Real Bride: Jessica Minler

Jessica and Darren had an absolutely enchanted Lord of The Rings themed wedding in the middle of the forest. Talk about beautiful! Just wait until you read her "special moments." Jessica had an amazing idea involving her dearest friends. I know it will melt your heart and make you want to steal the idea!

Your name: Jessica Minler

Partner’s name: Darren Minler

Wedding date: August 18th , 2017

City, State: Woodbridge, ON

Tell us more about you!

How long have you been together?

We've been together 7 years.

How did he propose? (Or how did you propose!)

He proposed in our house with our 2 dogs on leap year last year.

What was your favorite part of the wedding?

My favorite part about our wedding, I would have to say, was our ceremony. We personalized it to our Lord of the Rings theme and had our friend do the ceremony with an official officiant.

What went wrong with your wedding?

We ran 2 hours late and we missed the time slot we made for photos, so we didn’t get all the photos we would have liked to have.

Did you find any tricks to save you money?

I literally DYIed all the centerpieces and any extra decorations, using every 50% off Michaels craft store coupon I could come across.

If you could go back and redo it, would you change anything; and if so, what would you change?

Every friend we had there said that it was the best wedding they have ever been to. Honestly I had the best day of my life, best party we have ever thrown, but if I could go back and do it again, I would like to have more pictures. Time got the better part of our day and it goes by so fast.

Do you have any advice for new brides?

My advice would be don’t rush it if you want it big. We gave ourselves a year, and it was not enough time. Things would have run more smoothly if we had given ourselves two, especially if you plan on making all your own things.

Did you over-plan or under-plan, or was it just right?

I feel like we strove to over-plan and then got caught being under-planned, lol. You can never be too prepared; something will always be forgotten.

Did any of your vendors knock your socks off?

Our DJ was the best DJ! He made the life of the party and customized our songs for our day. It was perfect—people were still wanting to dance and party even when we needed to be leaving.

Did any of your vendors disappoint?

My florist really disappointed me. She added an additional color that was not in our color scheme and failed to add my frames of my loved one on my bouquet. Also, I used to be a florist, and I have never, ever seen someone use hot glue on bouquets or boutonnieres until now.

What was one (or more!) special element in your wedding that isn’t in most?

We did not keep many things traditional at all. We had a full-out elegant Lord of the Rings theme, and during our ceremony we dropped a lot of lines from the movies in, to make people laugh. We also walked down the aisle to a Nine-Inch Nails song ("We're in this Together"), which had people already excited

to see what else would come. But my all-time most special moment was when I put a new spin on a modern tradition and during the ceremony had 4 friends called up that had helped me a lot throughout the year. The first friend called was my newest friend this year, and I asked her to be my something new; second was my cousin that was born before me, and I asked her to be my something old because she was my oldest friend; third was my friend who just got married a few months ago, and I asked her husband to borrow her as my something borrowed; and last was my friend that has always cheered me up when I'm blue as my something blue. I handed them Lothlorien leaves to add to our fellowship. I love this because I couldn’t have all them be bridesmaids and it was a great way to have them included on our special day.

What do you wish you’d spent more on (whether you were able to or not)? Honestly, the biggest purchase I wish I had made was a videographer. My husband really didn’t want one at all, but I should have just done it. I regret not having videos of the day—it went by so fast, it's hard to remember it all.

Where do you feel like you could have saved money or overspent?

Honestly, don’t think we overspent on anything. We were smart with our money and found ways to get what we needed with what we had.

How many guests did you invite vs how many RSVP’ed vs how many actually came?

We invited 115 people. We had 91 rsvp yes and ended up with 93 the day of because people we didn’t invite just showed up, and we made room for them. That being said, invitations were the most stressful task out of the whole wedding planning. Having to pick family and friends and not being able to afford everyone, and people's feeling being hurt, wasn’t easy.