5 Things I Learned While Planning My Own Wedding

For Couples, Inspiration, Planning Tips

Clarks Landing Yacht Club | July 16, 2021

Photo Credit: Clarks Landing Yacht Club, Jon Pivko

1. Trust your vendors

You hired them for a reason, they are professionals in the very specific thing you hired them for (i.e. photo or florals). They know what they are doing and have done this a hundred times! They have seen what does and does not work to better assist you to make your day as seamless as possible! Let them do their job and trust that they will make everything perfect!

2. It’s okay to change your mind

I had a set vision of my wedding in my head since I was a little girl. I wanted the reception to be held in a mansion-type of venue with my girls in black bridesmaid dresses with red flowers and the guys in classic black and white tuxedos. Modern aesthetic to the max! However, when we started looking at venues, I soon came to realize that wasn’t what I wanted anymore and fell in love with Clarks Landing, a classic and traditional yacht club on the water! All my original ideas went out the window and we ended up with sand color bridesmaid dresses, white florals, and the guys in midnight blue tuxedos! It couldn’t have been further from what I originally had in mind. Trust your gut, if what you imagined when you were 10 years old isn’t the same as what you want now, that’s okay!

3. Don’t do something, just because it’s trendy, do it because you want to

Instagram and Pinterest create this illusion of weddings. They are perfectly curated content that is most of the time unrealistic for large 200+ guest events. They introduce trends that may or may not align with what you and your fiancé want. It’s the age-old saying ‘if your friend jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?’

Don’t compare yourself to others and what you see online, do what you and your fiancé want to do. Your guests will remember how much fun they had and how beautiful you looked, not the neon sign, succulent favor, or pampas grass!

4. Don’t compare your wedding to someone else’s

Going off the last point, don’t compare your wedding to someone else’s. You are going to fight a never-ending battle with yourself trying to one-up every wedding you attend or see online. My best advice is to mute those accounts and do what you want and what is within your budget. Your day is going to be amazing no matter what someone else does at theirs.

5. Do what you want

There are going to be lots of opinions and lots of advice from the second you get engaged! Whether it’s your sister, your coworker, or some random lady at the store who notices your ring, everyone has something to say about something! They all mean well and just want to help but at the end of the day, it’s your and your fiancé’s day, do what you both want and what feels right to you! This way you will look back with no regrets.