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Wedding Part 5: Details


Last wedding post, finally! I couldn't fit all of the decor photos into the reception post, so this one is all the details. This might be the post I was most excited about seeing as this is where a lot of the work came in over the past year and a half. I'm so excited to share some of the little details including the centerpieces, table names, desserts, and signage. I'm so proud of how everything came together - it was all colorful, fun, and full of pop culture touches. So many people told us that it was the most "us" wedding they could have imagined. There was a lot of DIY, and it was all fairly simple. Neither of us wanted anything too over the top, and I think what we ended up with was perfect.

Wedding Part 4: The Reception


This post might end up being the longest and probably the least interesting photos for anyone who wasn't there, but it is what it is. When it comes to the planning, a bulk of it revolves around the reception. As I mentioned, we kept things pretty simple for the ceremony, so most of the little details were about the party. My next post will go into the decor, but oh man, our reception was a GOOD TIME. I've been thinking about something that was said to us a few times after the wedding, but a wedding really is only as good as the people there. At the end of the day, none of the details really mattered all that much. We had a lot of people tell us that it was the most fun wedding they've ever been to (which what every couple wants to hear) and it's truly only because we had such a good group of people. 

So much to unpack here, but in this post: the speeches (including my dad stealing the damn show), first dance, music, and food. 

My next post will be the last (finally) and will go over reception decor, desserts, and all of the little details in between. 

Wedding Part 3: The Ceremony


We're finally ready to talk about the actual wedding of it all! Today I'm sharing details on the ceremony + first look photos. For someone who was very into the planning process and all of the details, I surprised myself by wanting to keep things very simple for the ceremony. Jon felt the same way, but that was less surprising. In terms of the decor, it came down to budget in the end. As I mentioned, we tried really hard to keep our priorities in mind throughout the planning, and ceremony decor just did not feel like something worth spending a lot of money on. The room we got married in was gorgeous and at some point, while I was looking at aisle runners and seat decorations, I realized that the room was going to beautiful even without decorations. The only real decor we had was the arch, and that was very simple to plan. The venue provided the arch itself and the bouquets. We used fake flowers for the reception (more on that tomorrow), so really the only extra flowers we decided to pay for was the arch. I'll share some closeup photos in a details post this week, but I Dew Flowers (our florist who did both the bouquets and the arch flowers) absolutely killed it. Jessica was so sweet and she put these together just going off of a few inspirational photos that I showed her. I wanted really colorful flowers (they were much brighter in person) with lots of texture, and she just put together the most stunning arrangement. 

Details on the actual ceremony below!

Wedding Part 2: Getting Ready


Welcome to part 2 of wedding photos - another huge photo dump! I swear, choosing which pictures to share is impossible. I wasn't planning on sharing too many ready getting ones; in fact, I had planned to share first look in the same post, but I ended up choosing way too many. So enjoy a million pictures again with more to come! 

Throughout the whole wedding planning process, I tried really hard to keep our priorities in mind. I read a lot of blog posts and Facebook/Reddit comments about what former brides wish regretted, and I tried to remember that when it came to some of the details. My accessories? Important to me. Getting ready pics? Not so much. We got ready at the hotel with no matching robes or mimosas - though plenty of snacks and small glasses of champagne were involved. Jon and I didn't really want a big spectacle in general during our wedding, so like the whole event, getting ready was simple and filled with laughs. 

In this post: details on hair/makeup and accessories (including our best DIY!). 

Wedding Part 1: Portraits


How does anyone ever decide which wedding photos to share? We finally got the rest of our pictures back this weekend, and if there's one good thing to come out of being quarantined right now, it's that I've had nothing but time to stare at them over and over again. I have so many to share, and it's been so long since I've really blogged that I can't wait to post all of these and give some insights into our big day and the decisions that came out of planning. Before I get into it, let me say this: all signs pointed toward a disaster. We got married on Friday the 13th, we learned that it was going to rain only a few days beforehand (which I know is good luck but never feels like it), and of course, there was a global pandemic. 

I can say with confidence that this was the luckiest I have ever been in my entire life. The day before the wedding, we started getting cancellations, and I freaked out. At the time, people were just starting to realize how serious the pandemic was (and still is), and I was convinced no one was going to show up. Somehow, that didn't happen. Only a small handful ended up not being able to make it, and we had so many people make the trip out that we figured would cancel. It seems crazy and irresponsible now, but almost two months ago, this was right before quarantine started when we were all still figuring out what was going on. I strongly believe that if we had had the wedding a day or two later, we would have had to cancel. We made it just in time, and Jon and I will forever be grateful, especially as so many people are having to cancel their weddings. The situation is horrible right now, but Jon and I are safely quarantined together and still feeling like newlyweds. 

Okay, on to the fun stuff! These aren't even half of the portraits, and they're in no particular order because there are just too many to organize. In this post, I'll shed some light on choosing our venue and the dress! 

The 4 Hardest Things About Wedding Planning For Me


If I'm being honest, I wrote most of this post about five or six months ago. I wrote it as an outlet for my frustrations with the hardest parts of wedding planning for me, but I decided not to publish it because, while they're all valid, everything was manageable and I was worried about coming across as whining or complaining about everything. As much as these are all true, the planning has mostly been a joy so I didn't want that to be overshadowed by the things I've struggled with.

That said, reading this back over, I'm still feeling these things so I wanted to share. All of these are things I wasn't really expecting to struggle with, unlike the typical big decisions that come with their own baggage (like setting a budget and choosing a venue). Rather, these are the internal struggles that I've been dealing with that no one warned me about.

We're now two months away from the big day and some of these feelings have subsided a bit, but still, here they are:

(This outfit is unrelated, but I need some sort of photos to accompany my complaints)


2019 in Review


I was going to say something cliche about how quickly this year went by, but the more I think about it, it actually didn't for me. This year was eventful, to say the least, so many of the things that happened at the beginning of the year feel like they happened ages ago. However, when I say that this year felt long, I mean that in a good way. I had some huge life events and as always, did a lot of personal growth. I did a lot of thinking about what I want out of my career long-term, had a lot of self-awareness regarding some untreated anxiety, and did a lot of learning and growing with Jon as a couple. And of course, throughout all of this, I've been planning a wedding. It's been stressful, for sure, but a lot of my highlights include the planning process. It's been an incredibly exciting time, and I'm even okay with the stressful bits.

So as I do every year, enjoy my favorite outfits of year along with my personal highlights. As always, I also threw in my pop culture highlights. Enjoy!

Personal highlights:

  • Got engaged! I started the year with this piece of news (it happened at the end of January), and it goes without saying that this was the biggest thing to happen to me this year.
  • Celebrated four years with Jon (and coming up on five now)
  • Got a promotion and a raise
  • Turned 27
  • Went to the Parks and Recreation 10 year reunion
  • Was lucky enough to attend the premiere of Toy Story 4 (and saw celebs like Tom Hanks, Keanu Reeves, and more in person!)
  • Went to Napa for a business trip
  • Made a couple of trips to San Diego
  • Went to two Dapper Days
  • Had my last Disneyland trips before my pass expired
  • Had an amazing engagement party
  • Planned (most of) a wedding. Almost there!
  • Met Hilary of The Cutie Life in person and did Hello Kitty karaoke
  • Started Goddess Directory, a directory of women-owned independently owned shops. Through this, I got to interview a ton of amazing women about their businesses
  • Started I'm Dead Inside, a brand full of cute clothes and knick-knacks with dark phrases
  • Got to see my best friend Jenn during her first trip to California + take her to all of my favorite spots/introduce her to all my friends
  • Okay, more wedding planning. Each thing felt like a huge feat, but one biggest highlights was going wedding dress shopping with most of the important women in my life
  • Celebrated 7 years of blogging - even though I only kept it up every so often
  • Went to my first Pride parade
  • Had lots of adventures with Alyssa, including vintage shopping, photoshoots, and matching our outfits. 
  • Went to Vegas for my brother's 40th birthday...and just went back with family
  • Started wearing earrings. Yes, this IS a highlight.
  • Went to Pop-Up Disney
  • Visited the Neon Museum in Vegas this past weekend and got to see the Tim Burton exhibit there