We help you get married, but what happens after that?

We decided to find out from brides how the big day actually went and what they would change, if anything. Here are the top 10 "would’ves":

• Had a smaller wedding

• Asked more friends and fewer "should invites"

• Planned better

• Used a pro whenever possible

• Called on friends for more help

• Delegated more duties

• Asked the caterer more questions

• Taken more wedding pictures

• Gotten everything in writing

• Savored the day more…

Ann Marie, a lawyer from New Jersey, crowded some 120 guests into a Manhattan loft. She would have "had fewer guests or a bigger space" and circulated among the crowd to talk to more people.

Elissa, a news reporter from Connecticut, had a similar complaint. "We had close to 200 people," says Elissa, describing her September wedding at a resort in Massachusetts. "It was huge. We had guests I didn’t know, people my husband didn’t know. I wish we would have invited the people I wanted instead of the people our parents wanted."

The number, and nature, of the guests seems to make or break a wedding, according to the brides interviewed. Most brides agreed that no more than 150 made an ideal gathering.

Amy, who set her own early fall wedding at her home in upstate New York, had it down to a science. "We invited just our friends and immediate family," she says.

Fit to be Tried
Most brides said they loved the gown they picked, but if they could do it all over again, they would have been more concerned about comfort and fit.

Sharon, a California bride, says she noticed the straps of her "wide V" gown kept slipping off her shoulders during the fittings, but the seamstress told her it was only because she wasn’t standing up straight. As a result, "a minor problem became a major one," says Sharon. She spent her entire wedding day "fiddling with [her] dress...and that’s the last thing you want to do."

Amy, who married in Maryland, says the fittings on her simple brocade dress went smoothly enough, but her big mistake was not trying on the gown when it was finally finished. The day of her wedding she noticed the hem kept "popping up," and while photographers were taking her picture, waist up, three friends were down below, "sewing the bottom of my gown."

What would you do over if you could?