4 Things I Wish I Did Differently On My Wedding Day

Your wedding day is supposed to be “the best day of your life”, that’s what they tell you anyways. There is so much hype about everything being perfect and goals and a picture opportunity for your friends. But it's also whatever your parents want and family you don’t know being invited.

This is why i went non traditional. I didn’t want the non essentials to take over the day. The goal of the day was to celebrate the unity of my husband and I. In the pursuit of being so non traditional, I overlooked some things that cost me more in the end. We went DIY and as cheap as possible for almost everything. It was a beautiful wedding, but while we saved money in some areas, it caused some people to miss the wedding or our dinner - which was honestly not worth the few hundred bucks we saved.

detrtoit wedding photographer — photo by Alex Sattler

I wish I hired a coordinating team for set up and tear down
Depending on what your day looks like - this could mean chair rentals, florist, coordinator, whatever. We had free chairs from a friend and a church and we had the groomsmen pick them up at the beginning of the day and I did not plan on how they would get taken back. My sister, dad, uncle and some guys ended up tearing down for us, putting everything away, and missed our intimate family dinner. It was so not worth them missing out on quality time together!
Asking for help is more than ok. I wish I didn’t put so much on my friends and family that day and hired a team to help. Letting my family enjoy the day would have been worth the investment.
I wish we rented a bus/transportation
At our ceremony location, parking was down the road and was a BIG walk. We had a few friends shuttle our guests to the ceremony location, but it was not as organized as I had planned and our friends that shuttled guests ended up missing our wedding ceremony! It would have totally been worth it to rent a party bus to make it easy to spot for the guests, a fun experience, and allowing everyone to make it to the ceremony on time.
If I had a more traditional ceremony and reception, I would still highly recommend getting a party bus/transportation rental to make it easy on everyone! It’s so worth the investment to make the experience easier for a more stress free day.
I wish I had my non traditional dinner photographed
Our wedding pictures were amazing! I didn’t know how many hours of coverage we had with him, so when it came to dinner, I told him he could put his camera away and relax. I was also embarrassed of how non traditional our “reception” was, because it was basically just pizza and salad with our family. I wish I had those moments documented because that was quality time no matter what the room looked like. Our photographer did exactly as he was told and it’s 100% on me for not thinking to ask for a few pictures or more hours of his time for this.
I wish I spent more time with my guests
When making the timeline for my wedding day, all I cared about was getting the perfect light for our ceremony and pictures. I didn’t even think about the time I would need to greet all of my guests.
With a non traditional wedding, basically without a reception, it would have been worth it to do a receiving line. This is when you are done walking down the aisle (after the ceremony) you greet all of your guests as they leave their row. (yes mom, you were right on this. I wish we did this) Yes it takes time, but this is time you want. Your friends and family have come from all over town, you spent the time inviting these people, you can say hi to them and thank them for coming (this is me trying to reach Shelby in the past)

I encourage you to do a wedding that makes sense for you, but consider your needs and the time you have on this day. Your time is precious and so are the people around you.