Retrospective Wedding Planning Tips

Now that the wedding is over and I can happily say that it went off without a hitch, I have a few more helpful wedding planning tips to share!

- Use your family and friend's gifts and talents.  We really made our wedding a friend and family affair when it came to all of the details.  We loved being able to display the talents of our loved ones and using so many friends and family members in our wedding lightened the load for us. There was no guessing game when it came to whether or not most of our vendors would be up to our standards, because we had a close relationship with so many people involved.  We were able to relax and trust that our outcome would be everything we hoped for.  We really couldn't have asked for a more trusted group of people to make our day a reality.

• My cousins, Ashley and Chris, did our photography, and my uncle took video.  Ash's website is linked on this post.
• My aunt and younger cousins helped with our polaroid guest book.  Which was SO FUN! 
• My little sister's dear friend, Lauren, made our beautiful and delicious cake! (Her website is also linked in the post above.) 
  

How amazing is this cake?!

• My mother-in-law made all of our wedding favors (homemade strawberry jam! Delicious!)
• My father-in-law handmade our seating card holders, which fit perfectly with our fall tree theme. 
  
  
  

Seating Cards!

• Our flowers were done by a local flower shop that has provided flowers to many family events over the years. They treated us like family and did a beautiful job.  It took me until two weeks after the wedding, when my flowers were beyond dead, to finally throw them away because I loved them so much!
• Our wedding was held in the church I grew up in and where my parents were married almost 35 years ago! Our reverend has been with our church since I was in middle school, has led my sisters and I through countless Bible studies, mission trips, and conferences, and is a trusted leader and gifted speaker.

- If your bridesmaids are spread throughout the country like mine were, the website Weddington Way is a great resource.  This website allows your bridesmaids to all order the same dresses no matter where in the world they live.  You can create a "showroom" where you select all of your favorite dresses and your girls can comment on the ones they like best.  Weddington Way offered great deals and had amazing customer service whenever I needed it. (Although one of my bridesmaids said she had trouble with their customer service, so take from that what you will).  We did have one sort of major issue with Weddington Way.  A couple of the girls used the sizing chart on the website to choose their dress size and did not take advantage of the website's policy that allows you to order and try on a dress prior to purchasing it... their dresses were much to big when they arrived!  (Weddington Way has been kind enough to reimburse them some of the money for their alterations because of the mixup.)

- We used the website vistaprint to order our wedding stationery in bulk for very cheap! Vistaprint has premade designs or allows you to use your own design or pictures.  Chuck designed our save-the-dates using the website and we ordered 250 of them for about $40 including shipping.  Most companies that specifically sell wedding stationery would cost upwards of $200 for that many save-the-date cards.

-Have your partner help with the planning! (Chuck specifically asked me to add this one, I swear!) Having a partner to do 50% of the work made my life so much easier, especially with my work and grad school schedules.  Chuck genuinely enjoyed being a part of the planning process and being able to incorporate his own ideas into the wedding.  He tends to be much more timely than I am when it comes to planning and made sure that things were done way ahead of time, leaving us with much less stress in the final weeks.  I think allowing Chuck to have a say in much of the wedding made it a more sentimental day for both of us!

Anything I missed? What did you find to be a helpful resource when you were planning your wedding?

THE WEDDING!

Well, we're married! And, I understand now why people have been getting married for thousands of years... getting married is so. much. fun!  I joked throughout our wedding day that I wish I could get married every weekend, because it really was the best day of our lives.  All of the people we love the most from the various corners of our lives were together in one room, dancing and sharing in our joy.  I felt beautiful and Chuck looked so handsome!  I am eager now to see the pictures my lovely cousin/photographer took so I can relive all the beautiful moments of the day.  (By the way check her and her talented husband's photography out at OC Image).

The whole day flew by in a blur.  Everyone said it would, and they were not exaggerating.  Chuck and I had discussed beforehand how quickly we knew it would go and how we should really make an effort to soak it in, but that is easier said than done.  There were so many people to catch up with and so many things to do that after the ceremony Chuck and I barely even saw each other until we crashed in our hotel room at 2am.  I don't know where the time went, but I am so grateful for that night with my favorite friends and family. The only thing I missed out on was a chance to really get to enjoy the cake.  I barely even had a chance to look at it, and, unfortunately, the top layer did not get saved for us. We will definitely have to have our friend, Lauren make us an anniversary cake next year! (Check out our cake baker, Lauren's site too!)  Overall, I wouldn't change a thing.

Thank you so much to our friends and family who helped us pull off such an amazing day.  All week our friends have been telling us how great our families are and our families have been mentioning how great our friends are! We already knew all of that, but I'm glad everyone we know has had a chance to experience the other individuals in our lives that leave us full of joy and gratitude every day.

We are excited to see where this journey of marriage takes us as we build our life and a family together.
We are so deeply blessed.