It’s [wedding] season, and with wedding season comes a lot of excitement, decision-making and stress. I didn’t even have a [traditional] wedding OR wedding celebration, and I still felt a ton of a pressure to make our event a good time for our guests.
At the beginning (my story):
Like I said, we didn’t have a [conventional] wedding by any means. After a relatively short period of dating, my husband popped the question. Our family and friends were certainly shocked and seemed to need some time to warm up to the idea. If it weren’t for this, we probably would have run away to a court house almost immediately.
Nearly one year later, and after several attempts to try and plan the average wedding, we decided it just wasn’t for us. We got married [locally] on Belle Isle, wed by one of my husband’s best friends. It was perfect, and it rained following our vows- a sign of good luck on wedding days!
Our family and friends pestered us, asking when we would celebrate, how we would plan it, and when it would be. We imagined something small and intimate- simple to say the least. As we began to plan, our guest list grew rapidly. Roland’s family is large, so his guest numbers quickly climbed. When we began to consider friends, the list seemed to be endless. I’m convinced there is no such thing as a simple wedding (especially a short guest list) without having to exclude some of the most important people in your life.
While I could talk about much of the event planning details, the intent for this blog is strictly for the bride- hopefully some helpful advice in the leading days before they are zipped into their dress.
- [REALIZE]: While little details are important, and your guests will notice and appreciate them, they will mostly only notice the overall concept and how it fits in with your wedding’s overall theme. DO NOT drive yourself crazy trying to perfect every letter and brush stroke or fixing all of the tedious little flaws like scratches and residual hot glue showing on your decorations.
- [USE YOUR P.T.O.]: The week leading up to your big day will be hectic and the execution of each piece can be time consuming. Unless you have all the help in the world to support you, forget going to gym, eating healthy/meal prepping, sleeping well AND being your best self as an employee at your 9-5 job. I took two days off leading up to our big day and it DIDN’T SEEM ENOUGH. Save up your PTO and use as many days as possible to give yourself the time to prepare, and any additional time to breathe and relax.
- [SLEEP]: If you’re anything like me, you will let the excitement and nerves leading up to your wedding affect your sleep. Take whatever extra steps you need to do to get yourself as many days of good rest- go for a long run late at night, take a hot shower before bed, drink a cup of warm milk, take a sip of Z-Quil, pop a melatonin. BE AWARE that two nights before you will be up late running checklists through your mind and calculating the final details; the night before you will be up late with any family that has arrived in town; and the night of, your friends won’t let you go home to rest (no matter how tired you are) because it’s their duty to help you celebrate late into the night. Fact: I could barely sleep the night before our reception, was up at 3AM and couldn’t go back to sleep. After our late lunch the next day, I was feeling incredibly exhausted, despite all of the adrenaline that was running through my veins during. That night I couldn’t stop yawning, even at the bars. Take necessary steps to get yourself a full days rest so you can enjoy every second of the 24 hrs surrounding your big day.
The End:
We spent Saturday evening with friends and family at Ottava Via in Corktown drinking cocktails, ordering pizzas, and playing bocce ball. The next morning we took photos together with our photographer Patty Rooney from Rooney & Company in the Dequindre Cut, shot family photos inside of the Fisher Theater building, and then headed across the street to Cuisine Restaurant where we had an intimate celebration with 120 of our closest friends and family.
We love Detroit and wanted to share it with our loved ones. #Detroit #Married2016 #Celebrated2017