weds-day: planning a wedding, in gifs

This has been my experience so far:

Getting engaged:

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Beginning the planning process:

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When you're a month out and you get so excited that you panic:

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2 weeks out:

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I am, for whatever reason, completely in denial that our wedding is nearly 2 weeks away. Shouldn't I be freaking out!? Shouldn't I be running around like a chicken with my head cut off? Truly, I've been firing off plenty of wedding-related emails daily, but mostly everything is done. So I've been kind of...chill...

I have been excited, though, to ask all of my already married friends what their #1 piece of advice is for the big day. Here are a few gems:

My friend told me that once she handed everything off to her planner 2 days before the wedding, she gave herself permission to let go of control and try and go with it.

A different friend told me to have as much done as possible going into the week of the wedding. Inevitably, she said, there will be last minute errands you'll need to run, but again, try and get most tasks out of the way.

Possibly my favorite piece of advice was from a client:

"Everyone kept trying to make me feel better and keep me calm the weeks leading up to it when things would go wrong by telling me that even if everything didn't turn out the way that I envisioned that it would still be perfect and no one would ever know.  blah blah.  Ya know what? That's bs - I hadn't worked hard and stressed for a year so that my wedding would be 90% - so,I'm not going to give you those lines - stay strong and keep your conviction and everything will be perfect."

A gal after my own heart (thank you, J!).

So, that's where I'm at right now. We have a dear, dear friend's wedding this weekend, and possibly it will jolt me back into reality...

Happy Weds-day!

xoxo,

greetings from wedding land...

...where it's all wedding, all the time. Hashtag basic bitch?

Lovely friends, I'll post here when I've got something good.

Otherwise, follow along on Instagram, won't you?

xoxo,

weekend recap

Friends, good morning! Yesterday was an unintentional absence - we had no internet - so I apologize for leaving you guys hanging. Honestly, though, it was nice to be forced to recharge after the weekend, which was filled to the brim with wedding related errands.

Bright and early Friday morning, Raven, Charlie and I headed up to Madison, CT, which is the home base of Jennie Fresa and her team. It was a rainy morning and I happily nursed some green tea while Tricia and I got to work on my face. In case you need a refresher, here's what I've been thinking for makeup, and here's the final result:

top by ace & jig

I told Tricia I wanted super rosy cheeks, a wee cat eye, razor sharp brows and no pores (ha!). I was so pleased with the result and cannot recommend Tricia from Jennie Fresa enough!

The rest of the weekend was filled with meal after meal (after meal) - our wedding tasting, trying out different spots for the rehearsal dinner, our cake tasting - definitely came home with my pants fitting a bit more snug than usual. But! The menu is done, the rehearsal dinner plans are underway, we have a cake, and we're getting married! Whew!

All in all the weekend was a fantastic retreat in CT, one of our favorite spots on earth...

Shit is getting real my friends!!

xoxo,

wedding stress

I have none, and it's stressing me out. No, seriously! I know I will probably eat my words at some point, but legitimately, I am not worried about this wedding at all and it's bugging me out! When does the stress come? When do the fights happen? When will I inexplicably lose 5-10 lbs without trying??

All joking aside (because I don't want to be stressed or fight with my lovely fiance), I'm puzzled by my current state. All of the big items on our to-do list have been done for almost months, and I go days without doing anything wedding related. It's only when someone brings it up do I realize that, OH! I'm getting married in 8 months!

I was an event planner for years, so lots of the dealing with vendors, and organizing / negotiating comes easily to me, but I won't flatter myself and think that I'm just miraculously so ahead of schedule that I'm breezing through my engagement. I honestly feel like I'm forgetting something!

So here I am again asking you all for advice - what do you wish someone had told you about wedding planning? Did you procrastinate at all and leave something to the last minute?

Fill me in, GIVE ME YOUR SECRETS!

xoxo,

photo by Julia Elizabeth.