Are you doing the bouquet and garter throws at your wedding? I don’t know how I feel about future hubby climbing up under my skirt in front of everyone
Hi everyone, I am looking for affordable bridal hair and makeup in the Bay Area and would really appreciate any recommendations.
My budget is $400 max total for both hair and makeup, so I know it may be a little tight for wedding services, but that is what I can do right now. I am hoping to find someone who does soft, natural-looking makeup and bridal hair.
My hair is just below my shoulders, and I would love a longer look for the wedding, so I am also looking for hair extension recommendations. If you know any good clip-in or other extensions I can order online or buy in person, I would really appreciate that too.
We also have not booked a photographer yet, so if you know someone affordable for wedding photography in the Bay Area, I would love those recommendations too.
Thank you so much. I would be very grateful for any affordable recommendations or advice.
Karly Troutt Events in Paso Robles, California, straight up, does not actually plan a wedding. I should have trusted my gut the first time she missed a meeting, but sunk cost feeling (as had already paid her a deposit), so we kept her.
To be clear, she isn’t a bad person. But I don’t know if a good person would have agreed to plan/coordinate our wedding if she was going to be so out of her depth. It was a 173 person wedding. Which I don’t think she’s actually done anything that large.
It rained on my wedding day, which wasn’t ideal, but not her fault, BUT her not having ANY rain plan was. It was an entirely outdoor venue. As the bride, I’m allowed to hope for a nice day and plan for that in my head, but it was her job to have an alternate plan. We did get a tent for the reception, but our guests were sitting in the rain for our ceremony and cocktail hour totally got screwed. She didn’t make sure we had umbrellas for guests, she didn’t event suggest it. She didn’t suggest pop up tents. She didn’t suggest heaters. She didn’t do anything except hope for a nice day.
During our rehearsal the day before she told our officiant that rain would be her worst nightmare…babe. That’s not what you want your planner to be saying.
She cried at me during our wedding, blaming my mom for her stress. Managing difficult personalities, circumstances and the day is her actual job. I didn’t get to enjoy my wedding day because I was the one people were coming to constantly.
She was also the manager of the venue, and I don’t know what she did as a planner that was additional to what she might have done as a venue manager. She came to a couple meetings? But she didn’t suggest things, she did help with the timeline for the day of, but threw it completely out the window the moment things went sideways.
At one point, we asked what was the plan and she said she didn’t know what was happening.
Other things:
They didn’t do a champagne toast pour, because she didn’t tell them to. We have 52 bottles of wine and sparkles leftover. We were told we were running out…
My younger brother was the one who told the groundskeeper to put hay in front of all the tent entrances so people wouldn’t track mud and slip.
They didnt put down the aisle for me, so my dress (which was of course going to get dirty at some points), was IMMEDIATELY dirty instead.
They maybe put out half the candles/hurricanes I bought.
She didn’t cue the toasts during dinner. My husband had to ask when they were doing them. She said oh we have to cut the cake, which again, as the bride, we got a lot going on, so I forgotten. To be fair, we were supposed to do that before dinner. We ended up doing toasts after dinner, which made us lose an entire hour of dancing. We had a live band and I said that was the most important thing to me and my husband. But who cares, right? She certainly didn’t.
Our guests had an awesome time regardless, which is a testament to them and us and our playing through attitude. But she tried to take credit for that. I wish we could have enjoyed our wedding the way our guests were able to, but there were just so many glaring things that made it so difficult to be in the moment.
The most frustrating part for me was her inability to take any responsibility. Everything was someone else’s fault: the rain, the bartenders, the photographers, my mom, etc.
One of my sisters in law said she shouldn’t have accepted her fee or given us half back. Her suggestion was, tell her we’ll write a terrible review or she gives us half of the money back. But I don’t care about the money. I care that she didn’t do her job, so the wheels fell off our wedding almost immediately.
My husband and I love each other and are so grateful to our family and friends for choosing joy and making lemonade out of lemons.
For context I got married in December of 2025.
Our videographer gave the standard 90 day delivery window. My husband and I just bought a house at the end of February and I realized at the end of March that we were supposed to have our video delivered to us by March 5th. I was a bit distracted, but also not responsibility to keep her on track lol. I reached out to my videographer over text March 20th and she just left me on read.
What’s also odd is I haven’t heard from her since I asked for her address in December to send her a thank you card. I know everyone’s not the same, but a lot of my friends have told me that their photographers or videographers would give them updates. I haven’t heard anything from her.
So I reached out to her again in the beginning of April and still have not heard from her. She also read my second message. I am starting to get a weird feeling that something has happened clearly. I don’t know what that something is, but I need advice what action I need to take here.
We did sign a contract so she’s technically out of contract on her end. Has anyone else dealt with this? Do I go to Small Claims Court? How do I go about doing that? Any advice would be helpful.
Although, we’re sad that we may not get our wedding video, we want to make sure that we get our money back that we paid since she did not deliver on her end.
Thank you so much in advance for the advice.
Hi y'all!
If anyone would be willing to share some websites in which their moms bought dresses from, I would greatly appreciate it! My wedding is 4 months out and we have yet to find something for her that we like.
For reference, we have been looking at azzazie, birdy grey, pinterest, baltic born and nordstrom so far.
Ideally, she will wear a floor length dress in a pale pink color. She wants something more on the flowy side and not anything body hugging. Everything we stumble across is either too 'young' or too matronly.
We just got our full wedding gallery back and it’s… A LOT. Like hundreds of photos.
At first I thought I’d:
But now that I’m actually looking at it… I have no idea how people realistically do this without spending hours and hours.
So I’m curious what people actually did:
Or did you just share the full gallery and call it a day 😅
Right now it just feels super overwhelming and I’m wondering if I’m overthinking this or if everyone secretly struggles with this part…
And oh BOY did it work out. I am in LOVE with my wedding dress. The fabric is so elegant, it looks very expensive. I got it for $1,200 on StillWhite , NWT marked down from almost $3k. It’s silk and those are ostrich feathers. It fits like an absolute glove, no alterations needed! I’d post wearing it but I have a full body suit of tattoos & wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise if my fiancé saw 😊 we’re getting married in New Orleans at a formal venue march of 2027. I’ll be back in 11 months with it in action 💙
Seeking kindness first and foremost since I don’t really have a large support circle in my life.
We got engaged in February and wanted to get married this summer so I bought my dress fast, but now we have time since we are eloping this summer and pushing our ceremony back to 2027. I don’t know if it’s true wedding dress regret, I do love the dress I bought. I only went to David’s bridal to try dresses on though so maybe I just need to go try more on. I tried one ballgown on and I loved the shape of it but was thinking it would be a hassle on my wedding day/ a bit much for a small cheap wedding. Now I’m worried I’ll miss out on wearing the big white gown especially since we may be inviting a bit more people. I’m also wondering if the wedding dress I chose look more like a reception dress? The last picture is the ballgown I tried on, I felt like maybe it made me look too small. But also feel like the form fitted gown makes me a little self conscious about being so flat everywhere. Did anyone else opt not to wear a ballgown and regret it?
Me and my step sister are the same age. I got engaged in October and I’m about 5 months out to my wedding! She is going to be engaged next week. I’m not sure exactly why but i’m feeling bitterness about it. She has already been very judgy about my wedding, ring, proposal and everything. She is EXTREMELY self centered and makes everything about her and i know that she will be so obnoxious while i’m trying to plan and get my stuff done. She said she was going to come to be for all the advise but i won’t be able to do that while im planning.
It’s also the proposal that is bothering me. My fiance and I are very lowkey people. We mutually decided to get engaged and I knew when it was going to happen. I HATE HATE surprises, they give me so much anxiety. We had an amazing day and could ask for more. I also got a smaller ring because im not a big ring girl. This was how I wanted it and my fiance as well. She is having a huge fancy engagement with a party afterwards and dinner. Her ring is massive. I don’t feel jealous because I wouldn’t want that for myself. However, i feel like people will judge us and think that we aren’t as good as them because we had a lowkey engagement. I know it’s dumb to feel this way but it peeves me. Because i know she will brag and compare ours together. She was even saying when she went ring shopping how her ring was WAYYY bigger than mine. I just fear that I will be in the shadows the minute she is engaged. Is that bad to feel this way of entitled?
My cousin is my maid of honor and she wants to plan a bridal shower for me and asked if my mom wants to be included/help and so I asked my mom and she said she doesn’t want to pay the billl.. I literally wasn’t talking about any payments or anything my mom just said she doesn’t want to be used or taken advantage of and she’s ’not a bank’ (mind you she has a lot of money) and I said don’t worry I’ll pay for it , then she said no you shouldn’t have to pay for it.. okay well then who the f is going to pay for it?! Like wtf. Then she just said sorry. I have no idea what to think. I wasn’t expecting her to pay it but now that I think of it I feel like she should be willing to? Idk. Makes me feel unworthy honestly and like I’m a piece of shit who doesn’t deserve to be showered. Now I don’t even want to be. Even though my cousin wants to plan it, it’s so nice to even say she wants to celebrate and plan that for me. Expected my mom to want to but she just looks at it as being used.. any relatable people here/advice for me? I’m definitely not even going to ask her for my wedding I’m sure she won’t want to chip in for that!
Got engaged one week ago! I sent my close family pictures and then posted them online. I have received some congratulations but some people haven’t, including my stepmom and my 3 step siblings. I also had a birthday the same week and they did wish me a happy birthday but now im feeling upset they haven’t said congrats. We are all in a group chat together and they saw my posts, and one of my stepsiblings partners even said congrats.
I expressed in the group chat that i would like to celebrate and only my dad answered saying sure as long as we clean after ourselves and bring food. I kinda felt a little bad because it felt like we were being brushed off so I cancelled latter to see that all my siblings/ stepsiblings went to his house to eat on the weekend and didn’t call us to invite us to join. I feel like im being silly for wanting them to make a big deal but also…i feel like they should?
am i doing too much? or are they really doing too little? also i decided not to have a bridal party so i wouldn’t leave my stepsiblings out (bc i would have my sisters but not them) but now im feeling upset and like i should just do it and leave them out. 😵💫
My fiancé and I are stuck. He wants tiles for a dance floor, and I think we should have an open space where it is just the wooden flooring. We are trying to go with a vintage style, and I feel as though our venue matches our vibe perfectly without a dance floor. I have included a picture of our venue (this is a reference photo of the floor, not what we are planning). Should we do a tile dance floor or not?
Hi! I am a Dec 2026 bride and will be going to Destin for my bachelorette in September. I am a 38D and about a L/XL bottom. Where can I find good, supportive, not see through, white swimsuits? I don’t mind spending a little if it’s good quality!!!
Since being engaged I’ve lost two of my very close friends. I am now down to exactly 3 friends that I will be inviting to the wedding. 2 of which are in my wedding party. The rest of the people attending are friends of his, and our respective families.
I feel so lonely and feel like very few from my side are attending. It would’ve been nice to have a bachelorette or even a bridal shower with all the girls, like most do. Regardless of who’s showing up for me, I am looking forward to just being with my partner that day.
I truly wish there was a bride group chat so we can all bond and become friends that way- swear I’ve talked to so many brides about their weddings, let me help and become friends
I'm a June 2026 bride and have 3 bridesmaids and 1 MOH. My MOH is my childhood friend and my 3 bridesmaids are my high school friends.
We are friends in a real way not in a we knew each other in high school and hangout here and there. No when someone has an issue we show up for each other, we've let each other stay at our houses when needed, we travel for everyone's birthday we make an effort to really support each other.
Now the wedding.... My bridal party have been asking me throughout the whole planning what they can do to help. I didn't want to bother them so I just asked them to just come ready to have fun and for them to be there for my bridal fitting because I just didn't want to do it alone.
3 couldn't make it (live abroad ) but one said she will if I come to her city so I went to her city but she ended up being sick that weekend so we couldn't go to fittings and instead she said she will come to my city and we can go try on dresses then. Great I thought.
But now we are two months from the wedding and she keeps pushing it back, I've just accepted I'll probably have to do this myself because I'm just not comfortable asking a random guest I'm not close to to come. It's okay I decided it is what it is.
NOWWWWW everytime I talk to this bridesmaid she keeps asking me what I need. She'll say things like "omg I feel like I'm failing you as a bridesmaid I haven't been able to help with much" I comfort her and say "it's fine" and then she goes again and it's actually getting really exhausting.
I understand that no one cares more about your wedding than you do I never expected her to. My issue comes when you offer help I tell you how you can help and you keep not helping while saying you are feeling bad. I'd rather just not talk about it 😭.
I grew up an only child and got used to doing things alone as my parents never wanted to do things with me. This is actually the least hurtful part having to go try on dresses alone. The worst part is having to comfort her through this. She has now pushed the visit from January 12 to may 7 which is just a month before the Wedding. I wish she would have just said something earlier instead of giving me hope and leaving me stranded before the wedding. And before anyone guesses it's a money or time issue I don't want to elaborate but I promise it's not.
So I guess my question is should I say something next time she complains again? I'm supposed to chat with her later tonight and I already got a text saying she feels bad and I just feel like she'll bring it up. On another hand I don't even have the energy to fight with someone in then bridal party before the wedding especially since we are all friends I'm worried it might make things awkward.
Mind you, this was my mom’s response to 7-10 dresses I sent her for an engagement party event.