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Wedding

Our Wedding Day!

November 15, 2020

Our special day FINALLY came! After almost 6 years together and 10 months of wedding planning, October 25, 2020 arrived and it couldn’t have been any more perfect. I’ve been teasing everything about our wedding such as my dress and our incredible team of vendors for months and now I get to share it all with you! Keep reading to hear about our big day…

Sitting on 34 acres, our wedding venue was such a magical spot! At the venue itself, they have a few different location options for your ceremony and reception but as soon as we saw the greenhouse, the decision was made. It’s SO romantic and just what we were looking for – a dream! From the start, we were planning on a micro wedding with less than 25 guests so when COVID hit, we luckily didn’t have to make too many changes. That really ended up being the perfect amount of people for the space and we’re so happy that we kept it intimate!

On wedding day, the girls had a little cottage to get ready in and the boys had a separate space they called the “den”. It was awesome to have our own spaces right at the venue so we didn’t even have to worry about transportation! On our wedding day, it actually rained (poured at times!) so although we didn’t have a first look planned beforehand, we ended up doing one at the last minute because we had a little break in the rain before the ceremony. It was so special and helped us to be more in the moment during the ceremony!

For some detail, my dress was Willowby by Watters from BHLDN, Connor’s tie was from DAZI, my hair and makeup artist was Bona Fide Beauty Co., my florist was Blossom Bliss, and my photographer who all these incredible photos are by was Molly of xoxomollyjane.

The ceremony was short and sweet and exactly what we hoped for! Blossom Bliss absolutely knocked it out of the park with the florals and we had wonderful live violin and cello musicians from Vivace Live. The live music was the PERFECT touch for the dreamy setting! For the ceremony, we did rent a welcome mirror and a few extra wooden chairs from Price Rentals and Events and they were fabulous to work with! Our wedding day really wouldn’t have been the same without the superb team of vendors we had and we’re so grateful!

For dinner, we opted to have brunch! Even though our wedding was a bit later in the day, Connor and I LOVE brunch food so that’s what we wanted at our wedding. The caterer we went with was Simply from Scratch and they were marvelous! My plate was full of sugar raised waffles and hash brown potatoes while Connor’s was full of carved turkey and quiche and it couldn’t have been more delicious. To go along with the brunch food, our wedding cake was a cheesecake and we had banana cream pie and apple pie shooters along with mini cheesecakes for our guests.

Even though it rained, we still got to sneak outside at the end of the night and do our sparkler send-off which was so much fun! We truly had the wedding of our dreams and are incredibly thankful to our family and friends who were able to attend with everything going on.

Overall, my wedding planning advice is to have multiple backup plans for weather issues and to hire a day-of coordinator! There were so many little things to take care of on the wedding day that made it a pretty hectic morning which isn’t really what you imagine beforehand. But the problem is, once you realize you need a day-of coordinator, it’s too late. So please take my advice and hire one – your wedding day will run so smoothly and stress-free!

And that’s our wedding! We’re waiting until the summertime to take our honeymoon and we cannot wait. Fingers crossed COVID is just a memory by that point! If you have any questions about where something is from or anything specific about the day, leave a comment below. I’ll talk to you soon!

Wedding

Last Minute Wedding Details

October 23, 2020

Hey hey hey, happy wedding weekend! I cannot believe that it’s finally here. As you’re reading this, we’re prepping for our rehearsal dinner tomorrow and wedding on SUNDAY… ahh it’s finally happening! Since we’re so close, this post is going to cover all the little details that have happened in the weeks leading up to the wedding. Let’s get started!

To start off with a couple things I’ve been doing besides wedding planning, let’s talk about my diet and exercise leading up to the big day. I’m not a dieter and but I have made a huge change in my water intake. Up until a few months ago, I could go all day without drinking any water at all. In August, I did the Blogilates 30 day water challenge where you take your body weight and divide it in half and that’s how many ounces of water you drink everyday. I mostly stuck to it and continued the challenge for the next few months and I noticed I actually do feel a lot better when I drink the right amount of water… who would’ve thought?! Not only did it allow me to feel better but I noticed a difference in my skin too which was one of my main goals in doing the water challenge in the first place.

Another thing I started over the Summer was following a workout plan because I didn’t want to get to the wedding day and have my dress not fit… can you imagine?! I started the plan 4 months out. The first and second months, I did the monthly plan that Cassie from Blogilates offers on her website. In September, I switched to her Bridal Bootcamp monthly plan (which kicked my butt!) and then for the first three weeks of October, I did the 2020 Chloe Ting two week shred and I went for a run on the off days. After doing all that, I do feel a lot stronger and it was a nice way to keep my body moving without being able to go to the gym.

For the wedding, we do have a few items that we’re renting from an event rental company so yesterday, we picked them up. I also had my final dress fitting yesterday! The place I bought my dress from doesn’t do alterations so I found a separate company to do some custom alterations and additions to my dress. How they do it there is you have three appointments. One right after you purchase your dress, one about 4-6 weeks before the wedding, and the last one only a day or two before your wedding to ensure it’ll fit perfectly the day-of. During the wedding planning process, my fiancé’s mom hasn’t been able to have a huge hand in everything because they live down in Florida but she was in town for my last fitting and it was so special to have her there! I’d definitely recommend having a few special guests at your final fitting.

And today is my final prep day! This morning, I have a hair appointment to make sure my blonde is wedding ready and then I have a nail appointment in the afternoon. I just can’t believe the wedding is practically here! My next post will be all about our big day and I can’t wait to share! Any final guesses as to what venue and vendors we chose???

Travel Wedding

My Bachelorette Weekend

October 9, 2020

Hi everyone, happy October a.k.a. our wedding month!!! I can’t believe after over almost a year of planning, we’re down to just a couple weeks until our big day. I’ve absolutely loved the wedding planning process and I’m getting so sad that it’s almost over! Going right along with the wedding theme of my recent posts, today’s is all about my Bachelorette party! Keep reading to find out where we went, where we stayed, and what we got up to…

Usually, the Maid of Honor throws the Bachelorette party but since we’re having a micro-wedding, I’m not having a typical bridal party so I got to have a big hand in planning a low-key, fun weekend with my best gals! We originally made our plans back in the Spring so COVID-19 was in full swing and while we were hoping it would be gone by September, we wanted to pick somewhere somewhat local so we decided to go to Philly for a night!

On Saturday afternoon, we all were coming from different directions so we met at Iron Hill Brewery in Wilmington, DE and had lunch. We got to sit outside on the riverfront and it was beautiful and delicious! It was so nice to chat and catch up with everyone. One of them I hadn’t seen since college graduation which was almost three years ago so it was extra special!

Once we made it to Philly, we headed to the hotel. We stayed at the most beautiful boutique hotel ever! It’s called the Lokal Hotel and they have two locations in Philly; we stayed in the Fishtown one. It’s contactless so they don’t have a lobby or a front desk or anything like that, you just put in a code at the door and walk right up to your room! We stayed in the room called the Big Jawn. Keep scrolling to look at the most beautiful 2-story boutique hotel “room” you’ve ever seen!

When I was upstairs unpacking, the girls set up the downstairs with photos of Connor and I, bride and engagement ring balloons, confetti poppers, and it was just perfect! We got there a little later on in the evening and wanted a pretty chill night, especially with being in a city during COVID-19 times so we took our relaxing night in to the next level. We watched Twitches 1 & 2 (hello spooky season!), DoorDashed cheesecake slices from The Cheesecake Factory, made bead bracelets, and I caught them up on all my wedding planning!

The next morning, we had to check out at 11am so before then, we headed out to get a quick bite to eat. We were SO SAD to leave! I seriously could’ve lived in that hotel room for a year and never gotten tired of it. Now we just need someone else in the group to get engaged so we can go back for another Bachelorette weekend there!

On the way home, one of my friends and I decided to make a last minute stop at Linvilla Orchards in Media, PA and holy moly, was that a good decision! If you live in the Delaware/southern Pennsylvania area, you probably know of Milburn Orchards… Linvilla is like Milburn times 100. It was awesome and totally got us in the Fall spirit (as if we needed any help!)! Pumpkins galore and they had a garden center and bakeshop where I could barely resist the apple cider donuts.

All in all, the weekend couldn’t have been any more perfect and I am so excited to see them all again at the wedding in just a couple weeks! In the meantime, make sure to check out my last post on our honeymoon destination options. Have a great week!

Travel Wedding

Our Top 5 Honeymoon Destinations

September 18, 2020

Hi there! Today’s post is one I’m super pumped for because who doesn’t like to talk about dream travel destinations? Although it does feel a little bit like torture considering we’re not really allowed to travel right now because of the pandemic but one can dream, right? Luckily, we planned from the beginning to take a delayed honeymoon because of work so although we’re getting married in October, we won’t go on our honeymoon until next Summer. It really worked out in terms of the travel restrictions!

Our first option is… Hawaii! Connor and I have both never been to Hawaii and we’re dying to go. Hawaii also just feels like a honeymoon location, you know? With it taking so long to get to from the East Coast, I don’t know if we’d ever make it there if we don’t go now so it’s definitely a top contender. Specifically Kauai! We’re looking for a pretty low-key and relaxed but adventurous honeymoon and Kauai seems like it’s exactly what we’re going for in terms of the landscape and activity options. And can you say STUNNING!? Everyone we talk to whose been there raves and raves about it and we want to see for ourselves!

Our next option is a California road trip. This is veryyy up our alley – we’re always down for a good road trip! A few years ago, we road tripped through New England all the way up to Maine and it was a blast so we can imagine this would be just as fun. We would probably fly into San Francisco and slowly make our way down the coast and it just seems like such a dream! If we do this, where should we stop along the way? Leave us your California road trip recommendations in the comments!

And for another tropical option, we’re thinking about the Bahamas! This is another location I’ve never been and it seems like I’m missing out. We could fly there, we could take a cruise there, so many possibilities! Have you been to the Bahamas? If so, leave us your recommendations below!

Next up… Canada! Canada has always been on our bucket list. Banff, Toronto, Vancouver – so many beautiful places! Canada is a great option because you can really go any time of the year. In Summer, it’s stunning, and in Winter, the snow just makes it even more magical! Even if we don’t go here for our honeymoon, I think it’s definitely going to be a trip we take in the next few years.

And lastly, an over-water hut! Is there anything that sounds more thrilling (and insanely expensive) than this? To be honest, this is the very first thing we looked into when we started planning our honeymoon. It just sounds so cool and there’s a ton of different places you could go to do the over-water hut or bungalow. It is unbelievably expensive though so I don’t think it’s going to happen for us now but it’s been nice to think about!

Those are all the ideas we threw around and I can happily say that we have our dream honeymoon booked! Where do you think we’re going? We’re super excited – now we just have to book our flights. I can’t wait to share our experience with you; it’s gonna be a blast!

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Wedding

The Story of Us & Our Enneagram Types

August 28, 2020

Hello hello, welcome back to my blog! I hope you have an awesome Labor Day weekend planned! Today’s wedding post is gonna be a fun one. We’re talking all about how Connor and I met, started dating, AND I’m even diving into our love languages and enneagram types so if you’re into that, this post is for you. Let’s get started!

Connor and I first met during our Freshman year of high school. We didn’t go to high school together but we both played at the same tennis club so we met that way. I wouldn’t say we were immediate best friends but over time, with being at the tennis club together a few times a week and traveling together to tennis tournaments in the summer, we became pretty close. He was such a cutie! Flash forward all the way to Freshman year of college and we were both off to different schools. Connor went to Messiah College in Pennsylvania and I went to James Madison University in Virginia – about a four hour drive from each other. During our first Fall semester, we started talking to each other more and more. I guess it took being away from one another to realize how much we missed the other one. At the start of Spring semester, we made pretty spontaneous plans for Connor to come and visit me at JMU. I was thinking he had a car on campus but little did I know that him visiting would entail him catching a ride to a train station, taking a train from PA to VA, catching a cab from the nearest train station (which is 30 minutes away) to JMU, and then a trek all the way across a huge campus he didn’t know at all to find my dorm. All in about 20 degree winter weather! It was so expensive, especially for a college student. Another funny part of the story is that when he finally did get to my dorm after a whole day of traveling, his phone died as he was walking up so he couldn’t even let me know that he was there. Poor guy!

But it was all worth it. We officially started dating that weekend and never looked back! We were long-distance all throughout college because even when we were home during breaks, we still lived about an hour from each other. I ended up graduating college a semester early so I moved back to a town very close to where I grew up and started my first corporate job and Connor finished college the following semester and moved back to a town very close to where he grew up and started his first job! About a year into that and over 4 years of being together, we finally moved in together and it’s been the best time ever. In my opinion, being able to live together before getting engaged or married is super helpful for a relationship. You get to see how someone lives and know if you’re compatible in that way before you take that next step. Last December, we got engaged and you guys know the rest! I can’t believe the wedding is NEXT MONTH… it’s so crazy!

Something fun and different for my blog that I also wanted to dive into is Connor and I’s love languages and enneagram types. He’s a type 7 (the Enthusiast) with his top love language being acts of service and I’m a type 3 (the Achiever) with my top love language being physical touch. Overall, our personality types are super complementary in a relationship. Both of us are very logical thinkers and luckily, we balance each other out in the ways we differ! For example, I’m super into planning and thinking about the future and Connor is very into living in the moment and appreciating each experience for what it is. Both of those things, being in the moment and thinking about the future, are super important so it’s awesome for our relationship that we help each other out in that way! With my personality type, I’m extremely goal oriented and focused on accomplishing things so I bring a lot of structure and drive to our relationship. Connor on the other hand is very adventurous and spontaneous so he brings a ton of fun and optimism into our life together. We’re a perfect match and I can’t wait to marry him!

That wraps up today’s blog post – I hope you enjoyed getting a little peek into Connor and I’s life together so far. I’ve been dying to write a post like this and I thought with us getting married soon it was the perfect time! I’ve left links to a few of my recent posts down below in case you missed those but my wedding series will continue in just a few weeks with a blog post all about our top honeymoon destinations… where do you think we’re headed? Talk to you then!

Click HERE for my post all about our wedding venue hunt!

Click HERE for my post on how to find the right wedding photographer!

Click HERE for my wedding registry post!

Wedding

Wedding Registry: How to Create One and What You Should Have On It

August 7, 2020

Hey hey hey everyone, happy August! The big questions of today’s wedding post are how the heck do I build my wedding registry and what do I need to have on it? There are so many options out there for where to have your registry and then once you decide, what are you supposed to include? I’m here to round everything up for you! Let’s get started…

When the topic of a wedding registry came up with my fiancé and I, our first question was should we even have one? We aren’t buying a house right after we get married so we didn’t really know what we’d put on it even if we did decide to do one. If you’re in the same boat, a couple other ideas you could do instead are ask your guests to donate to a charity or cause of your choice or make it honeymoon-related! Things like a massage at your honeymoon hotel or dinner at a local restaurant would be perfect experience-type gifts!

We eventually decided that we would create a traditional registry and put a handful of things that we really do need on there so our next question was where should we have it? Once you start looking into it, it seems like the options are endless which can be a little overwhelming. My advice would be to choose somewhere that you love to shop (or would love to shop) and choose the type of store that’s appropriate for the items you’re looking for. For example, if you’re asking for mostly decorative household things, you might want to choose somewhere like Bed Bath & Beyond, Pottery Barn, or Wayfair that specializes in home items. If you’re asking for lots of tech-related items, a Best Buy registry might be for you. Did you know even Amazon has a wedding registry?

My fiancé and I fell somewhere in the middle as we’re asking for a variety of items so we decided to go with a registry at Target! I felt at Target, we could get kitchen items, decorative items, and other fun things all at the same place. Target also partners with a company called Honeyfund where you can ask for things for your honeymoon! Everything from money to put towards your travel or hotel to cooking lessons in the city you’re traveling to can be purchased through there. I think that’s pretty cool!

Now to get into what to have on your registry once it’s created. Our registry is pretty small because we’re having a micro-wedding so since we’ll have under 30 guests, we didn’t need to pick out a ton of stuff. A few key things we did include are a magic bullet, vacuum, and steamer! Not the most exciting things but definitely things you need around the house. I also included some things like new towels and baking sheets because you can never have enough of those!

It’s important to also think about the budget of your guests and the fact that they’re probably spending at least a couple hundred dollars even just coming to your wedding with maybe having to get a new outfit and spending the night in a hotel if it’s far from home. We have a range of prices for our registry gifts that goes from as low as $5 to as high as $300 with most of the items being around $30. Not that I think someone should get us a $300 gift but one of the things I love about the Target registry is that someone can put money towards a certain item without purchasing the whole thing. So 10 people could put $30 towards that item and it’s paid for. Pretty neat, I think!

That brings us to the end of today’s post! I feel like the world of wedding registries is a little bit hectic so I hope my experience with creating ours helped you. I am so excited for the next blog post in my wedding series! It’ll be coming out in just a few weeks and will be all about how my fiancé and I met, starting dating, and just our whole story of us. Stay tuned for that and in the meantime, the second post in my wedding series with The Styled Bride Blog went up a few weeks ago. Click here to read the rest of the Q&A!

Wedding

Wedding Vendors… Florals, Catering, Hair & Makeup, oh my!

July 3, 2020

Hi everyone, welcome back to another blog post in my wedding series and happy almost 4th of July! Today’s post is going to be all about the BIG vendors involved in a wedding. I’ve already touched on finding your wedding venue (click here) and finding your photographer (click here) in previous posts so today’s will be focused on finding your florist, caterer, and hair and makeup artist. As with my other wedding series posts, this is centered around planning a bohemian wedding in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, or Virginia so I’ll be sharing my favorite vendors I found within that area. Let’s get started!

FLORALS: Finding our florist was something I was sooo excited about. Overall, the vibe for our wedding is elegant bohemian so the florals are really going to make it come to life. Once you dive into just how many flowers you need, you might be shocked (as I was). There are so many possibilities about the things you can do so finding the perfect florist is super important! Here are the top florist options I found:

Splints & Daisies (Lancaster, PA): Tara from Splints & Daisies is amazing! Shortly after getting engaged, I actually got to work with her on an incredible styled shoot (click here) and it was soooo dreamy. She puts so much thought and energy into her work and it really shows! Click here for her website.

Blossom Bliss (York, PA): Kristin from Blossom Bliss is the sweetest (and she just had a baby!)! She’s so easy to talk to and you can tell she wants to capture what you want for your special day. Click here to pop over to her cute website!

Rosemary and Rust (Shrewsbury, PA): Meg and Shea of Rosemary and Rust are one of my favorites! They have such an eye for floral arrangements and they would make such a great wedding day partner. Click here for their website!

Winsome Floral (Princeton, NJ): Courtney of Winsome Floral has such a romantic, dreamy vibe! Her installations are absolutely incredible so if you’re looking for something bigger for your wedding day, she is the way to go. Click here for her website!

CATERING: To be honest, catering was one of the only things that wasn’t exciting to me about our wedding day. I’m not a foodie and I have a TON of food allergies so eating in general is not a fun activity for me. But once I recognized how important the food is to our guests, it was much more meaningful! I will say this was the hardest vendor to book for us. Since we have such a small guest count (less than 30 people), I think companies wanted to see if they could book a larger party before committing to us so that’s something to be conscious of if you’re having a micro-wedding! That aside, here are the top catering options I found:

Simply from Scratch (Lancaster, PA): This team is so nice! They offer a variety of menus and will personalize the menu to exactly what you’re looking for on your wedding day. They’re all about the presentation (as am I) and it really shows in their events! Click here for their website.

Ginger Babies Catering (York, PA): This company has wonderful reviews on every website and a lot of comments are how they “kept things running smoothly” which is exactly what you want on your special day. Click here for some reviews about them!

JDK Group (Camp Hill, PA): JDK Group really does it all! In addition to catering, they offer event planning, rentals, florals, and so much more so if you’re looking for a one stop shop, they could be for you. Click here for their website!

HAIR & MAKEUP: This vendor was so fun to look into! At first, I thought I’d have to have separate hair and makeup artists but a lot of the options I looked into do both which is super convenient. One thing to think about before reaching out to hair and makeup artists is how many people they will be working on. Will your bridesmaids all be getting their hair and makeup done? Does your mom, future mother-in-law, or grandmom want their hair and makeup done? Here are the top hair and makeup artist options I found:

Kate Face Beauty (Annapolis, MD): Kaytee from Kate Face Beauty is such a talented makeup artist! I worked with her on a fun photoshoot a couple years ago and ever since then, I’ve had her in the back of my mind for wedding day makeup. Click here to see her beautiful work!

Bonafide Beauty Co. (York, PA): Stefani from Bonafide Beauty Co. is a hair AND makeup artist so you can have everything done by her on your wedding day! Her makeup looks range from very natural to very bold and she’s absolutely wonderful at it all. She’s also fantastic at braids so if you’re going for a boho hair look on your wedding day, she’s the one for you! Click here for her website!

Vero Leigh Co. (Harrisburg, PA): This lady is amazing! I originally came across her because our wedding venue recommended her but she’s been featured in so many publications for her incredible work (The Knot, Brides Magazine, Wedding Wire, the list goes on and on!). She seems so fun to work with! Click here for her website.

MKUP The Beauty Studio (York, PA): This beauty team seems wonderful! They have fabulous reviews and their website is very detailed and easy to understand. They were one of the first people I reached out to! Click here for their website.

That’s all for today’s post on wedding vendors! I hope sharing all of my wedding vendor research has been helpful to you, whether it’s for now or in the future. The next post in my wedding series will be about building your wedding registry. What store to choose, what you should include, and what you might NOT want to include. Also, I’m doing a fun little wedding series with Philly’s The Styled Bride blog and the first Q&A style post just went up this week. Click here to read it! Talk to you soon!

Wedding

The Wedding Guest List: Figuring Out the Size of Your Wedding

June 8, 2020

Hey hey hey everyone, welcome back to my wedding series! In my first wedding-related post (click here), I shared all the bohemian wedding venues we looked into before booking “the one” – it was so fun to talk through them with you all. Which one do you think we chose? Since then, I’ve shared my wedding dress shopping experience (click here) and tips on how to find the best wedding photographer (click here) and in today’s post, I’m talking all about determining the size of your wedding and finding the right fit for you and your fiancé… let’s get started!

Large? Small? Medium? How do I know what’s the right fit for us? Those are some of the questions that were swirling in my head soon after I got engaged. Something we did right off the bat that I think really helped us was consider the bones of our relationship and what feels right to who we are as a couple and we imagined actually being at our wedding. Who could we not imagine getting married without and what feel did we want for our special day? This really helped us put things into perspective and start building the guest list.

Something else to consider right away is budget. Obviously, the bigger the wedding, the bigger the budget needs to be – the guest count is the biggest determining factor of the budget. For every person invited, there are many costs that go along with them. Even small things, like the difference in printing save the dates and invitations for 30 people vs. 250 people really adds up. With that being said, you only get married once so if you truly cannot imagine getting married without 250 of your closest friends and family there, then 250 people it should be!

Something controversial in the wedding world that I would say should not be considered is who you think you “need” to invite. It’s so hard to sit down and think through all your family, friends, co-workers, etc. and decide if they should “make the cut” or not but at the end of the day, it’s your wedding and you should be surrounded by those who love and support you and that you feel completely yourself around. If the thought of having hundreds of eyeballs staring at you walking down the aisle doesn’t feel right, then maybe a wedding on the smaller side is for you.

Speaking of a wedding on the smaller side, I also wanted to mention eloping! For a long time, I thought we would elope… it seems so wonderful! Eloping can look very different depending on the couple you ask. It can mean going down to the courthouse or epically flying across the world to a remote location… and just about anything in between! A fun idea if you do decide to elope is have a get together a few weeks or months afterwards with all the people that would’ve been invited to a traditional wedding to celebrate your marriage with them that way. How cute!?

For us, our relationship has been pretty low-key so we will be having what’s called a micro-wedding – it fits us perfectly! If you don’t know what a micro-wedding is, basically it’s just a smaller, more intimate celebration. Once you start talking about the size, you’ll know what feels right to you. We’re so excited for our day! Next in the wedding series, I’ll be writing about finding and booking all of our wedding vendors such as catering… woohoo! Talk to you then!

How To Wedding

How To: Find the Right Wedding Photographer

May 1, 2020

Hello hello, welcome back to Allison in Wonderland! We’re already so many posts into my wedding series – I can’t believe it. So far, I’ve talked about my favorite venues in the MD/DE/PA/VA area and finding my dress… and today, we’re diving into how to find your photographer! I know in my last post, I said today’s topic would be about how to determine the right size wedding for you but with everything going on with the coronavirus, I’d like to give some love and exposure to talented, local photographers first! I’d say finding the right venue was my fiancé and I’s top priority but choosing the right photographer was definitely up there. After all, these are photos you’ll have forever so you want to make sure you get it right! Throughout this post, I’ll be sharing all the wedding photographers we considered before choosing the (amazing) one we’re going with. They’re all either local to the MD/DE/PA/VA area or are willing to travel to wherever your wedding is! I’ve also linked all of their websites so you can easily click through to see their work and pricing. Let’s get started…

Finding the right photographer for our wedding was really important to me – almost more important than the venue. I love photography and have such a specific look that I’m going for so this was the first thing we tackled after getting engaged, aside from finding the venue. The first thing I did was consider the photographers I’d already shot with in the past or knew personally. Did they make me feel confident and comfortable during the shoot? Did they capture the vibe I wanted? Was I obsessed with how the photos turned out? After thinking that through and finding a long list of other photographers who I’d come across on Instagram (hint hint: search #delawareweddingphotographer or something similar for your state to find options), I dove into their photos. Is their work unique or do they only have the traditional wedding shots that everyone has? What do past couples have to say about working with them on their wedding day? Are they in my price range? All these things were major factors as I whittled down my list. The 10 photographers below checked all my boxes – they’re photography superstars and I hope I get to shoot with all of them soon.

KEMP COLLECTIVE: Kemp Collective is a wedding and elopement photography duo who is actually a couple themselves… how fun! Their photos always have a beautiful authenticity to them and they definitely have the editing style that I LOVE so we were quick to add them to our list. Click here to check out their website!

BROOKE MICHELLE: Brooke is incredible! I’ve actually shot with her a couple other times for blog things so I knew she had to be on my list to check out for wedding photos. She’s so fun to work with and incredibly uplifting, which is a great thing to have on your special day. Her photos are very light and bright and beautiful and perfect to capture your wedding memories. Click here to visit her website!

SPARROW AND LACE: Oh my goodness… can you say BEAUTIFUL!? I really can’t imagine a more beautiful aesthetic than hers (click here to see). I always look forward to seeing new Sparrow and Lace photos on my feed and I love love love the moments she captures! I imagine a wedding day captured by her would be perfect.

SOUTH OF INDIGO: South of Indigo is an elopement and small wedding photographer so her life is basically traveling around, living in her car for most of the year, and capturing incredible images! When she’s not living in her car, she’s based in California but willing to travel anywhere for love… now that’s what we like to hear! Click here to check out her work… hint hint, it’s amazing.

MOLLY JANE: Molly is another photographer that I’ve shot with a few times before… she’s so fabulous! She really makes you feel comfortable right off the bat and is so supportive of whatever vibe you’re wanting. Her direction while shooting is amazing and her editing couldn’t get any better – the photos come out so crisp. And she has a little baby on the way! You’ll definitely want to check her out for your wedding day. Click here to see!

SINCERELY THE KITCHENS: The Kitchen’s are a husband and wife duo that does photography AND videography so if you’re wanting both, these two might be for you! Their work is incredible and you can really tell how passionate they are about what they do. Another fun thing about these two is they have a photo booth camper that you can rent out and it’s so cute! Click here for their website.

KATE ANN PHOTOGRAPHY: Kate is a photographer my fiancé and I actually shot with right before the coronavirus quarantine began for an engagement shoot and she was amazing! Such a sweet gal and the photos turned out amazing (the featured photo at the top of this post was taken by her!). Her positivity and direction really helped us throughout the shoot and I’m dying to shoot with her again! Click here to check out her cute website.

NATE BITTINGER PHOTOGRAPHY: Nate Bittinger is another one who does both photography and videography and his videos are fantastic! His work has a really surreal look to it and it’s stunning. A lot of his photos, at least recently, are in the mountains so if you’re doing a mountaintop elopement, he would be perfect! Click here to check out his site.

BECA HALE: Beca is based in North Carolina but available to travel wherever she’s needed! Her work has a really fun and cool vibe and she seems so great to work with. All of her photos show someone smiling and it just makes you feel good! Click here for more info on Beca!

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEANNA MICHELE: Deanna is a destination wedding photographer so if you’re traveling for your wedding, so will she! Her Instagram bio says she’d likes to chat with her clients over margaritas and tacos and what could be better than that? Most of her photos have a little bit of a darker, moody vibe and I’m really into it for a Fall or Winter wedding! Click here for her website.

Those are all the wedding photographers we considered… aren’t they all wonderful!? Hopefully this was helpful to you if you’re planning a wedding in the MD/DE/PA/VA area or just looking for some pretty photos! I’m sure they’d all love to do an engagement session with you if you want to give them a try before booking for your wedding. Any guesses which photographer we chose for our wedding day???

Finding our photographer was one of the most exciting parts about planning our wedding because the photos mean so much to me so I’m so glad I can pass on my “research” to all of you! If you have any questions or comments, be sure to leave them in the comments section below – I love to hear from you. The next post in my wedding series will be all about how to know what size wedding is right for you… don’t miss it!

Wedding

Choosing “The One”: Wedding Dress Shopping!

April 8, 2020

Ahhh I am so excited to be writing about this today! All of my wedding series posts have been so fun to write but this one is extra special for obvious reasons… Let’s get started!

I’m not someone who had every detail of my wedding planned before we got engaged but I’m also not someone who’d never thought about it before – I guess I was somewhere in the middle. So, I sort of knew what I was going for in the dress department but I was very open to trying a bunch of different styles. In a pretty spur of the moment deal, we first went to a local wedding dress shop to “just look.” I’ll chalk it up to the fact that I definitely was not expecting to get engaged on the day that I did so my mom and I were so excited that we decided to go looking the very next day. Luckily, the dress shop had some open appointments for walk-ins that morning so I was able to actually try on a few right then and there. Right off the bat, I found a dress that I thought could be the one and another close runner up. Both of them were very different from each other… one was exactly what I always thought I’d get married in and the other was so “me.” But I wanted some other opinions so I put the names of both of the dresses on file with the shop and scheduled an appointment for the next weekend where my Mommom could also come and share her thoughts.

Of course, if my Mommom was going to come, we had to make it a more full and fun day so I also scheduled an appointment at my DREAM dress shop. We started out our day at the first place, trying on the two dresses I’d liked before. As it turns out, I found a totally different dress that I liked even better than the first two and it quickly became what I thought could definitely be “the dress.” I was so sure it was my dress that I almost cancelled my appointment at the other shop but we decided we should just go because it wouldn’t hurt. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed to my next appointment. I don’t want to reveal where I got my dress until after the wedding but it was the most beautiful shop with the most incredible dresses! I tried on a few and they all beat the dresses from the first place so, basically, it’s a good thing we didn’t cancel this appointment. My favorite one from this shop just felt different. It was so me but also fits our venue and style of wedding perfectly and I just LOVED it! But since I’d been ready to buy a few dresses at that point, we decided to wait a week, come back, try it on again, and then see if I still wanted to order. As it turns out, when we came back the next weekend, I was even more in love with it than the first time I tried it on so we ordered and the rest is history!

The dress has already arrived (!!!), I just have to get it altered – I’m so excited! If I had to give one piece of advice for wedding dress shopping, I’d say look for a dress that you feel like your best self in. There was a dress that, in the moment, I probably liked better than the one I ended up ordering – I was very taken by it, it was beautiful! But the longer I wore it, the more it just didn’t feel right, didn’t feel like me. I didn’t feel like my best self in it and on your wedding day, you should feel like you – the best you. As we get closer to the wedding, we’re getting more and more excited and now we’re officially 7 months away from our day… so crazy. And now I can picture our day even better because I know what I’ll be wearing… woohoo! If you have any ideas about what my wedding dress looks like, leave them in the comments – I’d love to hear what you think!

The next blog post in my wedding series is going to be all about figuring out the size of your wedding… how many guests is right for you? Be sure to check back in a few weeks for that – I’ll see you then!