Your Wedding Personality

Planning a wedding can look a little like this😳 but with some careful planning it can be a very wonderful 5 star experience.

Anymore the choices for weddings are overwhelming. You feel like your friends did it one way and you should copy or must do the same. Nope, not at all. In fact, statics show that when you take time to put intent and meaning into your day, your friends and family will thank you and love how authenic it is.

Your wedding is YOUR DAY! It’s not about anyone else or what they’ve done, but simply a way to showcase who you are as a couple and what makes your relationship special.

If Pat and I were to marry it would first include making a list of how we met and all the things we love doing together. Making an outline of what is important to us as a couple.

So for example;

We met through our camera club, our first date was a drive to Richmond and a visit to the gorgeous Main Street Station. Our first kiss was in a snow storm, we love to travel, we chase storms, we bike ride, Pat loves trains and I fell in love with the west shoreline of his home state of Michigan.

We love small intimate events and we adore time with all our kids and extended family.

Through a process of listing everying out, we can work together as a couple to determine what is going to be the most important part of our wedding personality. I've listed 3 Ideas and we could easily work with any of them. The bottom line for us though is budget friendly and small and intimate.

How will I put together my ideas?

This is an example of what we could do with all of our background together.

Idea one: Budget $5000

Pat and I met on October 21st so that has become our official anniversary so to say and we love the fall. But, October 21st falls just towards the end of the busy wedding season, and most things are booked and cost more. To save money I’ve decided to go into November after the peak wedding season is over. The second weekend of November is a 3-day weekend so if we decided to include more family and friends that would make things a bit easier for travel.

We have a low budget, so we have decided that this being a second wedding for both of us, that we’d keep it small, so an intimate dinner for us and our kids. So, my guest list is our 5 kids, each of them may bringing a guest and my grandchildren so that is a dinner for 16. Easy right?

A fall wedding, a small intimate location and our vows could be simply done at the venue or outside maybe some place like Libby Hill where we love to go, and the fall foliage should be peaking that weekend, so we could do a ceremony there and follow up with one of our favorite places for dinner with the family. Be sure to check for the need for any permits from the City.

Sunset Dinner on the roof at Quirk here in Richmond

Maya Mexican Grill and Tequila Lounge

CanCan Brasseire

A Photographer for a couple of hours to capture the wedding and family group

Fun cupcakes from Carytown Cupcakes

Strawberry Fields Flowers and Finds for some simple flowers

Idea two: Budget $5000

Would be a destination wedding for just the two of us but maybe out of our price range for this year. Looking for ideas after tourist season on Wow Airlines, a great budget friendly airlines if you follow the rules and book in advance. Sometimes they have amazing deals so a trip to Frankfurt in mid-November would run about $1200.00 for 2 people and booking through Airbnb for a place to stay would mean saving most of our money for food and other fun things.

Connecting with friends in the country your traveling to and asking for local photographers for photos is a great idea. I have several friends in each of these countries now and I'm sure they could help out in some way.

Places we’d like to go would be Ireland, Scotland or England, Iceland, Germany, Italy or Greece for a week of travel possibly a photo exchange with friends but we would not be able to include our family. It would just be the two of us.

Idea three: Budget $500

We just go to the Richmond City Hall

and have an intimate dinner for 2 and travel later for a fun Honeymoon

Wedding Planning Apps:

Wedding Planner by Wedding wire

Wedding Happy Wedding Planner

Wedding Planner by The Knot

Zola Weddings

Wedding Spot to find your Venue

Hobnob Invitations and Text RSVP

Wedding Countdown

Destination Weddings