Wedding planning is, in a word, stressful. Before you get engaged, you dream of a beautiful wedding & the perfect gown, but you don’t actually have to figure out any of the details or concern yourself with a budget until you get engaged. Then everything changes! All those glorious ideas you had for how everything would look… those cost money! And lots of it.
RJ & I decided that planning a wedding wasn’t a stressful enough endeavor for us, so we added the challenge of planning it 500 miles away in New Orleans. Did I mention I had only been to New Orleans once in my life? Luckily for us, his grandparents live there, and he has visited frequently since he was a child, so not only is he pretty familiar with the area, but his grandma has been an absolute gem, visiting churches and reception sites for us, gathering all the little wedding extras so that we don’t have to ship them all. And we were able to visit one time in July, about two months into our engagement, so we could make some vendor selections and meet our pastor and the church-provided wedding coordinator. What a relief that trip was! I find that every time I get something accomplished, even if it is relatively small, I breathe a huge sigh of relief. Still, I feel an ever-present anxiety, and I think I will until the wedding is over, and we are relaxing on the beach in Hawaii!
What we’ve accomplished so far:
1.) Booked our church/met the pastor/went over the vows. (I just need to add that I adore the church & pastor we selected; they seem to be right in line with our values. For example, the pastor does not present us as “man and wife” or request that my dad “give me away.”)
2.) Selected our reception venue, which is all-inclusive. Alright!
3.) Picked out a cake.
4.) Chose our flowers.
5.) Set up an appointment at a beauty salon for the morning of the wedding.
6.) Booked our photographer – though that was pretty easy. My brother’s friend Ted, who I’ve known since I was four (!) offered to do our photography. He currently lives in the Boston area, but his wife is from New Orleans, and he actually got married in New Orleans!
7.) Booked our DJ. Another easy one – it’s my brother!
8.) Got my dress. This was tougher. My sister came out to Dallas for a long weekend, and I knew I absolutely had to pick my dress during those 4 short days. I couldn’t imagine dress shopping without my sister. Fortunately, we found “the dress” on Day 2 of her trip. Yay!
9.) Selected our honeymoon destination (Hawaii!), and my in-laws were kind enough to help us out with the flight!
10.) Sent out our invitations. These were hand-made by my sister-in-law, Marisa.
And my parents helped put them together. We have received so many compliments on them. People say they are the most creative invitations they have ever seen!
11.) Purchased numerous other wedding necessities – RJ’s tux, our attendants’
clothes, guest book, earrings, favors…. I could really go on & on. But you get the idea.
What we have left to do:
1.) Decide on ceremony music & reception music.
2.) Finalize the menu – though I must say, the restaurant laid out a wonderful baseline menu for us. We won’t have to make many changes.
3.) Get our hotel & rental car for the wedding day lined up.
4.) Figure out centerpieces & other decorations for the reception and church.
5.) The only other things left to do will have to be last-minute things – getting our marriage license, putting together favors, decorating….
Wow. It doesn’t sound so bad when I write it all out like that! We’re almost done! Thanks, blog. I feel a lot better now!
