Wedding Advice Wednesday: Part IV

This is the last installment of the wedding advice series. Here's part I, II, and III in case you missed 'em.

7. First looks are your friend.

This is another throw-tradition-to-the-wind idea that is so SO wonderful. Since we got married on the winter solstice and at night and it was going to be pitch black after the ceremony, we decided to do a first look and take all (I mean ALL) our pictures before the ceremony. I'll be honest, at first I was bummed. I had for years envisioned me walking down the aisle with my dad and my groom waiting for me at the end with tears sweetly flowing down his cheeks as soon as he saw me in all my wedding glory. Well, first of all, Miles felt pressure to have that reaction (which wasn't a fair expectation for me to have in the first place). Plus, like I said, it was going to be dark after the ceremony, and I didn't want to keep our guests waiting for hours while we got a group jumping picture juuuuust right (Praise the good Lord our photographer never attempted such ridiculousness). So, we decided pretty early on to do a first look.

And it was perfect!

We got rid of all our nerves and the rest of the day was just plain fun! Joey, our amazing, wonderful, sweet photographer, captured us seeing each other with no one else around for the first time and giving each other our wedding gifts.

Aaaaand - icing on the cake (hah. punny.) - Miles "got emotional" (his words, not mine) when I walked down the aisle. When I got to the end his eyes were swimming in tears. So precious.
Doing a first look took nothing at all away from my entrance to the sanctuary and it allowed us to get to the reception sooner and paaarrrtayyy!

8. Blogs and Pinterest are your friend frienemy. 

I love Pinterest just as much as the next girl, and obviously I love blogs, so I used them as inspiration on nearly a daily basis. I regularly checked blogs like Green Wedding Shoes, 100 Layer Cake, The Sweetest Occasion, Southern Weddings Magazine, and Wedding Chicks. There are SO many resources online for anything wedding related you could think of, which is great! I think the key here is to not over use them. I've been to weddings and seen weddings where every detail looked like it hopped off a Pinterest page into a venue. Don't make things so trendy that you don't really like what you're doing or that you're replicating something everyone and their sister has done (unless you really truly do like it, of course).

Bottom line: the interwebs can and should be used for ideas in moderation. Make your wedding an expression of you.

9. Choose wisely, young Padawan.
 

When I went to look at and try on wedding dresses, I thought I was going to get a lacy, key-hole in the back kind of dress. Naturally, when I was picking out dresses to try on that's what I gravitated towards. However, my mom and the wonderful woman who helped us pick dresses suggested a few unexpected things for me to try. The store clerk asked if I wanted something that was "me" or something that was still me, but would be unexpected and take people of guard a little. I hadn't given much thought to it, but decided I wanted something a little unexpected. I ended up going with a strapless, mermaid-ish type dress - two styles I never thought would describe my wedding dress. And in the end - I loved it. I couldn't have liked it more or felt more pretty in it. Be willing to try things you might not normally pick or styles that would be unexpected. You never know what's going to look good on your body until you try it on - and chances are you'll probably be surprised by what does (and uhh doesn't so much) look good!