If I Could Get a Wedding Do-Over

I have read multiple articles in the last few weeks about what different bloggers would change about their weddings if they had the chance. It being my husband and I's 7 year wedding anniversary I thought a post about our wedding seemed appropriate. Wedding related pins are HUGE on Pinterest and those of us who got married before Pinterest kind of feel like this:

The hubs and I got married right after we graduated college (like 8 weeks later) and paid for the majority of the affair ourselves. It was smallish and there were things about it I loved (like the man I married) and other things I wish I could have changed. So in the spirit of celebrating 7 years of marital bliss here are 5 things I would have changed about my wedding and 5 things I would do over.

#1 I would have tried on more dresses
I should start off by saying that in the end I really did love my dress and was happy with it, but I felt so rushed in the process that I may have found an even better one if I had taken the time to look more. Getting to see yourself in a wedding dress is an awesome experience and though I don't condone trying on endless dresses just for fun, I wish I could have seen myself in different styles. I have watched enough Say Yes to the Dress and I Found the Gown to feel a bit jealous of girls that have seen themselves in more than three wedding dresses. Like I said ultimately I think my dress was beautiful, classy, and I don't think my daughter will be teasing me about it in 20 years (like my sister and I tease my mom).

I look so happy!

#2 I would have paid for printed invitations
We were trying to do the wedding on the cheap and I figured printing our own invites were one way to save money. I mean I was marrying a software engineer, how hard would printing a 150 invitations be? The answer to that questions was a lot harder than we both expected and way more consternation than was necessary. In the end they came out OK, and fit the theme of the wedding but there was a lot of cursing and unnecessary frustration over a bunch of printed paper.

Not our actual invites but the template we bought and fought with for many days

 #3 I would have gone with a catered event from the beginning
Originally we had put a deposit down on a hall and were going to have one of my bosses from college cater. We realized quickly that we would have spent more renting the equipment he needed to serve the crowd than having the reception at a place that did the catering right there. I spent many hours trying to come up with an alternative and luckily the idea of having our wedding on our college campus popped into my head. We met there, we dated there, it just made sense to make campus a part of our wedding and we were able to get a reasonable price for the whole reception. If I had just sucked it up and looked into catered venues from the beginning I would have saved myself so much stress and a lot of tears (and I'm sure our roommate would have appreciated that too).

At the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center where we met

#4 I would have postponed our honeymoon a day
We had people coming in from all over and barely had a chance to see and talk to everyone at the wedding. We rushed from the wedding to a hotel near the airport and then had to be up a 6am to make our 8:30am flight to Vegas. We were tired (but fortunately not hung over) and missed out on hanging out with our friends who were in town. I would have waited to leave for Vegas on Monday and spent Sunday sleeping in, having breakfast with some out of town guests, spending the afternoon with friends, and leisurely getting ready for our flight the next day. We literally got back from our honeymoon, got in a U-Haul and moved to Fort Worth. Having one extra day with family and friends would have been a nice send off and a lot less stressful way to start off a honeymoon (one that was awesome BTW, even if it started with a 4 hour unscheduled delay in Cincinnati).

#5 I would have listened to the priest and prevented a robbery
Most people have things that go wrong at their wedding. The preacher says the wrong name, a flower girl goes rouge, but no not us, we had a full fledged robbery. Our priest (also my husbands great uncle) told us at the rehearsal to make sure and lock up all of our valuables in our cars as some very low life individuals had been known to rob the prep room during weddings while everyone was distracted. We didn't heed that advice and all of the bridesmaids, me, and my mom left our stuff down there instead of moving it to the trunks of our cars. I was blessed that my stuff was in a suitcase and must have appeared like too much trouble to mess with. My friends lost credit cards, jewelry, wallets, cell phones, and of course the infamous makeup bag, shoes, and cigarettes that were taken from my mom (she would probably like me to note that the cigarettes were my Dad's not hers). My bridesmaids spent half of my reception calling banks and turning off credit cards and cell phones. It's a slightly funny story now, but it did put a huge damper on the evening, and even seven years later I am annoyed at a-holes who would rob people during a wedding in a church.

Now for the stuff I would do over again!

#1 The bridesmaids dresses and the color scheme
I love the color red and used it in my wedding quite a bit. I have since fallen in love with other wedding combinations but at the time I think using red was pretty awesome. The bridesmaid dresses were cute, a light organza material, and could be (and were) worn at other functions. I think if your going to spend over 100 dollars on a dress it should be something you could wear somewhere else and not be embarrassed to be seen in it.

picture from David's Bridal

#2 Having the reception at Kent State
Like I mentioned earlier my husband and I met at Kent State and campus is a huge part of our love story. Having some of our wedding pictures taken there and having the reception there just makes it campus even more special for us. We were young college graduates and celebrating our marriage where we spent the majority of our relationship just felt right.

#3 The Cake
I attended two separate wedding fairs (one with Joe and one without) and tasting the cake samples was by far the best part. I loved the flavor of the cakes from Linda's Kitchen (great bakery if you live anywhere near Tallmadge, Ohio http://www.lindaskitcheninc.com/) and after Joe tried it we knew that's where we were going to get our cake from. I gave them the pictures of what I wanted and they nailed it. The cake was delicious and we were happy to eat our top tier on our one year anniversary. For our 6 year anniversary last year I ordered a small replica cake and we ate it at a BBQ at our friends house (it was just as good as the one 6 years prior).

#4 Vegas Baby!
Joe and I went to Vegas for my 21st birthday with my family and had an amazing time. When we talked about where to go for the honeymoon, Vegas was at the very top of our list. We stayed at the MGM and had an awesome 4 days. It was Vegas in July so it was HOT and we were jet lagged for the first day and a half but it was still the best vacation we have taken together. We haven't been back but we keep saying that we'll go back for our 10 year anniversary and I really hope we do.

 

 #5 The Man

I know this seems obvious since we are still married after 7 years but it is the absolute truth. The last 7 years have been crazy and amazing and I wouldn't change a thing about the ride. We left everything we knew and loved and moved to a city that I had never even been to before we arrived in our U-Haul. We learned the city, learned each other, and slowly put our roots down. We fight, we bicker, we disagree, he leaves cabinet doors open, and I leave hairbrushes all over the house. We have moved 4 times in 7 years, I have changed jobs 5 times, had two beautiful children, and found a wonderful network of friends that have become a surrogate family to us. Nothing is perfect but perfect is boring and I wouldn't trade a minute of what we have for anything else. I am blessed and in the end a wedding is one great day that starts off what is hopefully thousands of great days. I would love to have the money to throw some elaborate Pinterest worthy party but I wouldn't want to give up the budget bash I planned 7 years ago (robbery aside) or the man I planned it with. I love you baby! Here's to at least 63 more wonderful anniversary's.

My favorite picture (he happens to be looking at me coming down the aisle :)