The biggest regret

I don't think I have any regrets. My husband and I spent time together and time apart during the wedding. I felt that the wedding ceremony was the most important part. That was 'our' time. We ate together at the wedding breakfast. Of course, we had a our photos together, first dance, cake cutting etc. We toasted guests at each table together. However, post wedding breakfast during the party we spent some time apart speaking with our guests and I danced a lot. Same as our day to day relationship really. We spend time together but independent at the same time. Best day of my life. I really enjoyed myself. Don't stress about the details.

It depends on the amount of time you have after the ceremony to when you are due to be called into the room to eat, I usually find that its about 1.5 hours sometimes it can be a lot less and 20mins out of this time is a long time. After your 20 mins there will be some time that people want to congratulate you - say hello before you can start on any photos. If time is short then you could start straight into photos but then you will have no time mingling. As yours is a winter wedding - its getting dark, will there be any time for photos outside if you have that 20 mins.

You also have 150 guests which is a lot of people to get around so splitting up might be a better way of seeing everyone. A good idea is to visit each table as a couple inbetween food courses.

As Lea says a mix of apart and together - a ballance is good.

I totally agree that the day is about the couple. This is something we've really thought about too!

We've kept our guestlist fairly minimal - 55 day, 70 evening are being invited.

We're also having a sweetheart table, time just us after the ceremony and we're planning on staying close to each other all day. With the guest number we're hoping we can at least say hello to everyone while staying together.

Finally, we've decided we're going to do a grand exit about half an hour to an hour before the official end time so we get a bit of time just us. In this time we're going to read personalised vows to each other, rather than during the ceremony, as we were feeling a little shy about reading those vows in front of everyone.

But also, are you going on honeymoon? We're going straight on a two night mini-moon and then going on a longer honeymoon a week later so do remember that you get that lovely time together too!

But I totally feel you, as much as I'm excited to celebrate with friends and family I really want to prioritise us as a couple.

I haven’t reached the big day yet, but my biggest regret is not hiring a wedding planner. I read so much advice. Took pages of questions to meetings and have still been caught out by hidden charges, add ons and had to compromise our day. I think a planner in hindsight would of paid for it’s self in money saved and would have taken off so much stress.