The Perfect Wedding
For better or worse, I am a perfectionist. There are quite a few of us out there and today I would like to talk about the Perfect Wedding…or maybe not so perfect.
There are things that are going to go wrong at your wedding. Many times as a guest at a wedding you are completely oblivious to anything that goes wrong. If you are the bride you know right away if something goes wrong. As a perfectionist this moment or realizing something isn’t perfect is awful! But trust me when I tell you that ALL weddings experience imperfection. I want to share some of my personal experience with this as well as some hilarious moments my vendors have witnessed at weddings! Be sure to leave a comment below about a funny mishap you have experienced at a wedding!
I've seen a lot of mishaps at weddings, from flowers not being delivered, to jewelry being left at home, all the way to guests spilling lots of alcohol on other people! The funniest thing I've ever seen at a wedding was a very wild and crazy groom's dance while taking off his bride's garter to the tune of Rod Stewart's Do YaThink I'm Sexy? It had everyone laughing hysterically! - Matt and Jentry: Photographers
Image from Matt and Jentry: Photographers via OTGB
I can remember as a little girl hearing the mishaps my mom would tell me about her wedding day. It started with her bridesmaids that were supposed to all meet at her house to get ready. Not a single one of them showed. My mom was stranded at the house with no car and being before the days of cell phones, she could not call anyone. Luckily, one of the wedding guests had gotten lost and showed up at the house to see if anyone was still there to give directions. Had the guest not stopped, my mom would have missed her wedding. The shenanigans didn’t stop there. As my mom was preparing to walk down the aisle her maid-of-honor stepped on her veil and it ripped out of the hat it was attached to. They stapled the veil back to that hat as my mom began her walk.
The funniest thing I have had happen at a wedding, to this day, is when the groom picked up the top layer of the cake (the one you traditionally save for the first anniversary) and proceeded to smash it squarely on his brides head! He got totally caught up in the playful food fight they were having with the cake cutting and went WAY overboard! The good news is that his lovely wife was (and is) an absolute angel and a totally forgiving person and despite having a moment of utter shock she handled it very well. She did disappear for like 20 minutes to get cleaned up but she had a very good attitude about the whole thing. - JLM Creative Photography
Image from JLM Creative Photography via OTGB
My first wedding experience was around the age of 11 as a flower girl in my aunt’s wedding. My cousin and I were both flower girls and so excited! The day of the wedding arrived and as we were getting dressed we discovered that our shoes were too small. The adults didn’t anticipate that ordering our shoes too early wouldn’t work for growing feet. We were troopers though and wore them. My aunt’s wedding took place in California wine country in August. Needless to say it was hot! The outdoor reception took a toll on the wedding cake as the heat started to melt it. By the time the cake was cut it looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
I once saw a women fall on her back onto someone else's foot. Her dress went up to her chest and an ambulance had to be called. Another time I was shooting a wedding at Zephyr and a jet ski rode the ring in as the best man pretended he lost it. That was funny. - Jeramie Lu Photography
Image from Jeramie Lu Photography via OTGB
Now fast forward to my wedding. So what went wrong at my wedding? My husband and I had decided we wanted to do wedding party pictures before the ceremony. As I was driving with my bridesmaids to the venue it started hailing. I got married in South Lake Tahoe at the end of July. A time of year you don’t exactly anticipate a hail storm. One of my bridesmaids looked at me and said, “How are you so calm? I would be freaking out right now.” All I could think was, there’s nothing I can do about it… We arrived at the venue and the entire staff was working to push out and clean up the water that had flooded the tented reception area. Not going to lie… the first words out of my mouth were “I need a drink.” After I had a drink in my hand, I assessed the situation. I know the Lake Tahoe area well and knew the weather would most likely clear. I decided we would wait it out and go forward with the outdoor ceremony. After the staff squeegeed off the golf course area where we got married and the guests were seated, I proceeded down the aisle. The wet ground not only drenched my dress, but bled the dark purple dye on my shoes. My dress and feet were stained dark purple for the rest of the day!
We honestly find that client's fears of crisis and mishaps never happen. Couples will tell us, "My groomsmen are going to be crazy" or "My dad hates my step dad" and on the big day everything goes great. People are really on their best behavior on the big day. - Take the Cake Events
Image from Emily Heizer Photography via OTGB
So how do all these stressful, funny, and imperfect moments fit into the perfect wedding? The fact is, they are the perfect weddings! These are the memories you will tell for years. The memories of your day you are going to relive when you talk about your wedding to your children. The memories your guests are going to recall and the moments that others learn from. You can bet I learned a valuable lesson from all these stories that were told to me over the years and weddings I experienced. You can also bet I learned just how valuable and memorable these unforeseen moments become. For the brides out there that are trying to obtain the Perfect Wedding, be sure to take a moment to cherish the non-perfect moments, because they will happen and those are the stories that will be told.