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.
Photo 4/16
The Dress: My Version
I stuck with the princess ball gown style, even after I tried a few on and realized that while 20 layers of tulle might look light and airy, it makes the dress weigh about 18 pounds. Still, I was hooked when I found this dress, and it didn't let me down when I was spinning around during our first dance. I felt like a princess all the way.
Photo 5/16
Color Scheme: The Inspiration
I love color, and for me it was really hard to narrow down my choices. But a few things helped:
1. I kept finding myself drawn to anything blue/teal or yellow, more so than other shades.
2. My fiancé requested a color scheme that wasn't too "girly," aka pink.
3. My wedding was in spring and near the beach, so I ended up using that as inspiration.
Photo 6/16
Color Scheme: My Version
I stuck pretty well with my inspiration photo. My venue did have pale green drapes that weren't part of my original plan, but I think they complement the other colors well. Also, to keep the bright yellows and teals from looking too tacky or '80s, I tried to use them sparingly and keep the rest of the décor in neutral shades like white, black, and gray.
Photo 7/16
Centerpieces: The Inspiration
This was tough, because there are thousands of ideas for centerpieces floating around online and in magazines. At various stages in my planning I thought about doing an all-candle tablescape, but I didn't think that would fly with a bunch of kids running around. Then I wanted to use flowers from all shades of my color scheme -- but teal flowers don't exactly exist in nature. When flower fatigue set in and I felt completely overwhelmed by all of my options, I thought mini-wedding cakes in the center of each table would be perfect. (I still love this idea actually, but it just didn't fit in my budget).
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.
