Welcome to the first installment of Wedding Wednesday posts! If you missed my post from last week it could likely be included in this series since it was all about how Hunter proposed!
I hope to make these posts a little more structured in the weeks to come, but I have lots of details to fill y’all in on when it comes to how wedding planning has been going thus far.
I hate to spoil the illusion for you, but since Hunter did ask for my help when it came to choosing the ring I knew an engagement would be coming, but I just didn’t know for sure when. Because of that, we were able to start reaching out to our ceremony and reception venue in advance of the proposal to see what would line up. I’m fully convinced this allowed us to enjoy the weekend Hunter proposed without coming up with a laundry list of things to do on Monday in order to start getting the ball rolling.
The Date: After getting available dates from the church and our top choice for reception venues and having them line up choosing the date felt surprisingly easy. On top of all of that, the overlapping date was on an Alabama bye week, which is a big deal in the football-obsessed south. All that to say, we will be getting married in Fairhope in October!
The Venues: Since the church I grew up attending is in Daphne (about 15 minutes from Fairhope) and not particularly convenient to reception venues I hadn’t necessarily envisioned our ceremony taking place there. Instead, I’ve always loved St. Francis by the Point in Point Clear and for years driving past it have thought of it to be where I’d love to get married. It holds just shy of 200 people which is around the number we’re hoping for and is beautiful with lots of natural light! Our reception will be held at The Fairhope Inn in downtown Fairhope, which is equally as charming.
The Food & Beverages: This may be misleading since we don’t know exactly what we’ll be eating and drinking, but we do know who will be providing both which is a major win in my mind. Fortunately, The Fairhope Inn has its own staff for this and we even got to experience it in person at a wedding a few weeks ago! I put Hunter in charge of tasting everything at that reception and he took the job seriously and has already narrowed in on a few must-haves.
Bridesmaid’s Accommodations: I may not have officially asked my bridesmaid’s to be in our wedding just yet, but I do know where they will be staying! Since The Fairhope Inn is a bed and breakfast we were able to rent out all of the suites for us to get ready in the day of and stay in over the course of the weekend. It’s so fun to think about all of these girls from different times of my life being in the same place for a weekend and the fact that they won’t have to worry about where to stay once they arrive is hopefully a convenient relief for them!
The Organist and Minister: Thankfully the wedding coordinator at the church had wonderful suggestions for both of these professionals and they were available on our date! It’ll be a bit before we decide what music we’d like to include but is nice to know that we have a musician to play it booked. I had a wonderful call with the minister who will be marrying us not long after we got engaged and he reminded me a lot of the youth minister Hunter grew up with, which I think will give us both a lot of peace of mind as we are standing at the altar with him.
Transportation: In my mind, there was no other form of transportation for our wedding party than a pretty white trolley. It’s timeless, feels classic, and is sure to make for cute photos in addition to keeping people where they need to be and when. Admittedly maybe I shouldn’t have prioritized this as early as I did, but I think after the venues this was the next check we wrote! Depending on timing I’d have no issue using it as a getaway vehicle as well although I’m not sure Hunter fully understands how charming I find a trolley to be!
The Planner: After about two weeks of us making plans on our own, I was happy that my parents valued the idea of hiring a wedding planner as much as I did! As the only girl, we need someone to keep us on track (and budget) as we navigate this process, and are thrilled to be working with Events Detailed based in Mobile. My mom and I had the chance to meet with our planner, Anne Morgan, in person a couple of weeks ago and both felt like we could exhale knowing we were in good hands as we got in the car leaving the meeting!
The Dress: I think I shocked my mom nearly as much as I shocked myself with how easy the process of wedding dress shopping went. When Hunter and I came back in town to Fairhope for a friend’s wedding two weeks after getting engaged I ran the idea of going dress shopping that weekend by my mom and we were luckily able to get an apportionment at Over the Moon in Mobile that Friday! We fully suspected that dress shopping on that day would be a good trial run and my mom and grandmother would make their way to Birmingham for us to go dress shopping there at a later date, but Corinna and Elizabeth from Over the Moon were so helpful when it came to what they pulled and I ended up ordering one of the dresses they picked out for me. Nell was able to join for the appointment and I think I tried on a total of 7 or 8 dresses with the one I selected being number 5 or 6. As so many people say, it was not what I expected myself to select (even hitting one part of my list of no’s) and is actually the only dress I have photos of myself in so I don’t have any fun teasers to share with y’all. My mom was ready for us to purchase it on the spot, but I decided to sleep on it and ended up calling the next day for us to purchase it since I think my only real hesitation was that I hadn’t tried in very many dresses. Instead of overthinking it, I decided to keep what felt easy feeling easy and find myself scrolling back to photos of it often and excitedly smiling to get to wear it! We are still trying to decide if we want to order the veil I tried on at Over the Moon or if we want to browse elsewhere, but it feels like a major relief to have that checked off since it won’t be in until August or September and will need a bit of altering!
The Photographers: Photography was something I had begun looking into before getting engaged. I was looking at a local wedding planner’s website and every gallery that I loved at first glance ended up having Keyhole Photo listed as the photographer once I scrolled. It seemed like a no brained to reach out to them after being so drawn to their clear and crisp photography style. While some people prefer film or a more artistic look for wedding photography, my preference has always been toward more clear and colorful images and this husband and wife team does this wonderfully. I was so excited to hear they were available on our date and love knowing that we will have access to every photo they take on our wedding day!
The Florist: Coming from doing my own flower arrangements during my time as a photo stylist I knew flowers were something I would be prioritizing and somewhat picky about. After speaking with Katherine from Jubilee Flowers and seeing lots of her work done at our specific venues I knew we’d be in great hands. It has been so fun to share some of my inspiration photos with her and hear what ideas she has for execution! I always envisioned I’d be a spring bride so now that we’ll be getting married in the fall it makes me especially excited to hear her take on how we can still add pretty colors to bouquets and arrangements to keep things feeling bright while also still being seasonally appropriate!
Whew, that feels like a lot but I know we still have a long way to go! The next week or so will be spent booking a band, choosing who will be making our wedding cake, and officially asking my bridesmaids to join me on our big day as well as working on coming up with a guest list and deciding what direction we want to go with a save the date. I completely understand what people mean when they say wedding planning can be a full-time job, but having Anne Morgan keeping us on track and getting some of these larger decisions squared away will feel like such a relief before we get into the nitty-gritty of design and rentals.
Next on the list of things I’d like to accomplish:
The Band // The Cake // Asking My Bridesmaids // Bridesmaid’s Dresses // The Guest List // Save the Date
Given that I wrote this on a plane last week, I'm happy to report that we've even accomplished some of the above!
Since I’m not sure how many pictures I’ll have to share in each of these posts, I decided to pull together some of the items I’ve found that would be perfect for brides! Whether you are a bride or are looking for a gift for one or you’re helping a friend shop hopefully you’ll find these helpful! Links to the products can be found directly underneath the image.
If any of you have advice on the topic of wedding planning or there was a particular aspect of your own or someone else’s wedding that you loved please share it with me below! I’d also love any vendor suggestions you may have when it comes to a save-the-date design or wedding monogram/crest. I’m happy to report that overall it has felt pretty stress-free and hope that that will continue as we make further progress!
