Hello, Beautiful!

Where my Feyoncé babes at?! I’m screaming CONGRATULATIONS to all the newly engaged brides-to-be out there in Wedding Land! He (or she!) liked it, and now there’s a stunning, one-of-a-kind ring on it. But, what now?

Honey, relax! I know it can be both exciting and overwhelming to be engaged, but let’s focus on the exciting part first! This is your time, a time I hope you’ll look back on as one of the most fun – and most special – whirlwinds of your entire life! Soak up every last bit of that engagement bliss with your fiancé (for engaged gents!) or fianceé (for engaged ladies!) before you decide to let the stress of wedding planning start to creep on in.

Once you and your sweetie feel like you’ve had enough time to enjoy the moment, it can be a tad overwhelming trying to figure out just exactly how to start planning your forever. Big things you know you’ll need will start coming to mind – like the dress, the flowers, and all that food.

But then, the little things you didn’t necessarily think of at first will start to bring the panic . . . whether your venue provides enough chairs, what the state alcohol laws require of you to serve liquor at the reception, and who the heck is going to collect all the ish you brought into the venue – and your pressies! – late at night when it’s all said and done . . . . .

In the words of Anna Nalick’s song, “Breeeeeeathe. Juuuuust breathe.” I’m here to help you take a major step back, because I’ve got some really good news. There are actually a few things you can do / start thinking about now that will end up taking a LOT of stress off of you and your honey throughout your wedding planning journey. These tips and tricks will help you get an organized start with your wedding plans and will end up saving you a lot of stressful moments down the road!

If you’re newly engaged, then grab your glass of Prosecco or Champs and let’s get you on your way to the BEST day of your LIFE! Cheers, Doll!

1. Create a Wedding Planning Notebook!

Whether you make your own by grabbing a $0.15 Walmart folder to shove everything in or go all out by purchasing one of these bad boys, you’ll need a central location to store all your big ideas . . . and big invoices, LOL.

I’m a fan of spending the $20ish on an actual wedding planning notebook with binder clasps, sections, fill-in-the-blanks, and the “whole 9 yards” for so many reasons:

It doubles as a scrapbook, a keepsake of your wedding planning journey you’ll be able to show your family (or to share with your future daughter, awww!) one day.
It’s sturdier than a purse pocket or random spare envelope or folder you might have lying around at home, which means it’ll stand the test of time while you’re engaged. If you plan to meet with vendors in person and ask them questions about their services before booking them – which I would highly recommend doing! – you’ll need a place to keep all these questions . . . and the answers you get to them! Having one wedding planning notebook you can grab and head out the door with ready to go to any wedding-related appointment will be a major stress (and time) saver!
It’s a binder-style notebook, so you can always add to it or remove sections that aren’t relevant to you and your family. I loved being able to buy plastic sheet protectors to store all my invoices, receipts, and contracts in. You never know when you may need to look back and confirm that you’ve already made a payment to a vendor, so I’d highly recommend creating or buying a planner that can serve as a central location for these important documents!
It takes the guess work out of your wedding planning timeline and paves the way for you to plan in an organized and helpful fashion. Attire? There’s bound to be an entire section on it, with a few blurbs here and there of helpful considerations. Flowers? There’s probably a built-in chart describing which flowers bloom by the season, so you’ll know right away that if peonies are a must for you, an April, May, or June wedding it is!

2. Choose Your Wedding Colors + Theme!

This is the fun – and the easy – part! Choosing your wedding colors and theme is something you and your forever can do together, with no pressure. It’s impossible to get it wrong, because it’s all about doing whatever is true to you two. It’s also 100% FREE to decide what colors and theme you’re going to go with, almost like daydreaming with a purpose.

The Colors

Brides-to-be: It’s honestly hit or miss whether your groom will care about the wedding colors. If you’re thinking hot pink with baby pink accents, I’d definitely run that sort of commitment by your groom, because it’s his wedding day, too! (Plus, he’ll have to wear a hot pink tie, and he may just have some feels about that.)

My hubby Thomas has known my three favorite colors – blush, mint green, and gold – for . . . well . . . about as long as he’s known me, LOL! So, when we sat down to discuss wedding colors, his first words were, “Let me guess!” which made the conversation pretty easy. Thomas was happy with the mint color, because we decided we could really let it shine through in the succulents and eucalyptus we used for greenery. I thought he’d go with mint green for his tie, too, but he actually ended up picking a soft, light blush! It was actually perfect, because (little did he know) my ceremony dress was also blush!

The Theme

Pick a theme that is 100% true to you both, something you can look back on in 50 years and still find so special and meaningful to your relationship. Your theme can be fun and playful, like football, or it can be more classic and understated, like rustic vibes. An antique leather football that perhaps belonged to a family member can serve as the perfect guest book. Selecting a venue with a barn can really set the countryside tone for a rustic wedding!

Thomas and I were both born in Tennessee, and although he grew up overseas in Germany, we both have always felt that strong emotional tie to our home state. We both love the simple things of a life in the South, like stopping at roadside fruit stands or visiting Amish markets while we’re on road trips. Horseback riding has always been a big part of my life, so being around barns feel like second nature to me. We met in college in Tennessee during the month of October, in a haunted forest parking lot to be exact. I’m pumpkin obsessed, and over the years we’ve grown to love the season of Fall most of all.

We decided to call our wedding theme “Fall Rustic Glitter Chic,” but hindsight is 20/20 . . . . . We honestly could’ve gone with “Sparkle Pumpkins Errywhere” and would’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head.

3. Discuss What is Most Important to You Both . . . then Prioritize!

It’s so important to sit down and discuss your absolute “musts” with your future spouse.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been dreaming of your wedding day since you were a little girl, and you’ve been heavily planning your wedding on Pinterest since, well . . . before you were engaged! (Guilty!) You know the style of dress you want, the way you’ll ask your babesmaids, and the song you’ll walk down the aisle to. Now it’s time to know what your better half grew up daydreaming of, so you can prioritize the aspects of the wedding most important to you BOTH!

I recommend sitting down together with a glass of wine and each making a list of your Top 3 Wedding Priorities. Don’t look at each other’s list or try to arrive at the same answers. Take a few moments to think about what will be the most important parts of the best day of your life, and share with each other once you’ve finished!

When Thomas and I made our priority lists, they were pretty different. My top priorities were 1.) Photography, 2). Videography, and 3). Honoring my dad in some way. Thomas’s top priorities were 1). Food, 2). Alcohol, and 3). Not making our guests wait on us to take hours of pictures after the ceremony.

Brainstorming these priorities and discussing them together was the perfect way to dive into wedding planning together. And, what better way to start off your wedding planning adventure together than by being entirely on the same page?!

As different as your priorities may seem, they can really compliment one another if you think creatively and compromise! My priorities were more about preserving this once-in-a-lifetime moment, whereas Thomas’s goals were more about making sure our guests were well-fed, liquored up, and felt like a part of the celebration. But the thing is, BOTH of those ideas are SO important, which is one of the many reasons why we make such a great team! I just know the same goes for you and your soulmate!

For example, we were able to match my top priority – photography – with Thomas’s goal of being present at the reception as much as possible.

We decided to do a First Look before the ceremony so we could have some special, quiet time together to take photos. From there, we took the majority of our bridal party photos – still before the ceremony – so the only photos left to take after the vows were the family portraits. We also had a receiving line of our bridal party + us just outside the reception entrance, so we were able to give every single guest a quick hug and thank you before walking back down to our ceremony site for family photos! Win, win, WIN!

Parting Words: Remember What It’s All About!

Weddings are supposed to be the most magical, straight-out-of-a-fairytale days of our entire lives, but we all know the reality of planning a major party for one hundred of your closest family and friends: IT CAN BE STRESSFUL.

Go ahead and prepare yourself mentally to have a few days of tears and a few days where you want to pull your (or someone else’s) hair out. If you’re like me and Thomas and have to pay for your own wedding, you’ll definitely want to buckle up and brace yourself for some hard conversations about money. Which doesn’t grow on trees, by the way (so totally unfair). You can set the perfect budget that factors in everything, including a trip around the moon . . . and I can promise you now that you’ll still have to persevere daily to keep from going over that budget.

My parting words for you for when the wedding planning process starts weighing you down are this: Remember what it’s all about.

It’s about you two beginning your forever.
It’s about two families becoming one big (crazy) family.
It’s about you two choosing each other through every single decision, every compromise.
It’s about finally slipping that ring onto the love of your life’s hand and saying, “I do.”

As long as you walk back down the aisle – whether it’s the Grand Hall of the Biltmore Estate or the hallway of your local courthouse – hand-in-hand, married to your soulmate . . . NOTHING. ELSE. MATTERS.

Your love story will be like no one else’s, and that is something special in and of itself.

Cheers to you and your wedding planning journey! Be sure to leave me a comment below with your wedding date and anything you’re struggling with during the wedding planning process – I’ll help you out however I can!