As I come down from cloud nine from this amazing weekend, I thought I’d share a more personal blog post that I felt was kind of necessary.

This weekend, I married my best friend and had the wedding of my dreams!! Out of all the weddings I have shot over the years, it was so crazy to finally be the bride. I’m still reliving the day over and over again, smiling to myself that this really happened. I feel extremely blessed and happy with how everything went, and that I can now call myself Mrs. Hammell.

In other news, it was really eye opening to be on the other side of things for once. I learned a LOT about what it feels like to be the client, and what it feels like to the bride. I really wanted to share some of the big things wedding planning taught me and some tips I can offer to current brides to help their day run smoothly.

We already got back a sneak peak from our amazing photographer (Karmapants Photography), so I’ll sprinkle a couple of those in here for some visuals!

10 Things this Wedding Photographer Learned as a Bride

1.) Communication with your vendors is very important

The one thing that we did have some bumps in the road with, is a couple of mishaps with a couple of our vendors. One thing one that was helpful for us is to arrange a phone call with all of our hired vendors to make sure everyone was on the same page. This is something that as a client that you shouldn’t feel bad about, as we are working for YOU. It also did a lot in settling our nerves, knowing that all of our vendors were on the same page.

2.) Do as much as you can as early in advance as you can!

We booked as many vendors as we could within the first couple of months of engagement. When all the big stuff was taken care of, we took a seat for a bit as we both focused on other things for a few months. A month before wedding, we realized we needed a lot of little things: A card box, memory table frames, gifts for our parents, gifts for each other, gifts for our bridal party, escort cards.. the list goes on. We had thought we had a leg up in the game, but when we realized we had so many little things left to do so close to the wedding, panic mode set in!

3.) Spurge on the things that matter most to you, and budget on the others

Our priority vendor-wise was a couple of things: An amazing photographer (duh), and our guests having a great time. With that, we splurged and got a pretty great band which got our friends and family up and dancing, and our photographers were just incredible all day - we felt very comfortable with them and confident that they had everything captured for the day. Flowers and center pieces? We tried to go a little cheaper with. We would rather spend more money on the things that are really important to us, rather than the things that we will never remember and our guests probably won’t notice.

4.) Book your honeymoon in the beginning while you still have the money

Our honeymoon was the last big thing on our list to book. At this point, we had just spent a lot of money on all of our other vendors and payments and felt that we didn’t have much more to give by that point for a honeymoon. I highly recommend booking that early on so you don’t feel like you’re scraping for pennies towards the end!

5.) Allow space in your timeline

90% of wedding days run late. I know this from personal experience. I can’t stress it enough - add cushion into the timeline of your day! Think you only need 10 minutes to put on your dress? Make it 25. Think your makeup will only take 40 minutes? Allow an hour, just in case. You can’t predict the little things that may happen on the day of, and it’s very common under the pressure of the day for things to run a little behind. With a little more cushion added into your day, the worst thing that can happen is that you have a little extra time to sit down and grab a drink before someone needs you again.

6.) Channel in on your partner for the day

It was very important to me that I took the time to focus on my groom all day. As much as I could of spent a lot more time dancing with some old friends I haven’t seen in a while, or some of my family, this day was for me and him, and I wanted to make sure we were channeled in on each other as much as we could be. If possible, try to find 5 minutes to sneak off with just you and your partner to take the day in alone in solitude. I was really glad we spent as much time as possible with each other the day of soaking it all in.

7.) Eat and drink water!

You’re going to be BUSY the day of your wedding. You will be needed in a million different places and have so many things you’ll be doing. PLEASE make sure you eat something and drink a lot of water! The morning of our wedding, my hair stylist and make up artist were both working on me at the same time, while my mom was putting on my jewelry, and I was sipping my mimosa. I didn’t feel hungry, but I had to force myself to drink some water and eat a bagel to put something in my stomach. Don’t forget to fuel!!

8.) Bring a pair of flip flops or comfortable shoes to dance in

This was a last minute addition a few days before our wedding. I decided to try to break in my shoes a couple days before, only to realize that there was NO way I could make it in them all day. I ordered a pair on Zappos and got them in a couple days - Best decision ever! I could now dance with happy feet!

9.) Things will probably not go 100% as planned

We all have this exact vision of how the day will go. Remind yourself that things may come up throughout the day that wasn’t a part of the plan, but be okay with rolling with with the punches. This is your wedding day - one of the best days of your life - Will you really allow something to bother you and affect your mood? Don’t stress about the details - no one else will know about them but you. Anything that comes up during the day, let it roll off your back. Focus on the most important thing - marrying your best friend! The rest? - It’s all insignificant.

10.) Take in every moment

One thing that was important to me on our wedding day was to stop at every part of the day and look around me. I did that several times. During our ceremony, I made eye contact with several guests, I took deep breaths and looked my groom in the eyes and thought about our journey to get here, and during the reception, I made it a point to stop dancing for a minute or two, stand back, and watch our family and friends dancing the night away. I wanted to remember every person there that showered us in love, and how each moment felt. The day goes by fast (people will tell you this a lot). Enjoy. Every. Moment. Take nothing for granted, just soak it all in, and embellish in it when it’s all over.