Being there when the Bride finds "the one"

My favorite part of every wedding is the few minutes right before the bride walks down the aisle. After months of meetings, planning, decisions and chaos... the moment has arrived. We are fixing, pulling and tugging to make sure that all our brides are flawless.

On Saturday, All Events Planned spent the afternoon at All Brides Beautiful in Hudson for the Nicole Miller Trunk show. The two story bridal shop was warm and welcoming. Bobbie and her staff gave us full access to the experience of helping a bride along with her closest friends and family pick the perfect wedding dress. For some brides it took trying on 26 dresses, others only needed to try on two. Regardless of the time it took the staff remained attentive and patient. When the perfect dress was found it was time to celebrate! A round of applause, chilled glasses,crisp sparkling cider and a toast to finding "the one." 

This was such a special time for me. It brought my favorite moment full circle. So the next time I am on my knees with my hands under our brides dress trying to get the layers of tulle just right. I can think back to today truly understand the excitement of the first time she had that dress on.

-Nataya Harris

All Events Planned

www.alleventsplanned.com/

Today is National Proposal Day!

In honor of March 20 being National Proposal Day I thought I would share with you one of the best proposals I’ve heard from Eric and Kathryn.

Eric proposed to Kathryn on Christmas Eve, but this is much more than a Christmas proposal….

It was Christmas Eve in 2014 and for the past four years Kathryn has catered a family Christmas Eve dinner in their home. She had asked if Eric could come up towards the end of the evening to help clean up so they could get off to their own family Christmas Eve dinner.  When Eric arrived Kathryn noticed he was acting very strange but strange in a good way. She was busy working when she looked up and saw Eric talking to the family, who she was catering for, like he had known them for years but Kathryn knew they had never met Eric before.  She was plating the dessert when Santa arrived to give all the children their presents.  This was nothing unusual as it had been this way for the last four years.  All the children had received their gifts when Kathryn heard Santa say, “We have one more present!” Kathryn turned and saw Santa motioning towards her.  She still didn’t think anything of it and figured it might just be a gift from the host.  She made her way toward Santa and sat on his lap.  She began unwrapping the package and discovered it was a box with a beautiful ring inside it.  Even looking at the ring it still took her a minute to realize what was happening but this was the moment!  Eric walked toward her and proposed!  Afterward, with huge smiles, Eric and Kathryn headed off to their Christmas Eve dinner to share the wonderful news with their families!

“It was a glorious evening that I will always remember!” said Kathryn.

 

We love to hear the proposal story when our brides meet with us so feel free to share your proposal story too!  Whether yesterday or 10 years ago, your proposal will always be a great story to tell and remember for years to come!

-All Events Planned

Kathryn & Eric on their wedding day in 2015

Is it really the best day of your life?

From the time you were old enough to watch romantic movies, it was instilled in you that your wedding day is going to be the best day of your life, but is it really?

I want you to enjoy your wedding day and love every second of it because frankly there will never be another day like this in your life. It is a day to celebrate the love between you and your fiancé.  It is a day to celebrate the start of your married life.  It is the day to celebrate you and your fiancé with all the people who love you both, and the people who first taught you to love. Your wedding day is indeed a wonderful day but it is not the best day of your life.

The second you said “yes”, your life forever changed.  From that moment all these questions started swirling: Who do I tell this news to first? When do I post it on Facebook? When are we getting married? Where are we getting married? Who will be invited? When do we take engagement pictures? What food will we serve? Where will the reception be? Where will I get my dress? What style dress do I want? Who will my maid of honor be? And the list goes on…There are so many details that go into your wedding day to make it as perfect as possible, but believe me it will never be “perfect.” It will be what you make it, but it still won’t be the best day of your life.

Your wedding day should be seen as the start of a lifetime of “best days” with the person you vowed to love forever.  Your wedding should not be stressful or overwhelming.  You should wake up and have nervous-excited butterflies in your stomach and a smile on your face all day.  Today is the day that you enjoy, to have a party to celebrate your new life.  After the guests have left and the reception is over, you have changed.  You both leave that reception together to live a new life.  Even if you lived together before the wedding, you are not leading a dating life anymore, now it’s a married life. You will go to bed each night and wake up each morning next to your partner.  You will learn more about them and they will learn more about you every single day.  You will find there are some things that they do that drive you crazy, and some that really make you smile.  Maybe they have really bad morning breath and that grosses you out, but you learn to love it because every morning you smell that breath because they kiss you on the forehead first thing to let you know they are choosing to love you, first and foremost, every day of their life with you. Maybe the day you realize that, it’s the best day of your life.

If one day you decide to bring a child into your life, into that love that you share and into that world you created, it will bring along another set of “best” days.  It may bring you some difficulty. Until the day you finally know that you are certain to be bringing a child into your family. You spend all day planning how you are going to tell them and once you have the perfect plan, you feel those nervous-excited butterflies again.  As they walk through the door, you can no longer contain your excitement, you tell your partner the news and that wonderful smile spreads across their face and you see tears in their eyes.  Maybe that is the best day of your life.

Years later and 2 children later you see your partner teaching your daughter how to ride a bike in the driveway.  You smile and silently cheer her on from inside the house.  You watch as she takes off and your partner lets go of the bike and she starts to wobble.  He sees her uncertainty and grabs her before she falls off the bike.  You watch as he takes her into the lawn and sets her in his lap and rocks her reassuring her it’s going to be okay and kisses her on the forehead.  In that moment you realize, your partner is really a great parent.  Maybe that is the best day of your life.

Years and years later you both sit on the porch watching the world go by and your grandchildren play on the lawn.  Your partner reaches out and grabs your hand.  Your hand looks a lot different now, more veins and wrinkles, but that ring is still there.  Gleaming as bright as it did the day he put it on your finger.  You look up at him and he smiles at you.  He looks different than he did when you married him but he is still your partner with that same smile and same eyes you fell in love with years ago.  You start thinking of all the things you’ve experienced over your lifetime with him.  You begin to realize there was never a “best day” of your life, it was a life filled with best days.

The truth is your wedding day should be a great day, but by no means the best day of your life.  As a bride said to me, “All I can hope is that this ISN’T the BEST day of my life, I have years to spend with my partner, I sure hope it isn’t all downhill after my wedding day.”  Keep that in mind while you are going over the details of your wedding day, whether with me or another planner or by yourself.  Keep it in perspective and say to yourself “This is going to be a great day, that will lead to a lifetime of best days to come.”

-All Events Planned