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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
