No-one warned me about....

Thanks for the advice, I will probably forget it though (and regret forgetting!!)

In all fairness, I probably would have forgotten even if someone had told me - but then even remembering occasionally would have stopped me from disliking a few otherwise amazing shots because of my double (or triple!) chin.

I also wish I'd asked one of the bridesmaids to look out for back flab - I made triple sure before I left that there was none, but standing/sitting in certain positions and holding babies made it appear. Grrr!

Those are two of my very few tiny regrets, as well as not hiring a professional videographer (a friend filmed the day for us but it's not the same) and not hiring a swing band when I really wanted one. If you're still planning and can stretch to these kinds of things that you really want, then go for it (you only do it once, and it's too late afterwards!).

I think I'm just too much of a perfectionist - it was such an incredible day and I wouldn't really have changed anything. Considering that our venue went bankrupt 5 weeks before the big day and we had to find a new one, that's pretty good going, I guess!

The thing I certainly don't regret was paying for a good photographer - we could have saved money here (although we also could have spent a lot more!) but the photos are such a great representation of the day as I remember it, and I would have hated to be disappointed by the photos.

While I think about it, the other thing I wish someone had mentioned was the fact that no-one eats the bl**dy wedding cake! I ordered an 8,10 & 12" cake so there was enough for everyone to have some and we left with the bottom tier intact and a box filled with 90% of the top two tiers. I even bought (and made up!) enough cake boxes for everyone to take home, and only about 3 people did! If you really want a big one, make sure at least one tier is fruit cake so you can keep it.

One last tip for people in the early stages of planning - I know everyone is different, but I'm so glad we had an early ceremony (12.30pm). Usually venue hire will be the same for however long you're there, and it goes by so fast. Even with such a long day, it still went by so quickly but at least we had time to enjoy people's company and spend some time alone together. Our venue had amazing gardens that went on for miles and we had some amazing pics taken there - if we'd had a later ceremony, we may well not have had time for this. Some people tried to talk me out of it, saying it was too long of a day for the elderly guests, but they had a lovely day, left when they wanted to and still got an early night, so it worked out well all round!

Best of luck everyone - I hope your day is as perfect as ours was!
x

Thanks for warning! I will not look down too much. Of course i will forget all the bad things and enjoy the lovely day.

LOL!! Il try and remember that!! No double chins, and *if* (more than likely when) its raining il think of the pics!

Thats advice iv never heard before!!

Can I just add - that I once noticed this on some holiday photos, so next holiday I made sure I kept my neck up straight, but then I looked like a tortoise trying to look out of his shell! I put it up too much.

So just be natural.

Also can your photographer not do a bit of airbrushing?

Ohh thanks for the tip.. I wouldnt even have thought of that!

Im also concerned about the back flab bit... need to try and tuck them in! lol....

Oh yes, definitely something to practice in the mirror ahead of time - no-one wants to look like they're doing a giraffe impression!

In all fairness, I'm sure he has done some touching up already, but removing that kind of thing is quite tricky. Besides, he specialises in very natural, reportage photography so having a heavily airbrushed bride would probably look a bit weird!

I think I'm just too hard on myself, no-one else seems to see what I see! Overall the photos are amazing, I'm just being picky about my unfortunate flabby-looking moments. With that kind of photography there will always be one or two that aren't that flattering, but the good photos you get are things that a traditional photographer would never capture. The funniest thing is seeing how weird a posed photo looks after all the natural ones: the registrar made us do fake register-signing poses, even though he'd already got shots of us signing the actual register, and the photo of that sticks out like a sore thumb, it looks so odd!

If anyone is still looking for a photographer, I would definitely recommend speaking to Jamie and looking through his portfolio - everyone who's seen the pics is blown away and there are some beautiful shots of everyone. For the kind of photography he does, he's not as expensive as some I found, but having seen the photos I would have paid twice what we did, they're worth every penny! Most importantly, both my husband and I hate having our photos taken but he managed to make it fun, which I never thought possible!

Honestly, the pics of a few people in the rain are some of the best ones, they look incredible! Also, the sky being cloudy looks so much better in photos than a boring blue one any day

If you're getting married at a time of year when you might get rain (which, let's face it, is most days!) then check to see if your venues have umbrellas to use (ours had 100 big white ones). If they don't, it's definitely worth getting a few off ebay or second hand from another bride, as they look great in pics too. I know Confetti sell them, but I'm sure you can find them cheaper online.

Thank you, Thank you - we get married on Sat so I'll definitely try and remember the looking down bit! They are forecasting showers at the mo so your lovely photo in the rain thing has cheered me up!

I know, didn't occur to me at all - it's during the ring swapping bit that it's most obvious, but it crops up a few times.

I was so annoyed about the back flab as I was so careful to check before I left and make sure my bodice wasn't too tight at the top. There's one really nice photo of me during the speeches but then I have a big bit of back flab because of the way I'm sitting. So annoying!

Just put one of your bridesmaids on back watch, so you can sort it out when it happens - if you have a certain kind of dress and any kind of flesh on your body, it will bunch up in certain positions. I wasn't going to wear a veil and in the end I decided to get a short one that just covered the top of my back. I'm so glad I did - I was so much more comfortable and it looked so pretty.

Good luck with the rest of your planning
x

I was checking the weather so often before my wedding, and about 2 days before the forecast changed from sunny all day to showers. I was so upset and when we were getting ready it was really raining and I was starting to panic (we had an ice cream cart booked which isn't really a rainy day activity!). I imagined everyone being stuck indoors all day and bored

By the time we got to the venue it was sunny, when we came out of the ceremony it was sunny - everyone was milling around eating ice cream and listening to the harpist, who was set up outside, it was lovely.

Then the showers started - there were 3 or 4 showers in the 2 hours between the ceremony and the meal but it turned out to be a blessing:
The guests got to look around the beautiful house, which they otherwise wouldn't have done, and we got some great photos inside
We got lots of variety in our photos - sun and rain!
We still got to do our formal shots and shots of us in the garden, between showers!
The skies look amazing in the pictures
The rain photos look brilliant!

I just felt sorry for the harpist, who kept having to take her harp in and out, and the ice cream man who was stuck out in the rain under his umbrella!

Of course, as soon as we went in for dinner, the sun came out properly and it didn't rain again, but then we had a lovely evening with most people sitting outside. I thought rain might spoil things, but one of my guests said she'd forgotten it had rained at all until she saw the photos, so there you go.

All the luck in the world for Saturday - if you send me your email address, I'll send you the photo link and password so you can see the rain pics and feel better about it!

Thank you so much - you're so calming on me! I was thinking that recently - when it's been raining, inbetween it's been quite warm and sunny - that is our main concern really, wanting to make use of the lovely lake and garden at our reception ?

It would be lovely to see your pics and feel 'rain inspired'!! thanks - it's *

It rained on my wedding day & I'm so thankful for reading tips on hitched as I'd read about taking a sheet so I could stand on the wet grass without ruining my dress. Such great advice otherwise my dress probably would've been fithly. The only problem was the sheet got misplaced & it turned out mum's step daughter picked up the white sheet for us & it was an eyptian cotton sheet given as a wedding gift to them 2 years ago. Whoops!! I'd also add to the tips to write a list of the photos that you want as we wrote our list in a rush & I slightly regret not getting photos taken with all the people I wanted. The ceremony & meal went ok then time just ran away!

Yes, I wish I'd known the sheet tip - my beautiful silk train is black! Apparently it should come out, and if not my dressmaker will shorten it by an inch to get the worst off. Very annoying!

I gave a long list of shots to my photographer that I wanted him to try and get, in addition to the usual list of formal shots - as he was just going around and taking photos of what happened, he got most of them easily when I was talking to people, but there were a few that would have been missed if I hadn't listed them.

Also, I don't know about most of you but my family is very complicated - lots of people divorced and remarried, so it gets quite confusing and there's a lot of politics. My mum was remarried a few years ago and I don't particularly get on with him, and I'm not sure how long they're going to be together unfortunately. Although he was included in the shot of all the family, I also wanted a close family shot (mum, sister & husband of 10 years, brother & gran) without him (I also knew that, if they do break up, it would upset her to look at wedding shots with him in forever!). I knew this could potentially really upset her and cause a problem on the day, so I decided to talk to her about it in advance which really helped. When you have such a complicated family, this wedding stuff is a bit of a minefield!

I have one other tip that I forgot to mention - take your favourite comfiest shoes, no matter what they look like! I had really high heels for the ceremony and formal photos after which I was crippled. I'd bought some kitten heel white shoes, but they were quite tight around the toes and rubbed all the skin off my toes so I was in so much pain. In the end, from about 6pm until 12am I was completely barefoot - first dance, everything! If only I'd taken my trusty Reef flipflops - no-one would have seen them, and I could have changed into them after the photos and been a lot more comfortable!