8 Little Wedding To-Do’s That Weren’t So Little (…for me)

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You know, there is a common misconception that booking the venue and the wedding vendors are the biggest tasks on the wedding checklist. I just want to take a moment today, not to stress out any future brides, but to give them a heads up. Had I known how long these seemingly simple tasks would take, I might have started working on them sooner, or asked for some help earlier on!

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Here’s a list of 8 things that took me way longer than I expected (and no one warned me about!):

1. Collecting Mailing Addresses
It’s easy when it’s just your friends, but when it’s friends of family members or extended cousins you haven’t met that you’re sending a courtesy invite to, getting ahold of people across the world can be tough. I can’t say how thankful I am for Justin’s mom for helping me so much with this!

2. Addressing my invitations
So. Many. Names.

Thank goodness for Kristin Farnum of Phoenix Feathers Calligraphy who beautifully addressed mine for me about half-way through when I gave up! You need to hire her. Not only does she save you time, but people will call you just to tell you how pretty the envelope was. Seriously!

3. Confirming RSVP’s
I totally understand forgetting to RSVP. Such is life. But who knew it was so hard for people to simply reply to a text to say “Yes, I’ll be there!” Multiply this by about 50 people and I was trying not to lose my wits (Pretty sure I did. Sorry guys!).

I had an aunt offer to call and wrangle up answers from everyone on our side of the family. It helped so much! Thanks Karen! I know you’re reading my blogs and will see this. 😉

4. Seating Chart
Have you ever watched the episode of How I Met Your Mother when Lily and Marshal get married (or was it when Robin and Barny get married?), and they have this fiasco when so-and-so decided to come last minute, which meant they needed to find a place for him to sit, and when they moved one person, they had to move another, but then they had to move someone else, because he didn’t know anyone at the table, and it went on and on.

That is real life people. This. Is real life.

5. Appointments, Appointments, Appointments
And they, of course, all happen at once, right before the wedding.

6. Responding To Texts During The Wedding Week
With so many people you love sending congratulations texts and many, many questions about who, what, when and where, all at the same time, sometimes you just can’t keep up. If you have a wedding website, you can simply respond with a link and, VIOLA! All questions answered!

7. Making a Transportation Plan
If you have more than one location (this includes getting ready somewhere besides the venue), you either need to book a large enough limo to carry everyone to and from locations, or you need to arrange a plan for who is going in which cars ahead of time. Who knew it could take so much time?! Thankfully, we had this all figured out and written down before the wedding, so everything was smooth the day of. Had I not made a few phone calls, we would have been short one car and not known until it was time for photos. Hallelujah for planning ahead!

8. Anything DIY
Let me just tell you something. Pinterest is not your friend. Okay, well, it’s not mine. I love the wonderful inspiration it gives me, but when I try to put my mind to it, most of the time it’s just too much for my patience level. I’m not the type of personality that can handle tedious projects, so when I decided to make a wax paper backdrop for my cake table, I was 100% out of my mind. So much so, that when all of my friends and family flew in the week prior, I was still buried in projects (one project), and they all jumped in to help me! I can’t thank them all enough, and I really can’t begin to name them all. So many people were so helpful during my last week of engagement.

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I do have to say that seeing my tough-guy football playing brothers doing girly DIY wedding projects with me was one of the best memories I have of my wedding week!

I wish I had more time (or space) to share about it, but it would require its very own blog post. Let’s just say between all of the family and friends that I can’t even count who helped me finish this wax paper backdrop, we took several long days to accomplish it. It was passed through many hands (first friends, then Justin’s mom who really got a huge start to it, and then to my home where my cousins, bridesmaids, brother and sister-in-law all helped me finish!). Once my brother got his hands on it, it became his baby. He helped engineer how we tied the ends so we could untie them and set it up at the venue (this is tricky business people); he even helped us figure out how to transport it (THAT was insane!).

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Want to catch up on the rest of the #jennajosephbridalexperience blog series?! Follow the links below!

Week 1: How I Asked My Bridesmaids
Week 2: The Two Most Important Words of Wedding Planning
Week 3: Finding A Wedding Venue
Week 4: Choosing My Vendors
Week 5: I Thought Planning My Engagement Session Would Be Easy!

As always, I need to shout out to all of the wonderful wedding professionals who made my day possible:

Ceremony Venue: Corona Del Mar Community Church
Ceremony Music: Marck McKay, Lindsey Cargill, Jullian Hernandez
Officiant: Steve Salomon
Reception Venue: The Wyndham Hotel Irvine
My Wedding Photos: Rachel Jay of France Photographers
Day-of Coordination: KC Designs
Styling, Florals, Calligraphy: Carla Kayes Floral Design
Bridal Hair: Jessie Kenney
Bridal Makeup: Raeleen B. & Co.
Groom’s Hair: Erin Heck
Tuxedos: Friar Tux
Bridesmaid Gowns: Rent The Runway
Custom Wedding Gown: Jennifer Sitchler of Eden Couture
Cake: Have Your Cake and Eat It
Cupcakes: Kiandra Chun
Donuts!: Krispy Kreme
DJ: Daniel Caban
Cinematography: Nearly North Visuals

4 comments
  • […] 4: Choosing My Vendors Week 5: I Thought Planning My Engagement Session Would Be Easy! Week 6: 8 Little Wedding To-Do’s That Weren’t So Little (…for me) Week 7: Effectively Communicating Changed Everything Week 8: How I Set Up My Wedding Photos For […]ReplyCancel

  • […] 4: Choosing My Vendors Week 5: I Thought Planning My Engagement Session Would Be Easy! Week 6: 8 Little Wedding To-Do’s That Weren’t So Little (…for me Week 7: Effective Wedding Communication Changes […]ReplyCancel

  • […] 4: Choosing My Vendors Week 5: I Thought Planning My Engagement Session Would Be Easy! Week 6: 8 Little Wedding To-Do’s That Weren’t So Little (…for me Week 7: Effective Wedding Communication Changes Everything Week 8: How I Set Up My Wedding Photos […]ReplyCancel

  • […] This is our… “We finished the cake backdrop!!!” face. Haven’t heard the cake backdrop story yet? Read it all here. […]ReplyCancel

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