Embracing Wedding Day Imperfection

From the moment you said yes you’ve spent hours planning every last detail with Pinterest vision and precision to make sure that your wedding day is absolutely perfect.

But even with the most thorough wedding planning, there are the obvious factors that can go awry, like incredibly crappy weather or an uncooperative ring bearer. And then there are the things that you just couldn’t have seen coming, like a groomsman getting arrested not once, but twice following the reception {true story}.
It can be frustrating when we watch something go wrong after months of planning.  It can be enough to bring out the Bridezilla in even the most zen bride. But instead of making yourself {and your entire guest list} crazy over mishaps on the big day, the best option is to simply embrace the imperfections.
In fact, I asked several married couples about the moments that didn’t go as planned on their wedding day and it turns out that many of those moments ended up being the most beautiful, touching and hilarious memories of the entire day.

Embracing imperfection is the true path to a perfect day.

“The limo broke down between the wedding and reception. We were all dressed in our wedding formals standing in a hot parking lot, drinking cheap beer next to a limo with the hood popped open when my three uncles pulled up in a convoy of minivans to get us. Everyone had a blast spending time together in the parking lot and we still laugh about our rescue vans.”
-Brian H.
“My cake was still frozen and everyone loved it. They thought that the “ice cream cake” in November was genius!”
-Jeannie S.
“I had recently lost my father and was fretting about who would walk me down the aisle and how I would manage to hold myself together. My sweet husband to be told me that he would stand by my side and we would walk down together. We’ve now been walking side by side for twenty years.”
– Darca S.
“We were having so much fun that we forgot to do traditional speeches. So after many guests had retired for the evening the wedding party lined up and did impromptu speeches full of emotional laughter and tears. It turned out to be the best part of the night!”
– Jeff D.
“My bridesmaids showed up two hours late {and more than a little hungover} to help set up for our reception. As a peace offering, they brought the ugliest plastic dolphin statue I have ever seen. I jokingly placed it as the centrepiece on the head table and since then we’ve passed around between the four of us a wedding gift, housewarming present, birthday surprise and more. It will most likely be at our retirement parties and will probably make an appearance at someone’s funeral.”
– Sarah E.

Creating imperfect wedding memories.

On my own wedding day, I ended up calling off the photographer shortly after our reception started. He was doing a great job but I was over posing and smiling on cue instead of enjoying the celebration and spending time with our loved ones.
My mother wasn’t too happy, and we don’t have any “picture perfect” photos of our first dance together or awkwardly feeding each other cake, but the most amazing stories from that night flow directly from the moment we cut away from creating perfect photos and embraced creating imperfect memories.
Eleven years later, I wouldn’t change one thing, including our groomsman’s jail time.