Don’t believe high prices. That does not mean high quality. The wedding industry is full of scam artists. Vendors can easily exaggerate their experience. In a month they can easily disappear. Get recommendations by word of mouth or if found elsewhere verify at least a few of their customer references, don’t be shy to ask.
Don’t allow your vendors to send anyone else. The person you talk to, has to be the one to show up and do the work on your day. Have that in writing. –I’ve seen too many events where one of the vendors sends a low waged employee that doesn’t know how to do the job well and has an unfriendly attitude.
Don’t allow anyone to disturb you. For this, assign one person, preferably the maid of honor to take any incoming technical questions. She is the one who knows what you like. –I spent many weddings following the bride who was just worried about minor details. Valuable family time was wasted and the pictures showed a worried look.
Don’t have too many people in the wedding party. It will take away attention from you. It also gets more difficult to move anywhere for pictures, grand entrance, etc.
Don’t be late. It will mess the whole plan. It’s better one hour early and enjoy your dress than an hour late and start with a lot of stress and delaying everything.
Indicate in the invitation the dress code. Weddings now may be casual, semi-formal, formal, Hawaiian style, themed, etc.
If you want pictures in a certain place like a golf course ask the venue first. Most golf courses rent the place but do not allow pictures in the golf course for safety since balls are flying and they also don’t want to stop 100 golfers for a wedding couple. –I had many brides very disappointed with the venue when they imagine use of the field is included after thousands paid.
Have your hands groomed. People will look at both your rings and they will be photographed too.
Amazingly 70% of the time people forget to raise the glass and say cheers, people say a story and just sit down. Have each one say after their wishes or story, – “I invite everyone to raise your glass for the Bride and Groom, cheers!”– Great memory and photo op.
Have the people doing the toast, prepare the speech days in advance. When people grab the microphone by surprise the message is often very misleading. – a shy father of an educated Groom with a few drinks grabbed the microphone when given to him by surprise, being told to say something he was proud about his son he said –“I’m proud he finished high school.”–
Prepare yourself for the first dance. A couple of turns and dips while dancing will add a lot of excitement to the event. There are inexpensive dance classes just for your wedding day. Plan it with the photographer that way he sees your front and not your back when you dip.
During Dinner eat in 30 minutes and visit the different tables during the rest of the meal to thank guests for assisting. They will greatly appreciate it. This is a great photo op while people are still dressed nice, not sweaty or shiny faced.
Have the wedding party act as cheerleaders. For example: When it’s time to do the first dance it’s nice to have them around the dance floor not blocking the view, when cutting the cake have them all around, when it’s time to dance have them start out so that people get more comfortable.
-too many times I’ve seen the wedding party gone or distracted in important moments when they should be there.
