Hola, Tulle Nation and welcome to another edition of Wedding Wednesday! This one’s been heavily requested by y’all – you want to know how in the HELL I planned a whole wedding in only three days. It can be done. Here’s how The Boy and I got it done and some things we learned along the way.*
Image Courtesy Of: Golden Heart Memories Photography
- Know your timeline. We flew into Alaska on a Friday. My dad got a formal diagnosis on a Monday. We applied for the marriage license the same day. There was a three day waiting period and we had a work party on Saturday and flew out on Sunday. So we were left with Thursday evening or Friday. We picked Friday because then people could come after work and/or before heading out to fishing camps (rural Alaska, y’all. Rural Alaska.). We set the ceremony for an hour after most people got off work to allow them time to commute without stressing out. However, that meant we also had to feed people. Understanding our timeline allowed us to know right off the bat what needed to get done so that we could get moving.
Image Courtesy Of: Golden Heart Memories Photography
- Delegate. It doesn’t matter how small your wedding is, you WILL need to delegate parts of it. I ended up having a close friend of the family track down our ceremony location AND she invited people for us (no time for invites – she did a phone tree). My mom made the ring bearer pillow, my sister and her daughters helped me make pompoms, my little brother made me a cake stand, and my nephew made the flower girl’s streamer wand. This left me time to write the ceremony, get The Boy's wedding ring, and work on Kiss My Tulle (pro-blogger = no time off). Just turn over a job and walk away. Choose the easy ones that you don’t really care about (or are not very important) so that you’re not stressed out if they don’t get done (or are not “perfect”).
Image Courtesy Of: Golden Heart Memories Photography
- Prioritize. When you have no time to plan, you need to understand what’s important. For The Boy and me, that meant focusing our energy on getting our marriage license, getting him a ring, getting my dad declared a marriage commissioner (so that he could officiate our ceremony), and writing our ceremony. Everything else was extra. Knowing what was important to us helped us stay focused and enjoy the short planning period that we had.
Image Courtesy Of: Golden Heart Memories Photography
- Be flexible. Decide what’s important (see above) and delegate the rest (see above that). And the stuff that’s not a must? Don’t worry about it being perfect. Don’t worry that your sister insists on buying all the little girl’s matching dresses in pink after you already chose green ones from their closets. It’s not a big deal. Don’t worry when those cute pompoms you made to hang from the center of the ceremony spot end up being flatten out and randomly attached so that it looks like a Fourth of July parade float. It’s not important. Dad’s signature red bandana too big to use as a bouquet wrap? Tie it in a giant knot and move on. It’s not vital. Pick your battles and move on. Learn to shrug your shoulders. Grin and bear it. You DO NOT have the time to stress out about it.
Image Courtesy Of: Golden Heart Memories Photography
- Say “yes.” When people ask if they can help – say yes. When people offer their services – say yes. When people want to do something that you don’t care about – say yes. If it’s not a big deal to you – SAY YES. I was really hoping for nice photos of our ceremony but the local photographer was unavailable. Out of the blue, the next day a lady called me and offered to help out (her husband went to elementary school with me + she was hoping to build her portfolio). I had never seen her work and I hadn’t met her but I said yes anyway. I’m so pleased that I did because now I have a nice selection of good images from that day (including the last family photos we ever got with my dad). If I hadn’t agreed, if I hadn’t said yes – I would have missed out on that.
Image Courtesy Of: Golden Heart Memories Photography
Sounds so easy, right? Let me tell you – it was. Because we went into this whole thing with the mindset to enjoy it… we did. No stress, no worry. Lots of laughing, lots of family. Just the way my dad, The Boy, and I wanted it.
Well Tulle Nation, does that answer your questions? Any of you planning a wedding in a quick timeline? Any tips you can share with everyone else? Tell the class about it in the comments!
*For those just tuning in, my dad was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer in July. He was upset that he would not be at our already planned and paid for May 2012 wedding. So, The Boy and I flew up to Alaska and had a quickly planned civil ceremony. It was nothing like what we wanted but we’re SO glad that we did it as my sweet daddy passed away on December 11th of 2011.