Wedding Tips and Tricks

(from an event expert)

First Dance

When you are picking your first dance song, (I'll add some unique cute songs later) you may think that you just have to give your DJ the song. It might seem like you want to dance to the whole song, I promise, you won't! 3 minutes is a pretty long time to be dancing in front of everyone. Figure out where you want to cut the song in the front and the back end to make it shorter (or just the cutest parts)!

Here are some cute songs if you want a place to start looking:

• Collide- Howie Day

• Into You- Fabolous Tamia

• We Danced- Brad Paisley

• You're Still The One- Shania Twain

• Perfect- Ed Sheeran

• Prayed For You- Matt Stell

• One And Only- Teitur

• Songbird- Eva Cassidy

• Tenerife Sea- Ed Sheeran

• Can't Help Falling In Love- Haley Reinhart (or same song by Kina Grannis)

• XO- John Mayer

• Speechless- Dan + Shay (Acoustic)

• I Get To Love You- Ruelle

• Take My Hand- Emily Hackett, Will Anderson

• How Would You Feel- Ed Sheeran

• Yours- Russell Dickerson (Wedding Edition)

• You Are The Reason- Calum Scott

• First Time- Seven Lions, Slander, Dabin (Acoustic)

• Prayed For You- Matt Stell

• Better Together- Luke Combs

• Stand By Me- Florence + The Machine

• Beyond- Leon Bridges

• Forever Like That- Ben Rector (Acoustic)

• Once In A Lifetime- Landon Austin

• Love Like This- Ben Rector

• The One- Matt Johnson, John Adams (Acoustic Piano)

• So In Love With You- Jake Etheridge

• Heaven- Kane Brown (Acoustic)

• Have I Told You Lately That I Love You- John Adams

• Honeymoon- Johnny Stimson

• End Of Time- Johnny Stimson, Gisel

• Dive- Ed Sheeran

• Your Song- Cameron Bedell (Acoustic)

• Best Part Of Me- Ed Sheeran, Yebba

• Us- James Ray

• Forever- Ben Harper

• IMO- Ben Harper

Walking Down the Aisle

You can use this moment to use another really sweet song. Refer to the list above! (Obviously don't pick the same song as the first dance)

First Kiss

I see couples making this mistake way too often! But fair, I wouldn't have thought about this for my wedding if I wasn't in the event industry! Make sure you (or your planner if you have one) makes it clear to the officiant to step to the side before your first kiss! I promise, it will be a much prettier picture if there isn't a person right behind you for your first kiss!

* Extra- If you want a really unique and beautiful first kiss picture, tell your photographer to move behind the two of you before the first kiss, and they can get the picture with all of your guests' smiling faces in the background!

Photo examples

Photographer

Make a list of the pictures you want to make sure the photographer gets. You want to make sure you get pictures with all of your favorite people!

Here is a standard list I remind my clients to give to their photographers:

GETTING READY

• Bride(s) and bridesmaids getting their hair and makeup done

• Wedding party having fun

• Mother and bride/groom portraits

• Father and bride/groom portraits

• Family shots

DETAILS

• Wedding rings

• Wedding dresses/suits

• Invitation, program, special signs, & gifts

• Accessories (shoes, cuff links, or jewelry)

• Bouquet, corsages, boutonnieres

PRE-CEREMONY

• First look(s)

• Groom(s) and groomsmen

• Bride(s) and bridesmaids

CEREMONY

• Venue shots including ceremony site, flowers, interior, and exterior details

• Groom and groomsmen waiting inside venue

• Bridal party entrance

• Bride(s) walking down the aisle

• Groom's reaction

• Guests

• Father/mother giving bride away

• Exchanging of vows

• Exchanging of the rings

• The first kiss

• The recessional (couple walking back up the aisle after the ceremony)

RECEPTION

• Grand entrance

• Details and room decor shots (table settings, place cards, favors, centerpieces, etc.)

• Wedding cake

• Couple mingling with guests

• Toasts and speeches

• Cake cutting

• Bride(s) dancing with father / groom(s) dancing with mother

• The first dance

• Guests dancing

• Musicians, singers, DJ

• Grand exit

GROUP PORTRAITS

• Bride(s) with bridesmaids/maid of honor

• Groom(s) and groomsmen/best man

• Couple with bridesmaids/groomsmen

• Couple with entire wedding party

• Couple with any children

• Couple with each set of parents

• Couple with both sets of parents

• Couple with close family members

• Couple with siblings

Perfume

Get a perfume new and specific for your wedding! Splurge on that beautifully scented perfume you've been wanting! Use it for all of your wedding events (bachelorette party, rehersal dinner, wedding day, and bring it to the honeymoon). Then, whenever you wear that scent again it will bring back such happy memories. It will forever be special to you.

First Look

These moments can create some of the cutest pictures, and the happiest little moments before the ceremony. Here are some of my favorite options:

• Bridal Party: Make sure to do a first look with your bridal party! They will be so excited to see your final look in your dress!

• Bride: This is the most common first look. The groom will be turned around and the bride will tap him on the shoulder and he will see her for the first time, such a beautiful moment! If you want something more unique and inclusive of how hot your man (or second bride!!) looks, this next one is for you.

• Double First Look: This is a favorite of mine, and is a great way to appreciate how amazing both of the couple looks! You can be blindfolded, come around a corner, or whatever works best. Then you will both turn around (or come out) at the same time and see each other for the first time together!

• Groomsman (Or Second Bridal Party!): If you are close with your fiance's bridal/ groomsmen party, this is for you! Not a ton of people think to do this, but I promise, your fiance's party will be hyping you up like you wouldn't believe!

Wedding RSVP Cards

Make a wedding website, even if it is just for this purpose! Create a QR code to your wedding website RSVP section. Instead of making people send their cards back in the mail, just make a cute RSVP card (a good size is a business card) with your QR code on it! This is so helpful because it is less stress for your guests, as well as so much less stress for you to have to go through all of the replies (and you know someone will forget to put their name).

* If you still want to go with hardcopy RSVP cards for your guests to mail back, that's great too! Just make sure to keep an excel sheet, with your entire guest list numbered. Then, you can number the back of the cards really small so if someone forgets their name you know who replied!

For An Unplugged Ceremony

First, here's why an unplugged ceremony is a really good idea... you want the best photos you could possibly have at your wedding right?! Especially the ceremony! The photos will look very cluttered and frankly unappealing if the photos from the ceremony have a bunch of phones in the background.

There are a couple options for this one:

1. (My Favorite) Give them a minute: This is what I have found to be the best option to have an unplugged ceremony. If the officiant tells everyone to put their phones away, they will for a second, but once something cute happens, they will take them back out. It depends on the guests for how well they will abide by the no phones rule during the ceremony. But, if you tell the officiant to take a minute to take their pictures, they will be more likely to keep them put away the whole time if they got the cute picture they wanted first!

2. Officiant Announcement: Have the officiant know to make a quick announcement right before the ceremony starts for everyone to put their phones away. Most likely though, at least a couple of your guests will still take out their phones later in the ceremony.

3. Sign: You can get (or make) a really cute and aesthetic sign that you will be having an unplugged ceremony. The thing with this option is, people might not (probably won't) abide by the rules.

Bouquet Toss

A quick little thing to think about... most of the time this is a non-issue. When you toss the bouquet it is awkward if there aren't enough single (non-married) ladies to stand and try and catch the bouquet. I have only seen this be an issue at one wedding, the bride's guests were almost all married and she only had two ladies to catch the bouquet!