;
Apr19

Wedding Wednesday Update 2: Venue booked & Interviewing Vendors

post featured image
The following content may contain affiliate links. When you click and shop the links, we receive a commission.

Hello hello! The past week we knocked two major things out for the wedding – we picked a date and booked a venue. Woot! So really, we could just show up and with our family and pastor and get married. And that’s what really matters. 🙂 Obviously there are additional things we want, but it’s good to remember what really matters when I start stressing about all the details. (Stress? Who? Me? NEVER.) Here’s what’s been happening in wedding planning land over here.

Venue booked!

The past week felt a little nuts with wedding stuff. I felt a lot of pressure to book a venue since I knew things would book up quickly given that our wedding is only 6 months away. While I really loved both SECCA and the Graylyn Estate and the people at both venues, we ended up booking Graylyn.

winston salem wedding venue

I loved the ease that came with Graylyn and not having to wrangle a ton of different vendors since they provide nearly everything we need (rather than finding a chairs + caterer + tables + linens, etc.). Plus, it’s so pretty that it really doesn’t need much decor, which is a definitely a perk. I also love that I run by Graylyn on almost every run. The manor and grounds have always been one of my favorite spots on my run, and I like the idea that I’ll be able to think about our wedding day so often.

graylyn estate weddings

Photography & Videography

I’m still talking with a number of of photographers and videographers. I have some top contenders but I really care about both of those vendors so I want to take my time and get the right fit. (Many of you commented that you agree I should prioritize them!). I’m hoping to have these booked in the new few weeks.

Day-Of Coordinator

I’m also chatting with a number of day-of coordinators since Jenny (whom I blogged about in Update 1) is unavailable on our wedding day. (Sad!) I REALLY wanted to work with her though since she completely gets my vision and isn’t forcing anything on me like some planners I talked to (seriously not cool). So she’ll help with all the upfront work, helping me design the wedding and plan the flow of the day. She’s also weighing in on the vendors I’m looking at since I like researching them myself. Then, she’ll hand off it off to a day-of coordinator. I’m trying to find someone who is comfortable with that type of partnership and is someone we both feel very confident can run the show!

Honeymoon Planning

Honeymoon conversations are underway! After Tommy and I completed the form from Heather last week about our honeymoon thoughts, we Facetimed with her tonight to talk about it more so she can work on a recommendation for us. Tommy and I both loved chatting with her! She’s obviously really good at her job, but she’s a lovely, fun person too. I love all the friends I’ve made through blogging, and it was so fun to chat face to face after being online friends for so long!

I can’t wait to see what recommendations she comes back with! And seriously, I cannot express how happy I am that I don’t have to research the honeymoon myself. I usually love planning trips and thought I wanted to plan our honeymoon, but the stress it’s taken off me not to have to worry about it is awesome. Plus, I have a feeling I would’ve gone down a rabbit hole trying to find the very best option and struggled to make a decision. And she keeps mentioning things she provides that I’m like, um, why have I never used a travel agent before? THANK YOU HEATHER. Here’s her website if you’re interested in using her for any upcoming trips!

Dress Shopping

I tried on dresses last Saturday and my sweet friend Alise went with me. At the time, I thought I found the ONE. But, looking back at pictures I don’t think it is. I think I was drawn to how different it was from everything else in the store, so by contrast I loved it. Plus, it was just so FUN to wear. It was a good first stop, but the hunt continues! I’ll be trying on more dresses this weekend and next week when my mom is in town. No pictures since I don’t want Tommy to have a clue what I’m looking at! 🙂

Brainstorming how to personalize the wedding

We’re trying to find ways to personalize our wedding so it feels like “us”. We aren’t tied to many traditional things and some things we just don’t care about. We’ve talked about doing this with special invitations and fun desserts rather than a cake, and while nothing is set in stone yet, it’s really fun to think about. And it feels rally good to throw the “shoulds” out the window and plan something that we truly want.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got this week! Hope you have a great rest of your week!

Looking for other wedding planning updates? Go here.

 

terilyn signatureterilyn signature

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    7 responses to “Wedding Wednesday Update 2: Venue booked & Interviewing Vendors”

    1. You should save the dress photos and post-wedding do a post on this! Show us what you tried and liked/didn’t like and talk about the process! I think it is such a fun decision and interesting to see what people like and end up picking!

    2. Are you sure the venue doesn’t offer you a “day of coordinator”? When we got married, the hotel had a coordinator that we were in touch with ahead of time and then the day of we had her + a few other hotel staff that seemed to be there just to make sure everything ran smoothly and we were taken care of. I’m just saying you might not need to hire an additional person.

      I love that you’re planning to just do what makes you happy. We got married at our church, but we didn’t have any bible readings… the traditional ones just didn’t seem to fit (and the pastor already included 1 Corinthians in his part of the service) so we went with 3 different love poems and they were just perfect. We also incorporated our favorite music into the ceremony and the reception and that was really important to me.

      Random recommendation: my shoes were low, barely had a heel… but I still got cute “fancy” flip flops and I actually ended up wearing them for a good bit of the pictures beforehand (you can’t tell because my dress was covering them). We were walking around Valley Forge Park and I didn’t want to ruin my shoes before the ceremony, plus the flip flops were just so comfortable. I think this definitely helped me stay in my real shoes longer at the reception.

    3. I noticed that you posted a wedding checklist on your first wedding post! Would like to hear some of the things aren’t so important to You & Tommy, I always think it’s interesting how every couple is so different when it comes planning your big day! So happy for you two!

    4. I recently got married, and though I love cake, we opted to just offer mini tarts. They were a huge hit, and eliminated the awkward (at least to me) cake-cutting moment, or people having to leave the dance floor to sit down for cake. I would highly recommend, and happy planning!

    5. Congrats Teri!! That is so exciting! I love that you guys are finding special ways to make your wedding uniquely “you.” One of my favorite things about our wedding was how much I loved all of the music and wanted to dance to every single song. One night, you guys should go through songs you absolutely don’t want to hear and songs you do so you can make sure you hear your favs 🙂 Love is just the best <3 So happy for you both!

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.