It has been a minute since my last wedding planning update! And SO much has happened. I truly cannot believe our wedding week begins in 3 weeks. We’re in the final stages now, and if there’s one piece of advice as a bride so far that I can give, it’s to front-load your wedding planning. I have been like a little squirrel for months storing away everything I could get done in advance, and it has really paid off because there’s not a long to-do list at this point. I have cards to write, vendors to do final check-ins with, but I’m not scouring Etsy for last-minute decorations I realize I need, I’m not still mulling over song choices, and overall, I’m not missing any key pieces for our wedding day.
Like my other posts on wedding planning, I’ll keep this one somewhat general because I don’t want to give away pictures of décor or visuals for the wedding day yet so everything is fresh for our guests. But here are some of my favorite moments from wedding planning the past few months since I last updated:
- Getting our wedding rings. I am beyond excited for us both to wear them.
- Doing final dress fittings with my seamstress. A couple of weeks ago, I had one of those special moments where I really “felt like a bride”: I was in my seamstress’s atelier, wearing my dress while she measured and cinched and marked all around me to get it closer to fitting perfectly. The atelier is on the first floor of a shared loft space, and the front door is a glass pane, and as people walked by on their way to other shops, they stopped, smiled, and admired my dress through the glass . . . it was just special and made everything feel so real.
- Getting some fun details in the mail that are now filling our guest room (custom cake toppers, table numbers, gifts for special people who are playing a role in our wedding day, etc.)
- Doing my hair and makeup trial with the most thoughtful and calming stylists ever. I am so excited for them to recreate the look on my wedding day!
- Writing our vows together and planning out our ceremony with our officiant. I have gotten chills so many times thinking about saying those words on our wedding day!
- Sending out invitations and getting our response cards in the mail! It’s so fun reading the sweet little notes some people have written to us with their response!
- Doing our cake tasting. So fun. We liked so many flavors and had such a hard time deciding that we ended up choosing a different one for each tier.
- Getting our marriage license!!
With each week that passes, I feel more ready for our wedding, and so I really do think we’ll be in good shape come August. I can’t wait to share every detail of our wedding day on the blog, and more details about the planning process once all the fun designs and surprises are out of the bag!
To close, here are some of my favorite “outtakes” from the planning process lately:
Visiting our venue with my mom (who took this picture). I get overwhelmed with a sense of peace and tranquility every time I go. It's such a beautiful and serene spot.
Going to the showroom to pick out our furniture, plates, and linen rentals. This setup is not at all what ours will look like, just showing a glimpse of the showroom :)
Getting a couple hundred of these cute fans in the mail to keep our guests cool during our outdoor ceremony!
Getting our marriage license at the Beverly Hills courthouse! (I edited the picture to block out our information, haha). This was SUCH a sweet and special moment, and it's when I officially initiated my name change to Baldridge :)
Doing a cake tasting. SO delicious and festive, and the people were so sweet.
Getting super fun and cute responses with our RSVP cards in the mail every day! I'm almost sad we've gotten all of our response cards now, because I loved checking the mail and getting a few every day. This one is from my best friend (and one of my bridesmaids).
This is what we sign for purposes of our church's records (not an official document but just something we do with our officiant). I loved the wording so much I wanted to share it here.
Since we only have 26 days left (!!) until the wedding, I'm not sure if I'll write another one of these planning posts before then, but I will be blogging all the details over the next few months! Thanks for following along.