Reflecting On Our Wedding: One Year On

Wedding Wednesday

21 Jul

As it will be our one year wedding anniversary on the 31st, I thought I would have a look back and reflect on the day and all the things I loved as well as the things I would’ve done differently.

Getting married in a pandemic. Photo by Dominic Smith Photography. — *Getting married in a pandemic. Photo by* *Dominic Smith Photography.*

When we started our wedding planning journey, never in our wildest dreams did we ever think we would be facing the possibility of postponing or cancelling our wedding, especially due to a worldwide pandemic. Our wedding day definitely wasn’t anything at all like we’d planned in the end and whilst there were some aspects that we definitely missed (like having all our family and friends there) we actually ended up having such an incredible day, made even more special by the sheer fact that we were even able to get married at all.

You can read more in detail about our wedding planning journey and how our day went at www.abyjoannephotography.co.uk/blog/our-wedding-story-getting-married-during-a-pandemic

Photo By Dominic Smith Photography

THE CHALLENGES WE FACED THROUGH OUR PLANNING

The country went into lockdown due to the corona virus in March 2020, 4 months before our wedding. After nearly two years of planning, we were suddenly faced with the horrible decision of whether we should postpone our wedding or not. In April our venue contacted us asking what we would like to do, and after a lot of thought we decided we would split our wedding package, allowing us to still have the ceremony on our date, but having the rest of the wedding day (with all our guests) later on in October. We went through the process of notifying all of our guests and vendors about the change, and everyone was very supportive. Fast forward to June, and restrictions are starting to lift and it is looking very positive that our ceremony will still go ahead. Then the government finally announced that weddings could now go ahead with restricted numbers, so of course we were overjoyed. A few days later I received an email from our venue; to my horror, after stating all the new government guidelines that venues could open, they then went on to say that the venue had decided to stay closed however, and that our wedding would be cancelled. Naturally we were devastated and wanted to cut ties with the venue completely, (and lucky we did as they went into administration shortly after) and somehow find a way we could still get married on our date. All our friends and family immediately came to our aid and with everyone’s help we somehow managed to replan our entire wedding with a new venue within a few days. Everyone came to together to make something seemingly impossible happen. There were still a few complications due to the many restrictions surrounding weddings (such as having to make the tough decision of who to invite as we could only have 20 guests) but finally on the 31st July 2020, we did get married.

Photo By Dominic Smith Photography

WHAT WERE THE BEST BITS OF THE DAY?

Our day was very different to how we had originally planned but nonetheless it was still the best day of my life. In fact, I was so relieved that we were getting married at all that I was so relaxed the entire day and I didn’t stress about anything at all. Whilst it was sad we couldn’t have all our guests, having a smaller wedding was actually incredible. Instead of spending our whole day trying to have 5 minutes with each of our hundred guests we ended up having a really relaxed time with a few our closest friends and family. As a result everything was a lot less hectic and we just relaxed and enjoyed our day. I think one of my favourite parts of the day was at the end; we all squeezed ourselves onto three deck chairs on the lawn and had a drink whilst watching the sunset. We would never have had that moment with a hundred guests! Another fantastic moment was when we exited the church just after our ceremony. To our surprise, loads of our friends and family had gathered outside the church and gave us a big cheer when we came outside. It was such a lovely surprise and we were honoured that everyone came to see us even though they couldn’t be a part of the wedding.

Photo By Dominic Smith Photography

WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY?

My advice to anyone currently planning their wedding would be this; don’t stress over the small things like I did. I am so organised I always have multiple spread sheets on the go for anything I do, yet all the planning in the world didn’t prepare me for what we had to go through. Pretty much everything we had booked and planned had to completely change 4 weeks before our date, and yet we still had the most incredible day. So don’t worry or stress about things not going to plan. It may be frustrating but I promise that on the day any stress will be forgotten! So relax, take everything as it comes, and definitely accept help when it is offered to you. Going through all the chaos of the pandemic made us realise what was truly important. We had originally been so focused on creating a huge wedding for all our friends and family, but the pandemic made us realise we were spending all that money for our guests benefit not ours, and in reality the most important thing was that we were getting married to each other!

If you want more wedding planning advice and tips, follow my blog where I post lots of wedding content every two weeks!