Things I loved and didn't love about my wedding and advice for future brides

Things I loved

• Hair and make-up professionally done- I never really learned how to apply my make-up the right way. I am glad that I left it into the hands of a professional so I would feel more confident about how I looked in pictures.
• Flowers- I thought the florist that I hired did such a lovely job.
• The groom- I picked the right one for that day and everyday thereafter. :)
• The reception site- I loved that I got to have an outdoor reception with the option of being able to move indoors in case of bad weather.
• Bridesmaid's dresses: it turned out that all of my bridesmaids knew how to sew. My matron of honor opted to make a dress while my other two bridesmaids decided to make a skirt and wear a coordinated top. I thought they looked beautiful. I am glad they had the option to wear something that they felt confident in. 
• The dresses and accessories- I was able to wear my mother's wedding dress for the ceremony (which my grandmother made). For the ceremony, I wore my pearls which I had received for my 16th birthday, when I started dating and my adventure to find Nate began. On my bouquet I carried my other grandmother's pin. It was sweet to have something that belonged to her with me. My other dress, I also loved. It was expensive, but it was something that I had search for 15 years for. I also loved that I could say that I paid for it myself.
• Vendors- the florist delivered the flowers to the reception site and to the temple, the reception site set up the tables and chairs were set up, the caterer cooked and prepared to serve the food, and all my family had to set up were the details (at least to my knowledge).  I decided to invest money so that my family would be able to enjoy the day with me.
• The wedding night suite- Nate and I splurged and spent our wedding night at a fancy hotel (the rest of our honeymoon was spent at a friend's timeshare). It really was the perfect ending to that wonderful day.

Things I didn't love and would change

• Getting ready alone- I  had my nails done before I went down to Utah. It felt weird that I didn't have a friend, sister, or a mother with me at the salon. I invited my bridal party to come and get ready with me on my wedding day but because they were staying with relatives out of town, they felt it was too early for them to get up to Logan early (which is totally understandable). It just felt lonely and not as exciting.
•  My photos- I need to preface this. Part of this is my fault. I didn't send the list of photos that I wanted to the photographer until late the day before. I don't know if he got it or not, but there were shots that I wanted that were missing. For example, I asked for details of my dress. My favorite part of my dress was the detail on my train. There is not a single photo out of the 374 pictures taken at my wedding that shows that. However, I do have to say I was impressed with the color, lighting, and style of our wedding photographer and there are quite a few pictures that I really like.
• Get a real bustle- my dress came with a bustle built in, but the train was still long that it could still be easily trampled on. I ended carrying my train by putting my hand through the loop that is supposed to hook the train to the hanger when you put it in a garment bag. 
• Food- it was good, but not amazing. I wish I had the opportunity to sample the food before my wedding day.

Tips for future brides

•  Utilize the talents of friends and family- but don't abuse.
• Be specific in the list you give the photographer and get it to him/her early- I saw a bunch of pictures of pinterest that I wanted get something similar to. I though I was going to offend the photographer by asking him to copy someone else's work (since technically photographers are artists). Looking back on it, you're paying the photographer something in the 4 figure range, get the photos you want!! Show them examples and be specific. I think what happened was that the photographer saw my list and he thought he was getting what I asked for. Going back to the example the details of my dress. Looking back on it, the photographer got details of my dress, it was in a more artistic way and not all the details of the dress. Remember that they are photographers not mind readers.
• Take bridals with your groom- I tried to do that because there was a photographer whose work I loved, but could afford to have him cover my wedding. I tried to have him do my bridals but because of going to a conference for work (which happened to be on a cruise) and Hawaii that summer I was not on my boss' or my co-workers' best sides for missing so much work. So I couldn't go down to Utah on a day that worked for the photographer. In our wedding photos, Nate has a great smile for the group photos, but from the first individual photo, you can tell he's tired of smiling (we both kind of did. The pictures from our ring ceremony are well... we don't look ecstatic). I am still slightly debating whether or not to take "bridals" in the spring or one year anniversary.
• Celebrate with your bridal party before the wedding- My matron of honor tried to organize a get together the day before my wedding. With the bridal party spread out over a hundred miles the day before my wedding (and I, the bride, being on the outskirts of it) did not want to have to be driving so much right before my wedding when so many little details needed to be done. What was sad was that Kathy came out of California, Melissa from New York, and Katie drove over 2 hours to be there, I felt like I had hardly anytime to spend with my girls. 
• Go with the flow- our  guest started leaving before the fathers could give speeches and we could give our thank you speech. We'll never know what embarrassing stories our fathers would have shared. We didn't want to keep people so, we just said our good-byes and tried to fit in everything else (cutting cake, bouquet toss, and our big exit).
• You're wedding isn't going to be "perfect", but you will still love it and be perfect to you- I had been the girl who started looking at wedding dresses when she was 11. I had even gone and tried on wedding dresses long I got engaged, even long before I met Nate. I have hundred of pins on pinerest that are dedicated to all things wedding. I didn't have time to do all the little things I had seen and wanted to do. It's okay. I still loved my wedding and it was a wonderful day.

Even though there were things that I would change if I could do it over again, things that weren't done the way I had seen in my head or captured the way that I wanted it to, I still loved my wedding day. I was surrounded by the people I love and who helped me made me the woman I was that day.