Wedding traditions we skipped

Tradition can mean something different to everyone. There are Christmas traditions, first-day-of-summer traditions, and of course, wedding traditions. For our wedding (and wedding planning process) we skipped quite a few things many people would consider "traditional" and our day was just as special as anyone else's -in my opinion.

Sending out Save the Date cards. We were engaged for less thant three months. I think that's pretty self explanatory in that it would have been a ridiculous waste of time, paper, and money to send them out. So we just stuck with the formal invitiations.

Waiting to see each other before the ceremony: I talked already about our first look and our reasoning behind it here.

Tossing the bouquet/garter: We decided to skip this part at the last minute. Before the wedding I wasn't 100% on the idea anyway, being that we were having such a small wedding and only a small number of our guests were "single." I didn't want anyone to feel pressured or like they were being called out as single so during the reception when our photographer asked when we were going to do the toss, Derek and I made the executive decision to skip it. I really doubt anyone noticed.

Wearing a veil. Initially, I thought of wearing my mother's veil. It was a simple circular veil with lace trim around the edges. I had actually worn it for a play in high school. Unfortunately, over the years, between a move or two, it got misplaced. I had intended on wearing it in combination with the floral crown, but after we couldn't find it, I decided to go with the crown alone with a little ribbon. The flowers really complemented the "style" of our wedding, along with fitting my personality to a tee - and I still felt like a bride, even without the veil!

Dances. The only traditional dances we did were mine and Derek's first dance and then I shared a dance with my dad. When I said that Derek and I were opposites, I really meant it. I absolutely LOVE to dance - and I get it pretty honestly. At one point, I looked over on the dance floor and saw my parents (alone) getting down to "Shake Your Booty." Derek's mom and dad, however, barely stepped on the dance floor. At first I wanted Derek and his mom to have a dance but they were both not comfortable with the idea so I didn't push it.

Ring bearer/flower girl. Yes, the pictures are adorable of the little person walking down the aisle with a sign that says "Here comes your girl!" and other cute things. Or being pulled down in a little red wagon. We chose to skip out on this part for several reasons. First, we were lacking in the little people department. None of our close friends or family had kids the right age and though you could probably hire someone out, I didn't want to do that. Secondly, I was in a wedding several years ago and the flower girl & ring bearer got to walk down the aisle with ME! I actually ended up carrying the younger of the two, and when it was time for him to be handed off to Grandpa and me stand beside the bride, well... lets just say it was an interesting transition. Neither of us wanted to go through that, so we didn't. We actually wanted to have an entirely kid-free wedding and we nearly succeeded! 

Some wedding traditions we DID participate in:

-Cutting the cake/champagne toast (and by champagne I mean Miller Lite).

-First dance as bride and groom

-Having my dad walk me down the aisle
-Serving dinner (I was NOT about to starve) instead of "finger foods"
-Getting married by a church officiant (I surprised myself with this one)

What are some things you decided to skip when planning your own wedding?

 

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How to plan a wedding in less than 3 months (part 1)

According to the Huffington Post, the majority of engagements last anywhere from 13-18 months. Ours was less than three months. Three months and 8 days to be exact. Or 10 weeks if you're in to that. Either way, it was WAY less than your average engagement.

Some people called me brave, but most called me crazy.

Let me start from the beginning: I knew before I was engaged that I would be getting married before the end of the year. Getting engaged was not a surprise to me (though I was surprised at when/how he did it). Does that make sense? Derek and I talked often about getting engaged and getting married - we had even been ring shopping several times together - and I knew before I was engaged that I wouldn't stay that way for long before I was married. I would say knowing beforehand that it was going to be "short and sweet" helped with any anxiety/stress/bridezilla issues I would have had.

So... how did I do it - how did I plan a nice (in my opinion) wedding in 70 days without driving myself (or anyone else) crazy? Simple. I had one rule: be flexible. I think being flexible and having an open mind were the number one things in planning my wedding - and they should be the number one rules for planning any wedding, no matter the length of the engagement.

After telling myself I would be flexible I got down to the nitty gritty: budget, venue, food, flowers, and photography. How much was I willing to spend/sacrifice on each? Where did I want to spend the most money? When did I want to get married? Were my dates firm or flexible? These were the first questions I asked myself and once I had those answers, I started the real planning.

After setting a "tentative" budget, the first thing I did was research venues. Since I "knew" I would be getting engaged (at some point) I had already done a little bit of online research - looking at websites, at former wedding pictures, and getting an idea of the cost of each venue. Questions I asked were: how long was the venue available to me (or did I have to pay extra to have the rehearsal on Friday night)? Did the price include tables, chairs, linens? Would I be required to use a "preferred vendor" list? Did it include or require event insurance? This really helped narrow down our potential venues.

The week after my engagement I started making phone calls to the few I had narrowed down. I had three dates I was willing to use: October 18, October 25, or November 1. I was really leaning toward the 25th. My most FAVORITE venue was not available that day. Or the other two. So I called a few more and my wedding date ended up being 10/18 (which just so happened to be Auburn's by-week, which was great). The venue we chose actually ended up being more beautiful than I could have imagined. And think! I might not have been married there if I wouldn't have been FLEXIBLE on my dates/choice of venue.

After setting the date and booking the venue - it was all downhill from there. Tune in next week for part two and (hopefully) a detailed timeline of my wedding planning process.

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday!

 

I'm back!

Hello! Holy moly, it's been almost a month (!) since I've visited this little space. Just in case you weren't around before, and this is your first time visiting (or maybe you're just really bad at paying attention to things) I got MARRIED over the weekend. 
When I last wrote, I talked about getting on a roller coaster. So far, this has been extremely accurate, but in an awesome way. I know it's only been a few days but being married is great. We had an awesome time on our honeymoon and are getting used to living together in my teeeeny tiny apartment. It's tough when he takes up as much closet space (if not more) than I do.
As far as the wedding goes, there were a few hiccups (when are there not?) but we made it through and the day was absolutely perfect! I could not have asked for a better wedding. I'll do a more detailed post later, and leave you with a few of my favorite pictures from the day (you may have already seen some of these if you follow me on instagram).

I have never felt more beautiful than I did on Saturday!

That may or may not be Miller Lite (it definitely is).

Me and my dear ole dad.

Me and my mom, dad, and brother.

Our photographer was a family friend, so unfortunately she does not have a website for me to share with you, but some of these are some of the few she has sent me, please to not share or save without letting me know! Thanks!