What would you do differently?

[weich1001]

We had our Dessert Party in the UK Lower and we had no ashes at all. I think it just depends on how the wind is blowing. It was a beautiful location.

As far as what I would have done differently, really not much.

We had a Wishes Cruise scheduled for the night before the wedding. We cancelled this while we were down there because Wishes was not until 10:00pm and our ceremony was at 9:00am and we would definately have been too rushed.

Our ceremony was in Epcot in Italy and I walked up to the top of the bridge and met my dad there and then continued over. This was the perfect place to meet him but I would have met him in the center - he was over by the rail and I walked over to him so when we both walked down the bridge we were all the way over to the side.

After the ceremony we had a rose petal toss which I would still go with but I wish we had more petals.

We used the Unity Candle Ceremony which is what we really wanted over the Sand Ceremony but as we were outside we could not get the candles to light. We really did not want the Sand Ceremony but it would have worked better at our outside location.

Trying to light the candles.

Linda

Wow, the photo at the dessert party is beautiful!

 

[lpizzuro123]

Thanks - doing the dessert party was the best. I would not have done a Disney wedding if we could not do the dessert party.

Linda

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

Good Question!

- I would have made sure the photographer had a diffuser on his flash! and I would have taken pictures of the proofs so I could have some now..like the shot of my DH holding my bouquet..He didn't like it enough to buy the shot, but I could have had a picture of the shot

- I would have had our first dance on deck..there was no room in Palo and it never occured to me to do it while we had the musician playing our song!

- I would have had more shots taken around deck..I would have paid the extra hour now that I know!!

 

[pink_tink8i8]

Hmm...

- I would have had different BM bouquets. I didn't care for them at all. They sounded nice on paper...

- I would have skipped the cake if I could have. I didn't want it in the first place but was coming in too low for my food and beverage minimums. So much of it was wasted.

- Lastly, and this is just a personal one, I wouldn't have been so generous with my bridal party. We paid for their flights, hotel and park passes. It's not that I regret taking everyone, but I also learned that some people will demand and demand without ever saying "thank you" for what their being given.

One of our GM used our wedding for his half price honeymoon. They deliberately moved their summer wedding to be the weekend before ours for the stated reason of having half their honeymoon paid for. Gee thanks.

My best friend also discovered her sense of entitlement. When I went to book the flights her DF told me he didn't like the airline I was booking with, he wanted a different one. Then the hotel wasn't good enough. Eventually we just gave them the lump sum of money we would have spent had we booked the trip and let them do what they liked.

The real kicker it that it was over a year before my best friend said thank you for the trip, and the groomsman never did (we haven't spoken to him since, either). I gave up my dream of the carriage to have these people with us, I just wish they had appreciated it.

That is brutal. So so sorry about these people. I'm going to have the coach for my wedding. If you feel like coming down to disney when I get married you are more than welcome to sit in it and take pics.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

Wow!! I am sorry about that!

I had such a generous bridal party..they really gave and gave and really MADE our wedding such a great time!

 

[mermaidbride1108]

I wish I had...

- been more specific about the songs I wanted the DJ to play during the reception. He had asked for a few "types of songs" so he could guess our likes, but he was pretty far off. I should have just given him a long list of songs to play.

- no-one in my family is really big in to dancing, but I always figured we "had" to have dancing. If I could do it over I might try to think of something else we could have done to fill up this block - i don't know what i would have done, but I could have figured something out.

- i wish i had gotten more sleep before our wedding! Waking up at 3 am can be hard to adjust to, and the excitement/adrenaline can only last so long for the day!

- i wish i had done more for my bridal party. the scheduling conflicts made it kind of hard to have an official rehearsal party, and we had the fantasmic dessert welcome party, but i kind of felt like we "gipped" one or two of the bridesmaids/groomsmen.

- I would have planned another activity the night of the wedding. I thought i would want to be spending it with just my DH, but I ended up really wanting to rehash the day with family. Maybe we could have done the Grand 1 yacht to watch the fireworks or something, or just had everyone meet in one of the theme parks. I was glad we did the fantasmic dessert party as a welcome party, since most people had flights home right after our wedding, but I can see why it would have been nice to have a dessert party the night of. I especially would have loved to have been able to wear my dress one more time. My advice - make your wedding day last AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!!

- I would have asked my mom or sister or someone to take some more occasional video of us getting our pictures taken or other things. I had a videographer so I didn't bother to get any of the candid stuff, and our video is beautiful, but it doesn't have a lot of candid moments. I like the amateur stuff I guess. - you can never get too many photos or too much video of your wedding day!!

- the only thing I didn't like about the decorations, (and it really wasn't terribly bad, just a little off) ... was the head table at the reception. I thought the shade of the overlay was a little off, and the "scattered rose petals" looked like they really skimped on the rose petals! But it was still very beautiful - just wish these two things had looked a little nicer.

I wish I didn't:
- not a whole lot! We didn't go past our minimum's by very much, so there wasn't a whole lot to cut out. so I'll make this list instead:

I'm glad I didn't spend money on:
- I'm glad I didn't pay for the alcohol at the reception. It might seem tacky to not have, but we had the Cash Bar for anyone who really wanted to drink... my reasoning was that A.) only two or three of my guests really cared for drinking anyway, B.) it was lunch time - not a whole lot of people really drink a lot at 11 am! C.) it would have been like 1500 more to add it, and for that price I was able to get the fantasmic dessert party - I think my guests enjoyed that much more than being able to drink for free!

- speaking of drinks, we didn't pay for the last hour of drinks (the soda and water, juices, etc.) at the reception because we figured things would be dying down by then, and i think it saved me like 3 or 4 hundred dollars. It ended up working out great because, sure enough, most people left like fifteen minutes before they stopped serving drinks anyway, so it would have been a complete waste. (everyone wanted to get back to the parks or had to get to the airport, the down side to having a monday wedding).

- chair covers - even after the wedding i kept thinking i should have gotten them and wasn't sure if i did the right thing. A few years out I look back and think to myself - who cares about the chair covers? When ppl talk about my wedding they mention things about the dessert party, and having mickey and minnie at the reception, no-one talks about the chairs!!



That's all I can think of right now. Really all in all it was minor stuff. The one or two things I didn't like during my wedding I had no control over anyway.

Mary! I was just thinking about you the other day! Seriously! I had checked my PM box and I had old messages from you and I thought, How wonder how's she doing I never see her anymore. Nice to see you on the boards!

 

[figmentfan814]

1. I would have extended our brunch reception. They talked us into making it only 3 hours long and we just felt really rushed at the end. Part of that is because we decided to take individual shots with each of the families that had came to the wedding, but I still didn't like feeling rushed.

2. Not paid for corsages/roses for some of my extra family members. My MIL even had hers taken off by the time she arrived at the reception and my great aunt had her flower thrown down far away from her seat. On a side note, some people really appreciated their flowers but you should know which ones will appreciate them in advance and don't feel obligated to buy extras for people who won't appreciate them!

3. Added money in our budget for the Landau coach; it would have been so amazing at our Epcot ceremony.

4. Remembered to have the photographer take a few shots of DH getting ready in the morning before the ceremony. I have a shot taken by a friend, but its not the same.

 

[Mary626]

Hi Mary, so great to see you here. Your Italy wedding from a few years ago is what made us use Italy for our ceremony. I just loved everything about your wedding and I just want to thank you for all the things you posed on here.

Here is a photo of our ceremony location (hope you don't mind we did alot that you did).

And here is our photo on the bridge picture. I think this bridge was being worked on during your ceremony (we were actually down there while your wedding was going on and we did a Segway tour the day before your wedding and I remember thinking to myself that this is where your ceremony was going to be the next day). Anyway, I remember you did some photos on the bridge and I just loved them.

Linda

Wow your wedding looks like it turned out GORGEOUS!! I am so jealous that you got to use the pretty bridge lol! That photo of you guys is great!! That was one of the things I thought "I wish I could change" - but it was definitely out of our control! Glad to see it was "working" for you guysI would love to see more of the photos! I was keeping my eye out for your Trip Report - not sure if I missed it or if you weren't doing one - but I would love to see more photos and hear more about your wedding! If you have any links to photos I would love you to PM them to me!! I'm sorry that I missed them before, It's been a while since I've had time to converse on these boards - I've missed seeing everyone's beautiful weddings!

Mary! I was just thinking about you the other day! Seriously! I had checked my PM box and I had old messages from you and I thought, How wonder how's she doing I never see her anymore. Nice to see you on the boards!

Wow that's funny!! Thanks a lot, it's nice to see you too!! Would love to hear how the wedding planning is going, I will have to PM you!!

3. Added money in our budget for the Landau coach; it would have been so amazing at our Epcot ceremony.

I was thinking the same thing!! I didn't include it because we really didn't have the money for it, but I always thought that the would have been cool to use one of the coaches for the wedding!



Oh, I thought of a few more things I wished I had done, more to do with the honeymoon than the wedding though...
- wished we had seen the MK fireworks from Main St. We saw them from the restaurants a few times but never made it to the MK for the fireworks. I would have cut out one or two of the restaurants at the end and made more time for the fireworks!

- taken things just a little more slowly at the parks, and spent more time savoring the moments! (and I should have allowed myself to sleep in once or twice more! I'm too used to the commando-disney-trips!)

- taken a horse drawn carriage ride at POFQ or elsewhere.. had it in my itinerary but decided to cancel to make time for something else.

- this may sound funny, but I wish we had bought more souvenirs. I didn't buy a whole lot, and every souvenir from our trip I love, because whenever I see it/them, it reminds me of our wedding/honeymoon!

- Before the wedding - I wish we had taken some "engagement photos" - I saw someone on here post a thread with their Disneyland engagement photos, and I was so like "why didn't i think of that!!"

 

[BelleBride2011]

- Before the wedding - I wish we had taken some "engagement photos" - I saw someone on here post a thread with their Disneyland engagement photos, and I was so like "why didn't i think of that!!"

OOO that was me!!!! haha... sry just had to say that.... for a lurker like me it's pretty exciting to get mentioned elsewhere on the boards... haha

 

[Mary626]

OOO that was me!!!! haha... sry just had to say that.... for a lurker like me it's pretty exciting to get mentioned elsewhere on the boards... haha

It was a great idea - your photos were awesome!! Keep posting your ideas on here so I can continue to be jealous lol!

 

[jessesgirl-080708]

1. hmmm. I would have moved our DP to the night before the wedding. We had ours right after the reception, and I was soo stuffed I didn't eat anything!!! Plus, we were literally counting down the fireworks we were just soo tired. I wouldn't give it up, but I would have enjoyed the fireworks and food more!!!

2. I would also have bought more souveniers. That does seem odd, but the items we purchased on our honeymoon are so special. We bought our christmas tree topper and I will always think of my honeymoon every year at Christmas time when I take it out.

3. I would NOT have stressed so much. Getting married is such an important time in your life, and one that you will ALWAYS want to go back to. Soak up every single second, even if your hair dresser does hairspray your bangs 1037345 times. Just think of that incredible man who loves you It will be over so fast, enjoy everything!!

 

[Ember]

That is brutal. So so sorry about these people. I'm going to have the coach for my wedding. If you feel like coming down to disney when I get married you are more than welcome to sit in it and take pics.

Seriously, that is the sweetest thing ever. You brought tears to my eyes. Then I thought of showing up sometime after your wedding while you were having pictures and just sitting in the carriage for a few minutes and started to laugh. People might think I was trying to steal it!

 

[lpizzuro123]

Wow your wedding looks like it turned out GORGEOUS!! I am so jealous that you got to use the pretty bridge lol! That photo of you guys is great!! That was one of the things I thought "I wish I could change" - but it was definitely out of our control! Glad to see it was "working" for you guysI would love to see more of the photos! I was keeping my eye out for your Trip Report - not sure if I missed it or if you weren't doing one - but I would love to see more photos and hear more about your wedding! If you have any links to photos I would love you to PM them to me!! I'm sorry that I missed them before, It's been a while since I've had time to converse on these boards - I've missed seeing everyone's beautiful weddings!

Mary, I nver did a trip report. I am a bad Disney Bride. With all the planning and then the wedding I never actually wrote everything down. I have tons of pictures on Misty's website. Here it is for anyone that is interested.

http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=46&user_id=19783&event=243503

The password is Cramer if you need it. There are thousands of photos so if you view them in slideshow - put it on fast .

Linda

 

[figmentfan814]

Mary, I nver did a trip report. I am a bad Disney Bride. With all the planning and then the wedding I never actually wrote everything down. I have tons of pictures on Misty's website. Here it is for anyone that is interested.

http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=46&user_id=19783&event=243503

The password is Cramer if you need it. There are thousands of photos so if you view them in slideshow - put it on fast .

Linda

Linda, your pictures are so beautiful! I know that I've seen some of them before, but I'm looking forward to spending time looking through even more of them

 

[lpizzuro123]

Linda, your pictures are so beautiful! I know that I've seen some of them before, but I'm looking forward to spending time looking through even more of them

Thanks Vanessa - your photos are wonderful also. Our rain location for our ceremony was AA due to your photos. I would love it if you would check out our photos but let me warn you - there are alot of them.

Linda

 

[sunsh1ne]

i wish i would have:
-been more specific with my ohotographer about photos of me and dh
-had a magick kingdom photo shoot
-extended the reception by 1 hr
-asked for the centerpieces to be bigger
I am glad i:
-had a welcome dinner
-had a photobooth


i think that is it!!

 

[pink_tink8i8]

Seriously, that is the sweetest thing ever. You brought tears to my eyes. Then I thought of showing up sometime after your wedding while you were having pictures and just sitting in the carriage for a few minutes and started to laugh. People might think I was trying to steal it!

you Cinderella coach hijacker you

 

[Mary626]

Mary, I nver did a trip report. I am a bad Disney Bride. With all the planning and then the wedding I never actually wrote everything down. I have tons of pictures on Misty's website. Here it is for anyone that is interested.

http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=46&user_id=19783&event=243503

The password is Cramer if you need it. There are thousands of photos so if you view them in slideshow - put it on fast .

Linda

I've been going through your photos - they are wonderful!! I'm so happy for you that everything turned out so beautifully - excellent choice of colors too - just beautiful! You looked stunning!! I love all the details I've seen so far at your reception, you must tell me the story behind the guitars and the hats - it looks like you guys are having a lot of fun!! Oh, and the rose petal toss on the staircase - gorgeous!! Great idea, I wish I had done that!! Actually I'm saving a few of your pics to my comp so I can show my DH when he gets home, in a "we should have done this!" kind of way lol! I'm still looking through all of your photos, I will have to PM you when I finish them - There are so many gorgeous photos in here!! Was your photographer working in a team or was it one person snapping away - I am jealous at how many photos they took!! In fact, i'll add that to my list... Congratulations again!!


A few more for the list...

I wish I had -

-more than one photographer at my wedding!! I love the shots I got, but it really seems like a pair of photographers are able to capture so much more!

- given my guests more time to "ready" their rose petals for the toss, or explained it to them ahead of time, - only a few people seemed to get the idea in time to throw them on our way up the aisle!

 

[Mary626]

1. hmmm. I would have moved our DP to the night before the wedding. We had ours right after the reception, and I was soo stuffed I didn't eat anything!!! Plus, we were literally counting down the fireworks we were just soo tired. I wouldn't give it up, but I would have enjoyed the fireworks and food more!!!

2. I would also have bought more souveniers. That does seem odd, but the items we purchased on our honeymoon are so special. We bought our christmas tree topper and I will always think of my honeymoon every year at Christmas time when I take it out.

3. I would NOT have stressed so much. Getting married is such an important time in your life, and one that you will ALWAYS want to go back to. Soak up every single second, even if your hair dresser does hairspray your bangs 1037345 times. Just think of that incredible man who loves you It will be over so fast, enjoy everything!!

1,037,345 times? Wow that's a lot of hairspray! I'm surprised to see someone wish they had the Dessert Party before the wedding - I was always unsure if we did the right thing having ours before the wedding, since I didn't get to be in my wedding dress for the photos! I thought maybe we were strange doing it before the wedding! Everytime I see someone's DP photos with their dress on I feel a twinge of regret. Your photos in your signature are beautiful by the way!!

 

[lpizzuro123]

I've been going through your photos - they are wonderful!! I'm so happy for you that everything turned out so beautifully - excellent choice of colors too - just beautiful! You looked stunning!! I love all the details I've seen so far at your reception, you must tell me the story behind the guitars and the hats - it looks like you guys are having a lot of fun!! Oh, and the rose petal toss on the staircase - gorgeous!! Great idea, I wish I had done that!! Actually I'm saving a few of your pics to my comp so I can show my DH when he gets home, in a "we should have done this!" kind of way lol! I'm still looking through all of your photos, I will have to PM you when I finish them - There are so many gorgeous photos in here!! Was your photographer working in a team or was it one person snapping away - I am jealous at how many photos they took!! In fact, i'll add that to my list... Congratulations again!!


A few more for the list...

I wish I had -

-more than one photographer at my wedding!! I love the shots I got, but it really seems like a pair of photographers are able to capture so much more!

- given my guests more time to "ready" their rose petals for the toss, or explained it to them ahead of time, - only a few people seemed to get the idea in time to throw them on our way up the aisle!

Thank you for your comments. I really appreciate it. Yes, we had two photographers. We had Misty Miotto and she works with her husband and he is great. They work well together but it was very important that she was able to take photos of me and my girls and her husband went to Epcot to get photos of the guys in their prewedding photos.

As far as the rose petal toss - that was done after the ceremony - but we did it again as not many people threw the petals at the same time.

I'm in the middle of preparing dinner right now but I will sign on again and talk more soon.

Linda