Getting the beauty into the Bride Picture means lighting and simply focusing on her!
So Jessica,
How bad are the images anyway? Well, all the points made are valid! Yes, it's true we need to get things organized in advance, but given what you have is it really so bad? No it isn't! The reason is the malleability of digital files using local corrections in Photoshop. For this all you need is Photoshop 7.0! Or else a retoucher whose services are unbelievably inexpensive!
© Jessica Eldredge: Your Original Bride by the steps
Your pictures can be retouched for very little, probably $2.50 to $20 per picture depending on who does it for you. Just to show what sort of little changes can be made, let's look at one picture, the bride by the steps. In your original, the face is dark, the dress is dull and off color, (and likely blown too), and the patterns of the background disrupt focus on her. What is important is the bride! Tolerate no detailed or interesting distractions! not at your stage or for some time!
© Jessica Eldredge" "Bride By the Steps", edited ADK with permission
I have continued the steps to meet her dress so that the architecture of the steps does not create a separate important element in their own right. Also I've removed the pipe on the left.
So now what? Don't you think the steps and plants are all to defined? If we had used a long lens, say a 70-200mm zoom lens at f 4.0, she and her veil would be in perfect focus but otherwise the background, which is outside the narrow plane of focus, would be softly blurred. Well we could mimic that, but I simply applied a Gaussian blur which just evenly obfuscates the details of things you select to be less carefully drawn. The lens blur will add its own beautiful character or Bokeh, which I could try to introduce, but its not needed!
© Jessica Eldredge" "Bride By the Steps", edited ADK with permission
However, not everything is equally blurred! I finessed it and masked out some of that blur to allow some of the lower steps adjacent to her to be slightly defined. That helps build a sense of depth in the picture.
So while you lacked in technique, the images can be rescued and you have learned about many mistakes that can be made.
Asher