Wedding Countdown! 4 Weeks - Expectations Vs. Reality

The past three weeks I've shared positive and upbeat posts about our wedding planning process. While the experience has been great, there is another side to wedding planning I haven't touched on yet... stress. The last 15 months I've learned being engaged is both one of the happiest and most stressful times of your life.

With every happy moment, there is another stress-inducing event following. Planning to bring my Pinterest dreams to life has been exciting, but I'd be doing all of you an injustice if I said "la - dee -dah wedding planning is amazing, not a single thing wrong going on over here."

Last week a friend of mine said I must have everything wedding-related organized and ready to go since I've had time to start writing blogs again... Ha! I had to laugh out loud at this one because it couldn't be farther from the truth. Last week, I spent Monday night cramming at my computer to upload a countdown blog at the very last minute. I had spent the entire week contemplating what to write. Every idea I had seemed terrible and I allowed self-doubt to carry me all the way to Monday night at 7:00 P.M.

Now that we're at the four week mark, things are really kicking into high gear, which seems to bring more stress than ever before. When I reviewed past blogs, I noticed "Lessons Learned - Covid 19 Postponed Our Wedding" blog was my most viewed piece. I think it resonated with so many you because I allowed myself to be totally open and honest. When it comes to being a bride, I think there is a societal expectation that we must have everything put together, and with zero help of course. As if we know how to plan a huge event naturally??? This is most certainly not the case over here in my neck of the woods.

Another friend of mine who is planning a wedding of her own excitedly told me, "Sarah, did I tell you?! I decided to get a wedding planner because of you!" When I looked confused and asked why, she reminded me. "After seeing everything you went through and all the stress and crying you've done, it really made me not want to deal with all of that myself..." And that my friends, is the cold hard truth I want to share with all of you.

I want this little corner of the internet to be truthful and honest. And honestly, at four weeks out we are more excited, and stressed than ever. We have experienced both happy and frustrated tears. We've had last minute changes to our suit vendors, a list a mile long of decisions to make, and room at Jordan's house filled to the brim with unorganized piles of wedding items.

But just because we may not have it all together, does not mean we hate wedding planning and cannot wait for it all to be over. That may only be partly true... If anything, all of this stress and tears has encouraged me to get organized and really put the pedal to the medal this week. I want to get things back into a good shape, so I can focus more on preparing for our marriage than the wedding day.

This week, I did the unspeakable, and created myself a "wedding binder." I use to think this was a super extra idea. But after a major meltdown over not being able to find an email I needed for a vendor (for the millionth time), I decided to cave and make myself one. I took advantage of a free night and the organized side of my brain. I made the nerdiest, most excessive wedding binder you have ever seen. I hate how dorky it seems, but my mind is finally at ease knowing I can go to it and find all of the important contracts and details.

A few premade wedding binders:

Wedding Planner & Organizer - Less than $40

Wedding Planner - Less than $40

Bloom Wedding Planner - Less than $35

How I think I look wedding planning Vs. How I actually do

Another thing I spent my Friday night doing (thanks to a few friends) was coordinate (most) of our wedding decorations. Since every table at our venue is a different size with a unique layout and amount of guests, we took our dinning room table and set up each dinner table individually. We set up one table at a time and placed each table's décor into small shoe boxes. Finally all the candles, table numbers, and floral arrangements have a nice new home, rather than sitting on my office floor in a crazy pile of disarray.

While this week has been super crazy and hectic, there have also been a few very sweet moments. Early in the week, my parents and I sat down to watch the movie "Father of the Bride" with Steve Martin. If you haven't seen the film, it is the cutest and funniest movie about a dad on the journey of his daughter getting married. My parents and I were both laughing and crying throughout the entire film. It was a really special moment to have with them thinking about my own wedding to come. My dad might have even shed a tear while watching.

We also had a great/hectic week when it came to suits for the wedding. Jordan and my sister's boyfriend, Ben were able to score awesome Express suits for a steal. Jordan will wear his to the rehearsal and Ben will wear his at the wedding. My dad also found his perfect suit and gave us all a little fashion show in the living room. It's the little things!

Even though this time has been chaotic and somewhat frustrating, there are so many joy-filled moments. Remembering to focus on the positive is exactly how I want to spend this stage in my life, and my life in general.

I hope you all enjoyed and can appreciate the honesty this post included. Keep your eyes peeled for more realistic updates in the future!

4 weeks to go...

XOXO,

Sarah