fabulous/not-so fabulous - #13

Next up are some tips from Cara, a 2005 bride. One of my favorite memories from their wedding was that they played "The Rainbow Connection" for Jon's dance with his mom - how cute is that? I totally teared up....

"There really isn’t a lot that I would do differently. Looking back (almost 3 years later) I still remember a fabulous day that was filled with all of our family and friends. What’s better than that?!

There are a few things that stand out in my mind that I’m glad I did do:

Sweat the small things well before your wedding day approaches. You always here people say “don’t sweat the small things” you won’t enjoy your wedding. Well I spent a lot of time and effort on every last detail but I got all of it done well before the 2 week mark and I’m glad I did. Details make a wedding, in my opinion, and I wanted people to appreciate all the work that went into the day. But I’m glad that I had the last few weeks to just enjoy what was to come – once I got to the actual day I didn’t have much to worry about. So while in an ideal world it would be nice to not worry about every last detail I just don’ think its practical advice for a bride…just get it all done early!

Relax as much as possible before the ceremony – take the time to spend the last few hours with your family and wedding party. You’ll actually remember this part in more detail because it was before all the chaos occurs.

Eat before the ceremony – it was one of the best pieces of advice I got and it was a life saver. Can you imagine not being able to eat until 8 at night after a long day of smiling and greeting people, especially in the summer months?

Savor your time with your new husband taking pictures. It will probably be the only time you’re alone (with the exception of Nancy being with you and she’s not intrusive at all!).


Take the time to talk and greet your guests at your own pace. We planned it so our picture taking would be done and we could enjoy the cocktails and food with our guests…while we did have a quick receiving line at the church being able to mingle with our guests during cocktail hour really was one of the more memorable moments from the reception for me.


I really wanted to have Nancy capture our guests at the reception – being the bride you get caught up in your own moments and I wanted to be able to look at the pictures and see what I missed and see our guests enjoying the night. Nancy did a fabulous job with this one request!!!!

Back to eating…eat at your reception. You spend all this time picking out the perfect menu….you should be able to enjoy it too!!

Entertainment is key to a fun wedding. Our number one priority was making the reception feel like one big party. We wanted our guests to have a blast and picking the right entertainment is the key to having this be a success. We chose a band and they were the talk of the wedding!



Lastly – try and take some moments with your spouse….the day will inevitably fly by but if you take the time to step back and look at what is going on you’ll have those memories forever!!

Oh and hire Nancy as your photographer…once the day is done and over you’ll only have the pictures and video to look back on and she does such a fabulous job capturing all the special moments! "

Thanks for the plug, Cara! :)
And she wasn't kidding about the entertainment. They had Felix Brown, and even the groom was doing the worm!!