Gosh, is there anything more enveloping than the year leading up to your wedding day? You’re ‘half present’ in almost every other part of your life, as you face a countdown peppered with constant decisions in the lead-up to the best day of your life.
It can be overwhelming, all encompassing and incredible – all at once.
For everyone’s first time, planning a wedding is also a massive baptism of fire. It’s like being told to plan a massive party perfectly, even though you’ve had little to no experience in event planning – so it’s not a surprise that sometimes, things can be missed.
Here at One Fine Day, there are a few of us who are married, some for over 10 years, too!
So we whipped around the office and gathered the regrets we had from our respective wedding days, if any, in the hopes that we could share them with the engaged couples out there, and prevent them from making the same mistakes.
So, here it goes:
Nadean, married for 10 years:
“I regret putting my hair up. It’s just not my style and I hate every photo. My advice to everyone is to wear your hair like you normally do, so you feel like ‘you’. Don’t follow the trends, stick to your ‘look’ – and you can’t go wrong!”
Alex, married for 10 years:
“I regretted not having any time off before the wedding to hang out with my international family guests, as they wanted to talk to me a lot on the day and it’s really hard to share your time around with everyone. Carve out some time before the wedding for a pre-dinner, or a ‘recovery’ lunch, so that you’re spending a good amount of time with overseas and interstate friends and family, if you can!”
Olivia, married for 5 years:
“I don’t regret much to be honest, but if I had to choose something, there are 3 things I’d tell you. The first is to keep it intimate. We invited 100 guests to Fiji, and we weren’t expecting them all to say yes, but 94 did! It was amazing, but hard to spend enough time with everyone. The second is I had 7 bridesmaids, and I love them all, but I didn’t want to leave anyone out, so I asked them all. It was amazing, but again, we lost that tight-knit feeling on the day, and with 7 bridesmaids, everyone thinks ‘someone else’ will fluff the dress and hold the flowers, so no-one does anything! Haha!
The third thing is that I wish I had more ‘full bridal party’ shots. We have a HEAP of Nathan and I, but only one or two of everyone in the bridal party. I just wish we had more variety.
Robyn, married 15 years:
“My biggest wedding regret is not practicing poses or knowing my best angle before photos! I have a number of photos of me pulling a weird face or holding my dress at a weird angle. I did get married before Instagram was a thing though, so it wasn’t top of mind!”
Cory, married 19 years:
“I was so wrapped up in the moment, I totally forgot to stop and kiss my Mum on the way back down the aisle – still feel guilty about that.”
Bonnie, married 4 weeks:
“I wish I got the photographer and videographer to come earlier! I feel like a few really intimate moments were missed as we were getting ready. It was such an amazing part of the day, so I regret not having them arrive earlier!”
Lara, married 11 years
“Probably not having my mum walk me down the aisle with my dad, I’m a traditionalist, but I do regret not giving my mum a role on the day.”
// By Olivia Mackinnon
Hero image via The White Tree
