A wedding is a special memory for any couple, but sometimes there are things people would completely change about their big day. So redditor u/yomnlo3 asked the internet, "What's the one thing you regret doing for your wedding day?"
Fellow Reddit users shared their biggest wedding regrets, and honestly, it's pretty surprising. Here are some of the top-voted responses:
1. "Not eloping. Our wedding was relatively small and inexpensive (less than $10,000, fewer than 60 guests), but we could have spent that money on a sweet beach elopement and doubled up our honeymoon to be two weeks."
2. "A reception line. I didn’t want to do it but felt pressured. All I did for three-quarters of my reception was stand and say hello to people. It was miserable and took a lot of the fun out of the day."
3. "Stuffing cake in my wife’s face. No exaggeration — I regret it to this day."
4. "Letting the photographer dictate where we should be for the entire night. Looking back, I should have told him to do all the photo poses he wanted in the first hour, then leave us alone."
5. "I regret not turning around to watch my wife walk down the aisle. It was an outdoor wedding with no music, and I was told to stare at the nearby ruins so I didn't accidentally see my wife as she made her way to the back of where we had the ceremony. With no cue, I had no idea when to turn until she tapped me on the shoulder and giggled a small 'Hi.'"
"Her dress was amazing, and the ceremony went well amid a surprise downpour (two hours earlier than expected), but I really wish I had been able to watch her walk the aisle."
6. "Hiring a bad photographer. At the end of the day, your photos are the only tangible thing you pay for."
7. "Letting my ex-mother-in-law dictate pretty much everything. It stopped being our wedding and became her wedding."
"The whole wedding was no longer focused on me and my wife but on my mother-in-law handing my wife off to me — which is really ironic, because after that moment, MIL became even more controlling. Some things she did: She had a mommy-daughter dance, made a 30-minute speech about raising my wife (including playing several inappropriate baby videos), made a toast to herself, cut the cake with my wife, tossed the bouquet herself... And this is the weirdest one: The bridal lingerie literally said, 'Mommy's girl.'
"The wedding was ruined for me. The worst part? It set a precedent that my MIL could do whatever she wanted in our relationship and my wife would always choose her side. This eventually caused a split after MIL spanked the hell out of my daughter and my wife took her side."
—[deleted user]
8. "Wearing heels. Also letting my sister-in-law convince me to stay at her house the night before instead of at a hotel. I was on a tiny, uncomfortable futon with my giant future husband and slept maybe an hour."
9. "Not wearing sunscreen. As it turns out, the rules don’t change because it’s a special day."
10. "Picking the longest song ever for a first dance."
11. "I personally wouldn't bother with the first dance — we're not dancers. It was really awkward."
12. "Getting separated from my wife at the wedding. She went to the bathroom and then got swarmed by friends and family, and she disappeared for what seemed like hours. Also, getting pulled away from each other in general, like when I would get a drink or talk to someone."
"The reason I regret it is that my wife looked so absolutely stunning that day, and I just wanted to look at her the entire time. My wife is still hot, but there was something about that dress."
13. "I should have made sure my wife got to eat her meal. We sat at the table alone and chatted while everyone else was eating, and she said she wasn't very hungry after eating like one-quarter of her plate. Turns out, that half hour was the only 30 minutes of the day she wasn't hungry. I finally went downstairs and got her a plate of hors d'oeuvres after she had been trying to politely sneak down for two hours. They spirited her food away at some point after dinner, and she still regrets not getting to eat the great food we picked out."
14. "I would have speeches made before dinner is served. People are quicker when they're hungry and not drunk yet."
15. "Actually, it's NOT doing something. My wife's uncle hired the DJ as our wedding gift. I wanted to talk to the DJ to make sure he'd have the songs we wanted, but I was told, 'Don't worry about it; he has everything,' so I didn't. Don't get me wrong, he did a good job — he had every song but the few that meant something to us!"
16. "Not exactly a regret, but just a reminder to keep things in perspective. Looking at my grandmother's wedding photos, she pointed out her bridesmaids' matching hats. She remembered that these hats were important and there was some big to-do about them, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember exactly what it was — and you certainly couldn't tell from the pictures. Just remember this when you're having heated debates over the 'correct' shade of blue for the napkins."
And finally:
17. "Well, we could have had the wedding in fall 2019, but my wife wanted more time to make sure everything was perfect, so we decided to postpone it...until April 2020."
What's something you regret doing for your wedding day and WHY? Let us know in the comments below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.