Links to your "glad I did, wish I'd done"'s

roxysmum123

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
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1,211
Hi lovelies

Just wondering if anyone would mind posting links to where in their PJ/TJ they have their "Glad I did, Wish I had done" lists... as well as vender reviews for that matter. I find these the most helpful but sometimes are hard to find. There should be a subforum for these, IMHO.

Thanks everyone!
 

Here mine I hope they are helpful

Vendor Reviews: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2321157&page=5 (Post#74)

I guess I didn't do a Glad I did/Wish I did so here goes:

Written down more group shot pictures to get. Don't get me wrong I had a TON of great pictures and the DPS was awesome, but there were some group shots I thought of later that I should have asked for.

Father Daughter Dance - the escape packet doesn't have it listed, and up until about two weeks before the wedding we weren't sure if DH's mom was going to be about to make it. This was really the one regret I have, I didn't get to dance with my dad in my wedding dress.

Taken time to soak up the day - I know everyone says this but it is so true, it all went by in a blink. While getting ready I thought man is it ever going to happen, but then once I got in the limo to head towards Sea Breeze Point the rest is a blur!

Had Dad's Tux sent to and picked up from their hotel - At first I thought this was good for me to get his tux since he wasn't arriving until the day before the wedding, but it made it a little inconvient for me to have to meet up with dad and mom to get dad's tux after dinner so I could get it to the front desk at our resort.

Had everyone stay at the same hotel - I didn't think we would want to spend a lot of time with our family and friends since this was not only our wedding, but also our honeymoon and their vacations, but it turned out we did want to spend a lot of time together. For those of you that have tried resort hopping isn't the easiest thing and definitely not quick.

Had DF try on his shoes, or had him take an extra pair with him to change into. He was miserable after dinner, good thing we didn’t have to go anywhere else. Also took different shoes for myself

Taken more pictures at dinner, by this point we were kind of pictured out, but I wish we would have a few more candid's.

Taken some pictures at our resort when we got back, again we were tired and ready to get out of our wedding clothes and relax.

Gone to EPCOT that evening for EMH, even though we were so tired I am not 100% sure how much we would have enjoyed it

Didn’t underestimate how long it would take to get ready. I wish I would have put my dress on sooner and pressured my girls and mom to get dressed sooner. We were all afraid to sit around while all ready, so instead we went the other way and ended up running around a bit trying to all get dressed at the same time as the limo was on its way back from SBP from dropping the guys off.

Gone a little lighter on my makeup, I know everyone says make it DARK for pictures. So I let it stay REALLY dark, my thoughts were I don’t want to make it to light, it was pretty hot so I might sweat some of it off, etc… but wish I would have toned it down a bit. It wasn’t bad and I did like it just wish it was a little lighter since we had an afternoon wedding outside not an evening wedding. I feel I had evening makeup if that makes any sense.


Glad I did:

Had a Disney Escape wedding - I am not one to go over board and be bridezilla ish so the fact that having an escape wedding was like ordering off a menu worked so great for me. Very low stress and it allowed me to enjoy the process so much more. I have been a part of many friends and family weddings and the brides end up stressing out so much, I was completely laid back no stress for me.

Had Mickey and Minnie - They were so much fun and everyone even all the adults loved having them spend time with us.

I am glad I didn't go overboard with welcome bags and favors, we gave out autographed Mickey and Minnie pictures and Mickey shaped crisped rice treats and they were both a huge hit.

Over all this experience was the best I have had, the staff was so kind and treated us like royalty it was so amazing. Just last night my Husband and I were discussing how they didn't seem fake and how stress free our whole wedding experience was for the both of us.
 
I didn't do one either, although I did do some reviews in my pj...but, here goes!


Glad I didn't:

- Do welcome bags. I truly admire the work that people put into them, but we had so much going on and our guests were hardly EVER in their rooms, plus so many of them went shopping and were shoving things in every nook and cranny that I know they would have been left behind.

- Do programs. Kind of ditto to the welcome bags. Nobody missed them, and they would have gotten chucked between the ceremony, dinner, and dessert party anyway.

- Hire transportation for between the ceremony and dinner at Chef Mickey's. I had thought about it, it wouldn't be that expensive, Karen even offered for the limo to take them over while we were getting pictures. Our guests REALLY loved the down time, the walk through the boardwalk, and exclaimed over the boat ride to DHS as if I chartered it just for them. I didn't hear any praise over the bus to the Contemporary ;), but nobody complained.

- Have bouts for the guys/corsages for the family/etc. We didn't miss them.



Wish I'd done:

- I wish I had actually thought about DH's bout relative to his size. I hated his boutonniere...it was way to big for a guy who's slender. I LOVED my bouquet, just wish I had gotten something different for him. I had him take it off after the ceremony, it was wilting like crazy and also drove me nuts.

- This is weird, but I really wish we had "forced" our guests to go to Epcot before the dessert party! A bunch of them hadn't been before and I feel like they didn't truly "get" how amazing our spot in the UK was - don't get me wrong, they were blown away, but I don't think they knew how spoiled they were.

- I wish I had brought take away containers for the dessert party! I meant to, I really did, but it got knocked off my list somewhere in the shuffle. I was honestly regretting it before we got out of Epcot...so much food wasted :headache:


Glad I did:

Everything else!
I'm thrilled about our wedding 4 months later. Even my freak out about the vans on the wedding day seems to fade away with each day ;). I'm so happy we requested and got Regina as our photographer. I'm thrilled we added dessert party photography, and the MK shoot (and rarely think of the $$$$$ spent....).

I'm so happy we kept to our guns and limited our guest list to 18. We got the intimate experience that we wanted.

Chef Mickey's! I'm still thrilled with that. I'm happy we didn't spend money on a private dinner. And that we got pictures with the characters.

Oh, and this isn't the wedding DAY, but I'm happy I made reservations each day for people to eat with us. I thought it might be too much together time, but it allowed us all to break apart for the day without feeling guilty or forced to spend the day with someone.
 
I have a list somewhere, but 4 years later here's my list:

I am glad that I:

- Hired an outside photographer. I love my wedding photos.
- Had a dessert party.
- Had a small wedding, without people there that I didn't really love or care about.
- Had a string quartette, it made everything very elegant.
- Didn't spend a fortune on flowers
- Went ahead and had a wedding cake (I was seriously considering not doing it).
- Did the invites on a small budget (mom was right, people just throw them away!).
- Found a minister who let us write our own ceremony from start to finish, it made everything more meaningful.

I'm glad I didn't:

- Bother with welcome bags or programs
- Have anyone walk me down the isle

I wish I had:

- Not done a MK photo shoot. It turned out to be one of the most heart breaking experiences of my life.
- Paid for longer time for transportation. It just seemed like such a waste to pay for hours that the bus just sat there doing nothing... But it would have been helpful to my guests
- Splurged on the carriage. I couldn't afford it at all, and it works out to something like $86/minute, which I just couldn't justify... But I still wish I could have done it.
 
I don't have a TR, etc but the Glad I did/Wish I didn't lists helped me so much when I was planning I thought I would write mine down as well.

Glad I did:
- Booked concierge using Annual Pass discount at AKL. They treated us like royalty, amazing staff, wonderful resort.

- Rented a full-sized SUV and drove by the rental place to make sure all our stuff fit.

- Made as much time as possible to hang out with family and friends.

- Finished all the paper goods, place cards, etc ahead of time: We didn't spend one minute of our vacation writing down names, folding or ripping cards apart, I think I'd have gone bonkers if we had done so.

- Put as much effort on details: People did appreciate them, kept them and even now, months and months after I receive calls about how to make things!

- Trusted my DFTW team: They were amazing!

- Did the MK and AK shoot and didn't panic when the times were being changed for early 2011. Our shoots were amazing and a memory we will always cherish.

- Stopped worrying about the weather: The wedding day turned out sorta rainy on and off and overcast. I could have been sad, but the light was just perfect for photos outside and the rain wasn't too awful most of the time it was dry or just spitting a bit so we have outside and inside pics.

-Not decorated the WP too much, we only had the flower arrangement at the altar, the real decor effort went to the reception. The WP looked beautiful and in the end everybody enjoyed the decor at the reception for waaay longer.

-Had the string quartet. Wow! They were incredible, they played every song on our list and we had Peter Gabriel and the Beatles songs, plus they took requests at the cocktail hour and just made everybody's day.

- Hired the Rolls. It was rainy, and it drives in the rain, plus it is beautiful and classic. We also requested our limo to be black, I just have an issue with white limos, don't know why I know, I am odd, but I really liked the darker more classic color.

- Had our photogs for the whole day: We sacrificed in-park locations for this, but we really like our photogs and we trust them blindly with the final product. We also insisted on treating them as guests and seated them with people we knew they would love.

- Had welcome bags and bought stuff for them over time: I found cool things on sales and didn't take a big hit on finances all at once. All our guests called/texted as they got them to say they loved them and that they were very helpful.

- Went with NO wedding party : No drama, no fuss and our rehearsal was fun, relaxed and small.

- Had rehearsal dinner at Boma: It was super easy to book, the food was delish and we got to show everybody the animals and the lodge.

- Had tea at the GF: All my ladies are still talking about it and how much fun it was.

- Had Mickey and Minnie. I didn't think they would make much of a splash with our crowd... but I was so wrong. Everybody love them and had such a great time with them, we were both very glad we were able to keep them.

Wish I didn't:

- Worry about some of DH's family being so picky about food so much: They are extremely picky and like chicken fingers and fries more than a gourmet meal, when we picked the menu we knew they wouldn't be too happy, but we couldn't punish everybody else just for their sake, so we asked our planners to have extra kid's meals at hand, that really helped and the staff at the GF convention kitchens were amazing and made sure they were happy.

- Have our comp night at the end of our stay, but once everything was settling down we just couldn't have it moved to the start of the trip.

Wish I did:
I think I don't have any wish I did's
 




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