Five things I would do differently on my wedding day

Since you don’t exactly get another chance at having a perfect wedding (or at least the goal is to not), I figured I would share with you all of the things that I would do differently if I could just convince Spencer that having a wedding 2.0 would be super fun instead of the most stressful and irrelevant thing imaginable. Hindsight is 20/20, am I right?

If I could do it all again (not that I would, wedding planning is stressful!), I would…

Pay the $30 and have a bustle added to my dress.

Let’s just say my dress got a little manhandled over the course of my wedding day. My father accidentally stepped on it, ripping a hole in the outer tulle layer, my husband couldn’t so much dance with me as semi-gracefully step around my train, and when I took it off that night, I was amazed at just how dirty the bottom had become.

To anyone balking at alteration costs (like I was!), go ahead and pay the extra cash to have a bustle added. Just one will do; don’t get bullied into five different bustles with diagonal pleats and crystal buttons if you don’t want them!

Purchase the dress preservation package when I bought my dress.

This one goes along with the whole bustle deal. Maybe if you’re smart and have one added, your dress won’t look like it’s been through hell and back when you get it on the hanger the next morning. At this point, I wish that I had bought the Gown Preservation Kit from David’s Bridal when I bought my dress because it was only $99! Maybe I can find it in my budget to squeeze in one more wedding expense.

Put up a sign asking people to sign our guest bench and our guest book.

Overkill? Maybe. But now I have a half marked up bench and a half full coffee table book of our gorgeous engagement photos. I want to display both in my home some day, so maybe I’ll have to strategically invite our wedding guests over to the apartment and guilt them into signing whichever one they didn’t realize they were supposed to sign!

Schedule more time for photography.

I wasn’t so great about sticking to my own wedding schedule, and I’m still trying to figure out what went wrong. I haven’t had that aha moment yet, but what I do know is it took way longer for pictures than I imagined it would. This means my only regrets from the wedding involve photos that I didn’t get for when I’m old and don’t have all the memories from the big day.

Have some kind of relaxing family farewell the next day.

I know that sounds crazy. My family was there from Friday night until early Sunday morning; what more could I possibly want? But I do wish that I had been able to decompress from the wedding and actually say goodbye to the majority of my relatives. Most of them stole off in the night (or the early morning), and I didn’t get to tell them how much I appreciated their being at the wedding. I suppose that’s what thank you notes are for!

Also, Spencer and I were kind of crazy and drove home to Cincinnati the next afternoon because we went to work on Monday! Just typing that stresses me out. So don’t be silly like us.

And just for good measure, here’s one thing I wouldn’t change for the world. I wouldn’t…

Marry anyone other than this dapper dude.

I bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you? 😉

For all my married ladies out there, what are some things you would do differently now that you’ve been through your wedding day?

P.S. If you’re curious about my bustle-less dress and the whole experience I had bridal shopping, I’d suggest you check out this little post.