Sometimes it felt like I'd never get to write one of these, but we did it! Now that we are well beyond the two-week mark and haven't had reports of anyone getting sick, I feel comfortable sharing our day. Once I get our full album back, I'll definitely be sharing more pictures! 
Background: My now-husband (ahh!) and I started dating in 2015, got engaged in 2018, and picked our wedding date almost immediately -- booking most vendors by December of that year. We originally planned on inviting 130, but chose to scale things back to 35, and canceled our DJ. We kept pretty much everything else, with the addition of some pandemic-related precautions.
The Good: I got to marry my best friend, of course! The ceremony was easily one of the best moments of my life, and I felt very present. We also got a ton of compliments on it--along with the live music! (Hired a violinist and cellist after canceling the DJ, and I think that part worked out for the best.)
We could not have asked for a prettier day! October in Cleveland can be anything from hot to rainy to snowy, but we had a day in the 70s with no rain (until late evening).
While I hadn't really asked for help from my bridesmaids at all during the planning process, I was taken aback how much they helped day-of. I don't know how the day would've gone without them, and it made me that much more appreciative of our relationships.
Considering the state of the world, we were also just so thrilled to be able to share our day with some of our friends and family, even though it wasn't what we initially planned. Everyone loved the food and seemed to have a nice time, despite it not having a party atmosphere. With just 35 people, we still ran out of time to visit everyone, but at least got to greet each guest.
I also have to say that my photographer was PHENOMENAL and hiring her was easily one of the best decisions we made. Apart from the actual pictures, she just had such an overall impact on making things happen and keeping me calm (invest in a good photographer, you will not regret it).
The Bad: I'm not going to lie, a lot of things went wrong. My hair stylist was over 2 hours late due to a mixup, which meant the entire day-of timeline became rushed, and I didn't get many getting ready photos as I would've liked, or the pictures with my mom that I wanted.
Someone got blood on my dress (thankfully, we had a stain stick).
A last-minute event at the venue got scheduled the same day as my wedding, and my venue coordinator could've handled things better.
Because I was so stressed, I could barely eat, and you could read the anxiety on my face in a lot of the pictures (I'm hoping when we get the full album back that it won't be as rough as it is in my head, lol). Fortunately, I relaxed after the ceremony.
But I don't feel like I can claim it was the best day of my life, perfect, or magical. Parts of it were, but not the whole day, and I think that's more common than it seems.
However, I am glad we went through with our plans. I'm so relieved that it's over and that no one got sick, and am just so happy to be married and to feel like we can move on with our lives now. Waiting and planning in uncertainty was driving me mad, so I'm very thankful we can now look forward to other moments and just enjoy being married. I've written at length all over these forums about why we didn't postpone, and I am happy with our decision.
Post-wedding Bonuses: I love wearing my wedding band, and it's fun using husband/wife terminology. I think my husband was very excited to call me his wife when he lost me in Target, and got to say to an associate, "I've lost my wife - where are women's socks?"
My husband also refers to me as "boo," and keeps making comments about how he likes "wife boo" better, lol.
We took a mini-moon to a state park and stayed in a luxury cabin, only for 3 nights, but it was wonderful!
& now, some of the sneak peek pictures!
