Far from the picture perfect wedding, my special day had its ups and downs. Here is a list of some things I would re-do if I got the chance to go back in time to my wedding in September 1993:
1. Get a dress that allows for dancing and bathroom breaks. After hours and hours of trying on practically every dress in the shop, I decided to go with one of those beautifully beaded dresses with the HUGE train. At the reception, it took a team of six to figure out how to correctly bustle the dress. Even though the dress was lovely, I wish I could have actually MOVED around it in more easily. Lots of swaying back and forth during the fast dances. Forget about trying to maneuver into a bathroom stall! If my memory is correct, I don't think I went to the bathroom once during the whole reception. Fear of messing the dress or falling on my face must have scared the need to pee right out of me. I think I got married just before they made those great sleek wedding dresses that are made for dancing.
2. Get my makeup done professionally and run the other way from hairspray. My mom's bathroom lighting is not very reliable when wondering if I put on too much blush. If I recall, I think my hubby-to-be and I wanted to save some money so we cut out getting a makeup professional. Gratefully, my sister helped me make some last minute adjustments just before getting in the limo. I did go to our local beauty parlor to get my hair done. I have curly and sometimes unruly long hair. Assuming that this hair stylist knew all about perfect wedding hair, I went along with her idea to use tons of hair spray and bobby pins. My hair didn't move all day, but taking out all those bobby pins out of hair spray plastered hair wasn't a fun beginning to my wedding night. If I could do it again, all natural would be the way to go.
3. Don't give the honeymoon airline tickets to my forgetful brother-in-law. My hubby-to-be told his brother to safeguard our tickets until the end of the reception. Without telling us, he decided to take his girl friend to Long Island, NY a half hour before the reception ended. He was nowhere to be found when we needed to go. Guests are checking restrooms, other ballrooms and the parking lot. Typical of my brother-in-law, he had an impulse moment and decided to run off to who knows where with his girlfriend. Gratefully, a half hour into his little joy ride, he realized that the tickets were still in his tux jacket. He got back to the reception hall to find a search party already starting to form.
4. Don't hire a hungry DJ. We did make allowances for our DJ and photographer to have something to eat during the reception. We didn't expect to see our DJ having a bite here and there throughout the night. Every time you turned around, it looked like he was chewing something. A couple of times he missed his cue to change to the next song. We had to go too many times to make sure he was handling his job and keeping us dancing. Also, some of his song choices were way out there. I say to my hubby often, "Where did we find that guy?"
5. Learn the Electric Slide and maybe a new wedding song. It was the 90's and the Electric Slide was the big dance at weddings. I eventually got the hang of it. My poor hubby-to-be was all left feet and couldn't wait for the song to be over. Maybe we should have stuck with the chicken dance :) Again, being the 90's, we listened to Michael Bolton. Well, at least I did. Remember his shaggy, curly hair? I'm sure some of you will admit that you fell for his swooning songs. We picked the Bolton song, "Now That I Found You." It is a beautiful and touching song, but now I wish I picked something cooler. If only Norah Jones was not a toddler back then, maybe I would have had "Come Away With Me" playing as a circled the dance floor in my big bell of a dress :)
Overall, our wedding day was full of fun, laughs and great memories. I tend to make everything "serious" a big joke, so it is probably fitting that my wedding day was not in any way close to perfect. At least, I picked the right guy to marry :)
14 comments:
I would love to redo my wedding! I would do it way more low key..
Thanks for sharing this, I think at one time or another we all look back and think of what we'd do differently. But it sounds like you have many fond memories, even of the hairspray and bobby pins! Enjoyed your memories.
Great posting! I think many of us have things we would redo to our wedding. I think rather than the big wedding we had I would just want a small affair - not so much to plan (and stress out over) and much less expensive - I would keep the ice punch bowl - that was the coolest thing EVER! I can so empathize with the DJ - I think the same guy did our wedding. And I pulled out 88 hair pins my wedding night! Thanks for sharing!
How funny, that you think of this a number of years later! We were exactly 10 years behind you, Sept. 2003!
Crazy BIL and DJ notwithstanding, congrats on 15.5 years!
I didn't have too much hairspray, but there must have been a million bobby pins in my hair. Yikes.
what a great reflection. there are a few things i would have done differently too. but all in all, my day was just as perfect with my mr. perfect!
Ha! I can definitely relate to the bobby pins and hair spray! My sister helped me take them all out but we counted a whopping 255 bobby pins!!!
Honestly though, if that is all that you would redo if you could, I think you did pretty good!
I loved my day too. But I would redo the bridesmaid dresses and flowers. When I look back at thosue dresses - what was I thinking. Something do be used again maybe. But that was almost 21 yrs ago.
Thanks for the tips. I haven't gotten married yet (getting it backwards and doing the kids thing first) and my plans now have nothing to do with bell shaped gowns, bobby pins and hairspray. JCrew makes lovely casual gowns now, and I am very thankful.
Hi Septembermom,
Sounds like you had an eventful but fun wedding day. The DJ situation sounds hilarious. Thanks for sharing anecdotes about your wedding day.
Great topic for a post! I often think about what I would do if I could re-do my wedding. First, I would have made it much smaller, trimming away the oh-so-distant relatives and cousins from both sides and including only those people with whom we had truly close and meaningful relationships. In retrospect, I see that both my husband and I were pleasing our folks -- and inviting the people THEY felt obligated to invite. I didn't know who half those people were....
This was a great post! I loved it -- I think I am going to have to "borrow" this idea for my own blog -- there are tons of things I can think of that I would redo!!!! Would you mind if I did that? I would totally give you credit and link to this post!
And the honeymoon tickets -- I would have been freaking out big time. Thank God he remembered and came back.
And the saga of the big dress -- lovely but not practical. I see now they have detachable stuff so you can move around after the big "show."
Thanks for a great post! I loved it.
Thanks to everyone for the nice comments! I wish I could have invited all of you to my wedding way back when :) We would have had a blast!!
Jenners- Please go ahead and post about your wedding redo. I'm sure it will be another one of those great, fun Jenners' posts that we all love:)
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