Once you’re engaged, it propels you into the world of wedding planning. In today’s day and age of Pinterest and social media it’s easy to saturate yourself in it. I don’t know about you, but it’s all I wanted to talk about! I really enjoyed it. Here are a few of my favorite parts of the wedding planning process for me.

Wedding dress shopping!

Out of all of the important tasks to complete before the wedding day, wedding dress shopping was something I was looking forward to the most. It’s not everyday that you get to try on beautiful sparkly gowns. It’s what little girls dream about! I had browsed through magazines, Pinterest and a lot of wedding gown designer sites. There are so many options and styles to choose from!

I asked my mom to come with me because she knows me well and is honest to a fault. She was someone who wouldn’t let us walk out of the house growing up looking like a hot mess. She is the kind of person who will also tell you if you have something in your teeth. “Mom honesty” is the best. Back to the story. I picked a few dress shops in my area and didn’t make appointments more than two boutiques in a day. It was too much to do more than that!

My favorite bridal boutique was Taylored For You. It’s an intimate bridal shop in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Taylor is the owner and was so knowledgeable, friendly and patient! She was so helpful to pull different dresses off the rack that she thought I would like and also new fun ones to try that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. I found something that met all of my must haves. I wanted a dress that was unique, modest and blingy.

Cake Tasting

I think this one is just a no brainer. Who doesn’t like trying different cakes and matching the best icing to them? Jason and I were looking forward to cake tasting! We love us some good desserts. My sister also made cupcakes for the cocktail hour and those ended up being our most coveted treats. We froze them and enjoyed them when we got back from our honeymoon.

All hands on deck

It felt like as soon as Jason and I were engaged, my family was busy planning the wedding! We had our ceremony and cocktail hour at my parent’s church. My mom was busy ordering table clothes, flower girl dresses, etc etc. Leading up to the wedding everyone was all hands on deck. Even our church family! I found pictures of my family sitting on the floor in our main event room after our wedding rehearsal working on wedding favors, church members moving chairs and tying bows in the sanctuary. We were so thankful for our support team.

Enjoying the fiancée season

Jason and I were only going to be engaged for this short fifteen months. It was a season in our relationship that would be unique and we couldn’t relive. We enjoyed the anticipation of getting married. It was easy for me to get caught up in the nitty gritty of wedding details. But the most important part of the wedding planning process was celebrating what God was bringing together.

Personal touches

Growing up two of my favorite hobbies were photography and making things out of polymer clay. For our wedding day I decided to make a handmade wedding cake topper. I created a mini bride and groom out of clay. They were meant to look just us like our wedding day. Every last button and pleat were in place. I didn’t show Jason my dress before the wedding so that meant he couldn’t see the cake topper either. It was a fun surprise!

Jason’s highlight of wedding planning was writing his vows to me. We chose to have a mix of traditional vows and personalized vows. Our ceremony was filled with sentiments like my dad walking me down the aisle and officiating the wedding. My best friend and maid of honor sang during our first communion together. Our siblings were in our bridal parties. We did a salt covenant instead of a sand pouring. We enjoyed adding in those special touches.

I really could go on and on but those were just a few of my favorite aspects about planning our wedding.

In case you missed it, check out our surprise proposal story! If you’re all caught up read Part 8: The Wedding!