9 Thing People Have Regretted About Their Weddings

There are a lot of things that can go wrong on your wedding day! Here are nine people's responses to my question "What do you regret about your wedding and what would you have done differently?" How about you?

1.

Via giphy.com

"I wish I had ditched the receiving line. It’s really such an impersonal way to greet your guests and it takes up so much time. I wish I had mingled more around different tables to talk with people rather than stand in the receiving line for so long. Old traditions die hard, but when you think about it, there’s really no reason for them!"

- Kistie A.

2.

Via giphy.com

I was just married this New Years and I would say that I regretted having such an awful wedding planner and not firing her as soon as I smelt trouble.

I really regretted this on the day because she and my cousin got into a little tiff about the boutonnieres. Then the wedding planner had the audacity to come and “tell on” my cousin. I was like you are a grown up, you can handle it.

I would have either hired a different wedding planner or just had no one, I ended up doing most of the work anyways, so I guess I should have gone with DIY.

The money that would have been saved I think would have been about $7000 - $10000 if I had fired my wedding planner as soon as I started getting rubbed the wrong way.

- Ashley

3.

Via ohmagif.com

"My only regret from my whole wedding is not having a video. Now I am stuck without one and its sad that no amount of money can buy back those memories :(

Photos capture your dress, the flowers, the tablescapes but not the vows, speeches, or how your husband reacts when he sees you for the first time and spins you around to see your dress. In my case my family executed an insanely amazing flash mob and my only regret of my whole wedding is that it wasn't captured by a professional!"

- Rachel Jo Silver, founder of Love Stories TV

4.

Via giphy.com

"My wife and I had an amazing wedding. Really the perfect event.

The only negative about it: we planned it for the same day as my graduation from law school. It was the second marriage for both of us (I was a non-trad student), and although we wanted them there, we didn't want our families making a big fuss. We also didn't want anybody to have to spend a load of cash to join us, so we scheduled it on graduation day, thinking "everybody will be there anyway, so let's kill two birds with one stone.."

The result: utter exhaustion for both of us, rampant grumpiness, and sniping at each other. By 7pm."

- Aaron

5.

Via giphy.com

Instead of hiring a photographer we asked our friends to snap away during the wedding and though we did set up an iPad and another friend video taped, we didn’t think about who was going to take family and wedding party photos.

Consequently, we didn’t get ONE good family or wedding party photo! The other drawback was it was like pulling teeth to get people to actually send us all of the photos they took. Seems they were GREAT at taking the photos but not educated on basic things like DropBox or even email, to be able to get the photos to us… It literally took almost a year.

REGRET: Not having one person in charge of orchestrating photos (or hiring a photographer)."

- Lisa

6.

Via giphy.com

"My one regret for our wedding is that we didn’t hire a videographer. We had spent more money than we were planning on the band and decided to cut out the videographer. But we saved money in other areas, and I would have liked to have a great wedding video to help me remember the actual day."

- Brian

7.

Via giphy.com

"My sister and sisters-in-law were nice enough to help clean the venue after our wedding reception was over. I wish I could go back and hire a cleaning crew instead! Please, whatever you do, do NOT allow anyone in your wedding party or anyone attending your wedding to do this - no matter how much they insist. This is SO embarrassing thinking about now!"

- Joy

Check out her other regrets here.

8.

Via giphy.com

"As a wedding planner, safety is always a prime focus. While the idea of a sparkler exit seems beautiful and harmless, I never really love the idea of people who have been drinking handling fireworks but I had a beautiful bride who really wanted photos with the guests holding sparklers.

When she showed up to drop off her items she had purchased extra long-burning sparklers that were 30" long. While I cautioned against using them, she decided she really wanted them and wanting to make her happy, I agreed.

The photographer gathered all the guests in a circle in the courtyard of an older historic venue, my team passed out the sparklers and lit them while the bride and groom danced in the center of the circle. As I stood on the opposite side of the circle an intoxicated gentleman thought it would be funny to drop his lit sparkler into a vase of remaining sparklers.

A 4" flame shot out of the glass vase and fire jumped to the bushes bordering the courtyard. Thankfully the bushes had just been replanted and were bright green so they caught fire slowly but they were also a border to the giant canopy oak tree that was the focal point of the courtyard.

The tree was very dry and brittle so my heart stopped when the fire shot up and in my mind I saw a vision of the whole tree going up in flames along with the buildings it branched out over. Thankfully some quick acting guests grabbed bottles of water and put out the fire.

The couple had to pay to replace the bushes and the venue changed their policy to no longer allow sparklers at events! So, I now strongly suggest other beautiful wedding exit ideas instead of sparklers."

- Jamie

Wedding Planner

9.

Via giphy.com

"One of my friends who came to the wedding RSVPed with a plus one. We hadn't offered her a plus one because of the space issue and because we didn't know of a significant other in her life. Plus, her best friend would be there as well as several other friends. I asked her about it, and it turned out she wanted to use the plus one for a friend of hers who lived in the area (we got married on the East Coast and the friend was coming in from the Southwest). So we told her, sorry your friend can't come. She got very upset and things have been a little weird since then.

We were worried that family members would get upset if they realized their sister or brother wasn't invited but that we let a friend bring a random friend we had never met. In hindsight, it wouldn't have mattered.. We should have just let her bring her uninvited guest."

- Jason