Written by Callie

All Photos (except Pinterest screen shots) by: Jess Morales Photography

So I got married and it was perfect! Except for the things that weren't. Here is a list of the things that went wrong that could have been avoided if I had just done things differently. So take heed friends, and don't make the same mistakes I did! 

1. Assign People to do Things

While I did this in part, I did not provide all the information people needed to complete the assigned tasks. Jason and I got married on May 5th and as a nod to Cinco de Mayo had a few fun things added to the wedding (like a pinata!). One of these things was we wanted queso as an appetizer during cocktail hour. Because queso is delicious. This was something that had to be picked up the day of the wedding and therefore I could not do it. Jason's whole family had come into town for the entire weekend to help out so we left this task to his sisters. They knew they were supposed to pick it up and the time, and the name of the restaurant was mentioned at least once. But they aren't from this town and didn't know where to go. So instead of coming to find me (or Kenzie, or Brenna, or my mom) to ask where they needed to pick this up from, they just didn't pick it up. So when people were asking me during cocktail hour where the queso was I was a bit upset. But we had other apps so I wasn't too worried about it. And the restaurant gave us a gift certificate for the queso since we had prepaid for it so that was very nice of them! 

I would suggest giving a list, with all pertinent information needed to accomplish the tasks in that list, to people who will be helping you on wedding day. 

2. Do a First Look! But don't choreograph it

I very much wanted to do a first look. Jason did not. I eventually convinced him that we needed to do one and I was so excited! What I did not realize when I told my photographer that I wanted to do this was that she was going to choreograph every move and direct us on what to do. While the photos turned out nice because of this direction it was NOTHING like what I wanted. Looking back, I wish I had told everyone to stay away from my first look. I wanted it to be only me and Jason, and if a photographer was hiding in a bush and sneaking a few photos then cool, but the experience turned out to be very stale and planned, unlike the true "we're about to get married, are you ready??" one-on-one time I wanted it to be. 

So make sure that your vendors know what you do and do not want done at your wedding. Becuase in the moment, it's hard to say, "no, I don't want to do it this way" which is why I now have photos of me with my finger over my mouth behind Jason and us back to back holding hands. 

3. Check the Cake

Working at a wedding venue, I've had my fair share of cakes. And there were two bakeries that I'd worked with before that make amazing cakes. I finally made a decision to go with one over the other. Jason and I met with the owner at her shop and tasted flavors and explained how we wanted it decorated. Even sent her photos of an example and she said she would be able to recreate the look. On wedding day the cake had to be stored in the main house with the AC until it was time to cut so I never saw the cake. When it finally arrived to it's throne in the reception hall I was extremely disappointed. It was nothing like the photos we had shown her. We wanted simple white buttercream in a "blobbed" fashion (photo below). What we got was a plain frosted yellow-hued cake. Like way too plain. And I wanted an arrow through the cake, my mom spent an extraordinary amount of time making the perfect arrow. Whoever placed the arrow did not do it like from the photo I had shown and overall the cake was a huge let down. Especially since we had created such a beautiful location for it. It still tasted great though so I chose to let that be the important thing!

The take away here is to go see your cake before the baker leaves! If I had, I could have re-explained how I wanted the frosting to look (it could have been an easy fix, I probably could have fixed it myself if I had known about it) and also reiterated how I wanted the decorations on it to be! 

And there you have it! Just a few of the things that went wrong on my wedding day. There were other mishaps too, but these were the things I felt could have been fixed/avoided so I wanted to share so you don't make the same mistakes! 

But overall, I loved my wedding day! Everything that happened was small inconveniences in the grand scheme of things. Yes, it sucks when you put all this time and effort into planning your big day and then things don't go according to plan. But you have to remember that the whole reason you're there is to marry your best friend! And if you do that then the day was a success!