DOS & DON'TS OF WEDDING PLANNING
October 10, 2019
As I mentioned in my previous wedding post, wedding planning can be super stressful! My (then) fiance and I planned our entire wedding ourselves and we definitely learned a few things along the way. Below are my dos and don'ts of wedding planning, hopefully they help you along in your planning process.
DO GET AN EARLY START
I know this is probably something everyone says but it's true! The time will honestly fly by and before you know it you'll be a week away from getting married. Give yourself lots of time and prioritize the most important things first. For us the first few things we did were the venue, the food, the invitations, the rentals and my wedding dress. You cannot have a wedding without a venue and they book fast (a year out at least), food is one of the things your guests will remember most and you'll need rentals for basically every stage of your big day. Everything else we booked along the way over the course of about 8 months, for example, the flowers, the DJ, the cake, etc.
DO ASK FOR HELP
Now this was something I was not good at doing during our wedding planning process. I took everything upon myself since I'm crazy and have to be in control. I had this illegitimate fear that if I didn't plan it or book it myself, it wasn't going to turn out right. Reach out to your friends, reach out to your family, ask around and see if anyone has any insights on vendors. People are willing to help if you just ask. If not you'll be a total stress case like I was!
DO MAKE PLANNING LISTS
I don't think our wedding would have gone as smoothly as it did if I hadn't made this insanely long list. I can't believe I'm saying this but we didn't forget one thing for our wedding and I can attest this to my list. I had a spiral notebook and made two columns, one on the left where I could mark once a task was complete and one on the right to write in a detailed (or simple) description of the task. I carried this notebook around with me everywhere for the last 2 months before the wedding. If I thought of something it went in the notebook. Once a task was complete, I marked it down. I think at one point our list was about 150 items long!
A few examples of things I had were...
- Wedding day lingerie
- Bride emergency kit
- Dress (duh!)
- Vendor follow ups
- Handmade signage
- Book hair appointment
DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF
Okay, okay, I definitely am the type of person who sweats the small stuff but to be honest, come the day-of all those teeny tiny things won't feel important. The morning of our wedding when all us girls were getting ready, I had bought silk robes for them and a white one for myself so we could get ready and take pictures in them. I was the last to take my robe out of the packaging when I noticed mine didn't come with a sash so there was so way to tie it closed! We improvised with a safety pin and all was good. I also later came to find out that our cake didn't arrive until 3:30, which is the same time our wedding started. Luckily our day-of coordinator kept that small detail to herself or I would have flipped out! I also had this vision in my mind of all our dining tables having lush, (real) garland on them. If you've looked into floral pricing for weddings you know how expensive it can be, so we cut the cot of purchasing garland from our florist and we improvised and cut strands off a road side weeping willow. They looked great for about an hour after we picked them (around 10 am) but by 4 they were super wilted. But what can you do? No use stressing over it, your friends and family are there because you are important to them, not because they care about table garland...catch my drift?
xx Nicole
OUR WEDDING
September 10, 2019
After months of planning, our dream day finally arrived and it was everything we hoped it to be! If you've gone through the wedding planning process you know how time consuming and stressful it can be, especially without having a full-time planner (and also planning a wedding from out of state!). We were lucky enough to have a friend of Tanner's family loan us their beautiful property for the day which turned out perfect, as you can see the place is picturesque.
The overall vibe I wanted for the wedding was bohemian with rich, rust tones, tons of flowers and antique pieces. I did a ton of research to find vendors that would go with my overall theme, luckily everything meshed well together in the end!
Photography: Mariana Tey Photography
Florals: Songbird Floristry
Rentals: Classic Vintage Rentals
Catering: Portland Catering Company
Cake: Sugar Street Bakery
Day-of Coordination: PNW Weddings with Rachael Moody
Hair & Makeup: Urban Oasis - Katheryn Ruegg
Bride's Dress: Madeline, Elora Dress - Luv Bridal
Bridesmaids Dresses: Lulu's
xx Nicole