I’m sharing an update on our wedding planning process with 206 days to go before our wedding day!
I realized that I haven’t shared much about wedding planning, so I thought I would give a few details on how the planning process is going.
Before we started planning our wedding, I set an intention to make the process easy, simple, and fun. After we got engaged, many people shared their own stories of how stressful wedding planning was for them, and I didn’t want us to have the same experience.
I really wanted the energy around wedding planning to be peaceful and I wanted us to truly enjoy the process. It’s helped that we have a longer engagement – a year and a half – and that we’re having a small wedding.
We’re also keeping things pretty simple. We’re not having a bridal party, a flower girl, a ring bearer, or a DJ or band. Doing less definitely makes the wedding planning process easier!
I ordered The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner and Organizer shortly after we got engaged, and it’s been so helpful for planning. We have no clue what we’re doing, so I’ve been checking in with the timeline provided in the planning book. So far we’re on schedule! The planner also provides questions to ask vendors, which has been super helpful.
The fiancé and I went to Colorado in August to look at wedding venues, and we took about a month to decide on our venue. I did a ton of research online and we toured four venues in Colorado. I think we both knew which venue would be best, but we took our time weighing out all of our options.
We’re getting married at Mary’s Lake Lodge in Estes Park. It’s a 100 year old lodge and mountain resort located along the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. We were looking for a wedding venue with mountain views, on site lodging, and mostly inclusive wedding services, so Mary’s Lake Lodge is perfect for us.
The weekend after Thanksgiving, I went wedding dress shopping at Hello Beautiful in Kearney, NE (where I live). It was such a beautiful experience. My mom, sister-in-law, niece, a girlfriend, and my future mother-in-law came to help me choose my dress. It was fun to share the experience with all of them. Megan, one of the owners at Hello Beautiful, was really attentive, helped me get in and out of every dress, and was incredibly helpful.
I tried on about 10 dresses, and ended up choosing my wedding dress! It’s absolutely gorgeous and even better than what I had envisioned.
We made our guest list and sent out save the dates. We bought our save the dates from Holly Berkeley of Always B Brave on Etsy. We’re trying to keep our wedding as green as possible, so we ordered a digital file of our save the dates and sent them to our guests via email.
I created our wedding website on The Knot. We added our guest list to our website so that guests can RSVP online. That way we don’t have to send out RSVP cards that guests have to send back. It’s another way to save paper and all the resources required for delivering snail mail.
We recently booked our photographer. We hired Deana Johnson Photography to take our wedding photos. We love her natural light photography, that she captures intimate and candid photos, and how she incorporates nature into her photographs. Deana also took many of the photos for my website!
Next on our to do list is researching florists, booking a cake baker, planning our ceremony, researching hair stylists and make up artists, and planning our rehearsal dinner. We’ll go back to Colorado in March or April to finalize some details at Mary’s Lake Lodge and meet with outside vendors.
That’s it!
What are some ways you made wedding planning easier and less stressful? Share in the comments!
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