Weddings are exhausting....I would know because I planned every detail of mine in less then a year, Here's my story & how to survive wedding planning:
Story Time
Once upon a time two people fell in love.
Although their first encounter was extremely awkward. Followed by a strand of other awkward dates they would go on to be married and enjoy their lives together.They met by being smushed together in the back seat of a car for an hour long road trip to go get celebratory Sonic!. They did not speak to each other the whole way there thanks to their friend Patty. It wasn't until the Beast (Me) was fed and enjoyed some comedy that the Jester (now husband) provided that they would speak for the rest of the night. The connection continued to grow over the next few months. Then suddenly the Beast informed the Jester of wonderful but scary news. She was pregnant!, Overwhelmed and frightened they both decided to raise the baby and continue their journey together. They had a baby beast that almost killed its mother upon arrival. Both stayed for a period of time in the hospital. Once home and settled in the Jester and Beast decided they needed a castle of their own. Closing on this castle would take forever but they pulled through. After a year of being together the Beast and Jester went on a vacation to the magical land of Lake Placid where the Jester proposed his love to the Beast & asked to marry her to which she replied "Obviously".
Then came the wedding planning (the part you're actually interested in).
Once you get engaged you immediately go into panic mode. You overwhelm yourself with a ton of questions circling around in your head. Where do I start? When's the date? Who will we invite? When in reality you need to pump the breaks! Enjoy the moment. You just committed yourself to one person for the rest of your life & That is an amazing thing!
Aaron & I finished off our day & I didn't tell anyone until we go back to the hotel. I was too in love & too focused on remember his facial expression & his nervous shaky hands & the way he choked up when he asked me to marry him. So remember it shouldn't be stressful!, You wouldn't have said yes or asked if you couldn't handle it.
We started by choosing our date like most people do. We made it easy on ourselves. Friday the 13th, 2017(& yes it's corny but Jason Voorhess was there). It was the date of our 2 year anniversary. See not hard so far.
Secondly, We chose our wedding party. Mine changed over time my maid of honor to be and I had a falling out which was devastating. But my other best friend stepped up & I couldn't have been happier that she did. My husband's wedding party also changed. Due to his "best man" not being able to accommodate for the day we chose. Which I was actually happy about because "Patty" in the story above deserved it wayyyy more! He did after all bring us together. I digress.
After, we sorted out all of our people. I decided that we could save money in certain areas by DIY'ing most of our decor. So I set out to my "Trouble-store" (Trouble-store; Place where you get in trouble for spending too much money on crap you don't need) AcMoore, I picked up artificial flowers, some burlap, dollar mason jars, & white lanterns. I came home with one of my bridesmaids & we went to work. I made the beautiful center pieces pictured above first! I know what you're thinking "You're crazy","Who starts with Center pieces?", Well to answer both yes I am & people who don't stress. I just had an idea and went with it, Later decisions were much easier because I could build around something solid instead of just a million random ideas.
Next, I made my invitations. I found a template online and designed off of it.
Aaron & I knew we wanted to be married in Lake Placid, We found out where once I had started designing the invites. That's when we went to the golden arrow. We fell in love immediately & Another rock was thrown our way they were completely booked for our day due to a convention in town. But they liked us so much that they made sure they could do it!. We lucked out. 2 months later we went back for our food tasting (which was amazing) & since we were already there we also did our cake tasting at cake placid & sat down and drew up a design. The next week our invites went out, After I handmade all 54 of them with my maid of honor and two bottles of wine.Also that was the night I picked out the attire for the wedding party. Now 3 months into wedding planning & I have on my checklist a handful of things done. I'm not stressed either because I am actually enjoying myself with crafting and spending more time with my friends.
Then comes the day I have to pick out my dress. I tried on dress after dress for everyone make sure I tried on at least one of everyone's picks (& a couple of my own)
I saw my the one that I had picked out at the very beginning. I put it on and bought that dress off the rack. Unfortunately I would later spend quite a bit of money getting it altered. You see, I had bought my dress big so that way I wouldn't have to worry about losing weight because lets face it you have enough on your plate but I ended up losing about 25/30 pounds before my wedding. Once my dress was altered I ended up losing about 5 more pounds before my wedding after I had picked it up, So it did not fit completely but I still felt amazing. So now I only have Last minute things to do and I have about 5 months to do them all. So I turn to Pinterest for any decor I may be missing. Along with display ideas for a seating chart. I went with an old window very rustic feel to my wedding. & I found other ideas I would incorporate too like a frame for our loved ones who had passed. So I worked on them over the next 5 months (As well as adding things onto my work the I liked). Then the day before I celebrated with my wedding party (Finally had a small melt down, which is to be expected.) Could barely sleep due to excitement then I decorated the entire venue that morning (With help) & got ready I walked down the isle and everyone & everything else was a blur all I saw was him. I was riddled with happiness & even though some things weren't perfect just as i expected them to be! It didn't matter, I was now Mrs. Merrill.
So I guess what my tips would be are:
Tip One: Don't stress out, Your Wedding is for you not your guests.
It's one night, If something goes wrong its not the end of the world.
Tip Two: Give yourself enough time to plan!, Your significant other isn't going anywhere.
That's what the ring is for.
Tip Three: Ask for help if you need it.
Tip Four: Wine, Always have wine.
Tip Five: If relatives can't get along & be civil for your wedding, Then you don't need them there
My Secret Weapon: Weddingwire.com
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