a modern twist on Tudor with very tight sleeves and a historically correct corset with boning every 1/2 inch - my brother who is into fetish was icing me down and also used some spray he has for getting into rubber gear ... he also did the corset up as he was the only one who knew how to do it properly. My ex-boss from Italy who is also a very dear friend was there and keeping me sane - don't know what I would have done.

10) Finally leave parents house - father driving like a maniac as venue is 20 minutes away... get there 15 minutes late!

After that everything was wonderful and it was still the best and happiest day of my life, but OMG I so envy brides who get ready with a glass of champagne and a manicure!

My only actual regret was that we didn't spend a lot more money on the photographs. I only wanted a few nice ones (sadly there are none of me with my mother as she kept vanishing off and wasn't really very with it that day) and I have them but still not edited. My fault as I'm a control freak and wanted to do the editing myself - ended up getting pregnant 3 weeks after the wedding, moving house 5 weeks after that and being thrown into a year long court-case against my employer 2 weeks after that which left me very seriously depressed for 5 months. Besides the difficulty of doing anything with a baby around there have been so many things crop up that have meant we still haven't done the pics nearly 3 years on. With hindsight I should have spent a couple of thousand and had an amazing album turn up a month later!

The nicest thing was that so many people told my parents that they loved our wedding because DH and I just seemed so happy, so in love and like we were really enjoying ourselves.

 

[nfowife]

We are about to celebrate 10 years of marriage later this month. I remember 2 issues....
1- 3 months before the wedding, the rabbi was arrested for soliciting sex from minors. He is still in jail. He was out on bail and offered to still perform our ceremony. Ummmm....no thanks. We found another rabbi to take his place.

2-I wish I had put my hair in a side part (how I wore it every day) than a center part. It was an updo, and looked great, but it still bugs me looking at the pictures. Oh well!

Other than that, it was an awesome day that went very smoothly and everyone had a fabulous time! People still tell me 10 years later how much fun they had at our wedding

 

[OUpearlgirl]

Not my wedding, but this weekend I attended one as a guest.

A huge storm hit about 40 minutes ater the ceremony ended-- just as the guests were arriving to the reception site. I walked in, and within 30 seconds the power went out. We all thought it would come back on in a few minutes, so we just drank up!

They had a cocktail hour in a separate room, and we were waiting there for a little over an hour. Then, they came and brought us up to the very dark, very warm ballroom. They had lit a bunch of candles (in hindsight, I think it made things even hotter!) Then the FOB stands up and says we will have to begin eating without the bridal party because three trees fell over on the highway and they were stuck in traffic.

We ate in total darkness and only a dull murmer, because there was no music!

The very wet bridal party finally showed up and we sang them Billy Joel's "Lullaby" so that they could at least have a first dance.

Everyone had a great attitude about it, but in 4 hours the power never came back on. I kept thinking of the memories they wouldn't have, the pictures that they wouldn't take, and all of the hard work in planning thrown COMPLETELY out the window. I'm hoping they get some money back.. But at least they didn't let it ruin their wedding day.