Day of Wedding Tips - For Brides to Be

Hello everyone!

Now that my wedding is over and I can finally sit back and breathe. I wasn't given any advice on how the actual wedding day should go. When I was invited to weddings I was just a casual guest and at my sisters wedding I was a bridesmaid to a pregenat bride. Not that my sisters advice wasn't helpful, its just she was in a state of mind of pregnancy so I'm not sure if she would've felt the same way as me who isn't pregnant and on a destination beach.

Now that my wedding is truly complete I thought I would give 6 tips for Brides and lessons I’ve learned from my outdoor beach wedding. 

Tip One: If your wedding is in the late afternoon don't rush to get ready.

My wedding was at 4pm so I had tons of time to get dressed, makeup, hair, etc. OF COURSE, I was constantly wanting to get ready early but I had to slow my roll. A good thing to do is to have a schedule planned out and how long each task should take (example my hair took over an hour but makeup only took 25 minutes). During your hair and makeup consultations time how long it takes to do the finished product so you can map out a good bridal blueprint for you big day.

Tip Two: Don't Starve Yourself.

This is a big one. Luckily, I love food and I was very SET on having my meals. But, back when I was working as an ANF manager I would skip meals during big floor sets or major visits. For your wedding the worst thing to do is pass out from starving yourself. If you're not comfortable eating a full meal eat small snacks throughout the day.

Tip Three: To pre-game or not to pre-game?

Bryce's family loves to celebrate. So before the wedding there was bottles already being popped! Having a few sips or a glass isn't bad but I don't think having 3/4 a bottle of wine is a smart idea (gotta say those vows gal!). I have seen some of my gal friends who party hardcore before the vows and some who all drink their La Croix beforehand.

Tip Four: Don't Stress Over Spilt Milk.

No matter how many instagram or Pinterest photos you look at, perfection DOESN'T exist. It took me years to learn this wisdom. So when things went wrong or wasn't done correctly, I didn't flip. It's life. So what if the center pieces didn't have enough shells + driftwood? Grab a glass of wine and roll with the fun!

Tip Five: Wedding Photos + Water.

So at my wedding of course there was water - ocean water. The biggest choice Bryce and I had to make was do we want photos of us in the water (as in my dress getting soaked and his suit getting wet) When deciding on this choice for my beach wedding brides... Have a back up outfit! (unless you're down to wear a wet dress!).

Tip Six: If there's alcohol remember some people's moods change.

I like weddings with alcohol. I'm the gal who loves to have something to sip on and have fun. Of course, not everyone acts the same way as I. So if you're having a bar at your event remember some people might act differently and consider if you’ll have to be babysitting or will they be able to handle their brews. 

Today is my Wedding!

Hello Everyone! Today is my Wedding Day!
At 4pm Central Time; I will be walking barefoot in the sand with my Dad at Navarre Beach, Florida to marry my best friend, my rock, the father of my darling daughter, and the one person who has seen me at my best and worst but still loves me.

The island that I'm getting married on is the same island I was proposed to. It's where Bryce and I went on dates. It's where I decided I was moving away from North Carolina to settle at. It's where we announced to my parents Bryce and I were expecting a baby. The white sand on this beach and the emerald waters isn't just a beautiful backdrop for my Wedding, it's the location that so many great memories were made. And many more to come.

I've been asked why did I wait to get married after Hollys birth. I waited because I wanted to feel 100% at my best. I didn't want to feel tired from pregnancy pains or feel uncomfortable about my weight + sore feet. I wanted to be able to celebrate with family and have a true Champagne toast as the sun sets (And eat foods that wouldn't make me feel sick afterwards)! I wanted the photographs taken to reflect Bryce and I in pure confidence. I knew if I was pregnant during my wedding I wouldn't feel confident or truly appreciate all the beautiful images the photographer captures. To some that might be silly but for me it's not. Yes, Holly was born before a marriage license. Yes planning a wedding while raising a infant is a challenge. But that's okay. I rather it be that way than not at all.

I hope everyone has a beautiful Saturday. I hope today everyone finds a reason to smile. I want today to not just be my happiest day but also for whoever is reading this to have a happy day as well.

Thanks again for everyones love and support.
I plan to post a blog of my wedding and as always follow the instagram for photos in the moment.
If you want to help make our wedding magical; donate to wedding registry! Our Honeymoon Fund! Our wedding costs has left us without a beautiful Honeymoon.
 - Pomp and Palms

Wedding Photos

Wedding photos are super important. The photographs collected will be a key item to reflect on from that beautiful day. These photos you'll show your daughter when she's a little girl and she will admire how beautiful her mother looked in a white gown. Not to mention, photographers are super costly. So like many brides, you want to get the photos right.

Question: How should you shop for a photographer?
Finding a photographer isn't a walk in the park. You need to view the photographer just like the venue or baker. You need to see their work, hear what their strengths + weaknesses are (Everyone has a weakness and if someone says they don't, you MUST walk away), you need to communicate with the photographer and see if she/he is someone who understands your vision but also a person you're comfortable talking to, and of course the price needs to be within your budget.

In my opinion, the photographer should get to know you and your family. After shooting your wedding it shouldn't be just a person but more like a friend. If the photographer just views you as a paycheck or a job, it's not going to be a good match. There's no bond. The photographer needs to truly care for the client and strive to capture the most beautiful moments from this important day.

What did I do? When deciding on my photographer I didn't care if the photographs were 5 star quality.... YOU HEARD IT HERE, I'm okay with some flaws. I wanted the trust and support to be 5 star. 
I had quite a few options. All were very costly and some did chip the price. The person I selected was one who didn't just know Bryce's family but she lived in the same neighborhood. She watched Bryce grow up and she was honored to be asked if she can help with the wedding. She does photography on the side and admits to a weakness; she hasn't done wedding photos in awhile. But she offered many perks that no one else did: to take family photos a few weeks before for free so we can get to know her, to do the ceremony and reception + if we want to have more photos done another day she'll gladly do them, and to take us to other parts of the island for different style photos. Lastly, she loves Holly and wants to spend time with her.

This one I love. It's actually from this part of Florida so I have a good idea on how the water and sand will look. I hope Anita can get a photo like this with the sun setting.

This is another photo I really like. I want to get photos of us in the water SUPER bad. Of course, these are hard to do because the dress is getting wet. We might take these on a separate day.

Question: Should you give the Photographer pictures you want to recreate? 
Yes and No.
I told Anita (my photographer) I have photos from Pinterest to show her and maybe she can recreate them or something similar. She told me that's ONE THING a photographer should be honest with: recreating an exact photo you find on Pinterest is about impossible (photoshop, the time of day and location, the style of camera, presets, etc are all factors). I appreciated she told me the photos I collected might not 100% look the same as mine but she said she will do some of her creative work to make something beautiful.
She DID suggest for me to write down any photo line ups I want.
For Example: Who did I want included in family photos? Do I want to have photos with only parents or photos with siblings partners? Did I want Holly in all my photos or would I prefer to keep her out of some? Would I want photos of random guests?
She also suggested that I look at her usual schedule for Wedding Day photos and see if I want to omit any of it (I’m not having a bridal party so I don’t need 45 minutes invest in photos of bridesmaids getting ready and I’m getting ready at Bryce’s Sisters salon; might want to omit hair and makeup prep photos).

I hope this gave some good information on Photographer shopping and Wedding photos. The images shown I found on Pinterest and are the ones I plan to show my Photographer to see if we can do something similar.
- Pomp and Palms

Wedding DIY Projects

Weddings on a budget require some creative tricks, a little trip to Hobby Lobby and a tall glass of wine (or beer). AKA: the Wedding DIY projects! You'll be so surprised at how much money you can save if you take a weekend to do some crafting. My goal is to keep my wedding budget as low as possible so I scouted my Pinterest boards for some wedding decor ideas.

Can you DIY for any style of Wedding?
Of course! Glitzy wedding, Rustic wedding, Halloween theme wedding, Beach wedding, etc. I believe all wedding theme/styles have DIY projects. Todays post I will show you all the DIY projects I'm doing for my Seaside Destination Wedding. Many of these projects can be altered to fit any wedding theme/style. And I'm more than happy to give further details if needed!

1. Table Center Pieces.
I decided my center pieces will be a table runner, some shells + drift wood, a few flowers, and battery power candles. I was shocked to see the florist was going to charge me over $750 to do 6 tables! With this center piece I designed, I was able to DIY it for under $200 (some of the shells and drift wood I found on the beach!) After my wedding I will post images of the finished product on a special blog post. 

So shells was purchased in bundles.

I sorted and cleaned some of the shells to get an idea of how I want my arrangements to look.

I have quite a few extra large shells. Here’s some for example. I plan to tissue paper wrap these in a crate.

My super delicate shells like small sand dollars, urchins, and unique rare pieces I used tackle boxes to store.

2. Guest Sign In Book.
I decided to do a creative Sign In Book. I found this wooden shadow box frame for $5.00. I'm going to glue a few shells on the front and paint inside the shadow box. I bought a pack of wooden hearts for only $3.00 and will have guest write their names on them! I will have images of this after my wedding on a special blog post.

3. Paper Lanterns with Lights.
I found some paper lanterns for $11.90 (for 6 in a pack) and these lovely battery power lights that I'm going to stuff into the lanterns then hang them throughout the pavilion for a romantic and beachy feel.

4. Shell Aisle Runner.
I love Sea Stars. So I had to add them to my ceremony. I plan to have the sea stars line the wedding aisle. Each Sea Star only cost $1-3 dollars each and after the wedding I plan to use them for another project. * I was lucky enough to find Sugar Starfish's to use. These are very rare to find now because of the disease that's killing off the breed. I'm very blessed to have them for my wedding.*

5. Guest Favor Boxes.
I really wanted my guest to leave my Seaside wedding feeling loved and with some memory of the beach. I found these coral boxes for $4.99 (24 per pack), some Sand dollar "Sea Cookies" for $4.00 (a basket with 50-75), and this Jute $3.00. Inside the box I'm putting Sugarfina gummy tester packs $2.50 per pack. I'm going to tie the rope to keep the box secure and then glue a shell on top.

1. Supplies. Sugafina gummy tester, Jute, shells, and 2x2 gift boxes.

2. Once assembled the box I placed the gummy pack inside and decided on which shells will be insides the box and with on the outside.

3. This is how I visualized which shells will look best. I tied the Jute and then placed the shell options until I was satisfied.

The finished product! I mixed the shells and did some different looks but each box has 3-4 shells, 3 small square pieces of tissue paper in sea foam blue, and a Sugarfina gummy pack!

6. Cake Topper.
My Cake Topper cost under $5.00! The two wooden beach chairs were only $1.00 each, the paint was on clearance for $0.75 (the bottle had lost some paint), and the 2 shells I purchased in a giant jumbo pack and once I did the math the shells were only $0.75 each. I had some leftover wooden hearts and my sister wrote "Mr" and "Mrs" with some pens she had in a drawer. * The image below is the example I channeled when creating mine (I will post photos after my wedding) These are an Etsy set that's priced at $35.00 while mine is totaled to cost under $5.00* After my wedding I will post images of the finished product on a special blog post.

7. Dust the Sand Off Your Feet Brushes with Jars OR Jars for Silverware
This is a cute idea I found on Pinterest but I plan to make it 3x more budget friendly. I have some mason jars that I found at a thrift store for 5 cents each! I'm going to wrap some of the Jute rope from the other projects around them and glue a shell on the jars. I considered using these jars to hold the brushes in OR for Silverware holders! I found some brushes from dollar tree (obviously they were $1.00) but to add some extra detail I plan to wrap some of the Jute rope. I might even add a shell or two just for fun.

1. Mason Jar, Jute, and Tacky glue. Simply glue the Jute to the jar.

2. Added some beautiful medium- large size shells for the perfect utensil jars!

Other DIY projects
8. Food Trays
My family and I are preparing food trays and using our Sam's Club cards to get the food in bulk. We have some fun different style platters to display the food on and surprisingly a lot of the trays are from the dollar store! We're going to make custom style tooth picks with little shells glued on the tops and have a jar to collect all the shells afterwards for other projects.

9. Rentals
We plan to rent all the chairs, the arbor, and a few tables. My family is pretty amazing and said some friends will help set the reception up in exchange for a beer and snack. For the entire ceremony chairs, arbor, arbor decor it ended up being $600 (this was the most costly part of my wedding). After my wedding I will post images of the finished product on a special blog post.

10. Wedding bouquet
My mom and sister are going to help me create my wedding bouquet. The ceremony vendor is sending photos of what the arbor arrangements look like and we'll mimic the look. We did the math and this should cost no more than $25.00. After my wedding I will post images of the finished product on a special blog post.

After my wedding is over I plan to be 100% authentic with you all and show how much the wedding cost. I will pin point the most expensive parts for any of my brides-to-be that needs a good budget spreadsheet idea. Being straight forward right now... The most expensive part about my Destination Beach Wedding has been the rentals (like I said I will give a spreadsheet of the totals once the Wedding is complete!) 

Catering for Weddings

My favorite thing about weddings is food. My least favorite thing about planning my wedding... Food! I can't believe how costly it can be! I keep having to go back to the drawing board and re-balance my budget. Today I'll give some tips on how I decided on the Food/Catering budget.

Deciding on what type of food to Cater.

This is where you have to ask your family what type of reception were you having. If you're doing a relaxed 'come and go' reception you won't need to order a massive 4 course meal service. If you were only wanting a dessert theme reception then obviously, you get to grab the dessert menu! One of my favorites is a brunch theme! I also enjoyed the 'family style BBQ' theme my neighbor Amanda had. The importance on decided what style of reception you'll be having is so you can target the right Catering service and focus solely on that style of menu.

How to shop for a Caterer:

- Read reviews online!

- Check local websites and do local google searches near where your venue is! (you don't want to pay an additional travel cost!)

- Visit grocery stores! A lot of grocery stores now do catering.

- Check out your favorite restaurants and see what service they provide.

What to Ask a Caterer:

- Options of food?

- Pricing by tiers or types of food?

- Are they including drinks in the pricing?

- Is there a pouring fee with Alcohol?

- Last date you can confirm guest number?
- Is this a buffet line or a sit down and waiters will bring out the courses?

What did I do? I'm having a "Cocktail Style Reception". This means I plan to have drinks (Wine, Beer, and some non-alcoholic choices), Some simple food trays: Fruit tray, Veggie Tray, Meat Tray, Meat balls, small finger sandwiches, and for dessert Cake and Cookies. 
I wanted to keep my reception simple and wasn't wanting to have a full Dinner for everyone. This was because of price + we're going to be out on the beach! My goal is to have the food compliment the beach vibes so super chill and relaxing. 

Wedding Hair and Makeup

As I've been planning my wedding I kept throwing 'hair and makeup' on the back burner. But lately I've caught myself staying up till midnight on Pinterest searching hair styles and makeup looks. The hard part isn't visualizing how the look will turn out but deciding what is best for the location.

A very important thing to remember when selecting hair and makeup is your venue location. 

Is the event in a hot area? A cold area? Is it indoors? Or outdoors? Will you be doing a lot of dancing and moving? Or do you plan to relax and talk? 

Since I'm getting married on the beach it might not be best to have a ton of makeup on. (No Air-conditioning, sunshine + sweat, if we do pictures with water splashing... yeah, messy makeup!). Hair is very similar to makeup. Being outside in the sun and the ocean breeze certain hairstyles might not hold up as well as others. 

Hair Options

This is option one: having my hair down and wavy with some pieces pinned up.

This is option two: It's more of a updo but still relaxed and has a beachy feel.

Makeup Options:

This first makeup option is very sparkly. I like the eye lid color cause it has that beach bronze glow.

My second makeup option is more of a soft smokey eye.  I like that its not dark and has those earthy brown neutral tones. I also enjoy this look cause its not as sparkle glittery.

Next is deciding to do it yourself or hire someone.

Many girls now stick to watching a few youtube videos or having a girlfriend come by and help them style for the wedding. This is definitely the more affordable option and also gives you a chance to create a look that is authentic to you and using the products you already own and trust.

Then the other option is hiring. When having your wedding hair and makeup appointments tell the stylist where your location will be, what time of year, and what all is going on. She can help create a look that will hold up for the entire event. Once she does have you hair styled walk around with it, stand in front of a fan or toss your hair around to see how the look holds up. If you notice something doesn't feel right - rework it. By the time you leave your appointment make sure you're 100% in love the entire look and confident in the look lasting through the ceremony and reception. Another great tip is to do a look that in 20 years you won't regret. Instead of sticking to big beauty trends go for a look that will last a lifetime but also a look that truly represents you. 

What am I doing? I plan to have Bryce's sister Blair do my hair and help me with some of the makeup. She is a hair and makeup stylist. I also plan to use all my own products cause I'm comfortable using the brands that my skin is used to.