What I've Learn While Wedding Planning So Far

This is a post I've been planning to write for awhile now and what better day to post it than today because it is officially 100 days until my wedding! I can't believe that tomorrow we will be in the double digits of the countdown that started out at 600+ days! For those of you new-ish to my blog, my fiance, John, and I got engaged in May of 2017 and decided to wait ~2 years to get married so we could save more money and buy a home before the wedding. We have since accomplished all the goals we planned to accomplish before saying "I do" which makes for a very happy couple over here. Back to this post. Today I am sharing with you a few things I have learned since becoming engaged and planning my wedding. I hope what I have to share helps you if you are engaged/almost engaged or is relatable if you are already married and went through the wedding planning process already.

Make a wedding email. Once you get engaged I highly recommend making an email account strictly for wedding related things. Use this email whenever you are reaching out to vendors or signing up for giveaways to prevent clogging up your personal email. I promise once you start signing up for different websites, such as The Knot and WeddingWire, your email will start to blow up. It's also nice to have this joint email with your significant other to allow you to both see the emails coming in.

I wish I could capture the true beauty of this shade of purple! Feel free to look up "amethyst" on the David's Bridal color swatches if you're curious :)

Pick a color scheme or theme. Choosing a color scheme or theme for your wedding makes some major parts of wedding planning a bit easier. When you go to pick any sort of decor or design your invitations, you can fall back on your theme/color scheme. John and I couldn’t think of a theme but we knew we wanted everything to revolve around different shades of purple. Now whenever we go to choose something, such as any decor, we go straight to purple.

Make a priorities list. Right off the bat, John and I made a list of what we'd need for the wedding (venue, photographer, caterer, DJ, etc.), and ordered them from "I'd pay anything to have what I want" to "I could go cheap on this and wouldn't notice." We chose to do this separately and then come together to discuss and make comprises. This really helped us go forward with planning because we now had price points to work with when researching vendors. We also realized what was important to one another, even though we were pretty much on the same page for everything.

True story: we have gone to the bridal show my venue hosts in April and September each time since booking our venue! Free food and the chance to win prizes! Also an excuse to swoon over the venue :)

Go to as many bridal shows/expos as you can. In the beginning, John and I tried going to a bunch to get ideas as to what we wanted and they were extremely helpful. A bridal show is actually where we found our DJ. He was the DJ for the event so we were able to see how he worked. We soon learned that bridal shows usually came with free food/drinks and giveaways. Even after choosing all of our vendors, we still tried to go to some just to see if we could snag any cool swag.

Enjoy being engaged! By this I mean, wear that "bride" shirt and show off that rock on your finger! My favorite part of being engaged has been being able to wear cute bride clothing when doing wedding related items and having random people congratulate me. This is your time to enjoy being the bride and share your excitement of your big day with anyone who cares to ask!

This is YOUR day. I can't stress this one enough because I really let other people's opinions control me in the beginning of wedding planning. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is going to want their two cents in. As much as getting advice and opinions from others is nice, it can also become overwhelming. You have to realize from the beginning that this is you and you soon-to-be spouse's wedding so in the end, you get to call all the shots. Don't choose something you don't want or invite somebody you really don't want to just to make somebody else happy. You will not be able to please everyone. Note: I understand some people may have a parent or somebody else paying for the wedding so they will want to help with the planning and decision making. I completely agree that they should have some say but do not let them keep you from having the day you've been dreaming about.

Question of the Day: What wedding planning advice have you learned or heard from other brides/grooms?