Life Lessons: Wedding Planning

Things that I learned planning my wedding.

Every single person you come in contact has an opinion
I’ve learned to just smile and in one ear out the other.

You can’t make everyone happy
There are going to be people who don’t like your dress, your color scheme and maybe your  entire wedding and that’s ok.

If you can’t “buy” your vision make it yourself
I couldn’t find invitations I loved anywhere!  I found one piece of an invitation I liked and overhauled the rest of the invitation.  Also I couldn’t find the perfect shoes so I dyed my own.  Let’s be honest most of my wedding is based off of this idea.

Most of the pictures you see on blogs and Instagram are Editorials/Styled Shoots
Essentially meaning, professionals got together with unlimited amounts of cash and designed that one piece of the wedding and photographed it.  In other words it wasn’t a whole affair. Use them for inspiration, but don’t design your entire wedding to look identical to it.

Once you find something you love, stop looking
I fell in love with my bouquet and cake very early in the planning process.  I learned quickly not to second guess myself and go with my original love. If you keep looking you’ll just confuse yourself.  Go with your gut.

Things will go wrong
Two months before my wedding I got a call from the city saying the park I had reserved months ago was no longer available.  Luckily my MOH jumped in and went park searching the very next day.  Three days before the wedding we found out google had updated their maps and no longer took you to our venue.

Ask for Help
I suck at this one, but really you should. The only person I felt comfortable (outside of day of) asking was my MOH who is a saint. (Because I ask her all the time)  So if you want to help reach out.

Remember What it’s All About
This is your wedding day.  Don’t do anything you and your fiancé don’t want to do. I promise you will not regret it.

Wedding planning is stressful, but take it in stride.  When it’s all over, you just might find yourself missing it.

 

Congratulations, and happy planning!!

Videography

Photo property of Wally Films

There were a few things that I was passionate about when Cody and I got engaged.  I actually wrote a blog post, you can read it here.  One of my very top things was videography. You see, I watch random strangers wedding videos almost daily. (creeper status I know) I wanted our day to be captured in motion. I wanted to be able to hear our vows 20 years from now.  To see Cody’s face as I walked down the aisle.  The big problem?  Money. How could we ever afford a videographer? I knew that one would be worth every penny, but was it absolutely necessary?

I’m here to tell you that yes; a videographer is worth every single penny you spend.  (Within reason of course)  Pictures are great and should not be replaced with a videographer, or vice versa.  Just because you have a photographer doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also have a videographer.

We found our videographer by chance.  Just like everything in my wedding it was meant to be.  It was late November, Cody and I had decided that there was no way we would be able to afford a videographer.  Cody wasn’t working full time yet and it was something that could in all reality, be cut.  I was scrolling through Facebook when one of my friends shared a post about a “Black Friday Videography Sale”.  Those things don’t exist right? Wrong!  I quickly got on the videographers page and looked into it more.  I immediately messaged her and we were signed up with her within the hour.  I could tell just from her messages back and forth that she was just as excited to have us be her clients, as we were to have her be our videographer.  As the months went by I of course stalked admired her work and we added each other as friends on Facebook.  As the date got closer we both were crazy busy, but kept in touch via email.  I made sure she knew exactly what I wanted and she was always honest if she thought she could achieve it.  A few weeks before the wedding we met over Skype.  We discussed what was important to me, what kind of music we wanted, it was all feeling so real.  The one thing that stood out to both Cody and it was Alix’s passion.  Every time we would suggest something her eyes would light up and she would get so excited.  You could tell that not only did she do this to make a living, but she was so very passionate about it.  I knew that our video was in good hands because she took pride in her work.  She admitted that she learns new things all the time and I loved that she admitted that. 

Our video turned out better than I could have ever imagined.  She was able to capture Cody’s expression as he saw me for the first time.  She was also able to make our vows completely audible.  She recorded the cake “smash”, daddy daughter dance and our first dance.  She captured many precious moments between us and our guests.  These are all things that I can now watch anytime I want. These are things you cannot put a price on.

If you’re on the fence about a videographer, I promise that you will not regret having one.  There is nothing like it in the world.  Your wedding day is a crazy day and you run off of adrenaline most of it.  Trust me you want to be able to see everything in motion again for the rest of your life. 

If you live in Utah I would HIGHLY recommend WallyFilms.  Alix is as passionate as she is talented.  I absolutely love the film she did for us and would choose her again in a heartbeat.  You can watch my video here.