5 Wedding Planning Details Not to Overlook
The big day finally happened! After 2 postponements and almost two years of planning, replanning stress and drama, we FINALLY had our destination wedding in Saint-Emilion, France!
The week was absolutely incredible and my husband and I are overjoyed we finally got to celebrate our love with our friends and family. If you don’t know our story, we started planning our wedding in June 2019, and even went on a full wedding planning trip in November 2019. We toured the venue, did our catering and cake testing, makeup trials, and literally everything! We postponed our dream French wedding and ended up having a private elopement. But we still had our hearts set on the beautiful day we planned, and luckily we were able to pull it off!
I’m going to work on a separate blog all about the wedding day and planning tips for brides affected by the pandemic, but today I want to dish a little about some of the small wedding details you can often neglect. There are tons of things that will get thrown on your plate in the planning process, so here are a few things to make sure you don’t forget about in the weeks leading up to the big day, and of course on your wedding day itself. Keep reading for 5 Wedding Planning Details Not to Overlook!
5 Wedding Planning Details Not to Overlook
Your Day of Stationary
I realized I needed to find my own wedding stationary after our planning trip. After reviewing the options that the local vendors offered and the prices they wanted to charge, there was just no way! It would have been easier to just skip the day of stationary or use a lower quality local vendor, but I decided to do some research before making the final decision. I found Shine Wedding on Instagram and fell in love with the elegance and style of their designs. The printing is luxe and they have beautiful finishing details, like wax seals, vellum jackets, and real silk ribbons that made our day of printing look next level.
The team at Shine Wedding graciously gave me a credit to order my day of printing in exchange for this blog post and social media shares. They also offer really great discounts for reprints, since a lot of brides had to change their wedding dates and get their stationary reprinted.
Making Sure You Have a Steamer
Real talk, the day before my wedding one of my bridesmaids asked if we had a steamer. I assumed we did, but since it was an old French chateau I had no idea where it was. I searched the laundry room and where the cleaning supplies were and found an iron and ironing board, but no steamer. Turns out the venue never had one! Luckily our wedding planner was able to purchase one that evening so crisis was averted! But definitely check in advance if your venue has a steamer, or better yet, pack a travel one! It would have been nice to have more than one between my dress, super long veil, and the bridesmaid dresses.
Giving Yourself Time to Eat
Everyone says that brides forget to eat, but not this girl! I made sure I had a light healthy breakfast the morning of the wedding, and a small salad before I started getting ready. We missed the cocktail hour as most couples do, because we were taking photos, but some of my amazing friends snuck me appetizers so I at least got to get some snacks in. And yes, we made sure to eat our entire plated dinner! I know you want to socialize and catch up with all your guests, and will be pulled in a hundred different directions, but no one wants a hangry bride! Do yourself a favor and make sure you eat during the day and during the wedding!
Actually Rehearsing at Your Rehearsal Dinner
We kept our rehearsal dinner super laid back, but we did run through the ceremony details a few times before starting the party. And I’m glad we did because some moments would have been incredibly awkward if we didn’t have one!
Having Adequate Signage
In addition to wedding invitations, programs and menus, Shine Wedding also makes seating charts, welcome signs and other signage that will help your guests navigate the big day. That would come in super handy, especially if you are getting married at a small venue and don’t have ushers to show everyone around. All their designs are incredibly stylish, and it will make your life so much easier to get everything from a one-stop shop!
Hope this post helped with you brides to be! If you are starting to plan your wedding and looking for printing, make sure you order a FREE Shine Wedding Sample Kit. Once you see and feel the quality of their materials, you will be 100% convinced they are the perfect vendor for your wedding printing needs!
Stay tuned for more life updates and more pics from our French Destination Wedding!
How to Survive (and Actually Enjoy) Postponing Your Wedding
If you were a 2020 bride, it’s likely you have postponed your wedding due to coronavirus. Between the toll the virus has taken and the restrictions on group gatherings, weddings just weren’t possible in most cases. My husband and I were lucky enough to have a covid elopement and legally tie the knot. But our destination wedding in France has been postponed until next summer. Having a coronavirus wedding postponement was a bummer, but we had to prioritize our guest’s safety and ability to travel with ease. My destination wedding planner made rescheduling the wedding weekend as easy as possible, and I definitely learned a lot in the process. Here are my tips for postponing your wedding due to coronavirus (or really for any reason).
Stay Open Minded and Flexible
We have some other pretty big commitments lined up for next Spring and Summer, so finding a new date was tricky. While Friday and Saturday weddings are more traditional, we ended up having to settle on a mid-week date. Summer is peak wedding season, and you aren’t just competing with 2021 brides, but with all the 2020 brides that had to reschedule their weddings! While you may have had your heart set on a particular date, staying flexible will make the postponing process so much easier. Our priority was finding a date that worked for all our vendors so we wouldn’t lose our deposits. If you are having scheduling conflicts between vendors, prioritize the ones you can’t live without or paid the largest nonrefundable deposit to. Let the rest of the chips fall where they may!
Just note – if you have to pick a day or time that may be less convenient for guests, think of extra things you can do to give them a better experience. Consider a big welcome cocktail, after-wedding brunch, or organizing a local activity.
Take Your Time Finding Your Perfect Wedding Dress
Everyone spends months trying to figure out what to wear to a wedding. Your wedding dress is one of the most important elements of the big day. If you felt rushed choosing a dress or are feeling less enthusiastic about saying yes to the dress, here’s your chance to fix that! Stores may be opening soon and you’ll have a fresh new bridal collection to choose from. Or you can turn to custom wedding dress designer, Anomalie, for a fully custom gown. I got my wedding dress online with Anomalie and it was an amazing experience.
If you are still in love with your dress, complete your bridal look with the right shoes and accessories. If your new wedding date is in a different season than you originally planned, you may want to think of ways to tweak your look.
Enjoy Having More Time to Plan Your Wedding
Wedding planning can be stressful, to say the least. Even under normal circumstances, figuring out how to plan a wedding takes a huge amount of time, energy and money. Not to mention all the pre-wedding events you may have had to cancel! Having a few extra months to plan will help ease the stress of the planning process, give you more time to research vendors if you haven’t fully committed, and rethink tiny details that will make or break your day. Just do yourself a favor and spend less time on Pinterest! You don’t want to fall into a wedding planning rabbit hole and end up rethinking all your plans. If you have one, work with your wedding coordinator or wedding event planner to finalize details. If you haven’t enlisted a pro, see if anyone in your bridal party or your friends and family want to chip in to assist.
And if you didn’t already (or just want a do-over!) plan yourself a kick ass bachelorette trip! Whether with your bridal party and friends, or a solo vacation so you can practice self-care, plan a fun and refreshing weekend before the big day.
Take the Opportunity to Manage Your Wedding Budget
One more advantage of a wedding postponement – getting the chance to save more money! Weddings are expensive; figuring out how to pay for your wedding is one of the biggest stressors. Should your parents help pay for your wedding? That really all depends on your and your families circumstances. In our case, we are paying for everything on our own. As disappointed as we were to have to postpone, it does take a pretty big financial burden off our shoulders this year.
If you’ve been going crazy over wedding related expenses, give yourself a breather. Coronavirus has had a huge impact on the economy and everyone’s financial situation, so take the opportunity to reset and rethink your budget. If you need to cut wedding costs to save money, go ahead! If you are able to save up and feeling more flush, you may even want to spend more! If you are increasing your budget, think of something worth it to splurge on. That may be fancier flowers, a signature cocktail, or supplementing travel costs for some of your guests.
And remember – use the time to practice self-care!
2020 has been pretty tough. You may still be reeling from the pandemic and its devastating effects. If wedding planning has been stressful for you, take a break from it! Postponing will give you time to put your wedding plans on pause and pick them up when you are ready. If you have one, your event planner or event coordinator can let you know when it’s time to get back into action. If you are planning your wedding on your own or having a DIY wedding, set up a to do list and reminders on your calendar. Just make sure you are taking care of you!
