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| Photo Courtesy of Laurel McConnell Photography |
Michelle is also the owner of mmm...paper and co-founded the wedding industry not-for-profit Get Hitched Give Hope, a non profit organization that raises money to grant wishes for breast cancer patients through auctions of fabulous wedding goods and services. I had the pleasure of finally meeting Michelle in person this July when I attended The Simple Plan business plan workshop in Seattle (if you're a wedding pro and you haven't attended, check it out - well worth your time!).
Without further ado, here are Michelle's Five Quick Tips:
1. Your wedding day goes by so quickly. Make sure to set aside at least 30 minutes with each other. Otherwise, you may just be lost in a crowd. Ask the venue if there is a separate room where you can share a glass of champagne and some hors d'oeuvres between the ceremony and the reception, by yourselves.
2. On the day of the wedding... make sure someone ELSE is in charge. Hire a planner. Otherwise, you will be running around much like your mother on Thanksgiving Day making sure that all the guests
are having a great time. Meanwhile, she is stuck in the kitchen cooking turkey. You do NOT want
to be this person on your wedding day.
3. Think forward: if I choose this ________ (dress, earrings, shoes, decorative item), will I be horrified at my pictures in 30 years? Yes, we all thought high bangs and poofy lace dress were smart choices
in the 80s. We are not immune to these "trendy" decisions these days either.
4. A wedding is a day. A marriage is a lifetime.
5. Last, but most important... Remember: This should be FUN. RELAX. HAVE FUN! CELEBRATE!
Michelle shares a few thoughts about her own wedding....
Favorite Thing About My Wedding: My husband and I love music - all kinds of music from all different countries. We did not want standards being played at our wedding. We hired a band from Argentina. It was a bit of a risk because we used to watch them play at clubs, but they weren't really a "wedding band." We knew there was a risk with them delivering... and, we were a bit nervous because they were only going to sing in Spanish (about 2/3 of our guests did not speak Spanish). This was also 2004 - people were not doing as many "unique" things for weddings back then. But, we took the risk. And it was AWESOME. The music WAS AMAZING. Everyone danced all night long... Very fun and original and only ours.
What I Would've Changed: 2 things...I REALLY regret not inviting a friend of mine. While planning, our list was humongous and we had a space limit. I hadn't talked to him in a while and thought "Well, maybe we aren't that good of friends... we have been out of touch recently." Our list was growing by the minute (we have such a huge family) and I had to make some really hard choices. I just wish I had cut out some other people (work obligation type guests) instead of not inviting him. To this day, I still regret not inviting him. Fortunately, we are still friends.
And, I wish I had hired a better photographer. Our photographer was (and is) a phenomenal travel
photographer. He was a friend of ours and we loved his style. However, in hindsight and with more
knowledge now, I realize that he was great at travel photography, but not wedding photography. Our pictures are nice, but I wish they were better. And, he doesn't do albums (again, something a wedding photographer would have done), so I have yet to get my act together and put my photos into a book.
Thank you, Michelle, for giving our brides five very thoughtful suggestions! If you would like to be featured in our Five Quick Tips feature, please email us at info at amynichols dot com.
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