how I’m currently romanticizing my bridal era as a 2000s rom com

I think one of my favorite things about being engaged is that I get to fully lean into the fact that this is a temporary little era of my life, and I know that sounds dramatic but I mean it in the most normal way possible. I am not going to be a bride forever, I am not going to be planning a wedding forever, I am not going to have this exact version of my life forever, so I’ve been trying to actually enjoy it instead of letting the whole thing turn into one giant checklist.

And obviously I have chosen to enjoy it by mentally turning the entire experience into a 2000s rom-com.

I blame Father of the Bride, Bride Wars, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding for a lot of this because those movies made weddings feel like these huge, emotional, slightly chaotic productions where everybody has an opinion, the bride is doing too much, the family is doing even more, and somehow it all still turns into this really beautiful day in the end. That is basically exactly what I want, just with more color, more indie rock, and less beige.

I have been planning the movie version in my head

My wedding is going to be in the fall, in the yard of a vintage estate in upper Orlando, and that alone already feels very movie to me. I keep picturing the estate in the background, the garden party vibe, people walking around with drinks, the weather finally not trying to kill us, and then this huge colorful tent in the yard where everybody ends up once the night really starts.

The tent is one of the things I am probably way too excited about because I do not want the reception to feel super formal or stiff, I want it to feel warm and colorful and full, like people are actually there to have fun and not just sit politely at a table until someone tells them what happens next. I want the whole thing to look like a garden party that got a little louder once the sun went down.

Also

Having my favorite live indie rock band there is honestly one of the parts I keep replaying in my head the most because that is where the whole thing becomes very 16 Candles to me, specifically that one party scene where everything feels fun and slightly unreal and everybody is just in it. That is the vibe I want so badly, not a wedding where everyone is standing around being careful, I want people dancing, screaming lyrics, taking their shoes off, going outside for air, coming back in, talking over the music, somebody holding a drink they forgot they had, just actual movement and life.

I want it to feel like the night got away from us in a good way.

I am making random normal things bridal now

The funny part is that I have started treating completely normal things like they are part of the bridal era too. Going to look at shoes, making playlists, saving outfit ideas, getting coffee before doing wedding stuff, looking at flowers in a grocery store, walking through Target and somehow ending up thinking about table decor, all of it feels connected now.

I am also the kind of person who keeps looking at my ring like I have never seen it before, which is embarrassing because I literally wear it every day, but still. Sometimes I am doing something completely boring and I catch it out of the corner of my eye and I am like wait, I am actually engaged, that is still crazy.

And I think that is why I want to be a little extra about this whole era. There is going to be a point where I am not talking about my fiancé anymore, I am talking about my husband, and the wedding will not be this thing I am planning and imagining, it will just be something that already happened. So I want to let myself be annoying about it while I can.

I want the white outfits, I want the random bridal things, I want to make playlists I probably do not need, I want to save every little idea.

I want to send people screenshots and ask what they think even when I already know what I think.

I want to enjoy being in the middle of it.

wedding planning is still mostly emails and money

The part the movies leave out is how much wedding planning is just email.

So much emaillllllllllllllllllllll

Email about deposits, email about vendors, email about timing, email about tables, email about things that somehow cost three times more because the word wedding is involved.

It is also a lot of random math, changing your mind, realizing your guest count is not behaving, finding something you love and then immediately seeing the price, and opening Pinterest for one thing and somehow leaving with an entirely different plan.

There are definitely moments where it feels less like Bride Wars and more like I accidentally got hired as an unpaid event coordinator for my own life.

But even then, I kind of like having this big thing to build.

I like making choices, I like thinking about the little details, I like picturing how everything is going to look together, I like the fact that eventually all these random notes and screenshots and ideas are going to turn into one actual day.

That part is really fun to me.

I think Father of the Bride ruined me the most

Father of the Bride is probably the one that really got me because that movie understood that wedding planning is somehow both ridiculous and emotional at the exact same time. One minute everyone is losing it over money or logistics, and the next there is some tiny moment that makes the whole thing feel very real.

That is how this era feels to me too.

There are days where I am thinking about numbers and schedules and whether or not something will fit under the tent, and then there are random moments where I think about actually walking down the aisle and I am like okay wait, this is not just an event I am planning, I am actually getting married.

Bride Wars gave me the more dramatic bridal side of it, obviously, where every detail suddenly feels very important and you become weirdly passionate about things you did not know you cared about until three weeks ago.

And My Big Fat Greek Wedding is probably the most accurate about the family part, because weddings really do make everybody feel involved whether they technically are or not, and sometimes that is sweet and sometimes it is a lot, but it is also kind of part of the whole thing. Everyone brings their own expectations and traditions and opinions into it, and you somehow have to figure out what actually feels like you.

That is probably the biggest thing I care about with ours, I want it to feel like us, not like a generic wedding that could belong to anybody.

I do not want a perfect wedding, I want a really good one

I think I used to picture weddings as these perfectly polished days where everything looks exactly right and nobody spills anything and the timeline magically works and every photo is good, but now that I am actually planning one, I do not really care about perfect anymore.

I want it to feel good.

I want people to remember the band.

the colors.

being outside at the estate and how the tent looked once it got dark.

dancing and laughing and somebody doing something stupid.

I want there to be little moments we did not plan because those are usually the ones people talk about later anyway.

I honestly think I would be more upset if the wedding felt too controlled than if something small went wrong.

Like I want it to have personality. ( BC weddings these days lack that )

and yes, I am absolutely making this my whole thing right now

I know I talk about the wedding a lot. But this is one of the only times in my life where I get to fully indulge every part of my brain at once, fashion, music, flowers, photography, design, hosting, family, nostalgia, all of it, and somehow it all gets to be about one day. like OfCC course I am obsessed.

I have spent years loving movies where girls got to have this huge bridal chapter and now I am actually in mine, so I am going to enjoy it while it is happening. I think that is what romanticizing it really means to me anyway, not pretending every part is magical, because it is definitely not, but choosing to notice the parts that are.

The random planning nights.

The dress conversations.

The moments where Hunter says something about the wedding and I immediately get excited again. hehe

The little things that make me think wowwww, this is actually happening. lol

And eventually there is going to be one night ( romantize and imagine it with me) where the tent is up, the band is playing, everyone I love is somewhere around me, I am probably sweating a little because Florida is still Florida, and all the things I have been imagining for months are just going to be real.

That is the part I keep thinking about.

Not because I need it to look like a movie. Just because I think it is going to feel like one.

xoxo,
Your fav Bride to Be , Sunday Girl