Today on the blog, I have Michelle, one of my previous brides, sharing planning experience and advice and some of her favorite features of her wedding day. Her and David’s beautiful December Raleigh wedding features romantic wintery details, vegetarian options, and lots of family traditions that made their day truly personalized to who they are as a couple. Michelle offers some really helpful advice to all you planning a wedding (after all this crazy pandemic stuff calms down) that is worth the read!

What were some of the difficulties that you faced when planning your wedding for yourself and other guests who had dietary restrictions? How did you accommodate for those needs?

I eat a plant based diet but my husband doesn't so when planning our wedding, the food was a main focus. I've been to too many weddings where the vegetarian option was the side veggies without the meat and no vegan options available. I also find plated meals tend to not be the right portion for most people and growing up in the south - you never want people to leave hungry! I wanted to have our favorite Chinese restaurant - Spring Rolls - cater, but my husband really wanted to have some NC BBQ for our northern families to try. We went back and forth for a while and then decided that we could just do both! We reached out to the Chinese restaurant and explained the situation - we had to make sure they'd be willing to server BBQ if we got it delivered. I think the key to our food was the wonderful owners of Spring Roll. Since they are not a normal wedding caterer, they didn't have as many restrictions and rules around what they were willing to do. We got BBQ delivered from Q-shack and Spring Roll staff served both options. They also brought Spring Rolls and Sushi Boats (with veggie options) for appetizers! Tip: Sushi Boats are a huge hit for appetizers! Since most people were not vegan, we got non-vegan cupcakes and a vegan wedding cake for my Husband and I to cut and smash in each others faces. It was a perfect size to feed anyone who doesn't eat dairy.

We had a lot of people comment on how good the food is and since we went with a restaurant that we live near, it's fun to go on date nights there because it always reminds us of our wedding!

What are some recommendations you would offer to couples planning a wedding in such a circumstance?

The venue was the most important thing to figure out - we needed a place that didn't have required vendors.
You don't have to stick to the traditional wedding caterers - if you like a restaurant- ask if they'd be willing to cater your wedding!
Can't please everyone - but do try to be considerate of dietary restrictions. :)
Decide what is most important to you and don't worry about other's opinions.

What were some other creative ways you incorporated others into your wedding?

My husband and I are both engineers and I wouldn't describe us as traditional so it was important to us that our wedding reflected our own unique style. That meant including as many people as we could and having some unique touches. We stuck to a mostly-family wedding and then had a black light after party to celebrate with our friends. It allowed us to actually talk to everyone at the wedding and kept it intimate. I loved that we had our grandmother's be our flower girls, they were adorable! We also had a father/daughter dance, mother/son dance, and then we askd my father-in-law and step-mother-in-law to dance with us. At the afterparty, I did a dance with my mom to "Mom" by Meghan Trainor. We kept them all short, but it gave us special time with all our parents.

Were there any traditions that you incorporated into your wedding day?

Our ceremony was the one piece we kept fairly traditional and we loved it! My parents have been married for 36 years and we used a lot of small touches from their wedding in honor of them:

I wore my mom's dress for the ceremony (switched into another one for the reception).

The pastor who married my parents is still a family friend and so he married us along with my uncle who officially pronounced us husband and wife.

We used the same ceremony but wrote our own vows.

My brother got married a few months before and I read a verse at his wedding (in Spanish for my Venezuelan sister-in-law) then he read the same verse (in English) at my wedding.

My grandma had also given me her wedding band, it didn't fit so I found a local jeweler who melted it down and created it into two small bands that fit perfectly on either side of my engagement ring!

What were some of your favorite features of your wedding day?

There was so much that I loved about our wedding but my favorite parts were everything that was very "us":

We picked a weekend venue so our out-of-town bridal party wouldn't need to get hotel rooms. It was really fun to have everyone together the night before!

We did a casual rehearsal dinner so we could invite most people who were coming to the wedding - that meant by the wedding day everyone already knew each other.

I did my own hair and makeup - I personally liked it because I shut myself in a room and gave myself time to reflect and relax before the ceremony. I was the first one ready so I still got to hang out with my girls while they all got ready.

We did a first look in my reception dress so the ceremony dress was still a surprise to him.

We made time to play hockey with a golf ball which helped us both calm down a lot and incorporated something that we do together already.

My wedding shoes were white keds that I got online and then used iron on paper to add a picture of my husband as a unicorn on the front. You couldn't see them with my dresses really but I loved that I knew it was there!

Instead of a welcome speech, my dad did a science experiment comparing magnets to a relationship: the closer you are, the strong you'll be.

My mom followed it up with a song we used to sing when I was a kid and she had re-written the words to tell the story of our relationship! She got everyone to sing along!

We shoved cake in each others faces.

After the mostly-family wedding, we threw a black light after party with our friends.

We woke up to snow the next day and my sweet husband put his suite back on so I could get some cute snow pictures! (Wishing we could have kept Joanna overnight for the snow pictures!) [[ME TOO]]]