Wedding Preperations
June 1st was the happiest day of my life. I had been dreaming of that moment ever since I met Tyler. He swept me off my feet on the first date and he’s been doing it ever since. I got engaged in May 2018 so I had about a year to plan my wedding. A year might seem like a long time but it flew by in the blink of an eye. There’s so much that goes into a wedding, it’s super easy to get overwhelmed just thinking about it. I have a pretty busy schedule so I hired a wedding planner and decorator, which was the best decision I could have made. It made my wedding experience a lot less stressful! After getting engaged, I picked a date almost immediately. With my family and my crazy schedule, It had to be planned ASAP. After I picked a date I sat down with my wedding planner and got some ideas rolling on what I wanted my wedding to look like. The next step was to find a venue, for me it wasn’t too hard. I had been thinking about my wedding for a long time and the only place I could think of was where we had our first date… the airport. My husband is a pilot and on our first date he took me to our local airport and took me flying, it was magical. We grew our love at the airport with breakfast dates, flying dates, or just going out to watch airplanes or stargaze. The airport was our place, and I couldn’t think of anywhere else to get married. After figuring out two of the main details, venue, and date, it was time to get to work.
You must set a budget for your wedding and keep organized because it’s easy to overspend, let me tell you!! Once you have a budget set, start to gather up your vendors and give your down payments to them so they have your date locked in. Picking vendors can be one of the hardest decisions to make because they make your wedding day, so pick wisely! It took me a while to figure out my vendors, I don’t think I had my vendors set in stone until around August 2018. It took about 3 to 4 months to research my vendors and making sure I had good ones. The next step was to go wedding dress shopping!! Picking out your wedding dress is so important to do 9 to 12 months before your wedding date. I wouldn’t suggest doing it any sooner because you never know if your tastes will change. I also don’t think you should pick it out any later than that either because there’s a chance you won’t be able to get your dream dress in time. I bought my dress at Kleinfelds in New York City and while I was there I filmed for Say Yes to The Dress. (Separate blog to follow about my experience filming). Before I went to Kleinfeld’s I went to try on dresses at a shop in my area. I knew I was going to Kleinfeld’s but I think it was important for me to try on different styles before I went there. I did this so I had an idea of what I did and didn’t like on myself. My wedding planner gave me advice when we started talking about my wedding, she said, “Don’t plan any colors or themes until you know your dress. The dress is what the whole wedding will be decorated around.” That’s exactly what I did after I came back from New York City and after finding my dream dress. It was also extremely important to figure out what the bridesmaids were to wear. I knew I wanted the bridesmaids in light blue because when I picked out my wedding dress I felt like a princess. I wanted my theme to be “airport meets Cinderella.” I couldn’t find any bridesmaids dresses I cared for so I actually went to a prom & pageant store and found a dress there. It was a lot more expensive than a regular bridesmaids dress but it was perfect. The dresses were a flowy Cinderella blue color; they fit exactly what I was thinking of. After figuring that out we were able to start planning the details. We pretty much had everything planned out long before the wedding because my wedding planner and I were on top of everything.
The week of the wedding was exhausting. Since I wasn’t having my wedding at an actual wedding venue it was a lot of work. We had to turn a whole hangar, basically a garage, into a wedding reception venue. We started with cleaning the hangar and planning out where everything was going to go Sunday-Tuesday. Wednesday is when the rentals came, the tent, both stages, tables, chairs, etc. On Thursday and Friday, we put the linens on the tables and got everything decorated. Saturday morning was when my wedding planner did all the detailed decorating and also the day the flower lady pieced all of the fresh floral together. When I saw my wedding all put together, it was everything I dreamed of and more. It took a lot of hard work and planning but it was so worth it. Sometimes I miss being engaged and planning out the wedding because it was a lot of fun, but being husband and wife beats it all. I love being married and I’m so glad we have such a good memory of our special day.