Looking Back, continued...

This installment of my 'Looking Back' series* focuses on one of the details about our big day that I am very grateful for: we went a little overboard.

As many of you know, Mr Corn and I were married at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, RI. After the ceremony, we hosted an authentic New England clam bake. Considering how close we were to the water, and the food we were serving, it only made sense that every detail at our wedding was based on our New England Coastal theme.

Everything, that is, except for these guys:

When our site coordinator at the Fort mentioned that we could hire Revolutionary War reenactors, Mr Corn and I both knew they would be perfect for our event. We didn't care that they had nothing to do with being 'New England Coastal', we figured they would be fun. Then we found out we could have an authentic Revere Cannon lit as well! We went back and forth on the cannon for quite a while, but in the end we decided that hiring the reenactors was the start of going overboard, so we might as well go completely!

And, you know what?

IT WAS GREAT!! Our guests LOVED it!!

The soldiers and the cannon added elements to the day that truly made our wedding unique and fun. The best part was that even though we only officially hired four reenactors, about 12 showed up. My guess is that the Civil War reenactors and the Revolutionary War reenactors are actually the same people. Since there was a full Civil War reenactment taking place inside the fort the weekend we were married, we figured they were all excited about an opportunity to wear their other outfits and just showed up!

One of the reenactors handed out our programs and acted as an usher:

I was escorted from the fort to my dad by a team of four reenactors, while four others stood along the side with their swords raised in salute:

When we got to my dad, they 'presented' me to him...very official:

As Mr Corn and I turned to face our families, we were announced as husband and wife and then the cannon went off! It was LOUD but such great fun. Then the reenactors saluted us as we recessed:

A shot of the Revere Cannon:

A group shot before the reenactors headed home (and by 'home' I mean 'back-into-the-fort-to-change-back-into-their-civil-war-outfits'):

Do any of you have anything 'overboard' planned for your wedding?

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*Previously in this series...

I'm so glad I did this:
renting a full length mirror
setting my DIY deadline for a week out from the wedding
making arrangements for my disabled father so he could participate
having an 'open-door policy' at the site where I got ready


I wish I could fix this:
being too proud to start a few minutes late
not testing all of the directions before sending them out
forgetting to pause before rushing down the aisle
handling the cake cutting logistics

Looking Back, continued...

This installment of my 'Looking Back' series* focuses on one of the details about our big day that I wish I had planned for a bit better: cake cutting logistics.

As you can see in the photos above, Mr Corn and I go from 'Hey, let's cut the cake' to 'hmmmm, how about this side' to 'fine, I'll just jam the knife in' to 'for crying out loud, how hard can this be?!'

The issue was that there was a rigid insert in between the layers of the cake that we kept hitting when trying to actually cut the cake. In hindsight, I just wish I had realized this so that I would have known to try to cut around it rather than fiddle around and eventually just jam the knife into our pretty cake.

The second cake issue we had was that there wasn't a fork and a plate on the table for us to use had we wanted to. And believe me, I am of the 'don't lick my fingers, you don't know where they've been' school of thinking, so I really would have liked to have had a fork and a plate.

Granted, the caterer should be on top of that, but (again) in hindsight, had I ever thought of it prior to the wedding, I would have made sure to request it and then it really wouldn't have been an issue.

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*Previously in this series...

I'm so glad I did this:
renting a full length mirror
setting my DIY deadline for a week out from the wedding
making arrangements for my disabled father so he could participate
having an 'open-door policy' at the site where I got ready


I wish I could fix this:
being too proud to start a few minutes late
not testing all of the directions before sending them out
forgetting to pause before rushing down the aisle

Looking Back, continued...

This installment of my 'Looking Back' series* focuses on one of the details about my big day that I am really glad I did: Instead of sequestering myself away while getting ready, I had lots of friends stop by.

Some people hole themselves away in a compound to get ready the day of their wedding. On the contrary, I opened the doors of the condo where I was getting ready and said 'the more the merrier'.

Of the five lovely ladies pictured above, not one of them was in our wedding party. But they are all dear friends of mine and are one of the most fun groups of people I know. They all came over to the condo where I was getting ready for the wedding and brought lunch and laughter along with them. The condo was teaming with people and overflowing with joy and it became one of the moments that made my wedding day so incredibly special.

This, of course, isn't a great idea for everyone. If you are a ball of nerves on your wedding day, it might not be the best idea to surround yourself with more chaos. But if you are calm and cool on your wedding day, than I truly suggest tossing aside the old-fashioned tradition of the bride getting ready in seclusion and surround yourself with as many friends and as much love as you possibly imagine.

-----
*Previously in this series...

I'm so glad I did this:
renting a full length mirror
setting my DIY deadline for a week out from the wedding
making arrangements for my disabled father so he could participate


I wish I could fix this:
being too proud to start a few minutes late
not testing all of the directions before sending them out
forgetting to pause before rushing down the aisle

Looking Back, continued...

This installment of my 'Looking Back' series* focuses on one of the details about my big day that I wish I had done differently: I should have taken a moment to focus.

So this one is a small thing, but I find it so meaningful that I have made it my goal to share it with every bride I ever encounter...

When you think about it; your wedding day is just. one. day. The hours and the minutes of your wedding day are divided up the same as any other day of your life. The ceremony, for most people, is 30 - 60 minutes of one day of your whole life. And the time it takes to walk down the aisle is mere seconds.

And you don't ever get to do it again.

Cherish. that. moment.

Stop at the top of the aisle, and count in your head for 5 seconds.

1 Hippopotamus
2 Hippopotamus
3 Hippopotamus
4 Hippopotamus
5 Hippopotamus

While you are standing there, look at the people who are gathered there to support you. Register their faces in your mind. Because unless you have two photographers, no one will will be able to capture that moment except you and your escort.

I would also add to this, to ask whoever is with you in those moments before you walk, to remind you to take your 5 seconds. If possible, maybe even have them shake you up a bit so you have a fighting chance of being able to focus on that moment.

You will not be sorry you did.

-----
*Previously in this series...

I'm so glad I did this:
renting a full length mirror
setting my DIY deadline for a week out from the wedding
making arrangements for my disabled father so he could participate


I wish I could fix this:
being too proud to start a few minutes late
not testing all of the directions before sending them out

Looking Back, continued...

This installment of my 'Looking Back' series* focuses on one of the details about my big day that I am very, very grateful for:

I was able to work out a way for my dad to participate.

My father is a wonderful, amazing man. I am so incredibly fortunate to be loved by someone with such a big heart. As ridiculously sentimental as this sounds, two of the things I was most looking forward to the day of our wedding were 1) walking down the aisle with my dad and 2) dancing with him at the reception.

As many of you know, my father is handicapped; he walks with walker and can handle a cane, but only for short bouts and definitely only if the ground is flat. The walk from the fort (where I was hiding out) to the top of the aisle was 105 yards over a field. There was no way my dad could walk all of that.

So we arranged for me to be escorted to the top of the aisle where my dad met me and we walked the rest of the way together.

Dad was so excited that he was 'in place' long before the guests even sat down. He also apparently was in his tux and 'ready to go' at 11:00am. PS - more on those Revolutionary War Reenacters later...

For our first dance, he requested "Butterfly Kisses", which is not only the sappiest song on the planet, but is also the l-o-n-g-e-s-t, which wasn't going to bode well for my poor dad and his diabetic feet. So I worked with the band to cut the song, but keep in the important parts. And during the dance, when my dad got tired, he just sat on his walker and we continued dancing.

There wasn't a dry eye in the tent.




Both my father and I would have been crushed if he hadn't been able to participate in the wedding the way he had imagined he would since I was a little girl. Thankfully, with some forethought, we were able to work around his disability and have the magical evening we both deserved.

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*Previously in this series...

I'm so glad I did this:
renting a full length mirror
setting my DIY deadline for a week out from the wedding


I wish I could fix this:
being too proud to start a few minutes late
not testing all of the directions before sending them out

Looking Back, continued...

This installment of my 'Looking Back' series* focuses on one of the details about my big day that I wish I had done differently:

I wish I had had someone test out our directions to the venue prior to sending out our map.

I checked, double checked and triple checked the directions on our map and was completely satisfied with them when I put them in the invitations to our guests. Sadly, although the directions themselves were (pardon-me-while-I-pat-myself-on-the-back) perfect, the instructions on where to park were not included.

Whoops.

This wouldn't have been such an issue if the peninsula where Fort Adams is wasn't also the home to the Eisenhower House, another wedding venue.

So, as it was, some of my guests ended up at someone else's wedding. Thankfully, they realized their mistake once they figured out that the bride coming down the aisle wasn't me, and they were able to get to our ceremony in time to at least see most of the wedding (hence the previous posting about my wishing I had waited just a few minutes for all of my guests to arrive instead of rushing down the aisle as the clock struck 5:00pm).

It also wouldn't have been such an issue if the normal-every-day parking area for the fort wasn't a 7 minute walk from where our ceremony was.

Nor would this have been such an issue if I had gone with my gut instinct and made a slew of "Zucker-Bradford Wedding" signs.

But most importantly, none of this would have been an issue, if I had just had someone try out the directions. Because no matter how 'perfect' your instructions are...your directions are only as strong as your weakest, uh, direction.
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*Previously in this series...

I'm so glad I did this:
renting a full length mirror
setting my DIY deadline for a week out from the wedding


I wish I could fix this:
being too proud to start a few minutes late

Looking back, continued...

This installment of my 'Looking Back' series * focuses on one of the details about my big day that I am incredibly thankful for:

I am so very, very happy that I planned to have all of my planning DONE the weekend before our wedding.

If you recall, I had quite a lot of DIY elements to my wedding:

Now, normally, I can procrastinate with the best of them, but during the planning process, I constantly reminded myself that I didn't want to be running around all stressed out the week before my wedding. And it worked! I also managed to do all of my projects with the Saturday before my wedding as the due date. By keeping that date in my head as the complete last moment that I could get anything done, I was able to take the week before the wedding and relax. How many brides get to say that?!

So I encourage all of you to look at the calendar and figure out what date needs to be your cut off date and stick-to-it! It really made such a difference on my stress levels on the actual day of my wedding.
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*Previously in this series...

I'm so glad I did this:
renting a full length mirror


I wish I could fix this:
being too proud to start a few minutes late

Looking back, continued...

This installment of my 'Looking Back' series * focuses on one of the details about my big day that I wish I had done differently:

Basically, every single wedding I have ever attended, has started late. Apparently this is not uncommon, as every time I mentioned to anyone-who-would-listen that our wedding would NOT start late, people just started hysterically laughing at me.

So, I made sure that throughout the planning process, my amazing DOC (Colleen with Classic Weddings) knew that if there was one thing that I wanted to happen, I wanted to start walking down the aisle at 5:00pm sharp. There was no way I was going to be the-girl-who-stood-on-a-soapbox-about-weddings-starting-late, who then started her own wedding late.

And just as I requested, on the actual day of our wedding the string trio started playing and we started processing at 5:00pm on. the. dot.

Unfortunately, not all of our guests had arrived at that point, so a handful of people ended up getting there about five minutes into the ceremony. You can see some of them standing in the picture below.

When I found out that some of our friends had missed the beginning of our ceremony, I was crushed. And it all could have been avoided if I had just swallowed my pride, and waited until everyone had arrived.

So, I encourage each of you to put aside any quest you might have to be the-bride-who-will-start-on-time and be a bit more laid back about your start time. I'm not talking hours here, or even anything more than 10 minutes. But at least give all of your guests a fighting chance of getting to see the whole ceremony; because in the end, that's what really matters.
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*Previously in this series...

I'm so glad I did this:
renting a full length mirror