It’s been about three weeks since our wedding and we have been enjoying this time of reflection on our special day. It’s fun to discuss Nick’s parts of the day that I may not have been present during or forget about and vise versa. I thought it would be interesting to do a Wedding Q&A post to give you all some insight on the details of our day, if we wish we would have done anything different, etc. I recently asked our Instagram fam if they had any questions for us and they did not disappoint so here they are…

Where did you get married?

We got married at Baker Events Loft in Holland, MI

 

Where did you find your dress?

My dress was purchased through Anthropologies bridal line BHLDN. I was lucky enough to try on some dresses and get measured in the NYC store and actually picked out my gown at a BHLDN pop up shop here in Ann Arbor.

 

How did you pick your colors and theme?

A fun fact that you may or may not know about me is that I used to be a wedding photographer for about 4 years so I was familiar with the current trends of the industry and knew which ones I wanted to incorporate and which ones to pass on. The theme really started to come together after picking the venue. We loved the look and feel of a loft setting which is why we chose the venue we did because the interior is exactly what we were looking for. From there I just started searching Pinterest and Instagram for ideas and started narrowing down from there. As far as colors, I knew I wanted to keep things pretty neutral but have always loved earthy tones. I picked mauve for the bridesmaid’s dresses to add a feminine touch that would also correlate with the copper texture we were including throughout. I incorporated other earthy tones through the olive greenery, ivory table runners and grey suits for the guys.

 

Who was in your bridal party?

Our bridal party consisted of my four best friends, Nick’s brother and three of his best friends and of course Leo as our ring bearer/flower dog! 

 

What was your favorite part of your wedding? What was Nick’s? What was Leo’s?

My favorite part about our wedding day was having my biggest dream come true of marrying the love of my life as well as seeing family and friends from different walks of life in one group on the dance floor.

 

Nick’s favorite part was watching his beautiful bride walk down the aisle. (I let Nick type whatever he wanted but I think he had a great answer 😉 )

 

Leo’s favorite part was stealing the show, strutting down the aisle wearing white 😉

 

Are you proud of how Leo behaved on his big day?

We are very proud of Leo and were thrilled that he stayed quiet during the whole ceremony that way he could stay the entire time. Our game plan was to have his sitters exit with him even if he made one peep, but he thankfully that wasn’t an issue. It’s worth mentioning that we didn’t just get lucky with this situation. He had been well exercised by playing with other dogs for about 24 hours prior to the event and had a large dose of CBD. I have been to a wedding where two dogs caused a huge distraction and almost ripped the brides dress during the ceremony. Therefore, we knew we couldn’t just hope for the best if we wanted to include Leo in our ceremony and took the necessary steps to help it go as smoothly as possible.  

 

Is there anything you didn’t do that you wish you did or anything you wish you did differently?

The only thing that I wish I would have done differently is start getting ready sooner. I thought I left myself plenty of time, but that time was quickly erased from stopping for coffee and setting up our “get ready stations”. I would have loved to have more time to play around with my hair and make sure I really liked it and just relax before getting my dress on and starting the day. 

 

Highs and lows of the day?

On that note, the only low of the day was getting stressed and overwhelmed about running a bit behind in the morning. The highs of the day were endless but if I had to pick one I really loved our time taking photos of just Nick and I because we could just be intimate and soak in the fact that it was our wedding day. 

 

Did you write your own vows?

Yes! This is something that was very special to us. We wanted to make the ceremony our own and really communicate what we were promising to each other as well as the traditional vows. I’m so glad we did this and so shocked I made it through mine without bawling! 

 

What were the hardest parts about planning?

For us (mainly for me since Nick was so flexible) the hardest parts were picking the venue, the dress and finalizing the table arrangements. It probably took us 3-4 months of looking online and in person at venues all over the state before booking our date with our venue. I knew I wanted that loft style but nothing else felt right until I visited our venue which is funny because at the time of my first visit it was under construction for a remodel, but I could just tell it was going to be great. Things were very similar with my dress, I had a strong idea of what I wanted, although I was open minded, but it took about 8 bridal shops before I found “the one”. Lastly, it took me forever to decide on how the tables would be arranged and decorated. We had to wait until all of our RSVP’s came back to know how many tables we needed in the first place and if there would be a mix of round and rectangle or just rectangle due to the quantity the venue had. I went back and forth several times with my florist, comparing different price options of how she could decorate the tables. Then I had to pick out runners, candles, name tags, etc. I think this step would be much easier for someone who isn’t a creative at heart but the artist in me just wanted it to be perfect (without breaking the bank) and that took some time.  

 

What were the easiest parts about planning?

The easiest parts of the planning process for us were food and cake tasting. Funny, but it’s true. I can’t think of anything else I didn’t agonize over at least a little bit.  

 

What is the best way to budget?

I am no expert here as we ended up spending about 2x as much as we originally planned. Keep in mind that we were kind of clueless how much a wedding of the scale we wanted would cost. However, I would say just remember that things add up. I kept a spreadsheet of everything we bought for the wedding, even the small stuff and it helped to visualize where all that money was going. I would also say to decide on that’s most important to you and spend more in those.

Did you ever consider eloping? 

Yes, we did actually. When we started to price out how much this wedding was going to cost we couldn’t help but think where else we could put that money such as an epic destination elopement and money towards our first home. We decided against this option because we knew we wanted our family and friends to be part of it, especially our parents and it just didn’t make sense to ask them to spend money traveling to a destination just to see us elope and then go home. I would have also wanted to still have the same attire and photography quality for an elopement so that cost would have added up quickly as well and may not have saved as much as we think. To clarify, we did not consider a court room elopement. Nick, being the penny pincher that he is, probably would have considered it but me, being the artist that I am, did not, haha. 

Overall we are thrilled with how our wedding day turned out and would relive it all over again if we could! I hope you found this interesting and maybe even got some advice for your own upcoming wedding. If you have any more questions or if you think we missed something, feel free to leave us a note in the comments!