We're Married!!

First dance as husband and wife :)

On June 9, 2012 me and my man finally got hitched!! I kinda abandoned my blog the last few weeks as wedding madness really caught up to me and we quickly left on our honeymoon, but now that I'm back I will be posting details about our day very soon :)



Photo Credit: Allie Bell — taken during our first dance :)

The First Dance

Ahh the first dance. The time when literally all eyes are on you — no pressure right?! I wish...
So the thing is we don't have first dance yet. Or rather we don't have a song to dance the first dance to. No fancy choreography, no surprise break dance. Nada. I was stressing about this until I realized once again, why do people put so much emphasis on this? Who even remembers their first dance? OK I think girls will probably remember, but I asked my dad what his and my mom's were and he laughed and said he couldn't remember for the life of him. lol I'm not sure if back in those days in Poland they did these things or not but it reiterated to me how much we as a society are influenced by THE WEDDING INDUSTRY and also the damn internet. Nowadays, your life is just seconds away from being uploaded for all the world to see. Watching all those couples bustin' a move on YouTube has made me nervous — I keep thinking, "maybe we should do this? Or how about this?" or "Damn I need to learn how to do THAT!" I try to not let myself get too crazy and worked up about this and remind myself that just because other couples do this or that, doesn't mean we have to. I'm sure in the end we'll choose a song, we'll dance a dance and all my worrying will be for nothing. ;P



Photo via Olivia Leigh Photographie

What Is Your Wedding "Theme"?

There's no question I hated more during wedding planning, other than maybe "what are your wedding colors?" I'm not a very decisive person, so narrowing down some sort of theme was next to impossible. I got even more frustrated when I'd read blogs or magazines and brides would say that weddings with no set color scheme or theme were "messy" and "unorganized." Can I just make that a theme? The unorganized, slightly messy + chaotic but full of love theme. There. That's ours. Haha.

I honestly didn't realize wedding themes were a thing but apparently boy was I wrong! Google "wedding theme" and you will turn up more than 374 million results! Including some pretty interesting ones. Love Hello Kitty? Well then you'll adore this wedding:

Or Christmas theme on a beach, in Hawaii, in April (why not?!):

Luckily for me, our venue pretty much set the general idea of our wedding without me having to make any decisions. It's an old airplane hangar converted into a winery. So bam! The wine idea was born. I've steadfastly refused to put a specific label on our wedding with any sort of overwhelming theme or color palette. It's just not my thing and however it comes together, it will happen in an organic, natural way. You don't HAVE to have a super detailed down-to-every-last-detail theme, just like you don't HAVE to have a whole bunch of other things that wedding industry people say you do. Maybe a wedding theme will help you, but for me it felt like constricting my ideas into one little box and that's not something I wanted. A slightly messy combo was more up my alley :)

Image 1 via www.bridalguide.com, Image 2 info4weddings.files.wordpress.com & Image 3 via www.weddingthemes.net

Nixing Traditions And Making Your Own

A touching "first look" of a bride & groom

During wedding planning you often hear the phrase "because that's how it's done" or "every wedding has to have this." I questioned this line of thinking from the very beginning? Why do I HAVE to have a "surprise" bridal shower? Or have to do a bouquet toss and garter throw, or any other "tradition" associated with weddings. When did these so-called rules come into place and most importantly by who?? Ask an average person and they'll have no clue as to why showers have to be surprises or brides have to have "something blue" and any other tradition that wedding sites + magazines tell you are essential. Do what works best for your wedding. If a father-daughter dance or mother-son dance isn't your cup of tea? Skip it. If you'd rather see your groom before the ceremony rather than waiting till right before you get married, then do a first look. I chose to do some things differently and I'm a happier bride because of it. (I helped with my bridal shower planning and the world did.not.end. Imagine that?) Screw what people think. And yes some people will think you're being controlling or bossy so remember the saying "those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter." Though we are including many "traditions" into our wedding, we are doing so because we want to not because of the pressures of the wedding industry. So do things your way, everyone's got an opinion and you'll never please everyone. So why not make the most important people happy on your wedding day? You and your partner! :)


Photo via Simply Bloom Photography

Wedding Planning: Why Blog About It?

I've been a little embarrassed to tell people that I'm blogging about planning my wedding. I mean how cliché and cheesy is that? It seems all the rage nowadays to blog about anything and everything but wedding planning is quite a popular choice. Well I decided to say screw it and throw myself in there among the millions of wedding blogger wannabes. My reasons were this: I'm a writer and I love to write so why not? At the time I decided to embark on this little blogging journey I wasn't working in a writing-heavy atmosphere so I figured what better way to polish up my skills than to write often?

Number two, I was feeling pretty lonely in the wedding planning process. Almost all of my friends and family live in different states so I don't have anyone nearby to do all this wedding stuff with. Plus I also just didn't want to annoy people by constantly talking about the wedding (it's like word vomit I still have to stop myself sometimes) so the virtual world was the most appealing route. I can safely write about my frustrations about venues or excitement over accomplishing things on my to-do list without boring my friends and family to tears. (At least not in person haha)

Number three, I really wanted to have a written record to remember all this by. It's true what everyone said that our engagement would fly by and it has! We have less than three months till our wedding and sometimes I still feel like it all just started yesterday. Luckily, I just have to go back in my archives to remember what I was feeling or how planning was progressing.

And finally, when I started planning a wedding with a cultural emphasis I didn't find a lot of resources or advice from other blogs. Maybe my little blog can be helpful to some other brides out there, or at the very least give them some comfort in knowing they're not alone and have some laughs along the way :)


Image via Pieces of Me

Bridging the Cultural Gap

As an immigrant, growing up there have been many times that I haven't understood certain American traditions or sayings. (Still can never remember the difference in the use of borrow vs. lend. Or remember I'm standing in line not on line. And I call myself a writer ha!)

But for my parents, who were born and raised in Poland and spent their entire adult lives there, this can be even more difficult. This issue has come up for us several times during wedding planning. Though my fiancé and I are planning a wedding that is big on Polish culture and traditions, there are definitely some American customs that we've decided to incorporate into our big day. For example, in Poland the bride and groom normally walk into their ceremony together, whereas in America the tried-and-true tradition is the father walking the bride down the aisle. (I've opted for the American way of having my dad walk me down.)

Another area that has come under scrutiny during our wedding planning is all the pre-wedding activities that go on for the bride, i.e. bridal shower, bachelorette, etc. My mom is having a hard time understanding the whole concept of the shower. What is the point exactly? Why do you do it this way vs. that way? How should it even look like? etc, etc. And there's also the father-daughter dance, mother-son dance, flower girls and ring bearers, rehearsal dinner, registries and even the concept of a bridal party (you only have two witnesses in Poland) to add to the list of things that has been thrown their way to wrap their heads around. Just as we've learned a lot throughout this planning process so have our parents, and bless their hearts for being open and understanding to all this new information. My mom has even joked that she should write a book for other immigrant parents planning weddings in the U.S. I think it's a great idea!

Thank goodness we're having a 13-month engagement because it gives us plenty of time to prepare and learn all this stuff along the way :) Kudos to our parentals for being such good students of the American wedding traditions, it will be a breeze for the rest of our siblings!