James and I got married March 2011 at Shade Hotel in Manhattan Beach, Calif. after dating for seven years (a crazy long time, I know). We kept it small-ish, with about 100 people, and tried to incorporate as many personal details as we could. We wrote the ceremony ourselves, asked our mentor/journalism professor (James and I met while working on the school paper in college) to officiate, chose our favorite foods for the reception, and played all our favorite music throughout the night. We definitely wanted a relaxed, party atmosphere so we kept all the details as casual and fun as possible.
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The Dress: The Inspiration
I may be in the minority here, but I fell in love with princess-style dresses. I wanted something that felt light and airy and would look cool twirling around on the dance floor. I drew the line at adding a tiara.
Some women dream about their weddings, gather inspiring wedding pics, and practically plan out every detail of their big days from the time they are little girls.
I was not one of those women.
It wasn't that I was anti-marriage or anything, but outside a fleeting desire to end up with Leonardo DiCaprio after I saw "Romeo + Juliet" in junior high, I just never daydreamed much about weddings -- and I certainly didn't spend my downtime dog-earing photos in bridal magazines.
This wasn't really an issue, until, eventually, I got engaged. Suddenly, everyone from my future mother-in-law to strangers at the grocery store were asking about the minute details of my pending wedding. And I had no idea what to say.
To the rescue: The Internet and all its wedding blog glory. I gorged myself on beautiful inspiration pics of every type of wedding imaginable until I gained some sense of what I liked -- and more importantly, what I hated.
Once I had gathered my own arsenal of wedding inspiration, I had a tougher task in front of me. Most of the photos I loved came from weddings or wedding photo shoots that were professionally done -- or done by amazingly crafty people who had (I'm assuming) far more money and free time than I did. How was I going to make this wedding a reality?
Keep reading to see how I pulled it off -- and get some useful tips for planning your own wedding without losing too much of your sanity.
