As brides plan for their big day, I thought it would be nice to share experiences from other brides. So I asked some of my previous brides (now wives) to give me their perspective of their wedding day. Below are the responses from Kerry who married Joe on September 20, 2008. I haven’t received their professional photos yet but their photo below is from the photo booth at their reception. It was a big hit. Click here to see the original blog post from their wedding. Click here to see other Bride Perspective posts.

What was the best part of your wedding day?
Seeing how much fun everyone was having, especially with the photo booth!

What do you feel was totally unnecessary?
The 2 alter flower arrangements. They were so far back that I don’t think anyone could notice them, and we wanted to reuse them for the reception but they were left at the church.

What would you change, if anything?
I would’ve reconfirmed everything again and again with my vendors, so that they understood everything that we wanted. I was disappointed with our florist… he made the flowers on the cake no where near what we discussed, and I asked for natural green leaves cut from the flowers to be scattered on the escort table, and instead he used plastic orange leaves!

Why did you choose your wedding color palette?
We don’t really like pastel colors, and we wanted something earthy and natural, yet modern and chic. I thought sage green and chocolate brown was such an elegant combination.

What was unexpected that you loved?
How much everyone loved the photo booth!

What are your fondest memories of your wedding day?
Having all of our friends and family surrounding us and supporting us. We felt so lucky and loved.

Is there anything you wish you had spent more time or money on?
The linens. They were basic, and looked ok, but we had a contract with the rental company that they would give us all sage green chair sashes, and they only gave us half. So we ended up with half green, half ivory chair sashes.
{The linen company was contracted through the reception site and somehow ran out of the sage green sashes. The catering manager was able to get ivory sashes to match the color scheme.}

Is there anything you wish you had spent less time or money on?
No, I did a lot of research to make sure we got the best deal on everything!

What was the biggest challenge while planning your wedding?
Trying to get everything we wanted, and still keeping everything within our budget. We ended up being right on budget in the end : )

Were there any unexpected surprises or issues?
A wedding crasher! I never would have expected that. Luckily, LaKendra and others were able to remove the crasher and she didn’t make too much of a scene.
{This is another story/post all in itself.}

Three words that describe your wedding day?
Emotional, fun, quick.

What’s your number #1 tip or advice for future brides?
I have two. #1, make sure you get LaKendra! We can’t imagine not having her help us with our wedding. She helped everything go smoothly. #2, Everyone tells you that the day flies by, and it does. Throughout the day I really made an effort to look around and take every moment in.

How did you feel after the wedding?
Exhausted! But completely happy and in love, and relieved that for the most part everything was a big success!

Thanks for participating Kerry!

As brides plan for their big day, I thought it would be nice to share experiences from other brides. So I asked some of my previous brides (now wives) to give me their perspective of their wedding day. Below are the responses from Stephanie who married Walter on May 25, 2008. Click here and here to see the original blog posts from their wedding.

Best part of the wedding day:
The best part of the wedding was walking out of the church into the crowd of our friends and the bubbles. The bubbles were absolutely amazing. It was nice that we got to chat with friends and family at the time.

Fondest memory of the wedding day:
The Duck bus tour going by and cheering, seeing my grandmother so happy, my mom giving me the garter my Aunt Marmee made for me, meeting some of Walter’s family and seeing my mom and two aunts dance the WHOLE night.
(The Duck tour runs through historic parts of Baltimore and passed them as they took pictures at various monuments. The buses seem to come by every 10 minutes.)

Unexpected things we loved:
The Duck bus riding by, all of the people for the garter and bouquet toss and the charger plates.
(I surprised the couple with gold charger plates for their sweetheart table)

Aspects that were unnecessary:
The “Banquet Manager” was completely unnecessary. He talked to us once the whole night…when he greeted us. On the other hand, the bridal hostess was AMAZING.

If we could change anything:
Send the DJ a copy of the exact song we wanted played for our entrance. He messed up our entrance song by playing the wrong Kill Bill song. Plus he played country music and trendy rap music which we did not want. Otherwise, he got people on the dance floor and we had a blast, so I won’t complain.

Having a stronger bustle. Encourage your brides to have more than one loop for a bustle, because wedding dresses are HEAVY and will probably demolish one bustle hoop. I didn’t really mind, since it gave me a break to absorb things but I did have to miss Thriller.
(The bride’s wedding gown had a lot of beading which caused the loop on her bustle to break. I was able to secure it with safety pins from my emergency kit)

Anything we wish we had spent more time or money on:
Confirming with the florist and cake designer about the design. We wanted the large centerpieces to be in trays and the cake to have the same scroll design as the linen pattern. I sent a picture to cake baker of the linen design and called a couple of months ago but I had not confirmed the design closer to the event.

Anything we wish we had spent less time or money on:
The extra guest book. We order 2 Polaroid guest books. I would advise brides to by 1 Polaroid guest book per ½ their guest list. And we bought WAY too much Polaroid film. Everything else, was worth the time spent

Unexpected surprises or issues:
-The DJ playing the wrong Kill Bill Theme song and playing country/trendy rap music even with our specific instructions and the bustle breaking, multiple times…and during THRILLER!

Number 1 tip for future brides:
Don’t sweat the small stuff; this day happens once in your life. Try and spend it all being happy. Don’t let little miniscule things stress you out. You can deal with them later! Take 1-2 days off after your wedding to relax AND THEN go on your honeymoon. You can use the time to catch up with family and friends, gush about the wedding and see wedding pictures…sooo much fun!

How did we feel after the wedding:
ECSTATIC, so excited about the pictures, like a million bucks! I wanted to wear the dress more so we went to Power Plant (after the wedding) and got some great reactions

Thanks Stephanie for participating. Readers click here to see our other brides’ perspective posts.

As brides plan for their big day, I thought it would be nice to share experiences from other brides. So I asked some of my previous brides (now wives) to give me their perspective of their wedding day. Below are the responses from April who married Joshua on June 28, 2008. Click here and here to see the original blog posts from their wedding.

What was the best part of your wedding day?
I loved Josh’s vows.

What do you feel was totally unnecessary?
I don’t think we went overboard on anything, so I feel as though nothing was unnecessary.

What would you change, if anything?
I honestly think the day ran really smoothly! The only thing that I would change was the massive down pour of rain during dinner, but at least we were under a tent and it didn’t really effect us too much. I think some guests left a little earlier than expected after the storm because they were from out of town. But there’s not much you can do about mother nature.

What was unexpected that you loved?
All the surprises that Josh had for me – the lighting in the tent, the 2nd videographer and the limo were perfect. I also loved the E that was on the door at the entrance to the reception that you did.
(AWE Note: As one of the surprises to the couple, I painted an “E” pink and hung it from on the mansion door with brown ribbon. It tied in all of the other “E” elements at the wedding)

What are your fondest memories of your wedding day?
Walking down the aisle and seeing Josh for the first time in his tux. I was also so excited to see all of our friends and family that came out of town and to be able to spend a little bit of time with them after dinner was perfect.

Is there anything you wish you had spent more time or money on?
My time was somewhat limited as I was working 2 jobs, studying for the MCAT exam and moving so I wish I could’ve taken more time to do some of the do it yourself/creative projects, but I think the details that I was able to do turned out well!

Is there anything you wish you had spent less time or money on?
Nope, I think we did pretty well with our budget, but you might get a different answer from my Dad

Were there any unexpected surprises or issues?
As far as I know everything ran smoothly and there were no major problems thanks to Lakendra and her team! All the guests enjoyed themselves and Josh and I had a perfect day.

What’s your number #1 tip or advice for future brides?
Don’t stress yourself out over the small details! Try to get as much planning done as soon as you can so the last few weeks and months aren’t stressful. On the day of your wedding, don’t worry about a thing because if something does go wrong, the guests probably won’t notice. Overall my tip is to stress less!

How did you feel after the wedding?
It’s somewhat of a relief to have all the planning over with, but we wish we could do it all over again! Married life is wonderful though.

As brides plan for their big day, I thought it would be nice to share experiences from other brides. So I asked some of my previous brides (now wives) to give me their perspective of their wedding day. Below are the responses from Michelle who married Lawrence on June 7, 2008. Click here and here to see the original blog posts from their wedding.

What was the best part of your wedding day?
The best part of the day was getting to see all my family and friends at the reception. We talked, ate, and had a great time dancing!

What do you feel was totally unnecessary?
The cake server set…no one really saw it and we’ll probably never use it again.

What would you change, if anything?
There is nothing I would want to change about that day, it was amazing!

What was unexpected that you loved?
We said the traditional vows during the ceremony, but my husband gave a speech at the reception that had me in tears!

What are your fondest memories of your wedding day?
Walking down the aisle with my father, sitting at our sweetheart table towards the end of the reception and reflecting on the entire day.

Is there anything you wish you had spent more time or money on?
No

Is there anything you wish you had spent less time or money on?
The programs. They were DIY and they took forever to do. Even though they turned out beautifully I wished I had forked out the money to have someone else do them.

Were there any unexpected surprises or issues?
Our ceremony was a lot shorter than expected, so much so that the photographer had to dash back up the aisle to get our first kiss shots.
(note: the officiant for their wedding went through the ceremony very quickly and even skipped the planned soloist…we have no idea why)

What’s your number #1 tip for future brides?
Be finished with all the final details a week before the wedding so you can spend the final few days relaxing!

How did you feel after the wedding?
Satisfied, and excited to go on our honeymoon. My wedding was everything I wanted and more…