Three years ago on March 4th, 2017, Joel took me down to Brighton Beach in Duluth, MN, and asked me to marry him. Four months later on July 14th 2017, we became husband and wife and chose to love each other forever. Yes. I 100% planned our wedding in just a little over four, short, FAST, months. Committing to each other for forever was something really important to us, and we knew we wanted to get married, so why put the wedding on pause? We wanted our wedding to happen as soon as possible! At times it was challenging and a little bit stressful, but I really loved having a short engagement. There was always something to plan or work on each day leading up to our wedding whether it was dress shopping, making decorations, picking out flowers, or working on the stationary stuff.....there was just always something to do. Here are some things to consider thinking about leading up to your wedding. TAKE IT ALL IN! One of the things I was told by SO many people when we were first engaged was to have fun with every second of planning and to take it all in! After we got engaged, I just gave myself a few days to relax and do just that. I was getting married! It was now time to start planning the biggest day of my life! ACCEPT HELP! Being as "in the moment" as I could and just having fun really made the planning of our wedding enjoyable. There were so many wonderful people who helped me plan and without them, our wedding wouldn't have been as great as it was. My mom was by far the biggest help in planning our wedding. I'm not sure what I would have done without her! There are so many little details you have to think of when planning a wedding, and 20-year-old me definitely needed some help in remembering them all! Love you mom, you're the best! When you plan your wedding, you will quickly learn that a wedding is much more than finding a dress, a venue, photographer, and sending out invites. There is a lot of work that goes into it! Let your mom, bridesmaids, friends, and even dad help out! My dad sanded, spray painted, and glittered our centerpieces and it truly meant so much! It's the little things that really help! BUDGET AND ORGANIZATION! It's definitely helpful to have a general idea/plan for your wedding day while obviously keeping the budget in mind as well. The Grands At Mulligans in Sartell, Minnesota was where we had our venue, and it was an amazing place. It was a good location for the majority of our guests, had tons of amenities that made planning simple, was in our price range, and was an absolutely gorgeous location. Weddings are expensive and before you know it, the little things will add up quick. Joel and I made a spreadsheet with all of the things we'd be spending money on and how much they'd cost such as the venue, meal, cake, drinks, flowers, wedding dress, tux rentals, decorations, invitations, music, photographer. . . . the list goes on and on. I can't imagine planning our wedding without a budget and a general plan. I mean I definitely could imagine it if I was a billionaire or had unlimited money, but obviously that wasn't the case for us. ;) DIY! I am not the world's most crafty DIYer, but I did do a couple of things myself to make things a little more personalized while also cutting down the cost. For example, my mom and her friends helped me make our invitations, RSVP's, and programs. They turned out so pretty and were customized just for us, while also saving us a lot of money as well. Also, I put together all of our decorations myself other than the big drapes/lights that the venue provided. Another thing I did myself was a simple guest book on Shutterfly filled with all of our engagement pictures and it worked great for us! I still love going through it and reading all of the sweet comments our friends and family left on our special day. SCHEDULE! Coming up with a schedule for the day of your wedding will make things go much more smooth than everything being word of mouth. Anyone who is involved in your wedding, (wedding party, DJ, immediate family, photographers, videographer, etc) should have a copy of the schedule and should know what is going on when and where. I actually typed it up on my Google Docs and shared it with everyone that way and also had paper copies. This way, everyone has the same expectations and knows where to be when. Obviously ours was realistic and wasn't to the exact minute of every hour, because I'm just not a type A personality, but just a general timeline of the day. It helped things to flow so much better than if I just had the timeline in my head. Don't be afraid to tell people where they need to be and when, it is your wedding, remember. ;) THINK ABOUT WHAT MATTERS MOST! Planning a wedding isn't easy. There are things that can be stressful and it can all be a little overwhelming. But just try to think about what actually matters to you and your husband. Remember, even though it's the most important day of your life, there are some things that you might come to realize aren't THAT important like you thought they'd be. That was my case anyways.... Decorations, for example. I originally thought I wanted lots and lots of extravagant, Pinterest-worthy decorations. After realizing how much work that was going to be and how expensive it would be, I decided on a table runner, a glittered wood slab in the middle, and jars with flowers and tea lights. If I asked one of our guests to tell me what our centerpieces were, there'd be a small chance that they actually remembered. Decorations are fun and obviously are important, but to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on them might not be worth it to you like it wasn't to me. Or... do you really want to spend $5000 on a videographer, or could you find someone who's much cheaper and will film the entire day for $900? I wanted as much of the day filmed as possible, and I found just that for a price right in our price range.
1 Comment
Jill Nelson
3/4/2020 07:06:20 pm
And it was a beautiful day!!! Best day ever!!!! ❤️❤️
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