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)

Wedding Diary Month 6: The Thick of It

Hello from almost the halfway point of wedding planning! At this point, we're over six months in and a little over 7 months away from the big day. I shared a little diary of what we had done so far after one month so I wanted to stop in and share where we're at now. We're officially on some of the big things!

Engagement Photos

Oh yes, another wedding post because that's essentially all this blog is now. But we're all okay with that, right? Right.

We got our engagement pictures back last week and to avoid flooding my Instagram with them, I figured it would be best to just do a dump of them here. I love them so much and this somehow STILL isn't all of the photos.

I've also really been enjoying digging into my process with all things wedding planning so I wanted to share the process of finding our photographers and taking these too!

Wedding Diary Month 1: The Overwhelming Start

(Outfit photo taken while looking at a venue) Dress: Apricity (exact) / Cardigan: Thrifted / Belt: Modcloth  (exact) / Shoes: Amazon

Because I've had a surprising amount of people message me and say that they want to know every detail about my wedding planning, I've decided to start a little online diary here where I can check in with where I am in the planning.

As I've mentioned, I think weddings are fascinating, and I really want to be transparent about the process. I suddenly feel like I've finally been asked to join this club and now I get to look at every wedding website and detail without shame. In other words, I finally feel like I don't have to hide my Pinterest board. Well, it's still hidden to everyone but my bridesmaids. I don't want to give too much away.

As I'm writing this, it's been one month since we've been engaged, and I feel a little overwhelmed - in a good way! There's just SO much to look at. Because I'm such a planner, I started planning basically the day we got engaged. And by the day we got engaged, I mean that I started researching the week before because I knew it was coming. Jon knew what he was getting himself into. It's only a month in, and I've already done a lot. We're not in any rush, but I'd rather book things in advance and get the dates/vendors that we want rather than wait until the last minute. Plus, this is fun for me!

So here's what we've done so far:

The Proposal

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! ...Just kidding. Jon and I are in an adult relationship and have understood that this is a big decision that we need to make together so we've been talking about this for a long time. Plus, he's a terrible liar, and I completely guessed when he was going to pop the question. But even if I knew it was coming, I still could not be more excited about marrying the best person I know.

We're so lucky to have a lot of family and friends asking us for details, so I thought it would make thing easier if I just wrote a post about it that I could share. Well, also I want to talk about this all the time to anyone who will listen. Anyone who knows me knows that brevity is not something I know well, so prepare for more than anyone would ever care about reading.

Wedding Guest Pro

This past weekend, I attended the wedding of a family friend and wore this gorgeous vintage dress. My parents have a group of three other couples whom they've been friends with since my dad's college days, and I've known all of them and their families my entire life. One of their sons got married, and it was a really wonderful wedding. To be honest, though, I kind of had forgotten about the wedding until last week, so I wasn't really sure what I was going to wear. Luckily, I had gotten this dress from one of my favorite vintage stores in LA, Slow. Unluckily for me, I had originally bought it to wear to Dapper Day at Disneyland, but couldn't go when I got sick that week. I was pretty bummed that I had spent money on this dress, but didn't get to wear it to Dapper Day, so I was happy when I realized I could put to good use at the wedding. Of course, it would have been better if it hadn't been the one night it was cold and windy, and I had only brought a light sweater. But what can you do, right?

Things have been pretty uneventful the past couple of days, but I'm really excited about my plans tonight. I've mentioned my love for Dan Harmon (creator of "Community" and "Rick and Morty") and his podcast, Harmontown, and I also told you about going to a taping of Harmontown last month. Well, if you're familiar with Harmon at all, then you know that he got fired from "Community" for one season (unjustly). During his year away from the show, he took Harmontown on the road and filmed a documentary (also called Harmontown), which is just about to come out. Well, tonight I have tickets to a screening of the doc, which will be moderated by Harmon, Kumail Nanjiani (one of my favorite comedians and host of The X-Files Files podcast), and comedy legend Dana Carvey. Plus, the ticket says there will most likely be other special guest. Cue the freak out. I apologize for anyone who follows me on social media because my excitement level will likely be through the roof.