Favorite part of planning

I think my favorite part of planning is checking off our 'To Do' list haha!! As dorky as that sounds, I love seeing everything crossed off because it calms me down when I'm stressed about the wedding!

Besides that, I've loved creating our STD's and invites, wedding website, and registries with my FH. It's funny how society paints this picture of men not being interested in wedding planning, but deep down they really do have preferences! FH was vocal about what designs he didn't like, he wrote out the stories for our website, and he even went out of his way to pick things on our registry that weren't 'guy' related lol!

I agree with Shelly on the "to do" list, i love crossing things off, lol

I enjoyed a lot of it, My fiance helped design our invites/rsvps/envelopes and he helped me put them together with the wax seals, and now he is helping me with the table decor ideas.

we also enjoyed creating our own playlist for the ceremony and reception (we are just playing an itunes list of music through the chruch sound system, and having their AV guy run it.) Ryan gets so excited to see who RSVP'd back .. very early on we got a bunch of them back right away, now they are slowly trickling in.. about 40 MIA ones yet we are waiting on... but yeh, it's OUR wedding and I love to see him care as much as I do about stuff. and wanting to help out...

For me it was trying on dresses. Once I tried on my dress, it was like omg this is really happening, I'm getting married.

I have loved everything about wedding planning. I would even consider being a wedding planner now lmaoo. I think the most fun we've had together was going to showcases (could've been more if it wasn't for covid!). We had so much food and got tipsy and had fun touring venues for free! lol

I feel like i had the best time designing my signs and stuff. it's because i did that myself leisurely so it felt relaxing more than stressful

I hate to say this, but I didn't really enjoy planning.

I had some brief joy when I picked the venue, because I felt like I found something truly special. My in-laws trampled it by complaining about having to drive an hour, and they continued voicing that complaint throughout planning.

We both enjoyed picking out the special songs of the night (my bridal entrance, which was unique and there is a WHOLE story there, our first dance song, the father-daughter dance song, our cake cutting, the reception entrance, and a party song to get people up and dancing.)

Aside from that, we didn't get to do a tasting with our caterer due to extenuating circumstances (the food was great, but we didn't get to have any of it, before or during the wedding), cake tasting was stressful due to hubby going a bit groomzilla over it, my bridesmaids were utter PITAs over getting their dresses, we didn't get any pre-wedding parties (engagement, bridal shower, bachelor/ette parties), and people I told my wedding details to nitpicked them because they had no creative vision whatsoever.

I am hoping this will be different with our vow renewal. I had one major bum-out moment over the venue, but now I stumbled on another one that I am completely stoked for, and I have an idea for our invitations that I am also itchingly excited about.

Tasting with the caterer was the best part! It was the first time my fiancé and I really got on a similar page on wedding planning. It was a relaxed event and we went home with a to go box full of treats at the end!

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No, I totally get the excitement of checking things off the list! I have the same excitement, especially when I am stressed. I think most guys have preferences, it's just getting it out of them can be tough sometimes lol. That's so awesome how involved your FH has been!

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Table decor has definitely been a fun one with FH. I'm seeing his romantic side come out with some of the choices. That's adorable that he is getting excited about RSVP's

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I feel you! I did a wedding expo virtually and it was odd. I definitely would have enjoyed it more live. FH & my mother both got tipsy on our venue tour too (I was driving and reading contracts so I didn't get to indulge as much).

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I'm so sorry about your in-laws! Hopefully they came around in the end when they saw how happy you both were. I really want to hear the story about your entrance and see pictures! I'm glad you are excited for your vow renewal and I hope it is everything you want

I was lucky enough to do my dress shopping before covid, and it was so much fun. We had a really nice lunch after and everyone was just happy and excited. It made it feel really real.

I've been enjoying looking at different decoration ideas and really putting my vision for our day to life. I love talking to vendors about my ideas and seeing how excited they get.

And probably my absolute favorite thing about planning is when my FH randomly sends me something he likes that he wants to incorporate into our wedding. It makes me really happy when he wants to take part in some of the planning.

I loved all of it. The research and narrowing down of vendors, the lists, the visits to venues/dress appointments/etc. I honestly loved it all. I loved it so much that I’ve already offered to be a planner for one of my best friends who just got engaged, should she decide she wants help!

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Everyone ended up having a good time and all complimented how beautiful it was.

The entrance song... this is kind of funny and long, so just bear with me.

There was a website for a doll artist that I frequented as a teen. You may or may not be familiar with the concept, but these artists take Barbies and other mass-produced dolls, and they completely redo them - they give them fully custom hand-painted makeup, make them couture gowns and accessories. This one artist went a step further, and when she created dolls based on fairy tales, folklore, or mythology, she crafted a whole page with the source story, and each page had its own music.

I remember the moment I heard the song on the page, I thought that's my song. I knew it had to be my bridal entrance, even though I was only 14 years old at the time and the idea of getting married was far, far away.

Fast forward five years. The time comes to pick my ceremony music. I already know the song - I can't even fathom anything else. But I return to that website to find that the artist has changed all of the pages... and the song is gone. It was instrumental, so I had no lyrics to work from. I couldn't remember what doll it had belonged to, so I couldn't email the artist and ask if she knew what song she'd used (I absolutely would have, I was that determined.) All seemed lost, and I was very sad.

Out of happenstance, I found an old CD that has a lot of my files from my high school PC saved on it. I go through it to reminisce, and I find I have a folder of old MIDI files. I recognize them as soon as I open it: all of them had been saved from that old dollmaker's website. My heart skips a beat. I start clicking through and opening each one - and there. is. the. song. It's file name was something obscure to fit the page/story and not the actual name of the song. I tell my dad, and he takes the file and uses a special MIDI software to view its metadata.

And there it is. The title of the song and the artist. I was practically shaking when I emailed the ceremony pianist to tell her I had found the song (and she was thrilled to find the sheet music for me.) It isn't a mainstream or well-known song, though the artist is Jim Brickman, who is much bigger than I realized he was.

Just recently, I decided to listen to the song at home in my office, and my husband stopped, leaned in to listen, and said "I remember that song. I haven't heard that since you walked down the aisle to me." It remains very special to me to this day. If you actually trudged through that essay, thanks for reading.

I haven't gone too deep into planning, but so far it's been finding all these beautiful small venues! I especially love the ones that provide packages because it makes it so much easier! I feel like I learn something new every day during this wedding planning process. I try my best to shift gears in a different area when I am stressed out about planning lol. But I am very excited for when I find my dress!! I am also looking forward to my engagement photoshoot in July.

I loved dress shopping, but it went too quickly for me! A week after I got engaged, there was a pop up sample sale, so I went with some friends.... and walked out with a dress. Whee!

DH and I also enjoyed touring venues. Either they were just flat out interesting to see, or they provided us with 'horror' stories.

Tastings are ALWAYS fun.

And we liked working on the little things that made our wedding uniquely us.

I am pretty early in the process still but I don't know if anything will top creating the Save The Date card with my older sister. I had been feeling discouraged since I was having trouble finding something I liked and she stepped up to help.



My sister lives on the other side of the country and is my MOH. She video called and luckily both my FH and I were available to work through the details with her. We had so much fun we ended up talking for hours! She is a graphic artist who works for a commercial printer so her advice on how to achieve the best print quality was really useful, too.

We loved doing the registry and cake tasting haha. During covid, most other things were stressful and up in the air, but our registry and cake were the two things that wouldnt be ruined

I agree with PP. Just the feeling of checking off the to do list. Like i finalized our guest list and ordered the save the dates and I was on cloud 9! I know there is so much more to do, but the feeling of getting stuff done is a natural high for me. Dress shopping as well - ugh that was just the best day!

I love that my fiance is actually very interested in the planning but my absolute favorite so far has been designing the wedding website and designing the invitations. I love DIY and plan to diy most of the paper goods and my centerpieces. So excited to make everything match us.