Plan Ahead – Wedding Disasters

As much as we try to plan ahead, wedding disasters can and will happen. The invitations were not the only problem with our wedding.  So much changed in the 72 hours before our wedding, you could literally say that it was a completely different wedding than we planned!

The week before the wedding, I came down with a case of Bronchitis and a severe sinus infection.  One of my three groomsmen vanished off the plant, and wasn’t found until three weeks after the wedding!  (He claimed it was a money issue, but I know it was something else – Still don’t know!)  A second of my groomsmen had a grandparent pass away, and his parents scheduled the funeral at the same time as our wedding!

One of our bridesmaids woke up the morning of the wedding with a child that had a 104 F fever and needed to run to the hospital. So we had to find someone else quickly to replace her. My fiance, at the time, asked her sister in law to jump in and help. Graciously she accepted. However, the dress needed to be quickly hemmed for her. Luckily, my birth other is a seamstress and helped hem her dress. God works in mysterious ways sometimes, yet always provides.

When our tuxedo’s arrived, they were completely wrong.  We had 3 Hunter green vests and 1 Navy Blue vest.  We had 3 long ties and 1 bow tie.  The store agreed to deliver the correct tie and vest, but when they arrived, the vest had no buttons!  They returned a second time, with buttons, and sewed them on for us!  Needless to say, I was glad that we arrived in enough time to have this all taken care of. This is why it is important to plan ahead for your wedding. However, life happens sometimes. People make mistakes. However no matter how much you plan for special events, sometimes plans change.

Out photographer, who was also supposed to provide us with a video of our wedding “forgot” to bring the video camera!

While lighting the unity candle, my mother had difficulty working the lighter to light her side.  What can I say about that?  My mother’s lighter was “childproof!”  I’m not sure if that means she is just one of those people who cannot operate the childproof caps, or if she is just a child . . . But either way, it is funny to me!  Anyway, after giving up on her lighter, she reached for my soon-to-be mother-in-law’s lighter and managed to dump our entire goblet of grape juice (for “Our First Communion as husband-and-wife together”) down the front of my mother-in-law’s dress.

Now as horrible as that sounds, it turned out to be ok because the dress “perfectly color matched” the grape juice and, other than a wet spot, was completely un-noticeable!  (Although, our photographer managed to capture the horrified look on my mothers face perfectly!)  This also made for an interesting moment for me later as I was to “server” the communion to my wife with, what I found to be, an empty cup of juice.  Many things ran through my mind, but we just “rolled with it” and made it work.

Finally, to top everything else off, my fiancé managed to leave my wedding ring in her bag in the brides dressing room.  A quick-thinking-maid-of-honor pulled off a pearl ring she was wearing, and handed it to my fiancé.  (Marcie wouldn’t let anyone else “hold” the ring for fear they would “loose it!”  How ironic is that?!?!?)  So, we complete the ceremony with a tiny set of pearls on my pinky finger instead of my white gold wedding band that we had picked out.

Without all these memories of wedding disasters, we wouldn’t have anything funny to save in our own decorative Wedding Time Capsule. So years later, now I am glad it all worked out and we made lemonade out of our lemons for the wedding day.

The afternoon of our wedding, they were predicting “A light dusting of snow.”  It snowed 3 inches and made it difficult for my family to return home!

Many people would worry about what all this “says for the marriage,” but I can tell you that we are going strong!  A few months later, the quick-thinking-maid-of-honor got married as well.  Marcie and I were both part of that wedding as well.  She made a comment to me that “her wedding was better planned out, and that is why she didn’t have substitutions” in hers.  I simply laughed.  Yes, she had planned every last detail, but so had we!  Many of our issues were well beyond our control.  I mean, really, what was I supposed to do?  Stay away from people for 3 weeks so I don’t get sick?  Tell my Best Man that he cannot go to his Grandpas funeral?  Tell our Bridesmaid that she must come to the wedding and leave her sick child at home or just drop her off at the hospital?

The reality is, no matter how well you plan a wedding, or any event, there will be problems!  The key to it is to work the issues and “roll with it.”  This is your day!  It is a day that you both will remember for the rest of your lives!  Don’t let a few problems stress you out and ruin your day!  In the grand scheme of things, I suppose I am just glad that we didn’t burn down our church in the process of getting married!

In the end, we got married.  We found the ring I was supposed to get, and before we went to the reception.  Our photos came out great.  The church is still standing.  The dress was cleaned, and you still can’t see a stain.  We are still married. Going on 11 years now.  And, above all, I have a great photo that I can black-mail my mother with when she starts talking about breaking out the “naked baby photos!”  We also have some great stories to tell, which is really helpful when you wife asks you to write a blog for her!  :)

For helpful tips on how to avoid wedding day disasters, plan ahead with these tips here.

Remember:  This is your day!  Whether you are a man or a women – You will remember it!  So, make it what YOU want it to be!

What all problems happened at your wedding? If you have the courage, comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Mark