Last week, I found myself looking at pictures from our wedding (May 28th, 2011) and it brought back so many memories! We celebrated a beautiful life together ahead of us and had a TON of fun with our family and friends! Now that I’ve been photographing weddings for 5 years, I’ve learned so much from the vendor side about how to make the day less stressful. So I’ve compiled 5 things I would have done differently for our wedding if we could re-do it!

5 Things I Would Have Done Differently

Hire a wedding planner

Even if it was just a ‘month-of’ or ‘day-of’ coordinator, I would have loved this! My sisters and Mom helped SO much with the planning and coordinating the day (so thankful for them!!) but thinking back, I wish they could have relaxed and enjoyed the day more. Our cousin Darryl was dating Sandra at the time (see their New York Anniversary session here!) and she was happy to be our host for the day! She greeted and directed guests so that was also a huge help! But if I had the chance to re-do it, I would have a coordinator there so all of these amazing ladies could fully enjoy it without ‘working’ 🙂 

Hire a videographer

I really wish I had a video of our day! It definitely was not in the budget but the more I see these AMAZING videos from the weddings I capture, the more I wish we would have made it happen somehow haha!

Hire a more reputable DJ

Keeping it real here. A former friend volunteered to DJ our wedding as soon as we got engaged and I bet you can guess how that went haha! She suddenly disappeared just weeks before our wedding and I had to hire a more reputable DJ just days before! He ended up being awesome but it was a SUPER stressful situation at the last-minute that I could have totally avoided had I went with a real business (with a contract)!

Bring hair and makeup to us

I went to my hair stylists salon that morning then rushed to a makeup counter in the mall right after. My bridesmaids were all over the place doing the same thing and we met at the church right before the wedding. Doh! Talk about feeling rushed and stressed! I love that most of my brides bring their glam squad to their ‘getting ready suites’ so all the girls can take turns getting done up and hang out together with Mimosa’s 🙂

Bustle the Dress like a boss

This seems so small but I remember it well! Obviously, we hadn’t perfected ‘bustling’ the dress before the wedding day because my bustle fell out before I even finished dancing the Wobble LOL!! I ended up holding my train up throughout the night just to dance! Oy vey!

Overall, our wedding day was AMAZING and we still talk about how much fun we had while looking through our albums with Koa! I just wanted to share my thoughts on reducing stress now that I’m a pro in the game!

Liked this post? Here are some other posts you may love!

To view recent weddings, click HERE.

To view recent engagement sessions, click HERE.