fabulous/not-so fabulous - #8

The next installment is from Lisa - some of you might recognize her pictures (even though her wedding was before I was keeping a blog!) because I have been using images from their wedding in a slideshow that I show clients when they come to meet with me. My favorite one of these stories is the one involving Peter laying down in the backseat with a belly full of cake after a "tasting"........



"First, I will begin with the good... I truly believe one of our best decisions was to have our 'formal' photos taken before the ceremony. Since we had a fall wedding, it allowed us to take our photos outdoors while the sun was bright and shining. We also wanted to spend every possible moment of our reception with our guests. More importantly, I am a worrier! I spent most of the morning in a ball of nerves stressing about the zillion little things that could go wrong. However, the moment that I met my husband at the park where we were taking photos all of my worries vanished. I truly realized that I could not care less if the cake was not perfect or the trolley was late or the kids wouldn't walk down the aisle.... because I was marrying this amazing man TODAY! From that point forward, the day was nothing short of relaxed and wonderful!



I would highly recommend having some version of a 'receiving line' after the ceremony. My husband and I greeted everyone as they left the church. Since it was only the two of us (my mom and dad are talkers so we sent them over to the side...) it moved quickly, however, it provided us with the opportunity to greet every guest and thank them for attending our wedding. This freed up the reception for us to enjoy the party on the dance floor with our guests rather than spending hours going table-to-table welcoming everyone.


I would also highly recommend not just setting a budget first and foremost, but discussing what both of your priorities are for the wedding. For us, excellent food and beverage, music, and photos were our top priorities. We realized we were willing to 'skimp' on other things but we had to find the best cater, band/DJ, and photographer that we could. After all...if our guest didn't have a fabulous time and we didn't have photos to remember our day by we would have been disappointed. Everyone's priorities differ but it is important to not skimp on something and realize later that it was incredibly important to you!

Now, on to the things that we could have done better... We decided to have our wedding in October in Salem, MA. After booking our venue and date, I worried for months about the logistics of holding a wedding in the midst of a major tourist season. We could not block hotel rooms for our guest and I panicked about parking availability and traffic. I wish I had spent more time prior to booking our date thinking about what it would mean to have a wedding during a 'high season' in a small city. In the end, it all worked out beautifully, however I put many hours into trying to 'control' the logistics which were completely out of my control.


Remind your husband-to-be that it is a cake TASTING! We met with two bakers in one day. At the first bakery he decided it would be 'rude' not to finish the entire piece. They gave us eight pieces of cake...and he finished them all! He proceeded to lay in the back seat of the car the entire way to the second bakery because he felt so ill and inform me that he would not have any more cake. Fortunately, at the next bakery he rose to the challenge and managed to finish the 4 additional pieces of cake.

If you are not 'crafty' and do not have a lot of spare time and extra hands to help...skip the 'do it yourself' projects. Most people will not notice if you have individually created seating cards and hand-created decorations...but you will remember the hours you put into them and the money spent on these projects adds up!

Lastly, I could rave about all of my vendors...I was truly fortunate and had a very good experience with all."


Lisa had all of the wedding vendor rockstars.....Vinwood Caterers, Gina Joubert and Kimberly Fosher, Allegria Bridal, and Paul Natale.

Thanks for the stories Lisa!!!!