Wedding Wednesday: Planning Update

I haven’t written a Wedding Wednesday post in forever so it felt like it was about time. I’d love to write some followup Wedding Wednesday posts to share more about some of these topics and my experiences but, in the meantime, I’ve got a list full of my planning updates. I just went to Charleston a week and a half ago with Edwin for a wedding planning trip so that and Valentine’s Day have me feeling extra inspired lately. If you follow me on Instagram then hopefully you kept up with my Instagram Story during the trip. Other than my Insta story on that trip, I really haven’t done a great job of keeping y’all updated on my planning progress. This list does not include the endless number of emails and the endless number of phone calls that have supported everything but it’s a start. I must say that my mom and my planner, Lindsey at A Charleston Bride, have helped me so much with everything on this list so a HUGE never-ending thank you to my mama and the best planner! Here goes with a bunch of what I’ve done so far:

Wedding Wednesday: Planning Update

1. Said YES to the dress! I’m keeping my dress a big secret from everyone, even my bridesmaids but I’m so incredibly in love with it. I can’t wait to show everyone on my wedding day!

2. Designed our Save the Dates. This process was so much fun and so creative. I can’t say enough wonderful things about Rachael at Studio R for making my vision come to life! I will definitely be sharing my Save the Dates down the road because I’m so in love with them.

3. Booked all our wedding weekend events! It’s going to be a big weekend of celebrating with a bridal luncheon, a rehearsal dinner, a welcome party, the wedding, and a farewell brunch. Note to self: get lots of beauty sleep the week before!

4. Vendors, check! We’ve picked and booked our band (SO overjoyed about them!), photographer, videographer, caterer, minister, paper place, hair and makeup team, and the list goes on.

5. Wedding Tasting, YUM! Edwin, my dad, my mom, my planner, and I all did the wedding food tasting with our caterer, Cru Catering. Goodness gracious was it delicious and maybe the most food I’ve ever eaten. We canceled our dinner reservation for later that night because we were all still too full! Cru is so amazing they are even adapting my favorite recipe of my Grandma’s. Like so many Mississippi woman, my grandma was an amazing Southern cook! We tasted more food than we will actually serve at the wedding so we could get the menu just right… hence the reason we were stuffed. One hint: so much Southern food (aka my favorite).

6. Said cheese for Engagement photos. I CAN’T wait to get the photos back from our wedding photographer, Virgil Bunao. We shot all our photos in Downtown Charleston and on Sullivan’s Island so I know they are going to be gorgeous. Meeting Virgil was such a happy experience. Edwin and I loved him because, even though he is shooting a bunch of weddings this year, he made us feel like we were his only bride and groom! P.S. I can’t even tell you how long it took me to pick out my outfits for the photos.

7. I asked my wonderful loves of my life to be my bridesmaids. Did you see how I asked my bridesmaids!? It was my favorite Wedding Wednesday post yet! P.S. My lovely sister is my Maid of Honor!

8. Bridesmaid dresses are in motion. I get asked about this constantly because it really took me awhile to settle on my vision. I’m happy to say that my ideas are complete so now the search is on. Cynthia Smith is in my corner helping me with these dresses so I can’t wait to share how they turn out!

9. Welcome bags or welcome baskets? I think welcome bags/baskets are the perfect way to personalize a wedding. When I look at weddings on wedding blogs, I often go straight to photos of the welcome bags (and the paper) because I feel like they always give a great idea of who the couple is and what they like. My mom and I had a meeting with our wedding planner and Lindsay of A Signature Welcome last week so welcome bags/baskets are on my mind. Our brainstorming session was so productive… my toes are wiggling waiting for our proposal that should arrive at the end of the week.

10. I’m thinking healthy and dedicated time and care to my wedding body. I’m not doing anything extreme, I’m just making conscious choices to only put beneficial foods in my body. Kelly LeVeque is really helping me with this thanks to her smoothies and her Fab Four method that I’m trying to follow (every meal should have the “fab four” of protein, fat, greens, and fiber). P.S. I definitely broke this plan for the wedding tasting!

11. I’m counting down to our Engagement Party! Edwin and I got engaged back in May so I’m ecstatic and overjoyed to be celebrating our happy news with our friends and family at the end of the month! All the planning is done (except I don’t have my shoes picked out, eeek!). Now, I’m just figuring out last minute details for the schedule of the weekend leading up to the party on Saturday night. The whole party definitely has a very fitting theme so stay tuned for when I share all the details and photos! Now all that’s left to do is enjoy it!

12. Registering is time consuming yet really fun. A few weeks back, my mom flew to Los Angeles for a day to help Edwin and I register. We had a blast! We got so much done! However, we still have quite a bit to do! In fact, my mom and I have a phone date scheduled for tonight to finish registering online. Edwin was an amazing sport when we registered but he definitely got his dose of wedding china, kitchen utensils, and linens so my mom and I are taking it from here.

13. Is this wedding website done yet!? I honestly don’t see a huge purpose in a wedding website but I also understand the need to have a space to share registry links, accommodation and transportation information, etc. It sounds silly but it’s been hard for Edwin and I to both finish a full day of work, finish post-work to-do lists, and actually have time together only to sit down and build a website. My personal goal is to finish it by the end of next week. Wish us luck!

14. It’s Friday, I’m in love! The Friday before our wedding is going to be a beautiful, busy, full day. Thanks to my planner, her event-specific Pinterest boards, her mood boards, and all her imagination, we’ve started planning the three Friday events: the bridal luncheon, the rehearsal dinner, and the welcome party. Each event will be connected and cohesive but each will also stand on its own as a beautiful event… very many thanks to my planner, Lindsey, for this!

15. We’ll be leaving in style! We booked our getaway car and it’s named The Betty. We loved this particular car but we also knew it was the perfect car for us because my grandmother was named Betty. So, she’ll be with us in her own special way that night.

16. We booked our hotel room blocks… way more back and fourth emails went into this than you’d guess but we got it just right. I think everyone will love their stay!

17. Bachelorette gone country! I’ve booked my bachelorette and it can’t come soon enough. I have to be patient though because it’s not until this summer. I’m keeping the location a secret for now but it’s definitely an outdoors spot and not your average bachelorette destination.

18. Oh me, oh my, our wedding colors. Believe it or not but settling on our wedding colors has been the absolute hardest part of the process so far for me! I honestly could not nail down my colors until I started working with Rachael on our Save the Dates. Throughout the process of designing our Save the Dates, my vision all started coming more and more to life and my colors started emerging. I’m 100% going to write a full post on this because it was such a thing in my planning process. I’ll share my colors then so stay tuned!

19. We made our guest list and boy was it a headache. It takes forever to gather all this information and to organize it. I’m so grateful for all the help on this that I got from Edwin, my parents, Edwin’s parents, and Edwin’s sister! I strongly advise any brides-to-be to give yourself time to do this instead of waiting until the last minute because it could get very overwhelming.

20. While it’s so fun to plan the wedding weekend, the most important part is saying I do with Edwin while being surrounded by the grace of God. So, we picked our minister and have done some premarital counseling with him. I know that it’s not for everyone but it’s been a really rewarding experience for us.

Writing this list has made me feel both exhausted and invigorated! These 20 planning items are all rather big things but we’ve also done so many little things like deciding which twine to use on our engagement party invitations. All the planning has definitely been a lot of work but it has been so so enjoyable, fun, and stress free. Since our engagement is so long, we’ve had a wonderful amount of time to gather all our ideas and inspiration, to make all our decisions, and to accomplish our tasks. The lack of stress around it all has made the whole experience that much more amazing! It’s a really great experience too to plan a wedding with your fiancé and such a special time with your mom. Thanks for sticking through reading this long post. Stay tuned for more Wedding Wednesday posts to come this year!

Photograph: Southern Weddings