Jesse and Melanie's wedding in Chilliwack, British Columbia

I gave my bridesmaids the option to choose their own dress as long as it was long flowy and navy. I didn't want to pick out a dress and leave them with a large bill. 2 of my bridesmaids bought dresses online from Azazie, 1 from Lulu's and my maid of honour decided to buy her dress in-store. In the end, not every dress matched the exact same colour but it actually ended up looking really nice.

We had some minor bumps in the road with a groomsman needing to drop out two months to the day, thank goodness we had a good friend who was more than willing to step up and fill his spot. Bridesmaids not getting along, as well as my wedding dress being hemmed too short so I ended up needing to buy flat shoes instead of wearing the wedges I had already bought. In the end I was happier with flat shoes anyway!

The weeks leading up to the wedding felt like it was flying by and it seemed like I had an endless list of things I still needed to do. I had many people not sending in their RSVPs or changing them last minute. I loved using the WeddingWire seating chart – it helped me to visualize how I wanted to have my reception space set up and it probably made the process much easier! With the help of my family and friends everything started coming together and finally it was the day of the wedding.

I had mine and my bridesmaids hair done by Montannas Bridal Hair, she did an amazing job! I loved the look she gave my bridemaids as well as myself. She managed to do all five hairstyles within 3.5 hours. My hair stayed in all night even with all the dancing and I got many compliments from my guests.

My photographer was also my make up artist, her work is incredible and also did all five looks in about 4 hours. (Kaylaleeartistry)

Unfortunately, we had rain in the morning making my very low stress level start increasing as I saw more and more rain coming down. We had both decided to do a first look and photos before the ceremony to get rid of any nerves before the ceremony allowing us to take in every moment of our ceremony and be way more relaxed. Luckily we had enough large umbrellas for everyone in our wedding party and our photos turned out amazing! MY favourite part of the day was right after our photos had finished and someone pointed out a little patch of blue sky. Soon enough the sun came out just in time for the ceremony!

My family was a major help making sure our day went as perfectly as it could. My parents helped source the flowers for the wedding and me and the bridesmaids made the flower bouquets for the centrepieces and my mom made our bouquets for the day of. Turns out making your own bouquets isn't as hard as I thought and also saved us a lot of money. My sister made my wedding cake and I made other desserts which saved our wedding budget even more.

Our DJ did an amazing job (DJ Susan Jones) I don't think there was a time that the dance floor was empty, and my guests ended up paying her more to keep the party going longer.

I can't think of anything I would have changed about our wedding day – everyone had a great time and keep telling me how awesome it was. Our family and friends helped to make our day even better

Advice to any future brides, don't stress! There's no point – some things just can't be controlled. Anything you can do yourself try to, some things can save you money if you just do it yourself. Be prepared that the week before the wedding you will be running around buying things you didn't think of which means spending money. I think I made three or four trips to many different dollars stores in one weeks time. Enjoy the time you have planning, trust me it goes by fast. On the day of, take time to take in every moment with you S/O and just enjoy the day!