Budget: $12,000 - my parents gifted us $5,000 and my husband and I paid for the rest ourselves
Guest count: around 50 people (over half of our guests came from out of state)
The Good:- I was really fortunate to have super professional, reasonable, and thoughtful vendors. My venue was a “blank slate” venue, meaning I chose all of the vendors myself. Everyone was wonderful to work with. It could’ve turned out WAY differently given the fact that I didn’t have a wedding planner or a day-of coordinator, so I’m very grateful. - Setup was a breeze! I budgeted 4-5 hours because it was just me, my MOH, two friends, and my dad helping with setup of the whole venue and courtyard; however, we were totally done in under 3hrs! It was wonderful to know everything looked how I wanted it to because I was involved in the process of putting it there!
The Bad: - My friend helped me make all of the acrylic signage for our wedding using her Cricut. She was a little late on getting them done and she insisted that she’d bring them day-of, but by the time she arrived to the venue I was already getting ready and hidden from view. So she just put them wherever, and a few of them never got put up at all. It sucks cuz she and I spent so much time working on them, but then no one got to see them. Also, my photographer only got pics of a few since they arrived so late. - Our photographer also didn’t get pics of our invitations/save the dates. They were in the box with all of our other ‘detail shot’ items (shoes, earrings, perfume bottle, garter, etc) but they were inside an envelope and I’m guessing she didn’t feel right opening the envelope up, so she didn’t know that’s what was in there. I should’ve labeled the envelope for her or made a list of everything I wanted in those shots for clarity. Ah well! - Ceremony music was a bit messed up because we only had a DJ for the reception. My brother was really confused on how to work the Spotify playlist, which I didn’t anticipate, and I couldn’t help him as I was hidden. We did our best, but basically there was no pre-ceremony music, and there was no music playing right after we were pronounced husband and wife. I just laughed, looked at the guests, and said: “pretend there’s music playing!” Everybody laughed. I tried to let it roll off my shoulders. (: - The officiant forgot to give me the long-stemmed rose that I got for my mom as a way to honor her at the beginning of the ceremony. She said she just got caught up in the moment, which is fine. She was incredible otherwise. I just didn’t want to interrupt her once she’d started, so I gave my mom the rose at the end of the night instead! - A few crying babies during the ceremony. If your kid is crying—LEAVE THE ROOM IMMEDIATELY!! Lol I can’t believe that needs to be said, but apparently....
Honestly though, that was it! I really feel like every other tiny detail was executed exactly as I imagined it. Kinda amazing, really!
The Wonderful:- I married my Person - We were married in the most beautiful place I’m lucky enough to call my home now. All of my out-of-state guests kept thanking us for inviting them to such an amazing place (I’m originally from IL), and it made me feel so great to know their trip was worth it. - Getting to see everybody’s Utah vacations through social media. I was watching everybody’s stories the whole time they were here just to see what fun things they were up to! - My best friends from college FaceTimed our professor who sadly couldn’t make it to the wedding, and our photographer got pics of it! - Our incredible wedding video: here it is (https://drive.google.com/file/d/17UHRXbKEIbl9PzDYIK3vfyY8GPyJQAdE/view?usp=drivesdk)
And now for the pictures!
