Weddings & Life Podcast with Taylor Nicole, a podcast by Colorado Wedding Photographer, Taylor Nicole Photography

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Intro

Your wedding day is a once in a lifetime event. Traditions and trends fluctuate through the years but there are certain things, events or people you should make sure to make time for during your wedding day. So keep listening to learn about what not to skip during your wedding day! In my opinion of course.

Inside the Episode:

Welcome back to another episode. I feel like this one should come with the understanding and warning that I am sentimental to my core. That would probably play out in many areas of my life but I married a minimalist so thankfully I haven’t become a hoarder… because yes the shirt I wore on our first date that I will never wear again needs to be in my closet forever. Or be made into a pillow right? Kidding! Mostly. I did actually get rid of that shirt recently. Anyways that’s a tangent.

So weigh anything I share here with your own priorities, opinions and preferences. I am not here to lay down the wedding planning law. But with experience of being a bride before and witnessing weddings for my career the last 5 going on 6 years now (and I photographed weddings for the 5 years before that too just less frequently) I get to see a lot of couples on their wedding day. I get to see what makes them happy and relaxed and also what makes them stressed or seeing active regret sometimes during their wedding days. 

I do my best to talk with all of my clients about their preferences for their wedding and try to keep their priorities first, while still getting my job done too. So I hope that was enough background and reassurance that if you disagree with these that is okay! Here we go- A list of things I think you shouldn’t skip or cut short on your wedding day.

1 Parent Dances

• So the dances I am referring to here are the Father – Daughter dance, and the Mother – Son dance. I’ve even seen a grandparent dance as well as a Daughter-Mother dance too. Basically a dance with a family member during the reception is meant to honor someone important in your life.

• Yes this is a reception tradition. And to those of you who don’t have great relationships with your parents then skip this all together. I am speaking to the person who is close to a parent but is also not in love with the idea of spending an entire song’s worth of time dancing with them in front of all of your guests. 

• Please know that this is worth it. It is fully worth it for the memories you will have, both the in your head memories and also the photo and video memories it will give you for years to come.

• I don’t want to scare anyone into doing something they don’t want to do, but life is incredibly short and that song is 3-4 minutes worth of memories you will cling to for your entire lifetime.

• Also pro tip from the photo and video perspective- please don’t make these dances 30 seconds. I know the time frame of being in front of people could be daunting but 30 seconds gives us next to no time to capture those memories. Choose a song that is at least 2 minutes long. 3 minutes is best in my opinion.

• So once again to restate – please don’t take this as wedding planning rules to always keep. Not everyone will have parents in attendance, and also not everyone has the relationship that makes a parent dance possible. But if you do, don’t let the fear of being in front of your guests take away your opportunity of memories.

2 Time with your VIPs

• Your VIPs might be family members like parents or siblings or out of state relatives, or friends or wedding party members too.

• No matter how you spend your wedding day you will NOT regret having good conversations and memories with them. I’m not even talking about formal portrait memories just being around the people who are most important to you will fill your cup

• So inviting friends or important people to be near you while you get ready in the morning could be a good idea. Lean into your personality here, I know for me I didn’t want a room full of 20 people to get ready with but I had a small group of my close friends which was calming and fun!

• Or setting aside time to join the cocktail hour and just making an effort to say hi and mingle with these people.

• Obviously getting group photos with your VIPs is a good idea too but I want you to be able to be present with your people.

• Also inviting your VIPs to your welcome dinner, rehearsal of having an informal welcome party after your formal rehearsal dinner ends that way you can just set aside time to enjoy being with your people before the wedding day is a great idea! 

3 Dinner and appetizers too

• Okay so this is more for fun or to keep FOMO away (fear of missing out, is that old? What do people say now?)

• You are choosing and probably paying for your guests to enjoy great appetizers, cocktails and dinner. Make sure to try not to let your timeline creep into this and steal you away from your treats.

• I’m semi-serious here. I feel like people are the most important element of the wedding but I do see couples often times miss their own appetizers, cocktails and sometimes dinner. I try not to be the reason they miss these too! 

4 Looking out at everyone during your ceremony

• You wedding day will fly by. There’s just nothing that can be done to slow things down. So taking in a moment to look out toward your guests while they are all present and there to support you as you make this huge commitment is such a sweet moment. It can become a fast core memory.

• Your officiant can add this into the wedding ceremony if you like.

• And yes this is a great photo opportunity too. Can’t hide that fact. 

I hope that this list of 4 things not to skip or miss on your wedding day is helpful. There are probably a lot of other things that you can think to add to the list too. Maybe it’s setting aside time to have a first look with your Dad or just making a note to give your mom a hug when you make it down the aisle. Or exchanging gifts with your loved ones or friends before.

Thanks for listening and happy wedding planning!

xo, Taylor Nicole