What are the best wedding tips Capsule readers can give each other? What are they most glad they splurged on for their big days? We’ve got all the advice from women who have been there.
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Weddings are such beautiful occasions. They’re most often one of the happiest days of your lives, getting to have everyone you love in one spot. They’re also bloody expensive. And stressful to plan! It can be very easy to get carried away with all the expectations of what you should and shouldn’t do. And, it can be very easily to get overwhelmed.
So, we put it out to our Capsule community and asked women who have been through the whole process, to look back on their big days, and give us all some advice.
We asked, ‘What’s the ONE THING you’re most glad you did on the day / spent the money on / found the time to do?’
And the answers were quite surprising.
Of all the hundreds of responses we got, there was one that kept coming up:
Getting a good photographer.
“The photos last the longest and bring back the memories,” said one Capsule reader.
“The day was such a blur, it went by so fast,” said another. “I’m so glad we spent the money (that seemed insane at the time: it was $6k!) to get a good photographer. When I look at those I can access my memories in a way that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to.”
Another said, “My sister died three months after our wedding, so the photos have become the most precious. They’re beautiful photos of her, and of our family one last time. They’re priceless.”
Another Capsule reader had a very similar experience saying, “We nearly didn’t do proper photos with everyone, we were going to do it on the cheap and just have a photographer take photos of hubby and me for two hours – the ceremony and a quick lot of pics afterwards. We ended up cutting out other things and hiring her for five hours. I’m so glad we did because my grandmother died a year later, and hubby’s father died two years later. We have their beautiful photos from our wedding up in our hallway, and our family shots.”
One Capsule reader says not spending money on a good photographer was her biggest regret. “We just asked friends to bring their cameras, and had a couple of disposable cameras for people to use,” she says. “I regret that we don’t have professional photos to look back on, and it’s not like we can do it again.”
In addition to splurging on a good photographer, a lot of brides were also pleased that they decided to do their photos before the wedding, rather than leaving their guests to whisk away for pictures.
“We’re not very traditional, so didn’t mind seeing each other beforehand and the photos are lovely,” says one Capsule reader.
“I’m so glad we did a ‘first look’ photo shoot instead,” says another. “It also calmed my nerves to see my husband and spend that time with him before the ceremony.”
However, not everyone had the same feeling, with one woman saying, “I wish we didn’t do a first look and did the traditional ‘see each other at the aisle’ thing. I think it would have been more special! Plus, we took our photos when it was too bright. Would have been nicer during that golden hour!”
There were plenty of other suggestions that Capsule readers made, about what one thing made their big day. Here’s a few highlights:
“We spent the night together before the wedding. It helped having a familiar sleep setting and calmed the nerves!”
“Going all out with beautiful flowers. Everyone still talks about them.”
“Splurging on a good venue that helped organize everything”
“Not spending too much!”
“Videographer! We love our video and watch it on our anniversary”
“Glad we spent it on an awesome DJ”
“A confetti cannon!”
“A champagne tower. It was such a fun element!”
“Having our ceremony indoors so there was no stress about the weather”
“Not having a wedding cake and spending that on booze instead!”
“Love. All you really need is love on your big day.”
