Setting the Wedding: Part 1

February 13, 2017

Setting the Wedding: Part 1

Welcome to Setting the Wedding!! This is a new series I’ll be starting. When we got engaged in December, and even before that, I knew I wanted to incorporate some wedding planning and bridal experiences on my blog as we make this journey. Today’s post will, obviously, be part 1 and I’ll be sharing a new blog each month. I don’t have a set plan for it or any guidelines, it’s just gonna be like a follow-along of this whole experience. As of right now, we are eight months out. I have a few important things taken care of, but there’s also a lot I haven’t even thought about. We’re gonna be getting into all of those details!

First things first, if you haven’t seen it already and would like to catch up, head on over to our engagement story to get caught up on our background and all those romantic details…

When we got engaged, I was in no rush to start planning things. I never wanted a quick engagement and always envisioned having about a year to hash out all the details. Since it happened right before Christmas, we decided to focus on the holidays first before starting anything. Although there was one thing on my mind - location! We knew exactly where we wanted to get married and did end up booking our venue two days before Christmas. My biggest concern was the date. I didn’t want to have to choose another location if no good dates were available.

To give you an idea and set the theme, we will be getting married on a farm in the beginning of October. The ceremony will take place in front of a pond and the reception will be in the event barn. I am so happy with the location we chose and don’t think we could have found a more perfect place with nicer people if we tried.

Once the venue was booked and all the holidays were out of the way, the next thing on our list was to make a rough draft guest list. Keep in mind, at this point, I still didn’t know what I was doing or where to start. I was mainly going off of what made the most sense to me. Creating a rough draft guest list was a great idea because we’ve had to refer back to that many times already. I did eventually get a wedding planner binder. I’m such an organizational freak, I had to have somewhere to keep everything, write down all the details, and give me a guideline to follow. I’ve been really pleased with the one I got (The Wedding Planner & Organizer by Mindy Weiss) and happy that I made the decision to get one so we have it to look back on for memories.

Around the middle of January is also when I said yes to the dress! My mom has had her eyes peeled for a sale on wedding dresses, so when she saw that our local David’s Bridal was having their famous $99 sale she immediately booked an appointment. That meant that I had to start thinking of ideas and what I wanted. I started pinning like crazy! The only details I had when I walked in the store was that I wanted lace. I could do with or without jewels and I also knew that strapless was not an option. I wanted at least something on my shoulders. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to find a dress on my first shopping trip. That’s another big detail I can check off my list.

One of my biggest goals when planning this wedding is to take things one step at a time. I’m determined not to put too many things on my plate at once and overwhelm myself. I plan on keeping this as simple, easy, and stress-free as possible. I mean, I know we’re talking about a wedding here and things will get stressful. But I won’t allow myself to focus on too many things at once. In order to do that, I’ve really been recruiting minimal help. I have a huge family and I love them to absolute pieces, but they all also have their own opinions and I know that much stress will come with the more people I have helping me plan. So I’ve decided to keep things as (somewhat) quiet as possible and really rely on my closest family members: my mom, dad, and sister.

Pinterest has been a huge help, of course! I’ve pinned many different ideas about things that I might want, but those are just that - ideas. I will get to things when the time comes. We’ve only very briefly touched on other details such as food, setup, music, registry, and honeymoon locations. According to the wedding binder, the next steps we need to take at this time are to select the bridal party, refine the guest list, and begin looking at wedding invitations.

A few things that are still on our to-do list that we haven’t done yet is to arrange for our families to meet, hire a photographer, book an officiant, and hire a wedding day coordinator. There are also a few things listed in the binder that I won’t be doing, such as save the date cards. To me, that just seems like a big waste and something I can do without.

I might be behind in a few things, but that’s okay. I haven’t thought of everything yet and I don’t want to. Planning a wedding is exciting and it’s easy to start jumping the gun and trying to do everything all at once. But like I said, I’m trying to stay as relaxed as possible and make this a fun experience. After all, I only plan on getting married once and I want this to be perfect. Perfect doesn’t mean getting fancy and everything being planned out to a tee. To me, perfect in this instance means simple, romantic, and timeless. That’s the theme we’re going for. ♥

~Mani Monday~

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow so you know I had to do something a little festive! This week I’m wearing yet another Sinful Colors polish in the shade Candy Coated. And what an appropriate name, too?! It’s a beautiful lavender with just the slightest bit of blue undertones and the tiniest amount of glitter if you look close enough. I haven’t worn this one in a while and I’m really enjoying it.