We were engaged in November 2020, started planning in January 2021, married in April 2021! How did she do that? Sharing my tips on how I planned a full wedding in 2 1/2 months! Plus, I will also share the list of vendors I used in case that can be helpful to you. Looking back on the wedding planning process, I would say I have a few instrumental pieces of advice to share!
Don’t Sweat It
I know. Trust me, I get it. When you are planning your wedding, your big special day, everything seems to matter. The smallest things already do or will become so important to you. If you take away one thing from this post, please let it be this; Don’t sweat it. It’s hard to imagine or think this way when you are in the middle of planning and everything seems overwhelming. You will be so thankful if you allow yourself to do this.
Planning a wedding in a short amount of time can add additional challenges or pressures may be a better word here. On the flip side, I would also say that there is a hidden blessing in not having a lot of time. You are almost forced to just deal. Luckily for your future hubby, there really is no time for a bridezilla moment. We had a few pressures of our own when planning our wedding. When a hiccup arises, you have to roll with it. They are inevitable. S*$! happens and it is way out of your control. Adjust, fix, and continue on.
Hiccups Happen – Expect & Accept
The two biggest hiccups in our wedding planning were the invitation envelopes and the diocese paperwork. Let’s start with the invitation envelopes. Invitations are a critical piece to the puzzle. But, things like the venue and the date need to be confirmed before you can order the invitations. Needless to say, we were behind the eight ball on a critical piece.
We secured the date and the venue, I ordered the invitations with rush shipping, approved the proof, and they were on the way to print. When they arrived, the pre-printed return and shipping address on the envelopes was messed up. In some areas the letters overlapped and in other areas there was huge spacing between letters. I think this was the moment for me when I said, OK. I have to fix this and move on. What can I work on in the meantime while this is in resolution. Minted was great and rushed out new envelopes. The invitations went out a little later than I would have liked but c’est la vie!
The other hiccup, and this is a doozy, was that the Catholic Diocese rejected our paperwork. I’m sorry what?! I’ll have to spare you some of the details with this one because I could really carry on here 🙂 First, it’s important to know that the church for the ceremony is an hour from where we live. Our Priest was doing us a huge solid and was allowing us to complete the pre-marital class at a local church. Amazing! We found what we thought was a Catholic Church, gave the name, the email was sent, and we were set up for the class. During this timeframe, God rest his soul, our Priest passed away. This unfortunately led to some mis-communication between the two churches and us.
Turns out we completed a pre-marital class with a Lutheran Church not a Catholic Church. The Diocese requires the pre-marital class AND a one-day workshop that we had no idea about. They actually accepted our pre-marital class but we needed this workshop. There was no question, that was not negotiable. These workshops are once a month and turns out there was one workshop offered before our wedding date. By this time we had also secured the venue, the date, and sent the invitations! Just what you want to hear when wedding planning.
While we were waiting to find out if this one workshop had availability, we came to an agreement. We said ok, this is way out of our control. We want to be married in the church, but if it doesn’t work out, we will change the ceremony to the venue location. Done. We won’t have time for new invitations so we will call everyone. We just had to roll with it. As God would have it, the workshop had a spot and all worked out by the skin of our teeth. The ceremony in the church was beautiful.
Delegate, Delegate, Delegate
When planning your wedding you will quickly know the things you need to be doing yourself and what you can delegate out to someone else. If you are able, look at venues where they offer more than just their space. Most have packages that you can select from where certain things they include and they take a lot off your plate. We did just that! The package that chose included the catering and the cake. It was such a relief that I didn’t have to source these vendors. The venue even scheduled our taste testing appointments with them. All we had to do was show up and eat!
If you have a bridal party, ask them to help with small things as well. They could assemble wedding favors or hotel baskets for you, make phone calls if you are needing to collect information, or pick up anything that is ready and cannot be delivered. My MIL and MOH were a huge help in this area. I was so grateful.
Happily Ever After
When you are planning your wedding try to not put so much pressure on one. When Tristan and I talk about that day I realized that I don’t remember a word the deacon said, all the songs that played, or anything else that I thought was so important. The most important thing was that I was married to the man I love more than words could describe and we were surrounded by friends and family. The material things are wonderful keepsakes but nothing is better than the memories from your special day.
Sharing all the vendors I used, except for two since I would not recommend them. All the others I am sharing were phenomenal and helped make the day so special.
- Wedding Invitations: Minted
- Wedding Dress: Nicole Maree Bridal
- Louboutins
- Makeup: Beauty By Briana
- Wooden Guestbook: Meaningful Frames
- Acrylic Name Sign: Adorning Oaks
- Cake Topper: Rawkrft
- Wedding Favor Tag: Life’s Memorable Events
- Reception Ceremony: Harbour House
- Photographer: Liz Cowie
- DJ: Brett Brisbois Events
- Hotel we/guests Stayed: Hilton Melbourne Oceanfront
Till Next Time,
