Take our honeymoon straight away. We decided to wait and take our time to plan a big trip after we got married, which was in November 2019....

Nothing

Nothing at all.

Take a much more relaxed approach to the whole thing. We were young at the time and so worried about the expectations of our families that we forgot to make it into a fun day for ourselves.

We eloped, and have no pictures. A couple pictures is all I want.

I guess not something that I would change, but I’m very glad we started with a marriage counselor. We did not have any overbearing concerns, but it has been immensely helpful in understanding each other and having a healthier relationship. Sometime people get weird and say “Oh no, a counselor, what’s wrong with your relationship.” Nothing. That is the point. Talk to one to get a baseline and when (not if) challenges come up, you don’t have to waste sessions filling them on your back story. Honestly, I think it should be required to do like three sessions before signing the papers, if nothing else to have someone point some things out that youre blind to otherwise about yourself.

I would have spent more time at my wedding basking in the moment.

I cared too much being the good host. And I didn't get to fully be present at the happiness of holding her hand in marriage.

I liked our wedding, but we would probably elope instead in hindsight.

I should have thrown myself in front of a train, instead of throwing myself under a bus.

I would have had a local barbecue joint cater the wedding instead of getting a fancy caterer. The food was the most stressful part of our wedding and it wasn't even that good for the price and trouble.

Would keep the strawberry shortcake instead of wedding cake though, that was bomb.

Other than the food I wouldn't change a thing. I married the right guy and he's just gotten more awesome with time. And we had a (relatively) low-key wedding to start with so there's not much I have in the way of regrets.

Would have gotten us both mental health drugs and therapy way sooner. Would have had some honest conversations way sooner than we had them. We wouldn't spend nearly so much time angsting about making other people, especially our parents, happy around the wedding itself because a lot of those things didn't matter in the long term but took away from our enjoyment of the event for our sake.

I should have considered leaving my toxic job.

My wife is absolutely amazing I definitely don't regret that at all.

1. Pay attention to the hand she gave me to put the ring on. Oh well, not sure anyone noticed.
2. Tapped the keg much earlier in the day for the reception. I had no idea that it needed time to settle.
3. Make sure we had someone to get the snacks out while we were taking pictures. Seriously, have one designated person, who is not in the wedding party, handle stuff like that.
4. Find a different caterer. While the food was pretty good, they missed the vegan plate for my brother-in-law, despite us being really,, really certain it was covered. Drinks and water were a disaster. I really think we could have just brought in a fuck-ton of tacos, sodas and water and we'd have been good enough.
5. Make damned sure the jeweler's idea of the ring is clearly the same as yours. We had a custom ring made for my wife and I think the jeweler failed to take good notes and the result was bad, very, very bad. We had the ring re-made, after it was presented and before the wedding. Her ring was very nice for the wedding.

But, not a lot. Sure, the year or so before the wedding was stressful. We did the planning ourselves, put together complex invitations, "save the date" fridge magnets and all the programs. But, because we did give ourselves a year to get it sorted, we had the time to find what we wanted. We had also been living together for a couple years by the time we got married. So, it was more a "ya, we should probably finally do this" than any sort of pressure to "start our life together".

I'd change what I booked for the honeymoon. We went to Turkey and it was too hot and we both got sick.

I'd have just booked a cottage somewhere nice here in the UK.

Therapy. Looooooooots of therapy.

Not almost cut my thumb off, the fucking thing ached like I don't know what, espitally while my wife was squeezing my hand during the ceremony.

That was over 25 years ago and the pain was real

I would have pushed back on my mom's plans regarding the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Most of my side ended up missing the rehearsal because they were stuck in traffic and the wine they brought had turned because my mom stored it improperly (in her hot garage). However, my marriage is fine almost 15 years later so I'd probably save this history altering magic for something else.

My wife and I went to Las Vegas to get married. In retrospect we would've taken a different airline out there. Spirit sucks.

Talk to her earlier than I did

It was a bad day. I wasn't present like I should have been. I'd go back in time, remind myself that this is an important day to just experience, and do that.

Meaning about the actual wedding? Maybe a different DJ or give him more specific instructions (he was good at doing what I specifically requested but bad at using that to figure out what else might be good). Don't trust that someone else's taste is like yours.

We didn't spend too much or stress too much, it was fine. It was never my dream, husband wanted a wedding and not anything specific so we just sort of hosted a big party with a wedding as part of it.

Remember it's just a blip in what is supposed to be a very long relationship, the wedding is not the important part.

Everything went smoothly with the exception of the limousine. I ordered a party bus and received a 90's Lincoln stretch on its last leg. It was a little embarrassing but we all made the best of it. If I could go back, I'd definitely book with a different company.

Eloped to avoid prima nocta. Me lord was a fat-kidneyed fopdoodle, a bedswerver and a bespawler.