Weddingbee Blog

All right, let’s dive right in then! I could say it was chaos, but it’s probably better if I just show you:

DIY brides be warned: all that pretty shit takes up a lot of space! And may require a U-Haul to transport to your location, I’m just sayin’…

It makes me cringe (just a little) to think that friends and family saw our house in this utter state of disaster, but truthfully, the last thing we had time to do was clean! We were busy sewing, making signs, packing, arranging flowers, and picking up fresh fruit and cheese right up until the last minute.

Well, almost the last minute. We officially checked ourselves out at about 7PM the night before our wedding and stopped worrying about the details. I wrote a little bit about this decision right after the wedding, and now, four months later, I’m even happier we were able to let go and enjoy it all. Mostly because I don’t have to look back and remember an embarrassing meltdown.* I’m not gonna lie, I’m a perfectionist and a meltdown was a very real (cringe) possibility.

We picked up pizza (Folliero’s. Go. Yum) for our friends/family and enjoyed our last few hours as single ladies. Tired, dirty single ladies in our grubby ass work clothes. No pretty rehearsal dinner dresses for these DIY drones brides. No mani/pedis either. I DO regret that a little bit…

Oh! And no fancy photographer. Just my three year old niece, my ancient digital camera and some of the worst photos you’ll ever see of me. If you were one of the lovely commenters who said we were pretty on Monday (*blush/thanks), be prepared to eat your words:

Ahh, yes. Such a flattering angle. I must reeaaally like you guys.

Doesn’t Alex look like his head is hitting the ceiling?

Oh. Clearly taken by an adult, but just as scary. Ha! I warned you being a DIY bride wasn’t always pretty.

The days before our wedding were really (really really) busy. Sleepless, tired behind your eyes, late nights followed by far too early mornings-busy. College finals levels of exhaustion, when you just keep telling yourself sleep is (only) a week away.

So without getting too preachy (well maybe a little?) I think it’s important to let go of your expectations of what getting married is supposed to look/feel like. Especially if those expectations are shaped by the million perfect weddings that abound in blog land or even that one really great wedding you went to last weekend. It’s a beautiful lie. The behind the scenes probably wasn’t so damn pretty. And that’s totally okay.

We didn’t have fancy dinner, eloquent toasts, or even clean nails, but we were surrounded by people we loved and that’s all that really mattered.

Oh! And my amazing sisters cleaned our house while we were busy not rehearsing (that’s another post folks), so it wasn’t so embarrassing after all.

If you’re just now joining us to recap our wedding adventure, well you haven’t missed much:

• Love & Stripes: Nice to See You (Again)

*If you did melt down at any point in your wedding planning or on your wedding day, I don’t judge. I totally get it. It’s A LOT.