You dream of the perfect wedding since you were little. The wedding dress, the dream venue, the perfect decorations as well as the wonderful guests celebrating your once in a lifetime event. However, the line between dream and reality often get mixed up in the bubble. All the sudden on your wedding day you begin to panic on things that could have been easily avoided when you are being prepared. This is exactly why I created this article so you’ll know what to expect and prepare your mindset before the wedding day! In this article, I am going to share with you the 4 mistakes brides make during the wedding day and how you can avoid them. Are you ready? Here we go!
1) Not finishing your makeup on time
Finishing your makeup on time is crucial on your wedding day because it sets the tone for the rest of your day. It affect the rest of your wedding timeline and pretty much all vendors will be affected by it. Imagine if your makeup artist is 1 hour late with finishing your makeup. The photographer will have 1 hour less to take photos of you, the florist will need to find another way to preserve the flowers, the cake vendor may need to adjust the arrival time, the DJ may need to adjust the schedule because reception entrance time may be different now, plus many many more.
You can simply avoid this by establishing good communication with your makeup artist and also give him/her your wedding timeline. Also, do a mock makeup session with the artist so you he/she knows your style so when it’s your wedding day so it won’t be the first time he/she is doing makeup for you. This is a win-win situation for everybody!
2) Not having enough time for photos
The average time that is needed to do the bride and groom portraits is around 45 minutes. Getting ready photos about 30 minutes, family formal photos another 30 minutes, and wedding party photos about 15 minutes. Excluding all other types of photos that is 2 hours out of an average 8 hours wedding day. Which translates to 25% of your wedding day spending with just your photographer for pictures that’ll last a lifetime. In reality, a lot of brides underestimate the time needed to get these photographs taken and ended up not having enough time for photos.
To avoid not having enough time for photos, I’ve a golden 3-2-1 rule. The 3 means you should start taking getting photos at least 3 hours before your ceremony time. The 2 means you need at least 2 hours to do Bride and Groom portraits, family formals and wedding party photos. The 1 means leave 1 hour block during your reception for other pictures such as pictures with guests, sunset photos, or night photography.
simply talk to you photographer and work out a wedding photography timeline. That way everyone is on the same page in terms of photography needs and where to spend more/less time doing photography. If you need a sample timeline contact me and I’ll send you one.
3) Not offering great food to your guests
I know it’s very cynical to say this, but there are two things your guests really want out of your wedding day. Having fun and eating great food. You can’t really control how much fun each person gets but you can control the quality of food you are serving to your guests. I remember one wedding that I attended as a guest. We were done with dinner and everyone was sitting in a round table talking about random things. Then one person suddenly said “ Everything in this wedding is great except the food, if the food tastes better than I think it’d be perfect wedding day”.
There is nothing wrong about this person and the comment he/she made is legitimate. The fodo really did not taste too good and that left a bad taste in the month for the guests. Not everyone will think like this person but it’s a reality that since your guests can’t always see your cool wedding details, they can always remember what the food tastes like. Giving your guest quality food is a respect to them for having them in your wedding. So make sure you treat them well!
4) Including too much on your wedding day (wedding party size, locations, outfit/hair style choices)
Often times Brides want to fit in as much as possible on their wedding day. A large wedding party (eg 5+ Bridesmaids and 5+ Groomsmen, that makes it 12 people in your wedding party and is considered large), going to multiple locations, having a variety of outfits and hairstyles on the wedding day. In short, Brides tends to always include too much on their wedding day.
This is not to say you should not do this, but expect to plan very well in order to execute these tasks which may seem easy. Do you have a wedding planner to help you with the logistics? Do you delegate enough so you don’t have to worry about these details on your wedding day? Are you ok with your photographer traveling and not spending time taking photos. These are just a few questions to ask yourself if you planning to fit in so many things in your 8 hours wedding day.
To avoid this, hiring a wedding planner is possibly the best idea. Because you want a person not just only plan things for your but a person that can execute these big ideas you have in mind. Also, work out a detailed timeline with your photographer so everyone is on the same page and know exactly what to do on your wedding day.