Family, Maternity + Newborn Portraits
Madison, Wisconsin

…from a new bride and groom. As we come down from the excitement of our own wedding, we want to pass on some helpful tips to upcoming couples to help you stay sane in the planning process. After dating for 11 years, we thought we knew exactly what we wanted for our big day but as the planning process continued, these things evolved into the perfect day we never knew was possible. We hope these top 5 wedding tips will help you wade through the endless options and pressure planning your big day.

1. Go off script

There are so many options when it comes to planning your wedding from planners to online sites to help you navigate through the process. We recommend writing your own script when it comes to planning. Did we have an Erin Condren wedding planner? Absolutely. Did we make accounts and use the planning tools on TheKnot, WeddingWire and every other site we could find? 100%! In doing so, we also found there were so many things that did not apply to us or we way out of our budget. Book that string quartet? Not for us. We also found there were so many things we didn’t think of to start.

When planning your wedding, don’t think that you HAVE TO do everything on the list. Take small things from each resource and make it your own!

2. Choose your color palette early

Our second tip is to choose your color palette early. Once we nailed down what our color palette would be it was smooth sailing in making the rest of our decisions. Being able to plan off of your color palette gives you a great visualization of your day to come. If you can’t choose two to three main colors, add additional colors for small pops of color throughout your day. We based our day off of blush, dusty blue, sage, and beige. We used these colors all over. As a result, it helped us have the things we wanted vs. trying to choose things based off of color alone.

3. Wait on purchasing decor

While choosing your color palette may push you to pull the trigger and go “all in” on your decor, we recommend waiting until at most 3 months out from your big day. As we inched toward our big day our style truly changed (as did our location but that is another story). Had we started making and purchasing things the minute we decided on our color palette and location, we wouldn’t have been able to see all of the options and ideas available to us. Though we did keep some things on the list from the beginning, we also made changes and choices that had a huge impact on the overall feel of our wedding day.

Also remember, if you purchase your decor 9 months ahead of your big day it will end up sitting in your home in a corner or a closet for that time. Although one centerpiece might look cute on a shelf, imagine 30 centerpieces staring at you daily. Hold off a few months and save that space for more fake plants, dog photos and throw pillows.

4. Follow your heart

If it’s important to you, make it happen. During our entire planning process we had a beautiful ceremony arch in mind but when it came down to the cost it pushed us over budget. For months it came back in and out of our minds, we just couldn’t let it go. After a few difficult conversations with each other and insight from our families, we reserved our ceremony arch and florals. Looking back it is still one of my favorite features of our big day. In the end if it feels right and you feel strongly about it, do what it takes to make it happen.

5. Do what you want

To round out our top 5 wedding tips (and similar to tip #4), DO WHAT YOU WANT. Now say it louder for the people in the back. The amount of pressure that comes along with planning your wedding can be intense and truly overwhelming at times. There were so many instances that we were concerned about if it would make others happy or if we could accommodate everyone. We got lost sometimes in others and began to lose sight of what our wedding was about. To us, it was coming together to celebrate our love.

Don’t get us wrong, our wedding absolutely had to include our closest family and friends but our road to getting there had to be about us. Do you want to do you vows privately before the ceremony? Have you always wanted to have a cigar bar? Do you want to have your dog walk you down the aisle? DO IT. In the end when you look back at what is most important to you and made you the happiest, chances are it wasn’t the choices you selected for the buffet or where the cake was situated in the room.

We are currently in a time in our life where many of our friends are married or engaged. One of our favorite things to say is “it’s your wedding, do whatever the heck you want!” (or something close to that with a few more inappropriate words). When it comes down to it, it’s about you and the one you love making a commitment to each other.

Thank you for making it to the end. We hope you enjoyed our top 5 wedding tips! If you have any encouraging words for brides and grooms to be, drop us a comment below. Make sure to like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and our blog posts as well.