Wedding Planning During a Pandemic — the Home Stretch

Things have really ramped up in work and life lately, which is the main reason I’ve been away from here — I got a promotion and a new position in my “day job,” which has meant new training and a new schedule, and now our wedding is officially less than two weeks away. This last one feels major! It seems like there’s still so much to do, even though all the “big stuff” is done: we have the venue, the caterer, the cake, the clothes, the officiant, the photographer (we’re not doing a videographer, DJ, or florist — I’m taking on the last one myself). RSVPs are back and we’ve gotten to work on the ceremony and our vows. We still have to finalize some logistics with our music, but we were lucky that the event the day before ours at our venue decided to postpone, which means they’re letting us come in the day before to set up our decorations and have our rehearsal at no extra cost to us. 

Of course, I’m making many of the decorations (and bouquets, and centerpieces), and so have brought this busyness upon myself, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. I don’t want to give away too much just yet in terms of details, since I know a few of our guests will read this post. But I promise to share some details (and pictures!) once it’s all over. 

As I mentioned, I decided to do the bouquets myself, after reading how the budget for a wedding florist was frequently absurd (most won’t even share their prices online, but the one that did said their minimum was $1200). I love flowers, and I want a lot of them around. We’re mostly using fake flowers for our centerpieces, but I decided that we would use real flowers and DIY the bouquets ourselves — the reason being, guests might want to take the centerpieces home as souvenirs, and the bridal party could take those too. 

I did some research and tried making a couple of bouquets, one with fake flowers and one with fresh, and I was really happy with the results. We have a few grocers around here who stock lots of fresh cut flowers, in bunches as low as $4 each. My plan is to send everyone out a couple days before the wedding to buy up lots of bunches of purple, blue, and white flowers and we’ll make the bouquets together. (Also, can I just say what magical stuff floral tape is?) Whatever we have left over can go in vases for the cake table or various other places in the reception hall.

I’m also incorporating some old books into our centerpieces to fit our library theme; I was going to try and hand-make a bunch more of those as well, but I do have to draw the line somewhere. I am making our guest book, though, and a few handmade hardcovers for the gift table decor. 

We do still have some COVID restrictions in place at the venue’s orders: the biggest thing being that we aren’t allowed to have dancing, aside from our traditional first dance as a couple. I don’t think either of us are feeling this loss too much, honestly; Allerton has plenty of other things to do, including a fire pit that they provide the wood for and start for us. We do have to wear masks and social distance while we’re up and about inside the building, but while seated or outside on the grounds (and in our case, while we’re doing the ceremony) we can take them off, thankfully.  Despite these restrictions, we’re both really happy that we’re able to go forward with our date and our special day; there was a time in the spring where we weren’t sure if they’d be open yet. Now we just have to hope that the weather cooperates — but even if it doesn’t, it’ll still be an adventure and a good story to tell.