Last Week of Wedding Planning

This is the eighth post in a new series about me, a professional wedding planner, planning my own wedding. If you’ve been following along on the blog, or on Instagram, you know that back in March, I got engaged to the most amazing man that I know! It has been a very busy and exciting last few months. With three years of experience, you would think planning my own wedding would be a breeze, but once we hit that 2 month mark till our wedding, it stopped being a dream and became a reality. I’m going to be honest with you, there have been moments filled with love, and there have been moments filled with tears. 

There is a lot that goes into a wedding and it can take a toll on not only your bank account, but also your mental health, and your relationship. This was a phase of our lives filled with lots of changes and transitions. Not only did we move in together, but we moved to Texas away from our friends and families to start new jobs. I have also been commuting to and from Arkansas almost every weekend to complete our wedding planning and to work for my wedding clients. We started a lot of DIY projects that had begun to take up a lot of my time. At times it was overwhelming and I began to feel like there wasn’t enough time to accomplish the to-do list.

If you are feeling overwhelmed planning your own wedding, know that it is perfectly normal. Trust the process and all of the small details will work themselves out. Once we were in the final stretch, a lot of those tasks and challenges worked themselves out and we began feeling optimistic for our wedding day. While there was less than a month to go and we had tackled the bulk of our to-do’s, there were still a few things we had to do before our big day.

Adjust Final Timeline

Creating a perfect timeline is crucial to having a good time at your wedding. Similar to making floor plans and seating charts, making your event timeline, is one of the more logistical items for wedding planning. That doesn’t make it any less important. In my opinion, it is one of the most important things to accomplish. Your wedding timeline should include everything that you want to take place at your wedding. With so many different ways to customize your big day, be sure not to leave any details out. I’ve already spent time thinking about our timeline and making decisions like “Do we want to do a garter toss?” and “How long will it take everyone to eat?”. During this last week all I had to do was make adjustments and collaborate with our Photographer for how long each of our photo sessions would take. 

I also took the time to make individual timelines for our bridal party and family so that they know what to expect. The ladies’ timeline included a schedule for hair and makeup as well as our bridal brunch the morning of. The groomsmen’s included their arrival time at the venue and when lunch would be delivered to them. The rest of our families’ timelines gave them the time they would need to arrive at the venue for family photos. 

Vendor Confirmation and Final Meetings

Now that we had our RSVP’s and were able to finalize our guest count, we needed to update all of our vendors invoices. Our initial estimated guest count was around 140, but our final after RSVPs was 105. With this significant change in the guest count, we were able to update some of our invoices like catering, rentals, and alcohol. Not only did this save us some money, but it also meant we wouldn’t be wasting any food. 

We also scheduled meetings with each of our vendors to go over the timeline. During this meeting we talked about their arrival times, vendor parking, expectations, updated guest count, and departure times for each of our vendors. It is always important to check in with your vendors to make sure that they have all the information they need. 

Organizing Decor

If you purchased a lot of your own decor, one of the best things you can do is get it all organized. Most likely, you are not the one who is setting up your own reception. Clear storage tubs are our best friend when we coordinate a wedding. I tried to organize all of my decor and label as much of it as possible. That way whoever had to take on the responsibility of setting up could easily find everything they needed. If you have a day of coordinator, making sure that you label and organize everything ensures that nothing gets forgotten and that your wedding day is everything you had dreamed it would be. 

Picking up Rentals

One thing we did to save a little bit of money was to pick up our own rentals instead of having them delivered. Now if you are renting everything for your wedding, delivery may be your best option. The only things we were renting were our cocktail tables, because our venue did not own any. We were able to send Nick to pick them up in his truck the day before. Then we had a family member drop them off on Monday after the wedding. 

Seating Chart

We had quite a lot of changes to our guest list within the week of our wedding. My grandparents got COVID the week of, and some of Nick’s family members couldn’t come. I could have just stuck with the original floor plan and seating chart, but I didn’t want any empty seats. I used All Seated and our Cricut to make adjustments and finalize our seating chart. I actually stayed up until 2 am the night before to finish the seating chart. I would not recommend doing this, but I was obsessed with the details being perfect.

Signage & Programs

I originally had planned to skip the signage and the programs at our wedding. I made an impulsive decision the week of to design signs and programs for our wedding. Our venue had a hidden drive, and I felt that having a welcome sign would be a good idea to help people know they are in the right place. I also got worried about the logistics of our wedding. Everything was outdoors across three different spaces. I decided to have programs made into fans to put in every seat at the ceremony. That way guests could fan off while they were waiting. I also had fun facts about Nick and I on the back to keep them entertained. These little details were a pain in the butt to add at the last minute, but I think a lot of guests really appreciated us going the extra mile.

In the week leading up to our wedding, people kept asking me how I was feeling and if I was excited. To be completely honest I was feeling stressed and excited for it to be over. I was so happy to be marrying Nick, but equally excited for the relief I would feel after it was over once I wasn’t planning a wedding anymore. But of course when our wedding ends, for me, another begins the next weekend.

October 7th had finally come and gone. We are married! Thank you so much for following along on my wedding planning journey. This has been a very exciting time of our lives full in anticipation for the next phase to start together. While the planning is over, there are still lots of wedding planning details that I intend to share with you about our wedding. Subscribe below to get a reminder for next week’s post about what else we’ve been up to. If you have any questions about wedding planning and how I’m planning my own wedding, leave a comment below.

Cheers,