J+Z Wedding: What I Found Most Important

I've had a few people ask how I did certain things for my wedding and I also want to remember every detail because it was the most perfect day, so I thought I would do a little blog series about it!

Like most soon-to-be-brides, I had no idea where to start. I searched Pinterest for timelines and what was most important but quickly discovered I wasn't going to be engaged for a year (I had two months and one day and it was perfect), I am LDS which makes quite the difference as far as location, dress, etc., and I wanted my wedding to be ME, not an exact replica of someone else on Pinterest (though I did get many ideas from there).

So first things first, I found an old notebook and started to write down what I felt was most important. The list I started with ended up being quite different then what I actually ended with. Through my experience here is what I found most important:

1. A good photographer. I used Alixann Loosle. She is THE BEST. She has traveled all over the world to do what she does and captures emotions and moments perfectly. Her dad actually used to do our family pictures, since our families have always been really close, and she has done all the weddings in the Henderson fam so far. We LOVE her. I know a lot of people want to save money and I didn't want to spend a ton either but after getting all my wedding pictures back, if there is one thing I would suggest to be willing to spend money on, it would be a GREAT photographer. Those pictures are what you look back on for the rest of your life. Here's a little bit of her work:

Engagements

Bridals. (side note: I did mine without Zach and I actually was so glad I did it this way. The first time he saw me was in the temple and was something so special and I'll always have that with me.)

2. Food. Most people come for the food anyway, right? Well Zach and I wanted something that was us. While we were dating he made waffles all of the time so we thought of doing the waffles ourselves as that would turn out to be fairly cheap. After talking it over with my mom, she really didn't want to have to deal with a huge mess and would rather be enjoying the night rather than making sure all the food was okay. So we looked for caterers. This was beyond frustrating. I didn't want to pay hundreds for some desserts that I didn't even like. We asked our favorite waffle company Bruges if they catered and they said only by food truck. At first we didn't know what to think. We were having the reception at my parents home and didn't know if it would work out. The main Bruges guy was willing to come to my house a few weeks before to make sure it would all work and was SO nice. So we did a food truck and it was probably the BEST idea we had. He also had specially made plates for my family and Zach and I which were so delicious. If you haven't ever been there, go. Right now. For drinks, Zach is obsessed with milk so we did that and then some lemonade.

My father-in-law actually made this table for us. He did an AMAZING job.

3. Easy, but still nice, invitations. I think this is a big stress of weddings. How to gather all the invites, put it together, write it all out, don't leave out anyone, etc. Here is what we did and it worked better than I could have dreamed. I had one of my bridesmaids in charge of getting all the addresses off of Facebook and put them in a word document for me. My mom just so happened to still have all the addresses from my brothers wedding earlier that year and then I had Zach's mom give us a list of addresses as well. I then put them into an excel format so we could have them printed on our invitations. As we were deciding what our invitations should look like, I was very set on NOT sitting around for 48 hours stuffing, tying, stacking, hole punching, etc. invitations. I just wasn't going to do it. We had a neighbor get married the previous month and they did a postcard invitation. We thought that was genius and decided to do it ourselves. First it saved us SO much time. All we had to do was put a stamp on it and send it to the mail. EASY. SO EASY. Zach and I did it all in under an hour. PLUS it saved us money. We used Color Quick in provo. They were cheap but still very professional and fast. We did have to do some envelopes to invite people to the ceremony but most people were family so we didn't have to buy a stamp.

Front of invitation

Back of invitation. The stamp went in the top right corner and the person's address was just a little right from my bum :)

4. Make the reception fun! I'm going to do more on the reception later but as I was preparing for my reception I knew I wanted to be able to look back and think, "That was perfect." Now lots of things will go like you didn't plan but that's okay! I would suggest a few things: ask neighbors, families, and friends to help you set up if needed. I made like 4 maps of where I wanted everything to go and handed them out to bridesmaids and family. This helped me feel like I wasn't completely loosing my mind because they could look at the map and know where I wanted something to go. We still have people tell us that they felt like they were at a big party with close family and new friends. It was perfect. Also: take some time in the reception to laugh! Do some dancing, make your first dance something fun and most importantly ENJOY EVERY MOMENT!

5. WRITE IT DOWN. Seriously. If you have a thought, write it down in the notebook. My little notebook became somewhat of a diary and went with me everywhere during those 2 months and 1 day. I could cross things off, write reminders, and stay on track.

I know this isn't a regular list like you would find on pinterest but it's what I found most important. I was quite stressed but looking back it was all completely worth it. If I could relive that day over and over, I definitely would. And that's how I think it's supposed to be.

If you have any questions feel free to comment or email me: janalehenderson@gmail.com

To come: how I got my dress for under $400 and still got to design the whole thing :)