Get to know our 2020 Couple of the Year with their first blog post! Each month (ish) we’ll have a new post from Brianna and Nick helping us follow their wedding planning journey through everything from the venue, choosing vendors, the fun stuff like the tasting, to the tough decisions like guest lists and whether or not to hire a coordinator. Check back each month for a new chapter of their wedding diary!
Since Nick had secured our dream venue before proposing we actually were able to secure key vendors before I even knew our wedding date! Nick was careful to make sure everyone we met with was aware so they wouldn’t spill the beans. Because vendors book so far in advance, Nick didn’t want me to miss out on a vendor I really wanted if we didn’t start booking until after his proposal (which was another date unbeknownst to me).
Rosecliff provided us with a preferred vendor list for florists, caterers, photographers, and entertainment. We utilized that list because we wanted to choose vendors who are familiar with the venue. Rosecliff is a historic venue with tours taking place there right up until a wedding begins, so our vendors had to be masters of the Rosecliff wedding timeline. We took a trip down to Newport last January for a round of meetings where we had a pretty easy time deciding who we really loved! Without a ring on my finger yet, we booked our florist, caterer, videographer and photographer!
After we got engaged (and celebrated our engagement with our families) we picked out a few other vendors, like our wedding invitation artist, took our engagement photos in Newport and had our food and cake tastings! We worked with Caitlin from Wouldn’t It Be Lovely to design a gorgeous custom watercolor crest and custom watercolor painting of Rosecliff that we used in our Save the Dates and will use in our invitations as well. It is special that we have two tangible symbols of our day that I hope we can use throughout our home in the future. In October we had a day of food and cake tastings along with a runthrough of the venue!
I’ve always dreamed about my wedding but I didn’t have all the details ironed out. I thought decision making would be difficult – there’s so many vendors and so many beautiful ways to do something – but I’ve actually found that I have intuitive initial reactions and I’m rolling with them. I’m not second guessing myself or agonizing over making the “right” decision. It’s also been fun to see how my “style” or “wants” have changed as I’ve been planning our wedding. Things I thought I wanted – cranberry bridesmaids dresses, uniform floral arrangements, certain details on my dress – I’ve steered away from. I’ve really enjoyed researching vendors and ideas to bring my vision for our special date to life
We took a bit of a wedding planning break around the holidays because we had so much planned already! Once January rolled around we started thinking about our honeymoon. We knew we wanted to go somewhere warm and beachy where we could relax. You only get to honeymoon once so we wanted to find someplace that allowed for all the ultimate amenities: beach bungalow with in-suite plunge pool, butler service, private dinner on the beach, amazing spa packages, and rose petals everywhere to name a few. We love to explore but we wanted to take a trip that would be mostly relaxing. We are doing a mini staycation in Newport at the Chanler after our wedding to soak up the first few days as husband and wife and then we want to experience a tropical oasis.
In December I received an email from Zola inviting us to be one of the first 150 couples to test out Zola’s new honeymoon planning service. By swiping left and right on honeymoon locations or activities, a real travel planner puts together an itinerary that you can then work with them to customize until you 100% love it. Nick and I have been working on a Saint Lucia honeymoon itinerary. They graciously set up a call with us on a Saturday and we have been emailing back and forth as our planner works with the hotel to get us the best rate, plan our activities, and find us flights. We chose Saint Lucia because we’ve both been to a few Caribbean islands already and Saint Lucia is a completely different climate than the rest. It is more similar to Hawaii with its lush vegetation and high peak mountains. We also found breathtaking resorts that offered the level of luxury we were hoping for.
Here’s what’s coming up for us:
Major To-Do’s
- Booking our honeymoon!!!
- Picking out tuxedos for Nick and his groomsmen
Meetings and Events
- Pre-Cana at our local church
- A murder mystery themed dinner party to celebrate our bridal party! We wanted to have everyone get to know each other before our big day and thank them!
