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Happy Canada Day, y'all
Wedding Monday: Advice from Past Brides, part II
Meet the gorgeous Rebeckah and settle in for a bit of her wedding wisdom.
As the premier photographers in Guelph, Kitchener, Toronto and Niagara, we love capturing the moments from your wedding day.
-things you would do differently
1) The main detail that I would change about our wedding is our guest favours. We spent a long time trying to figure out something that wasn't too tacky or expensive to give to our 150 guests (we ended up having a sparkler at each table place...they were inexpensive, fun, and made for great pictures.) But since our wedding, I have seen a few other couples opt for scratching the favour idea all together, and making a donation to their favourite charity. GREAT IDEA, a lot less work, and way more meaningful. So if you're still pondering the perfect take-away gifts, consider this.
2) Think long and hard about how you are going to do the family-pictures. That was the most stressful part of the day for me, since we have a lot of family. Everyone was wandering off, and wanting to take a pictures on their own cameras, and it made for a very long process. Do your photos, if you can, in a location where there is no distractions - like the bar - for your relatives to sneak off to, and also away from all other guests who end up being extremely distracting!
3) If you're planning on doing a rice throw, consider buying the actual wedding rice (you can buy it at Michaels). We bought the real-deal rice from our cheap grocery store. Turns out real-deal rice is powdery, and Steven's lovely black suit lookedpowdery-grey afterwards (it brushes off, but still...)
-best planning decisions you made
1) We skipped the traditional receiving line after the church, and instead went to each table during dinner to great our guests. This was way more personal, and gave us time to actually catch talk with friends and family without feeling rushed.
2) We had a pretty low-budget wedding so I did a lot of DIY projects. One of the projects that ended up being the best was the bouquets; I made them with artificial flowers. It was WAY cheaper, and I was able to have my bouquets done ahead of time to make sure they matched the dresses perfectly. Plus it was one less thing to pick up on the day of, and my bridesmaids and I were all able to keep the bouquets afterwards.
-favourite parts about your day
1) Our ceremony was my favourite part. It was short and sweet and done exactly how we wanted. We had my sisters sing and play the violin while Steven and I took communion together, which was so special.
2) I loved our butterfly release and the rice throw that followed. The pictures looked great, and it was a fun for us as well as the guests.
-advice to a newbie bride
1) Seriously, don't succumb to the pressure to spend a lot of money on your wedding; you can have such a lovely day without throwing away your money. And honestly, when it's all over, it doesn't matter. I remember stressing over the chairs for our reception; we borrowed them from our church, but they didn't match each other and I thought it would look terrible. We considered spending over $300.00 to rent matching CHAIRS!!! For what?! Looking back I am so glad I let that go; no one, including myself, noticed the chairs, and now we have $300 extra dollars to spend on more important things.
2) Use your wedding day to appreciate the people who have loved and supported you. We found that our parents, grandparents, siblings, etc. were just as excited about our upcoming wedding day as we were, and it was so fulfilling to find little ways to make them feel extra special. Wearing Grandma's jewelry, borrowing my moms garter, asking my grandfather to pray for the meal and opting for just our siblings to sit with us at the head table were all things that meant a lot to them and were tokens of how grateful we are for them.
Happy Monday, y'all.
xo.