Q & A with Amanda – A Wedding Planner’s Wedding

I get questions from time to time about my wedding; what it was like, what I picked and didn’t, and what I focused on. So I thought it was time to write a post about it. Here’s a little insight into what a wedding planner’s wedding is like. Just a warning; it might surprise you.

Q: What was your wedding like?

A: Our wedding was incredibly simple.

We wanted to stay to set budget, and if you know me you know I’m all about the budget (in wedding planning, mine or others, in building houses, in travel and in our personal life. I love a great budget sheet!). We had a very specific Honeymoon in mind (a month in Europe to be exact), so the wedding detail plans were more so focused around sticking to the budget so we could travel as much as we wanted to. Our goal and intentions with the wedding were celebrating with family and friends and getting to do some of the things we love all within a celebration focused around us joining together as one. A few of those loved things being eating, talking about fun memories, and just having fun with the people around us.

I chose not to focus on a lot of details, and therefore didn’t have them. We had simple invitations, Chinese Lanterns as our centrepieces because they’re my favorite thing to grow in my garden next to peonies, and we had a Tuesday wedding in the evening, and with breakfast for dinner (waffles, the pudding/whip cream sauce I got the chef to make from my recipe, fruit, Eggs Benedict and lots of bacon). It couldn’t of been any more us, and we couldn’t have been more happy with who was there.

Of course being a wedding planner I could always do my wedding over and over again, and in so many different ways, but that’s the joy of what I do; I get to be with my clients creating beautiful their days.

There’s always going to be things you could think about doing more, doing less, playing around with, but I always encourage people not to get stuck in the “what if’s” or the “If only we would’ve”. I had to choose, just like every other bride, not to judge my own wedding. I had to remind myself that it’s not about how pretty, how big, or what sort of signature drink we had (does orange juice count? I’m going to say yes). Just enjoy what you had and be thankful for everything around you and the love that you could share.  We often forget that it’s even a luxury to have a wedding, and you don’t even have to think about the freedom you have to just walk into a mall and grab a license to get married. Not to mention to spend thousands of dollars on this beautiful amazing day. And for so many of your friends and family to be able to make it to that one day, just for you.

Sugar & Soul Photography

Q: I often think about my wedding and the things I would change. Would you go back and do your wedding again or change anything? What does a Wedding Planner’s wedding look like?

A: There’s absolutely nothing that I regret about my wedding. But that’s by choice.

Like any bride who spent a lot of time making wedding decisions (we had a 9 month engagement) I spent time afterward thinking about those choices. That’s only natural. For me, it was a one time thing. I married Marshall for keeps, so when I was planning I knew I never wanted to do another wedding. Parties, celebrations and maybe even a vow renewal but never another wedding. The key for me was to simply just let it go.

We can get stuck on what we did and did not pick, what we could and could not have in the budget, if the shade of purple was just right or if everyone felt like it was a fun time. But at the end of the day there comes a point where you just need to let go and enjoy what’s there, what you picked, who’s there and, the love that you share with your now spouse, your friends and family, and the future you’re building together.

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Harsh truth warning: It’s an illusion to believe that you will love everything about your wedding. There’s always going to be something, even something small, that you wish was a little bit different.

There’s a few things I wish I would’ve done vendor wise, like a videographer. As far as something close to regret, that’s the closest I would get to wishing I had done anything differently with my wedding. I did have someone take videos of the speeches, so we’ll always have those fun little memories, but there’s nothing like getting that beautiful curated and skillfully crafted highlight video (You know the ones. You don’t even know the couple but you cry within the first thirty seconds).

I kicked myself for a while not thinking that was something worth having. What to do with those feelings? Well, you can simply try to get over it, or you be proactive in a different way.

For us every year, around our anniversary, we do a photo shoot and I think one of these years we’re going to add in a video shoot too. No one says a highlight video is just for a wedding.

(Sorry, no wedding photos here but I picked some of my fav images from our yearly shoots)