I absolutely love to plan parties. My family and friends often tell me they are surprised that I never went into it professionally. So when I first got engaged, I knew that I would not be needing an event planner. I had it all under control! Or so I thought. It turns out that planning a wedding is not an easy task. Thankfully, the internet has SO MANY resource guides out there for wedding planning that it is definitely possible to do on your own. I used The Knot for my checklist and feel it covered every single detail and kept me ahead of schedule so that I never felt stressed. We were engaged in October and married in July, so we planned everything pretty quickly but I never felt overwhelmed. I will say the absolute best advice I can offer on wedding planning is to book a great venue with experienced staff. There were so many people that ended up being a part of our day that were so helpful and kept things running smoothly so that I could just go with the flow and enjoy all of the little moments.

For me, the very first step was finding THE dress. I actually only ended up going to one bridal shop with my mom and sister and soon-to-be sister-in-law and it was a really fun experience. We went to the most adorable little boutique (La Blanca Bridal in Olmsted Falls) and drank champagne just like on Say Yes to the Dress. When I tried on MY dress, I really did feel like it was a special moment just like in the movies. It was classic with a little sparkle, just my style. We ended up going to one other store later that day and even found the bridesmaid dresses! I knew the style that I was looking for already, so we went to a shop I knew was affordable (I didn’t want my bridesmaids to have to spend a lot of money on their dresses) and found the perfect option. I also purchased their jewelry, which was really classic and everyone loved and still wears it today! I also helped my husband pick his tux and the groomsmen's tuxes, which I think is a good choice for any bride! No surprises ;)

Once the dresses were checked off my list, I knew the next step would be finding a wedding venue. We knew we would get married in the church in our town which we belong to, so that part was easy. I knew I wanted to get married somewhere meaningful, and my Grandma who had already passed away used to take me to mass at the church we were married in (Fast-forward to the future, and both of our babies were baptized there and now go to school there too). For our ceremony, we hired a string quartet at an additional cost which made the experience even more beautiful. We had beautiful programs made that matched our invitations, so I felt like that tied things together nicely. We also had gorgeous flowers at the church that matched the bouquets and reception centerpieces. One of the first steps in the wedding checklist I used was coming up with your theme. Mine was very simple, just a very romantic and traditional feel (beautiful roses, lots of candles, meaningful pictures, etc…) with greys, pinks, and creams being my color scheme.

Once we had the date set with our church, we began looking at venues for our reception. When we found the one we ended up choosing, it just checked all of the boxes of being aesthetically what I was looking for (It was a beautiful ballroom with a gorgeous view, amazing food, chivari chairs, and lots of candles… check, check, check, check). What turned out to be the absolute best part of the venue we chose was the event planner that came with it. I thought very little about this before the day of the wedding, which I’m sure is the case for most people. But seeing how perfectly smooth everything ran because of this amazing woman made me realize how TERRIBLY WRONG a wedding can go if you don’t choose a venue with a very capable staff.

Our venue was also a hotel, so that made it easy as far as having overnight guests. They also catered their own food, which was AMAZING. When we had our tasting we were shocked about how good the food was since we had both definitely been guests at many weddings where the meal was not the highlight. Our cake was also part of our package, and we still got to pick exactly what we wanted. If you are getting married in the Cleveland area, I would definitely recommend checking out the Crowne Plaza Cleveland Playhouse Square. It was a Wyndham when we got married, so I don’t know how much has changed, but the venue is beautiful.

The other instrumental people who kept our wedding running so smoothly were our DJ and photographer. I actually saw our wedding DJ at a bridal show and immediately knew he was the absolute best. It turned out he DJ’d Jerry Ferrara’s (Turtle from Entourage) wedding and is now the DJ for the Cleveland Guardians. I have a good eye, what can I say?! He was so much fun and also such an amazing professional and kept the party running smoothly all night long. As a Type A “plan everything” person, it was amazing to just watch dinner come out, speeches be made, time for cake cutting, and first dances without a second thought. Having good people running your day is a MUST, and they can be found outside of having the extra cost of an event planner. The same can be said for our amazing friend/photographer who kept our day on schedule while also making everything so much fun. Side note: We also had an AMAZING videographer. This was an “extra” that we weren’t convinced we needed but it was the BEST money we spent. We watch our wedding video on every single anniversary and now we get to share our special day with our kids too. It’s really awesome.

Some other extras we spent money on that I think were totally worth it were uplighting from our DJ, it just made the room look so magical, and amazing floral arrangements. I am lucky that my mother-in-law works for a wholesale flower supplier, so we got an amazing deal on flowers and I was able to really go all out. All of the flowers and candles made me a very happy bride. We also had a really fun but also elegant limo bus which made our day so much fun and we paid extra to have a photo booth at our reception. Those small things I would say were definitely worth the extra cost.

Planning a wedding should be fun! It is a day you get to plan to celebrate your love and share your joy with all of the people who care about you. I treated it how I would treat any party I plan. I wanted to have a gorgeous outfit, amazing food, a beautiful ambiance, awesome people, and a FUN TIME! My wedding was the best day of my life until my babies were born, I truly mean that. I had the most romantic day with the love of my life followed by the best party ever. I wish I could do it all over again. I always tell my husband for our 10-year anniversary I want to go to Hawaii with our girls and renew our vows and come home and have a big party with all of our friends. Hopefully, we can get our now famous DJ London Bridges to come back and party with us again! Stay tuned for a future blog post on that, I still have 4 more years to go ;)