My top 10 Wedding Favorites

I love a Summer wedding! The sun is out, beautiful flowers are blooming, and the evenings are longer. We've received a couple of wedding invitations for this Summer and we're very excited! One is the wedding of my sister in-law, so of course, that one will be lot's of fun! The other is going to be at a church close to the beach, which will be a fun adventure/vacation. (the rehearsal dinner is even rumored to take place on a boat!)

I love that weddings offer Jonathan and I a fun date night together. But my favorite part, since even before we met, is definitely looking at the details of each unique wedding; what colors did the bride choose? What style bridesmaid dress? Outdoor or indoor reception? Traditional wedding cake or something fun like donuts or pie? The different food and decorations, formal or more laid back... *sigh* Can you tell I enjoyed planning my own wedding?

It's these times- that is, thinking about and attending the weddings of others- that I think about how I planned mine... Some things, I would have done very differently. Others, I couldn't be happier that I chose them!

I thought I would do a little reflecting on the things I loved (and later a post about the things I regretted) to share them here for my own pleasure. I mean, I love homemaking but it's good to mix things up now and then too! Of course if you are interested in wedding details, or if you're planning a wedding yourself, I hope you will get something out of it as well! 

Here, in no particular order, are the things I loved most about my wedding!

1. DIY Flowers 

I'm not sure if anyone who helped with the flowers would agree with me...But I loved that we did the flowers ourselves! 

We stayed up till probably 1 o'clock in the morning on the eve of my wedding making bouquets for myself, my bridesmaids, and boutonnieres for the men. 

Thankfully, we had the help of a dear family friend who only has an eye for arranging flowers! It was fun to stay up preparing for the wedding, as I'm sure I wouldn't have been sleeping anyway!

I think this route was cheaper than having a florist and the experience as I said, was very fun! Two of my aunts helped pick out and purchase the flowers which was so generous. To save on time, I think we could have gotten away with doing it on Thursday, but the eve of my wedding is one experience I'll always remember. 

2. Sisters Only For Bridesmaids 

I know I will never regret having only my sisters in my half of the wedding party. You always hear of people looking back on their pictures and saying, "Yeah, I don't think I've talked to them since our wedding..." in reference to a bridesmaid or groomsman. Then you have random people in your wedding pictures for the rest of your life. I know that isn't always the case, but I also knew I didn't want that for myself. At the time, I hardly knew my sisters in-law. But It's now, that I've gotten to know them better, that I'm extremely grateful I asked them to be bridesmaids. And of course, my sisters have always been my best friends and they'll always be around. 

3. My Wedding Dress & Veil

My wedding dress was actually not what I had in mind before we began looking. I was thinking more simple and less lace detail. But you know how it goes; you get faced with reality and suddenly the Pinterest board wedding you had in mind, doesn't really matter. Once I tried my dress on, it just felt like right. 

There were two things I wanted in a veil; a blusher for walking down the isle and a full head covering. If I believe in covering my head at Mass, I didn't know why I would make an exception for my wedding day (which is also why I went with veils instead of flower crowns for the flower girls. Of course, no judgement to anyone who chooses flower crowns, I know lots of people who have) I had seen some long mantilla style veils that were absolutely beautiful but also very expensive and they didn't have the blusher...

I found my veil on eBay. It was from the 80's and had been preserved. I'm not actually sure if it is supposed to cover most of my head, but I made it work! It had beautiful beading that complimented the lace well. No regrets in this area at ALL!

4. Paying a Little Extra For Photos

We loved the way our photos turned out! Our photographer was experienced and showcased some unique shots on his website. Therefore, he was a little more expensive than we would have liked. Now that it's over, I'm glad we went with Kevin! He was fun to work with, quick to get our photos, and we thought they turned out great!

Unlike the type of cake, or flowers you choose, the photo quality will be with you the rest of your life!

4. A Four Hour Reception

Our reception was pretty short and sweet. Some thought it would be too short and that everyone would want to keep dancing after we left. It turned out that nobody did, or if they did, they just accepted it was over and started the cleanup lol.

Although it was quick, it was long enough where we could thank most people for coming, dance together, do all the scheduled events; cutting the cake, the parent dances, and hear the speeches.

Once it was time to leave, we were ready. Tired, but not so exhausted that we didn't want to chat on the way home. And Jonathan could still carry me over the threshold into our new life together. 

5. The Kids Table at The Reception

I think this is the only photo I have of the kids table, which was taken when we were setting up the day before the wedding. We did a little "Bride's Favorite" and "Groom's Favorite" candy selection for the kids, as well as coloring sheets and glowsticks for the dance floor! The candy and glowsticks were loved by kids and adults alike! 

But it isn't really the kids table itself that I really loved. It is more that we made space for kids at our wedding. I still remember when I told my nanny kids they would be invited. They were so shocked (and super excited) because in their world, weddings were for adults only.

 Honestly, a wedding without children is the saddest and dare I say, not-Catholic thing I've ever heard of. And here is a good Substack article on that topic. But having kids at our wedding was great! They made it lively, fun, and more wholesome than it would have been without them. And guess what- they didn't even knock over the wedding cake or anything else that secular wedding planners warn their brides against!

6. Pearls! 

One thing I really loved about my wedding was the incorporation of pearls. You can't exactly tell from this picture with all the stuff that was added later, but I tried to make pearls the theme of the reception. I'm happy we went with simple, because finding centerpieces for 30 tables can get expensive real quick... The tables all had string pearls in different sizes across a mirror centerpiece and floating candles. 

I also wore some pearls in my hair and as earrings. Later I used them for decorating our wedding scrapbook. You can't go wrong with pearls!

8. Flowers For Mary & St. Joseph

We saw this at another wedding during our courtship. That is, after offering flowers to Mary, we offered some to St. Joseph! We also unintentionally did something that lots of people loved, ourselves included. When we got to Mary, I went up and offered the flowers while Jonathan stayed back. We did the opposite  for St. Joseph. It was a nice way to start off marriage and St. Joseph has been with us ever since in quiet ways. I'm happy we included him! (even though technically it isn't part of any tradition in the Latin mass...)

9. Our Catering Company

Jonathan and I chose Italian food for our reception. It was very fitting because we went to Rome for our honeymoon! We made a pasta bar so everyone could choose their own shape of pasta, sauce, and protein. 

Our caterer was truly fantastic! He makes his Italian sausage homemade and it was my favorite thing of the whole meal!!

He also set up a table for us in the back room to eat before coming out for the reception and made it really nice for us! He even wrapped up our top cake tier well and sent it home for us to freeze. 

10. A Simple Cake

Sam's Club made our wedding cake and Costco fed the rest of the guests. I have no regrets! We were able to keep our top layer, (which thawed beautifully) have our moment cutting and feeding each other the cake, and everyone else got to eat Costco cake and let's be honest- theirs is amazing with that yummy filling in the middle!

I painted our wedding topper to look like us, It turned out pretty good! Although I didn't wear my hair up like the figure. And I incorporated little pearls into her bouquet!

Those are the ten things I loved most about my wedding! But the one that trumps them all is marrying my best friend of course! As much as I love weddings and seeing the different details, the extravagance of each event, I am happy that I went simple and did a lot of things myself. What truly mattered most was the Sacrament of marriage to my husband. It was overall a wonderful day full of joy! 

(and saying that, now I won't mind going into the things I regretted in my next post!) 

Thanks for reading! and happy wedding season!

Gina💕