Wedding Bells & Whistles: Our Journey to the Altar

We're a week away from our 9 year wedding anniversary, so we thought it would be fun to take a little stroll down memory lane and  recap our wedding planning escapades.

From our... very casual proposal, to stressful DIY projects and top notch bachelor gifts, we unpack the joys and hurdles of planning our wedding. 

In this week's episode, we don't shy away from our venue sticker shock, poor post-wedding etiquette,  or DIY mishaps.  We'll spill the beans on the infamous glitter-covered champagne favors and our (mostly) faux cake. Our journey is full of laughter and candid confessions, offering a peek at the personal touches that made our day unforgettable—glitter and all.

Planning a wedding can be stressful - especially when you try to fit it all into only five months - but we made it happen and now we're telling you all about it! So pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink (glitter optional), and let's celebrate the beauty of a perfectly imperfect wedding.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hey guys, welcome back to Life Unmastered. This week we have something super fun for you guys and since we have a lot of stuff to cover, I'm going to go ahead and just dive right in this week. So our anniversary is next week and we thought it'd be fun to kind of do a little reminiscing. We'll walk down memory lane and kind of chat about the wedding. So we're going to break this up into two parts. This week we're going to talk about post-engagement and wedding planning and then next week we'll dive into, like the day itself and all the things that you know went wrong, went right, things we would have changed all that kind of good stuff.

Speaker 2: 0:58

I'm very curious to see how this goes because already, as you know, my memory is terrible. Yeah, not what it used to be at all. So this is going to be pretty interesting.

Speaker 1: 1:09

I can see it. Yeah, there's going to be some disagreements Like that's not how that happens Like, yeah, it's totally yeah. So when in doubt, it's probably Most likely you're right, yes.

Speaker 2: 1:19

Well, and also, I mean, there's a good chance that one of us was drinking more than the other one at the wedding. So Definitely I won't say who, I don't want to embarrass anyone.

Speaker 1: 1:29

Yes, let's not do that, okay. So for those of you who are new here, I thought I'd give you just a quick little recap on the engagement, so that we're all on the same page and then we can dive right in. So Mike proposed, directly following a funeral, in front of a dumpster and community mailboxes, and the ring did not fit.

Speaker 2: 1:51

Yep, that sums it up.

Speaker 1: 1:52

So we're all caught up.

Speaker 2: 1:53

Yep, that is exactly what happened.

Speaker 1: 1:56

To be fair, the ring not fitting was my fault, so you know. But everything else you get to take credit for that's right.

Speaker 2: 2:04

You still said yes.

Speaker 1: 2:06

Yes, I did so. From there we jumped right into wedding planning and I had been very clear about my wishes, that I did not want a long engagement. So I asked Michael to be prepared whenever he proposed to start the wedding planning right away. I wanted to have to like wait, I wanted to just dive in, get going and get married.

Speaker 2: 2:30

I think it's cute that you keep using words like I asked. I tried to like you told me you will be prepared to have a quick wedding. Listen we're not going to be one of those couples.

Speaker 1: 2:41

Men complain all the time about women. Just say what you are feeling. Don't say you know you're fine when you're really not, and just that. We want to know what you're thinking. Okay, so I told you exactly what I wanted. I left nothing to be wondered about. That's true. So you know. Yes, you can have it one way or the other way.

Speaker 2: 2:59

So what was in your mind? What is a quick engagement?

Speaker 1: 3:03

I wanted less. I wanted, from our engagement to wedding to be less than a year. So we started the planning immediately, I would say like literally the following week, and at first I will say everything was a lot less exciting and more depressing, like discouraging. Didn't you agree?

Speaker 2: 3:25

Yeah, it's a theme. I tried to warn you.

Speaker 1: 3:27

you married down, but no, it was just that everything was way more expensive than I was expecting At the time. I was an event coordinator and I had an idea about party planning Tammy party, you know planned parties all the time and it was something that I loved and enjoyed. But planning a wedding is on a very different scale than anything that I was used to and I was just kind of shocked by what we were finding.

Speaker 2: 3:54

Yeah, I was a lot of uncertainty too about how much we had to work with.

Speaker 1: 4:00

Right. So I would say that when we first started looking, I just kind of went to places that I had heard of or seen of before, and everything was probably a little bit more grand and expensive than what we could afford, and so there was a few things that kind of we ran into too. Like you said, we didn't know what our budget was and we also didn't I didn't really know what my theme was. I was on Pinterest and I had like, if you looked at my wedding board, I mean I could have fallen into a hundred different themes. I liked a little bit of everything, so I didn't really know what vibe I was going for.

Speaker 2: 4:39

That makes a lot of sense now, especially after like fast forwarding and like decorating the house and everything else. It's not like a complete. You mix and match in a tasteful way, but you do like a lot of different things.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Yeah, it's like I can't really settle on anything, and so it's just hard for me because I like a bunch of things.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Yeah, but also I had a small window for us and people are booking their venues way in advance and I would go to places and they just wouldn't have anything available. So that kind of knocks that out and I wanted something local. I didn't even want to go at the time we're in Orange County, California. I didn't even want to go to Temecula. I just did not want to be spending my time braving the 91 freeway to have to go do like wedding things. I didn't want to have to worry about our guests being late.

Speaker 2: 5:26

Which is really smart in my opinion, because you saying that, that's something I wouldn't even think of. Like every saying that we're gonna have the venue in Temecula, my mind instantly goes to a day of problems. But you're right, you would have been driving back and forth to Temecula all the time. And for those who don't know, like basically it's going there and probably at the times you would have to go there, like it is the worst traffic that you could imagine, like it is always bad traffic.

Speaker 1: 5:53

We were on the phone with my dad the other day and he was headed out there and we were on the phone for like an hour and he made it like a mile. He was in so much traffic.

Speaker 2: 6:03

It's just so common.

Speaker 1: 6:04

Yeah, so that's just not something I wanted to deal with. And my three brothers that are married they all got married out in Temecula area, which were great venues, awesome situations and everything else.

Speaker 2: 6:13

I just thinking about the time and, yeah, we weren't ready for that.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Yeah. So that's something I knew I didn't want to do and I knew that, me being the controlling person that I am, I knew I was going to need to be heavily involved in all of the details and I just did not. I needed something closer. So with that that really narrowed down our options. They got very limited and so I just I got defeated very quickly and it was just kind of I don't know. I didn't give up, but I was just like, okay, I need to take a break from this. And Tammy, my stepmom, she had been looking into venues and one day we got a call from her and she's like hey, we're at the golf course, I'm at the golf course. They had a last minute cancellation. Can you guys come today and meet, cause they're looking to fill this spot ASAP. That is all the information we had. We didn't know the date.

Speaker 1: 7:08

We didn't know anything when we got there, and so we go there, we check it out, everything seems great and we ended up booking it right then. And there cause we had to. Yeah. There were a few things, though, that came with that, which were one the date.

Speaker 2: 7:28

Yeah, Like you said, everything was completely booked up. The only reason this was even an option is cause it's somebody had a cancellation, the one out of however many venues we looked at where it was like well, you can have this, but it's going to be quick.

Speaker 1: 7:43

So by that point we are a month into our engagement and we booked a venue that is five months out. So we then had to plan a wedding in five months, which was great. It's, you know, fit in my window a little quicker than what I was expecting, but also it fell on Valentine's Day, which was a Saturday that year, and at the time I don't think I really paid. I don't really care.

Speaker 2: 8:09

We were so excited about a venue but not only that, but also because it was such a late cancellation and the venue understood having somebody plan a wedding in five months is hard to do Like they were worried they were going to lose the date. So they were willing to like work on the price with us and everything. So it was huge all around.

Speaker 1: 8:28

I mean it was a fraction of the cost of any of the other venues that we looked at. So five months out from the date that we booked, it is when our wedding day was, and it was on Valentine's Day Again, something at the moment I was like, ah, who cares, it's on a Saturday, but now our anniversary every year is a little complicated, cause nobody else wants to watch our kids for us on Valentine's Day and everything's double the price and you know, always booked.

Speaker 2: 8:57

We're paying for it now. It's like it was. It was like a credit situation, but Right.

Speaker 1: 9:02

So I mean it's fine, it really did. It's not something that we've celebrated and it's one less thing that we have to celebrate, if that makes sense. On that day like we try to do something around it, but I'm saying we never celebrate, we never really made a big deal about Valentine's Day.

Speaker 1: 9:15

So it's not like we have to celebrate Valentine's Day and our anniversary. It's just kind of like one thing. And there were a few other little things. Like we couldn't choose our menu. It was already set so we didn't get to do a tasting or anything, which is fine. We ended up with like prime rib.

Speaker 2: 9:30

Yeah, and it's like cool.

Speaker 1: 9:31

Yeah, and then a few other minor things that I don't remember. That, you know, obviously weren't that big of a deal.

Speaker 2: 9:37

It worked out great for me, cause I really, really have to try to forget our anniversary.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Yes, thank you, mom.

Speaker 2: 9:45

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:48

So, yeah, we finally had the venue, which we were excited about, and at that point everything kind of was falling into place, because once you have the venue, you kind of that's like the bulk of your budget right, and so I had a much better understanding of what our budget needed to be. We were able to have the conversations with our family about you know what kind of help we were going to get. We knew at that point how much money we needed to save. We basically put everything from those five months into our wedding fund, yep, and our goal was to have a great wedding but not be paying for it after the wedding.

Speaker 2: 10:31

Yeah, yeah, that was considering how much stuff is and it's still shocking to me. It's like the biggest financial decision I had made up to that point in my life.

Speaker 1: 10:42

Definitely.

Speaker 2: 10:44

To be able to walk away from it without and to stay on that like without owing anything, was a blessing.

Speaker 1: 10:51

Yeah, so by the time that our wedding day came, all of our vendors were paid and we didn't have to continue paying anything after, which was really great, but it did make things a little bit complicated. I made this probably not going to surprise anybody, but I made this massive spreadsheet that was incredibly detailed and tracked everything all of our vendors, money coming in and out, deposits and dates and all that, so I could see everything all laid out. I knew that we could have a wedding and how much it was going to cost us and, more than anything, I knew that we were going to have to get crafty if we wanted to have the wedding that I was envisioning. Yeah, but we did and it worked out. It just took some long nights and patience.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Yes, and lots of Pinterest If you've been listening to Life and Mastered for any amount of time. Everybody knows about Mike's distaste for Pinterest. Yep. But Pinterest saved you a pretty penny during the wedding planning.

Speaker 2: 11:55

Which is fine, but can we just be done with it now? That's my thing. We used it, we abused it. Now we're done.

Speaker 1: 12:01

No, Pinterest is the best, it's the best. So in doing all of this, when it came to the details, like I said, I did a lot of connection digging, like kind of digging into those connections and reaching out to people that we knew, and then also a lot of DIYing which then you and my bridesmaids and my mom all had to help with.

Speaker 2: 12:30

Yeah, yeah, I made napkins.

Speaker 1: 12:33

You did so. I mean, when you plan a wedding, there's so many details that you have to consider right the venue, the photographer, the flowers, the dress and the text, rentals, cake, favors and a million and a gajillion one other details, and I would say that we did a pretty good job of finding at least somebody that we knew for each of those.

Speaker 2: 12:56

Yeah, not just a blanket referral. Either it worked out to where it was, somebody where we could get a little bit of a deal or a big deal.

Speaker 1: 13:04

Right, I think for. So, for our photographer, it was our pastor's son which we had grown up knowing them and I can't remember. I mean, he was, he's amazing. He still does photography, I think, and I think he was maybe just starting out or maybe he was giving us a deal because of you know family. But, we got such a great deal and it came with prints and everything which we never got printed.

Speaker 2: 13:30

That meeting was my first meeting with like a vendor, I think, yeah, and I remember walking away from that Like that was my oh my, we're really getting married moment, like you talk about, like guys freaking out like the day before the wedding. It was that moment leaving that coffee shop or wherever we met, cause like there was a contract, there was all this stuff and like you knew what was happening and by like I'm like what did we just sign?

Speaker 1: 13:53

What happened when now we owe this man money, like what I had no idea and we had homework we had to come up with like a shot list.

Speaker 2: 14:00

Yeah, yeah, like I need to know what you want. And like this and guys like shot or guys like photos of everyone doing a shot or something like that, and I was like yeah, I was like, don't worry, you really don't have to do anything. Oh it seemed real. Right there. There was money involved, paper and ink. We were locked in.

Speaker 1: 14:16

So I will say a funny story from that is when he asked us to come up with the shot list I had seen, probably on Pinterest, of this couple who took a photo with all of their guests during the reception, and then they included those photos in the thank you cards. And our poor photographer I mean Valor, was amazing and but he was, you could tell he was tired by the end of the night, right, yeah, and I guarantee you he went and modified those contracts for his next couple after us and so, anyways, he so generously took pictures of us with all of our guests as we went around and greeted everybody. I don't even think I sent say thank you cards.

Speaker 2: 14:55

Yeah, we're terrible.

Speaker 1: 14:56

We are, I'm the worst.

Speaker 2: 14:58

To this day. If you come to a birthday party or something and give somebody a gift, I'm letting you know that pizza that you ate when you got that was your thank you. You were not getting anything in the mail.

Speaker 1: 15:10

Okay, so a few notes on this one. I'm 99% sure I at least sent thank you cards to your family and your friends.

Speaker 2: 15:17

Yeah, you didn't want me to look bad, which I appreciate it. Yes.

Speaker 1: 15:21

And then by the time you know, I got past those I was like. Well, hopefully my friends and family know that I love them.

Speaker 2: 15:26

Pretty sure those went out far enough away, though, that they probably forgot they were at a wedding.

Speaker 1: 15:31

Yeah oh yeah, I did go to their wedding Last year. Did we go to that wedding? Yes, I'm terrible as far as thank you notes. Now we have been to our fair share of birthday parties and everything, and nobody else is sending us thank you notes either, so I feel okay with that.

Speaker 2: 15:49

It might be a California thing.

Speaker 1: 15:51

Maybe I don't know, but yeah, I just. I can barely remember what our kids names are, let alone to send thank you cards, no, no, that's our motto Just know that we love you and we appreciate you, even if you're not getting the thank you note.

Speaker 2: 16:03

Yep.

Speaker 1: 16:04

So that's that, when it came to flowers, that was so much fun. I mean, I remember just choosing the vendors was a lot of work, but also so fun. My mom and I, and so my bridesmaids, went to a few different wedding. What are they called?

Speaker 2: 16:22

Boutique Is that the word?

Speaker 1: 16:24

They were like oh, I can't remember the word, but basically a bunch of wedding vendors show up to these things and you get to, like, meet a bunch of them all at once.

Speaker 2: 16:32

Kind of like a. Yeah, we did something similar for, like house improvements and stuff that you can do like a show, like an.

Speaker 1: 16:40

X like an.

Speaker 2: 16:41

X-Bow or something like that.

Speaker 1: 16:43

So that was fun. We had a bunch of different meetings and when you go to these meetings they give you samples of kind of what you're envisioning so you can see and get a vibe for it.

Speaker 2: 16:51

I'm just envisioning them handing you tiny Barbies with dresses on them.

Speaker 1: 16:56

Of course you are here's your sample dress, that's not quite how that works, we'll cut here. So weird, but we did. I think I came home with like a few different boutonniers like samples and stuff, and then some of them I'm like wow, these are great. And then I get the price back and they're just. I would go meet with like three different florist and their price ranges, asking for the same thing from all of them, are just like so drastic place that I'm like, okay, you are all in the same city.

Speaker 1: 17:29

What is happening like this person's way over values themselves and their talent, and this person is like way undercutting themselves over here. So it's everyone just kind of like does whatever they want and it's like all right. Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to pretend I know what this is actually gonna be like on the day of and any mini-mini mo, and so, anyway, that was so. For flowers, I ended up going with our work work connection One of the ladies that we use for our events there and she was amazing, she went above and beyond and everything was over the top and beautiful and gorgeous and I loved them. And then For our favors was also a work connection, and those were mini champagne bottles. You remember our favors.

Speaker 1: 18:16

So she was she. I can't remember what she owns. I think she owns a restaurant and she was able to get us all of them at cost and I decided I didn't want to just give a mini champagne bottle, I had to spruce it up.

Speaker 2: 18:29

Yeah, just a little bit make it sparkle, little something.

Speaker 1: 18:36

And so I decided I was going to Sparkle the whole bottom half of the of the champagne bottles with and well, okay, hold on. So we had, like what did we have? Almost 200 guests that showed up right and.

Speaker 1: 18:50

I had to use Mod Podge To paint the bottle and then I had to cover it in sparkles, and one coat is not enough. So then you have to let that dry, mod Podge again, cover it again, let it dry and then Mod Podge over it so that the sparkles don't go anywhere. Well, I got through step one of the glue and sparkles, step two of the glue and sparkles. By the time it came to the final coat, I was done. I was like forget it, I'm not doing this, because not only did I do the sparkles, but I also added a straw and a tag that I had created and cut out and All the like.

Speaker 1: 19:25

you know there was this. It was so many steps that I was like freaking forget it, it's good enough, I'm done, I can remember you tying those straws on and just seeing the glitter like poof off of these things With the tag, because it wasn't like set.

Speaker 1: 19:42

I was like this is the worst idea ever. I don't really think we put that much thought into it at the moment. I was like, okay, yeah, there's gonna be some sparkle some places. But I'm like, so what? That's okay, no big deal. And then your boss. I think he's still mad at me for it. I Remember the next time we saw him but he's like are you freaking, kidding me with the glitter? He's like it's still all over my car and all over my house.

Speaker 2: 20:13

I just remember hearing like in the background, like there is glitter everywhere, oh, and they were generous enough to let me do it at your shop.

Speaker 1: 20:23

Yeah all upstairs was covered in glitter too. So, yes, those no one will ever forget, because they're still finding glitter Everywhere. So but that was fun and they turned out really cute, so totally and you saved a ton of money.

Speaker 1: 20:34

I did save a ton of money. So so, for all of the things that I DIY'd, I did look into Whether it would make more sense to just order and be done and kind of figured out okay, this is gonna be a lot of time, how many people can I make suffer with me to make this go faster? I'm gonna save, you know, $500. Okay, it's worth it.

Speaker 2: 20:56

Yeah, the napkins were my thing, where not only like helping you put them together, but where I really understood like how much you were saving. I can remember like freaking out when I felt the napkins. I'm like they feel like they've already been used, like they were like that silky, like material. I'm like it's supposed to be a napkin. How is somebody going to wipe their mouth? You're like it's fine, it just looks pretty.

Speaker 1: 21:18

So Amazon has come a long way. Amazon was not, as we didn't even have a prime membership, when we got married. Amazon just wasn't what it was 10 years ago.

Speaker 2: 21:28

Hard to imagine, but yes.

Speaker 1: 21:29

Yeah, and so I was still ordering things off of random websites. I mean, today I probably ordered everything off of Amazon, right?

Speaker 2: 21:38

And then returned half of it because you didn't need it. Exactly yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:41

Where, when we were planning this, I was ordering things and then doing a return is like pulling teeth. We're not doing it through Amazon. So I had ordered these napkins. It took me forever to find a pattern that like it was just black and white stripes, but I needed it to have that like elegant vibe to it, because we weren't doing black tie but we were, you know, fancier. And so I finally found them. They fit, and then when they came, they were just like, okay, these aren't really great. So what we did is we ended up renting black napkins that were actual napkins and then we made these pretty striped napkins into bows with like custom, like DIY napkin holders.

Speaker 2: 22:21

I was so tired.

Speaker 1: 22:22

It was so much work but I needed to incorporate these napkins that I spent money on and couldn't return, and that they fit the. You know they finished the table and they did turn out very pretty.

Speaker 2: 22:33

They did, but I'm upset again.

Speaker 1: 22:38

So not only did you have to stay up late into the morning, putting those together but you also helped me put all of the invites together. We did all of those by hand. So I went to this paper place. I ordered all of the paper. I cut up everything myself. We printed everything. My mom and I spent hours trying to make sure everything printed correctly on this like shiny glitter paper.

Speaker 2: 23:02

I forgot about that.

Speaker 1: 23:04

And then we like layered it and we started like trying to assemble them and the glue dots that we were using weren't working on the glitter paper and it was just so much work and we did. We spent a lot of money just kind of switching things out and because we had gone to this paper place, which I was saving money doing it, it also cost me money because I couldn't just return stuff that I got when we had to switch things out.

Speaker 2: 23:28

So if time is money. We are poor.

Speaker 1: 23:31

We wasted a lot of money Looking back over the years I've definitely learned a few things that sometimes it's just worth it to spend the extra money. But in the time of life that we were in that just made sense and you know we've got lots of good fun memories of putting those together at two o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 2: 23:49

Until this conversation, I blacked it all out.

Speaker 1: 23:54

But yeah, and actually one of my cousins framed an invitation for us that we have, which made it all worth it, because now we've got that hard work framed, so it was a really cute gift. And then for our save the dates we just kind of did those postcard things. And then we had that huge issue where we did everything, we put them in the mail and then we mailed one to ourselves just for funsies. And then it shows up and all of the ink that the post office puts on was all over the front of the save the date and I was just so bummed out I should have put it in the envelope and I specifically did the postcard because guess what, it was cheaper. So you know, live and learn. But unfortunately we don't have another wedding that we could do this again until Carter gets married, so we'll know all kinds of things by then.

Speaker 1: 24:44

And everything will just be. They'll be like paper invites. No, you send in email.

Speaker 2: 24:49

Why are you killing the environment?

Speaker 1: 24:54

And then for our cake. My aunt made our cake. Yep. And so what she did which I would have never thought of this until she suggested it three fourths of our cake was fake styrofoam that she put fondant on top of. The only layer that was real was the layer that we cut into for the ceremony, like in the wedding.

Speaker 2: 25:13

The pictures. Basically yes.

Speaker 1: 25:15

And then she made these big sheet cakes and they were just delivered in the kitchen.

Speaker 2: 25:21

Because after you cut the cake, they like take the cake away. So everybody assumes oh, that's the cake I'm eating. No, gotcha, You're eating cheap sheet cake that we have in the back.

Speaker 1: 25:30

It wasn't even cheap, it was just you know not as expensive as the pretty cake. Yeah, I mean it was all the same same, but instead, of her spending time putting it in these perfect tiered things and having to worry about she transported it from Marietta, so it just made sense and it saved us a ton of money.

Speaker 2: 25:48

This was part of the wedding planning process. That made me feel a little shady is, and I don't remember if it was her idea, but I imagine it was because we wouldn't know to do this. But she said go cake tasting at places till you figure out what kind of cake you like, and that's the cake I'll make.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Not shady at all. It's part of the wedding planning experience.

Speaker 2: 26:07

No, but like so we're tasting these cakes and I'm like I'm not buying this from you, but whoever makes my cake, I want it to taste this way.

Speaker 1: 26:14

In all honesty, I don't even think we went cake tasting to figure out what cake you want. We went to one place, but I don't even think we did it to figure out what we wanted. We already knew. I knew I wanted fun. Fetty, I don't remember what you picked.

Speaker 2: 26:24

We had a fun Fetty wedding cake we did.

Speaker 1: 26:26

We had a fun Fetty. And was it chocolate or lemon, something like that? I specifically booked it just so that we could have the experience of cake tasting Like I wasn't even worried about actually trying to figure out what flavors were. I had no intention of booking. Sorry, you know, it's just you know well, we got some cake. We did, we got some free cake, yeah that's fine If you know if you're planning to win on a budget pretty sure that place is closed now. No, they're still open.

Speaker 2: 26:50

Oh well, maybe it's because they kept giving away free cake.

Speaker 1: 26:54

I think they're doing okay. You know what we did order Carter's first birthday cake. Smash cake from there.

Speaker 2: 27:00

So we made up for it there you go, there you go Return business.

Speaker 1: 27:03

Exactly. So what else did we do? There's so many things. I can't remember Our DJ. My cousin, danny, referred our DJ to us and that went really well. We had no problems there. We got a great deal because he knew my cousin and saved some money and Cousins big guy. He's big deal.

Speaker 2: 27:26

No, a big guy like he definitely works out. So oh yeah. Like of course, our wedding went well. He knows your cousin, danny. Did you threaten him I?

Speaker 1: 27:39

Had to be funny. Not funny, but you know what I mean. He's.

Speaker 2: 27:43

Italian.

Speaker 1: 27:44

Yeah, there you go. So what else did we do? The videographer was not a videographer. Nope, I wouldn't run, I wouldn't really say we had a videographer. We had somebody filming one of the twins friends did it for like $250, but at least we got something. We did get something. We don't have any of the original footage. Yeah, but there is something that lives on YouTube. So if you guys all want to see if you can find it, and cringe and cringe.

Speaker 1: 28:14

So accurate. I Cringe every time I watch it. Pardon me is like oh, I love it. And then we get to certain parts I'm like turn it off, turn it off.

Speaker 2: 28:23

Got that little 10-second skip button for a reason.

Speaker 1: 28:27

But yes, at least we have something and that's something that I recommend to everybody now, like when I, when we were with Casey and Haley and.

Speaker 1: 28:34

Conner and Kelly were getting married. I'm like get pay for the videographer. It's worth it, you'll want it. The day goes by so fast. And then we did other things, like, so far, our guest book. We didn't do a guest book. We'd have this big Wooden sign that might one of my bridesmaids Cali made for us and Everyone signed that, which we still have it hung up on our wall at all of our houses. Yeah, so.

Speaker 1: 29:02

I like that. I like having something unique. I knew that if we had everybody sign a guest book, we would never pull it out and look at it. Yeah and so I wanted something that was a little unique that we could carry with us. We did learn some things with that. You cannot hang it in the sun or else the Sharpie's gonna we can't read everything on. And then things like the rehearsal dinner. We did that at my dad and Tammy's house rather than going to a restaurant.

Speaker 1: 29:28

Mm-hmm and we had one of her high school friends who has a taco Truck is perfect, come do it, because you love tacos, and I just felt like that was a great way to incorporate that. And yeah, we did. I mean, we did all kinds of different things. That was an adventure and I still cannot believe that we got it all done in five months.

Speaker 2: 29:49

I can't believe that we got it on done or all done in five months and that it was on budget like yeah, I think that's kind of the big thing is there's ways you can save and things you can do that you never Expected. You just have to really look for him right. Because when we first, like you said, we first got engaged Within, it went from one week of well, I hope you're okay having a barbecue in somebody's backyard, because that's all we can afford to Really like something way beyond what.

Speaker 2: 30:19

I ever imagined possible.

Speaker 1: 30:20

Yes, and I'm really happy that we were able to make it work and that we had this beautiful day. And, like I said, it was a lot of work and even though there were some things that were frustrating and hard it was. It was worth it and we made memories through those. Oh, one thing we have to talk about really quick before we wrap up is the groomsmen's gifts. So another Partly like put together DIY thing is we made labels and they each got I can't remember, did they get a single beer or a six pack of beer?

Speaker 2: 30:56

I thought it was like a 24 ounce version, like a single 24 ounce bottle of their favorite beer, but when you Brought up a six pack of beer, that also sounds correct, so I don't remember either way, they got a beer, some everybody got their favorite beer with some sort of Custom label inviting them into be a groomsman.

Speaker 1: 31:15

Yes, so that's how you did that. And then we got them bobbleheads. Yep, this was my favorite thing, and some of your groomsmen are smarter than Me and they instantly picked up on what they were getting.

Speaker 2: 31:28

Yeah, like, literally all I did is set up a text saying, hey, I need photos of your face up close from these different angles. And they all replied back with we're getting bobbleheads.

Speaker 1: 31:39

Shocked. I'm like how oh. Where where does your brain go? That you're like. I know. Bobblehead like never would I have ever thought of that?

Speaker 2: 31:48

but they were so good. They were so good.

Speaker 1: 31:51

They were Amazing, mm-hmm, I couldn't believe. I was bummed that I didn't get one ordered for you and I yeah and I should go back and still do it. They were so good they. I remember them showing up and I was like what in the world? These are literally Many versions of your groomsmen sitting on my kitchen table right now they all look great. So good Favorite thing. So if you're looking for a unique gift for anybody or your groom, in the occasion like it is totally worth it.

Speaker 1: 32:18

Father's Day, birthdays, do it. I need to find that. Find that guy and put it on the internet so that people know he's probably already on the internet. Do you know what I mean? Everyone needs a good recommendation and if you know that this guy is legit, you did something for me ten years ago and I like your style.

Speaker 1: 32:37

Yeah, he's probably a lot more expensive now, yeah, but so anyway, lots of great things and Next week we are going to talk about the actual wedding day. After all of that planning and all of that DIYing, what did the day itself turn out like? What went right, what went wrong and what is the very first thing out of Mike's mouth when he saw me During the first look. I promise you're not gonna want to miss it.

Speaker 2: 33:03

I think that it's gonna be a good time of reflection on our favorite parts of that day. There's no reason to bring any negativity in.

Speaker 1: 33:10

Oh, we're gonna talk about that, and we're gonna talk about also you yelling at me on the dance floor.

Speaker 2: 33:13

I knew that was coming up. I didn't yell at you on the dance floor.

Speaker 1: 33:17

We'll discuss this next week. Don't forget, come back next week. I promise you're not gonna want to miss it. I hope you guys have a great week and we will talk to you soon. Bye.