The Challenges I Faced for My Own Wedding
Planning my own wedding was incredibly fun to me, which is why I took up wedding planning in the first place! Even though I enjoyed wedding planning, that doesn’t mean it didn’t come stress-free. There weren’t massive problems with the wedding overall, but I want to talk about the challenges that I faced while planning my wedding just so you know that it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows 24/7.
COVID
Jordan and I got engaged on July 5, 2020, so we knew that we were about to get into some major difficulties planning our wedding. We knew our top priority was also to get married in our church in Chicago, which meant that we wanted a full-on Chicago wedding. Chicago also happened to have the strictest rules on COVID during the entire duration of our engagement.
We totally understood and were glad they were taking precautions, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t hard to manage. We weren’t able to view venues until September which meant that I had a few months of being unable to move forward with wedding planning, and then when we booked for July of 2021 we were also told that the venue would only allow us to have 25 people attend.
We had a massive wedding party, so this would have basically taken up our entire guest list with our parents. Some time in February, the guest count was raised to 50 people which was a little more realistic. We were planning on inviting 180 people though, so I added a note in our invites that said “this invite is tentative depending on our venues rules”. I had made plans A, B, and C on what would happen if we had increased guest counts or had to postpone the reception.
Thankfully, we somehow still ended up having the wedding of our dreams with about 100 people (many were unable to make a Friday wedding). We were in the period of the summer of 2021 where everything opened up, and we were so thankful that it was deemed safe for all of our guests to join us.
2. Anxious about Timing (among other anxieties)
I can be a pretty anxious person, so my type-A personality ensures that I cover every single detail multiple times to ensure that there won’t be any problems. I wrote my own timeline way earlier than I needed to and accounted for every detail including traffic and all kinds of poses for photos, but I didn’t expect there to be any issues with the timing for the actual wedding day.
I had gotten my hair and makeup done last in our big group of ladies, and we were falling about 15 minutes behind schedule. I was feeling a bit stressed out because I thought that it meant we wouldn’t have time for all of the pictures. Thankfully, I had added so many minutes between things that there was plenty of buffer time to make up for it, but I wished I had known that things would smooth themselves out so I wasn’t so nervous about doing the first looks with my dad, bridesmaids, and my now-husband.
It also helped to have a coordinator there to make sure things worked themselves out. I was so thankful for the coordination team and all of my other vendors that made the day as incredible as it was.
I also got incredibly nervous right before the ceremony and couldn’t figure out why. I think it was because we had spent so much time and effort planning for that day, and it’s basically the start of the plans being executed. I was just hoping that everything worked out according to plan, but this really had me worried right before walking down the aisle. I also knew that it wasn’t anything to do with actually getting married, but I thought if I told my family and friends about it that they would think it was something to do with cold feet. Now as a wedding planner, I find that nearly every couple ends up with pre-wedding jitters that can range from small nerves to sickly-feeling nerves. You can rest assured though that your coordinator and team of vendors will have you covered.
3. Dress Malfunctions
I had gone wedding dress shopping in October of 2020 and had a pretty good experience overall! I found my dress and was really excited, but I was having some second thoughts just days later. I was really worried about the color since I had picked moscato over ivory. I called the shop a few days later to see if it was too late to change it, and thankfully they hadn’t ran it through their system yet! I was really glad I went back and asked for the ivory over ivory.
When the dress had been ordered and brought to the shop, I wasn’t really happy when I tried it on. There was a really large crease that went around my entire waist that wasn’t there when I had the sample dress on. And I hadn’t gained any weight in between, so I was really bummed about it. I started going to the fittings by myself because I was so upset that they said there was a problem and I felt like I couldn’t tell any of my family and friends about it. Eventually, I told the dress shop and my family/friends that I was unhappy and wanted to see if the fabric at waist could get taken out a bit, and they did their best. It did mostly get fixed, but there still was a bit of that crease on the wedding day. Overall though, I had a lovely experience and I loved the way I looked. It didn’t really matter to me at all when it came to the wedding day.
On the actual wedding day though, we had our ceremony and then rode a party bus to the reception. I was dancing and bouncing around when my dress’ zipper broke! It was definitely a bit annoying because we couldn’t get any safety pins to keep it up whenever I breathed or laughed too hard. Eventually, one of my bridesmaids did the safety pin differently than before and it ended up staying for the rest of the night. It was definitely a teeny bit annoying when it would keep breaking, but once it stayed for the night I completely forgot about it!
This is all to say that things can definitely go wrong when wedding planning. That being said, there are definitely ways to try and work around it to make sure you actually enjoy your wedding day! There were definitely some hiccups for the day, but overall it was amazing and I wouldn’t change a thing. I am so glad I put in the work and really did enjoy seeing it all come together. My goal is to help my couples be able to have a wedding day they can truly enjoy. I want to make sure that you, your friends, and your family all can experience your wedding day fully while I take care of all of the details for you.
If you would like more help to plan your wedding, you can reach out to me at hello@firmlyrootedevents.com. I will get you started on my email list for monthly tips and my checklist so that you can stay on track while planning your wedding.
Vendors and their Instagrams:
Ceremony: Covenant Presbyterian Chicago - @covenantchicago
Reception: Columbus Park Refectory
Photo (not the photos above): Emily Keeney Photography - @emilyannekeeney
Video: Badger Creative - @badgercreative
Coordination: Stasia K. Events - @stasiak.events
Hair/Makeup: The Bridal Beauty Team - @bridalartistryteam
Ceremony Musicians: Midtown Strings - @midtownstrings
DJ: Impulse Entertainment - @impulse_djs
Catering: Corky’s Catering - @corkyscatering
Transport: Cloud 9 Limousine - @chicagocloud9limos
Hotel: The Carleton of Oak Park
Floral Arrangements: Me
Floral Materials: Sola Wood Flowers - @solawoodflowers
Preserved Greenery: Verdissimo - @verdissimo_group
