Say I Do-Over: If I Could Go Back To My Big Day (ft. The Plunge Project)

We're gathering helpful ideas, tips and lessons from the most respected wedding bloggers in the country. We hope to compile enough advice to actually make an e-book titled, 'Say I Do-Over: If I Could Go Back To My Big Day.'

If this happens, we'll distribute it for free so that future brides-to-be everywhere will avoid learning some lessons the hard way. :)

We asked every blogger the same question:

If you could start your wedding planning process over, what three things would you do differently?

So of course, we reached out to the wonderful Nicole of The Plunge Project, whom we interviewed here before about love and marriage. Here's what she had to say this time:

Planning my wedding has been an absolute whirlwind, and I've learned a lot of lessons along the way. Of course, there are things I think I did a good job with, but there are also a few things I wish I had done differently. If I could re-do my big day, here are three things I would do differently:

1. Enjoy the Engagement More

I'm a planner. When I have something to plan, I charge full-force into planning it, so my wedding was no exception. About 3 days into our engagement, we'd already picked a date and about a week in, I'd already scheduled the first round of vendor appointments. While my full-force planning meant I got a lot out of the way quickly, it also meant that I started to lose sight of something really important — actually enjoying my new fiancé and our engagement period! If I could do it all over again, I think I would take the first few months to just look at my shiny new ring and enjoy being engaged to the love of my life instead of choosing a date and diving right into planning. Michael agrees.

2. Save More Money

This kind of goes hand-in-hand with No. 1, but I wish Michael and I had chosen to have a longer engagement so that we could start a wedding and honeymoon fund to save additional money. Although my parents donated a large portion of our budget, we still had to dip into our own money to cover a lot of the extras (which add up fast), and thus, we're really broke now. If I could do it all over again, I'd take the first 6 or so months of engagement to just save as much as we could for the wedding and for a more luxurious honeymoon.

3. Don't Rely on People I Didn't Pay/Sign a Contract With

Michael and I tried to cut costs any way we could, and I don't regret that at all. However, one of our ways to cut back was to ask a friend (who DJs at local clubs around Knoxville) to DJ our ceremony and reception. Then 10 days before the wedding, he canceled on us! Of course, a DJ is a pretty important part of a wedding, especially when you need someone to DJ the actual ceremony as well, so we were a little frantic for a few days while we sought out another that would fit into our budget (which was pretty much nothing). If I could do it all over, I'd probably just pay for a professional DJ right off the bat instead of leaving it to chance and being forced to scramble in the final hour.

Do you want to contribute? Participating is simple! It's just the one question and you can write as much or as little as you want. But the more you share, the more helpful it will be! Email your submissions to Matthew at miles@ninashoes.com or leave your tips in the comments below.

Comments

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