Wedding Plans Abound

It’s Monday and so far this week has already been eventful. I normally work from home, but today AT&T is having a major issue in my area so I had to go into the office for the first time in months. My desk equipment was all harvested and redeployed to other employees so it was a struggle to get up and running this morning. Then I busted my thumbnail on a dang charging brick so my fingernails look wonky. Oh well, I’ll live.

I had my nails done over the summer by a place that jacked up my nails. I have strong natural nails that grow nicely. The tech that was doing my nails that day decided I needed to have some acrylic tips put on a few of my fingers to make them all the same length, instead of cutting them. Normally I’d say cut them, but I figured I’d try and see how it came out. They looked beautiful, but I hated the way they felt. My nails are my all-purpose multi-tools and I couldn’t do anything with them. The thickness of the acrylic layer on these nails was so much that my nails became useless spoons. I went and had them taken off a few weeks ago but the nailbeds under those acrylics are an absolute wreck. I’m getting married in mid-November, I hope my nails recover.

Wedding prep is at the top of my list of things that I focus on right now. I’m incredibly excited for my wedding day though. I have picked out my dress but I have not ordered it yet. I have to have my friend help me get all of my measurements. I’m ordering a custom dress from Amazon. I know it seems sketchy, but I read all the reviews, I’ve seen the dress on all different body types, and lots of real wedding photos with the dress on, so I feel confident in the seller. It’s a gorgeous dress, I can’t wait for him to see me in it for the first time.

We are going to do first look photos, which I am looking forward to. We are going to do them with the two of us seeing each other for the first time and then a few with his daughter / my bonus kid.

The whole event will be only about 35 people including us. I wanted a large wedding at first and we had even hired a wedding planner. For our needs, that was a mistake. The wedding planner we hired was not a good fit for a multitude of reasons including cost control and misleading our expectations at the top of the list. We bought a package from her that was called “just get the dress” for 10k. As we understood it, the 10k price tag was to cover everything except our wedding attire. It would include the caterer, venue, DJ, and Photographer as well as her “wedding styling services.” We were quite incorrect. The 10k covered her wedding styling services (decorating), her liaising with the vendors we chose from her list, her time talking to us on “planning calls” and her time the day of. Everything else was on us, which is fine, but don’t sell me a package that makes me think I have my vendor services included. If we had gone that way, this wedding would have cost me at least 6 months’ salary and I’m just not that kind of person.

Once we took matters into our own hands, the cost dropped significantly, and the litany of things I was “supposed” to do (showers, brunches, rehearsal dinners, hire a makeup and hair stylist, spend a grand on a dress, etc) dwindled dramatically.

The drawback is that I had to figure out the rest on my own. Over time the guest list has shrunk to a small intimate gathering of the people that I love. There will be some notable folks missing like my childhood best friend and my sister and nephew, but they both would have had to come from of state and no matter how you slice it, that is hard to make happen with kids in tow.

I found a DJ (the most important vendor to me) with a photo booth for a super reasonable rate for what I want. I know it has become trendy, but I love the idea of an old-fashioned photo booth. I think its fun and I get copies of all of the photos that my guests take, so I think I’ll get some real treasures from that

My photographer is a friend of a friend and the work is decent. To put it in perspective, I was not going to hire a photographer at all. But the internet had me afraid that I was making a bad decision. So I met them and we have the same idea about the types of shots I want and I think that I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I don’t want posed portraits at all if I can help it. My wedding is supposed to be a celebration of love with all of the people that mean the most to me and that I want to share my joy. I want lots of candid photos of silly moments and joyful laughter and sweet memories. I’m tempted to put a disposable camera on every table as they did in the 90s and just see what pictures people take

Originally, we were going to cater our wedding. I’m a decent cook, and most of the people in my life can throw down pretty well in the kitchen. When we were looking for caterers, it was hard to find a menu that wasn’t classic New Orleans fare with things like jambalaya, crawfish pies, red beans, and boudin balls. While those things are delicious and I DO live near New Orleans, that’s not what I wanted for my wedding menu. My plan was to do old family recipe for comfort food. As the wedding got closer, the task of planning and preparing and coordinating all of that food plus coordinating everything else on my wedding day became a huge stressor, so my fiance took over that task and found us a caterer that suits us perfectly and is quite within the budget. We’re having a fruit display, cranberry dip, chips and salsa, garden salad, loaded chicken salad croissants, brisket, green beans, squash, a SWEET POTATO BAR, berry cobbler, and white chocolate bread pudding.

There is a lot more stuff still to be done, but Im excited that all of this is out of the way. Only 2 more months to go!

Have a beautiful day