The Moments Before From a Bride’s Point of View
Being the bride was a little weird for me. I’ve never really dreamed or spent much time thinking about what I had wanted for my wedding. I wasn’t the girl that dreamed of trying on wedding dresses in front of people or going to a cake tasting or excited to plan decor. That was never really me. And I had been a part of so many weddings where I just saw all of the things I wanted for my day and a lot of things I didn’t. Ultimately that boiled down to us choosing to do a small ceremony - 15 people - and a reception at a later date for our family and close friends. Very non traditional of us, but we also had been able to see that we wanted the day to be low stress, and focused on intimacy and intentionality.
A wedding day doesn’t have to be rushed, or stressful, or chaotic. And I’m really grateful to our families who made it really easy to just have a laid back day with everyone.
A wedding day also doesn’t always have to be this big deal if you don’t want it to be. By having an intimate day and ceremony, we didn’t lose out on any fun. We didn’t diminish the significance of what we were saying yes and no to. We weren’t any less celebrated by our families and friends that weren’t there, either. We were overwhelmed with messages from friends that morning praying over us, sharing bits of advice and just telling us they loved us and what we were doing. We chose to do our day a little different than most and we can’t imagine it having gone any other way for us.
Our day was so laid back that I got ready on the floor of my childhood bedroom. My sister drove me to the first look in our wedding getup - also wearing a bright pink puffer jacket because that’s what I had in my car. My mom made my bouquet. My entire wedding outfit was bought online and somewhat last minute. And we didn’t really plan much of the day.
I had been eyeing the dress online at Reformation for awhile - even before Caleb had proposed. I knew I would have a hard time finding a dress that I even remotely liked on me. I’m not really the bridal type of dress girl. I came upon this dress on their wedding page and immediately wanted it. However, they were out of my size, and only my size. So I emailed them asking when it would be stocked again for me to purchase. The answer was practically “we’re not sure, but soonish.” Helpful. Fast forward a month or two. I was browsing on the website for new jeans and decided just to check on the dress. It was in stock - in my size - and on sale. I took it as a nod from God and sent in my order. My mom altered it for me the week of the wedding.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t watching the weather the weeks leading up to our day, and I’m glad I was. I last minute - like 4 days before - decided to google “white women’s dress coat.” A website came up that I had never heard of before with the jacket, and again it was on sale and they offered free and fast shipping. I didn’t even try it on until our wedding day when we were leaving the house for the first look.
Someone asked if I was going to wear a veil. I didn’t really want one but decided to get one just in case I changed my mind, or if for nothing else, the photos. I searched “long wedding veil” on Facebook Marketplace. Immediately found one for $15 that a woman had for her wedding day and obviously would never wear again. She was willing to ship it. A few days before the wedding it came in the mail and I added it to the hanger with the coat that I hadn’t tried on yet. Thank you Mel from Facebook.
My mom and I went shoe shopping the Tuesday of wedding week. There really is just nothing out there anymore it seems haha. It’s exhausting walking around the mall to begin with, then adding in the feeling of hopelessly looking for a decent, non sparkly or neon shoe that has a small chunk heel…and that comes in a size 4-5. I found the blue Calvin Klein slip on chunk heel sandals - truly have no idea how people name or describe shoes anymore - but they didn’t carry a 5. When we got home that night, mom found them on Amazon with 2-day shipping. I tried them on when they got in and they were perfect.
Flowers are something that I really appreciate and more times than not, the house always had flowers in it while I was growing up.
I knew I wasn’t going to stress over my bouquet - nor did I necessarily want to spend the money on a large bouquet that I would only use for 30 minutes.
Mom and I had plans to go to Trader Joes a few days before to pick out some flower options for a small bouquet. I was immediately drawn to the blue and white hydrangeas. There is a blue hydrangea bush out front of Caleb’s house - now our first home together - and so I grabbed a handful of those and some white roses and eucalyptus. All put together with some blue ribbon that was in the basement. I didn’t really plan the blue theme but it worked.