A Bride's Lessons Learned
I asked a recent bride for her thoughts on how she might do things differently in the planning of her wedding. Corrine Parkinson works as a home décor buyer and has a fabulous sense of style. Here are her thoughts, many of them you may not have considered……
Now that the wedding is over, life is good. We do still have 130 thank you notes to write, vendor reviews to post, and 4,000 pictures to go through, but other than that things are stress-free. Since my husband and I lived together prior to the wedding, not much felt different once we got back from our honeymoon. I don’t know how to explain it, but now that we are 2 months married something feels different. I think the best way to describe it is a sense of security, knowing you have someone on your team for life, and that you will both continuously grow into better/stronger people together. We also talk about plans further into the future and they feel so much more real. Overall, ‘being married’ is growing on me, every day. Oh, and it is still strange to call him my husband, but I think (hope) this will become more natural soon.
And talk about what you were surprised by or wish you had known.
I wish I had known that bridesmaids want to be included in the planning. I did not include/invite them in much other than bridesmaid dress shopping and the bachelorette party, and I regret that. I thought that inviting them to my appointments, or including them in decisions, would be a chore for them –I tried too hard to not be a bridezilla. They would even ask/offer their help and clearly wanted to be involved but I got in the way (trying to be ‘chill’) of what could have been great memories.
What advice would you give other couples getting married? Couple things…
- Take time off from planning, enjoy each other, be stress-free (at least one night a week).
- Listen to yourself. Trying to please everyone is exhausting. Everyone will have expectations and opinions about your wedding regardless of what you do.
- Do not bring up seating plans with anyone, especially your friends, prior to the wedding. Trust me it’s never going to end well for you. Also, the rumors are true – this is by far the worst part of planning a wedding.
- After the wedding, try to set one night a week for date night. It is important to get out of the house (the small NYC apartment) and make time for technology-free communication. We have the best conversations and this truly helps the bond grow stronger. We also get to try all these amazing restaurants (our rule is we have to go somewhere neither of us has ever been). But even if it just your local sushi spot, I highly recommend these married nights out together. Just try to pick a place without TVs ;).
- Include bridesmaids in the planning.
Corrine's favorite piece of Annieglass is Edgey Pedestal Stand in Platinum. Shop now >>
Ceremony & reception venue: Stone House at Stirling Ridge in Warren, New Jersey on April 7th, 2018
Husband’s name: Brandon
Photographer: Images by Berit
Makeup/Hair: Beauty on location
Florist: Jardiniere