If you are getting married, then you understand that navigating vendors and learning how to pull everything together in a perfect day can be a challenge.

Well, in our long career as wedding professional’s we’ve learned a few things over the years that can help get you through the wedding process.

Think of these as wedding hacks that you can use to help make the best wedding day that you can have!

Wedding Tennis Shoes, No Really!

Many brides will spend good money on finding the right shoes for the wedding day, but the truth is that if you have a wedding dress with any kind of train, your guests are not going to see your feet and if they do, they honestly won’t care what you’re wearing.

Carole and I suggest you wear a pair of new tennis shoes.

Converse for example now offers customized wedding footwear that you can rock at your wedding.

A lot of brides are opting for something like this because they can also wear them LONG after the wedding day.

Other companies such as Nike with their Air Max 200 is also getting into the game, allowing you to customize the shoes just for your special day.

TRUST us when we say that you’ll be very comfortable all day long. If you still feel like you need to wear those heels, then consider getting the high heel attachments that help prevent you from sinking in the grass.

Personalized Coke For Your Wedding

Coca-Cola now offers you the ability to have custom bottles of Coke for your wedding day and it’s something that we suggest that you look into for the big day, at least as a parting gift for your guests.

You can have your names printed on the bottles with your wedding date if you’d like and you can order these to go along with your wedding décor. These are wonderful little treats that everyone will truly love and they run about $5 each for the personalization.

Turn-N-Burn Baby!

Some lower-end photographers will offer what called ‘turn-n-burn’ images.

This is where the wedding photographer will take images during your wedding day, put them on a USB and mail them to you.

This a no-frills service, so there is no post-production, no editing, or color grading.

But, it is the most cost-effective way to have professionals take images on your wedding day.

See, most couples only think of the number of hours that a photographer will be onsite at the wedding, but what they don’t see are the hours that go into editing.

Usually, that’s about a 1:3 ratio.

For every hour spent on your wedding day, it will take at least 2-3 to go through, process, and convert them.

Typically when couples book a vendor, they only think about the time-on-site, not the entire process.

Time is money and that’s a major portion of the wedding costs.

Most professionals will not advertise this or even want to offer it, in fact, most don’t.

It doesn’t hurt to ask however if you’re looking for someone “affordable” for your wedding day, you should consider it.

We would recommend skipping this turn-n-burn option unless you simply don’t have the capital to invest in a professional for the wedding.

Victoria's Secret Bombshell

If your wedding is outdoors as many are, you need to keep the bugs away, specifically mosquitos. Well, luckily there is perfume on the market that you can wear that is an insect repellant.

Victoria’s Secret Bombshell actually repels bugs according to a CBS news report, plus best of all it does not contain DEET, that chemical that has some medical professionals worried that it may be harmful to your health.

In either case, this perfume is so good at keeping the bugs away that many college football teams use it during practice, can you believe that?

If you are having an outdoor wedding, then we highly suggest that you pick some up, we suggest getting the small roller bar if you don’t have their lineup, it’s effective and much less costly than the full-size bottle.

Keep from Getting Bloated BY Doing This

One secret that we can tell you is that you’ll want to skip dairy products for a couple of days before the wedding if you can.

Dairy is a known contributor to being bloated and it can even help with weight loss too.

A lot of people find that when they give up or cut down on dairy, they feel less bloated.

Even if you are not lactose intolerant, dairy can sometimes contribute to bloat, gas, and abdominal distention, which no one wants, especially leading up to summer!

Skipping milk, cheese, butter, and even yogurt can greatly help your body right before the wedding day, and it’s not something that people are going to tell you about beforehand.

Bridesmaids CAN Rent Their dresses

When you are asked to be at a wedding one of the very first thoughts that come to your mind is that you’ll have to spend money on a dress that you’ll most likely wear once.

Well, I have some good news for you!

You can FINALLY rent your bridesmaid’s dresses from Rent the Runway.

This is a company that allows you to rent dresses for your wedding or any special occasion and the pricing is affordable too.

You simply find the dress you want, choose the color, size and make your payment. You can use the bridesmaid’s dresses then return them.

Another great thing is that you can also rent wedding dresses from them too, that’s an unknown wedding secret that the industry doesn’t want you to know about either. (Because it can save you big bucks)

Naked Cakes are In Style and Cheaper too

Naked wedding cakes are all the rage for 2019 and yes, even 2020-2021 with COVID, and they typically cost less too.

With less frosting and less design time, a naked wedding cake often times will save you about $1-3 per slice depending on the baker and that can translate into big savings just for your wedding cake.

Think about it like this, if you saved $2 per slice of wedding cake and you had 125 wedding guests, you’d be saving $250 that you can pocket or use towards something else on the wedding day.

While it’s not the most savings you can get from a wedding, it is big enough to consider.

Have Your Reception at a Local Restaurant

Over the years, I’ve done a handful of wedding receptions at local eateries in Virginia and that’s actually a great idea.

You can transform the establishment into a reception venue, have areas to dance, eat and just have a fun time.

This is usually cheaper than having it at a venue and many smaller mom-n-pop restaurants will offer something like this if you ask.

It’s a place where you and your guests can dine and the staff onsite can clean up, help serve everything and cater to your needs.

You wont have to worry about tables, chairs, silverware, staff or linens which is a huge plus!

We recommend that you consider something like this if you’re wanting to save some money, although there is usually a fee to rent to rent places like these just for the wedding day.

Wedding Dress Hacks You Don’t Know About

While you can search for the wedding dress online or at the local wedding dress shop, a little secret that most don’t know about is Google.

Instead of searching for ‘wedding dress’, search for the simply ‘long white dress’ instead.

Wedding dresses can be literally any type of dress that you want, something specific to weddings, or something generic that you can wear throughout the year.

Carole and I got married and we didn’t even really dress up, she wore a nice summertime dress and I wore a button-up shirt and shorts.

Why?

Because that’s who we are and it fits ‘us’.

Just because you can buy or rent a wedding dress doesn’t mean you need to.

There is no right or wrong for your wedding, it needs to fit you and your style. For some, it’s elegant and over-the-top, for others it’s simple.

In either case, give it a try, you’ll be surprised what you can find, many of them are great quality and many offer pricing that is much better than a specific ‘wedding dress’.

Brides Against Breast Cancer

Our second wedding dress hack is also something that most brides don’t know about and it’s called Brides Against Breast Cancer.

This is a little 501c3 non-profit in Florida that resells gently used wedding dresses at a fraction of what they were brand new.

Brides many times will donate their dresses to the organization that helps fund breast cancer research here in the United States.

I’ve had the privilege of working with them a few times over the years at shows and they do great work in both the wedding industry and cancer research too.

Work Direct and Save through Etsy

Our other suggestion is to work through Etsy and that’s because most of the independent wedding dressmakers can be found on the website, plus it’s cheaper to work directly with them than it is to buy through a wedding dress shop.

Do This a Week BEFORE the Wedding

If you have everything finalized before the wedding and you’re ready to go, head to your local jeweler.

Many of them will gladly give your jewelry a cleaning just before the wedding day for free and you’ll definitely want to take advantage of that for your big day too.

Your guests will be watching you and you’ll want everything to shine and sparkle too.

Most people don’t know that the places you buy your jewels from will clean your valuables for free and even if you didn’t purchase them from your jeweler, they’ll gladly do it for you.

Trust me, you’ll want to do this especially if you plan on having macro images of your wedding bands too.

“Also, right before you walk down the aisle, Carole and I recommend that you use a little bit of hand lotion on your fingers that way when it comes time to slip the rings on, it will go on much easier. This is especially true if you’re having an outdoor, summertime wedding and it’s hot!”

Dinnerware Hack To Consider

If the catering company doesn’t offer dinnerware or if it’s beyond your price range for the real thing, consider using plastic china-ware, yes that’s a real thing too.

You can purchase this plastic dinnerware for much less than the cost of the real thing, even if you rented it. I did a bit of research and found this 120 piece set on Amazon for about $185.

It’s available in various styles and color options and this will be a great way to clean up afterward too as guests or the cleaning crew can simply toss them away.

This is something to consider for the dinner service and honestly, your guests won’t care that it’s not real china, if they do, you might want to consider some new friends because they should be there to celebrate you and not rate you on the wedding.

Keeping Children Happy Is HARD

Let me just say that as a wedding professional, I’ve seen the point where small kids usually go into a cranky mode and it’s not fun for anyone. So, I recommend that you keep them entertained throughout the evening.

Coloring books, games, art projects, candy, a movie on a TV, what you should do is have a small kids section where they can play and just be kids for a bit.

Some venues like Silver Hearth Lodge in Bent Mountain Virginia for example have a playground on their wedding campus (one for the pups too) which honestly is one of the best things I’ve seen at a wedding venue because it allows children to play and have fun while the reception is taking place.

No matter what you do, we recommend that you have some things for the little ones to do to keep them from being cranky and just ready to go home.

Use These Instead of Normal Sparklers

Sparklers at the wedding exit make for a great video and great wedding photos too, not to mention living in the moment. But, I’ll bet that you’ve never seen shaped sparklers before, until now.

These are heart-shaped wedding sparklers and they make a great alternative or additional mix to the normal ones that you can typically purchase.

If you do use traditional ones, one wedding secret I can tell you is to get longer ones in the 18”-24” range.

Avoid ones larger than 24”, it’s not really needed, plus they tend to get in the way of the couple when walking down between guests.

According to the website with these hearth shaped ones, they will last about 45 seconds or so, you might want to purchase a box of these and mix them with the other ones that you get.