Wedding planning time is upon us!

Of course, if I’m being honest, I’ve been planning for years..

We now have a date (Spring of 2024), we picked a place (a local park), and we picked a theme (Viking/Celtic/Renascence).

Planning has been going pretty well. I’ve got a full team of amazing family and friends behind me, and everyone has been truly amazing with helping to get everything done.

Of course, my fiancé and I are not normal people. So, this is not a normal wedding. We chose our theme well, and we decided on a Viking/Celtic/Renascence theme because it fit both of us perfectly. And of course, we have added a little slice of homesteading stuff, sprinkled here and there throughout the wedding.

Just starting out..

First off, I say ‘wedding’ when I really mean ‘wedding reception’, as the actual wedding itself is going to be at the courthouse with a few witnesses. We decided this early on because we aren’t people who like attention, and we didn’t like the idea of standing in front of a hundred people while they stared at us and watch us kiss and exchange vows about our love for one another. That’s just not who we are. So, we decided on going to a courthouse to get it done. We did, however, want to make sure that our families had a way to celebrate. Because of this, we decided on a quiet wedding with just close friends and family. As much as we know that we have a whole town behind us and plenty of people who want to celebrate, we have decided to keep it small with just close friends and family.

The first thing I did when I started wedding planning (besides telling everyone I was getting married) was to go straight to Pinterest! Of course, I had just a ‘few’ different weddings planned out, and I went through all of them to see which one fit my fiancé and I best. This was an easy choice. And so, the wedding planning process began with scouring through an old Pinterest board full of my ‘dream wedding’ pins.

The first thing that was decided was the theme.
Viking, because my fiancé loves all things Viking, and it went with the theme I already had picked out.
Celtic, because my family is obsessed with our Irish roots and Celtic traditions.
Renascence, because we have to add a little flair to the wedding, and I honestly love renascence fairs!

Once we had the theme, we had to decide on a time of year, because that of course would determine the colors we should use! I wanted Fall, because of all of the pretty Fall leaves and the colors that went with them. My fiancé suggested Spring, as it had just as many colors, all of the flowers would be in full bloom for us to pick, it was cooler weather, and there were no major holidays for us to work around. Finally, we decided on a Spring wedding, with Fall(ish) colors. Browns, Greens, and a few splashes of Blue, as we wanted nature colors for our outdoor wedding.

Getting the ball rolling..

Once we decided on all of the big stuff, we started getting the ball rolling on wedding planning. I made up little packages for my Maids of Honors and asked them to officially be a part of the Wedding Planning Party. I created a to-do list on a google doc and shared it to everyone in the wedding planning party, and we got to work deciding on what needed done.

The first thing we tackled was the guest list. That would determine how big of a space we needed and who all was coming. Of course, we can’t expect everyone we invite to make it, but at least we could have an idea as to how many people could be there.

After that, we started brainstorming for wedding games, as you can’t have a party without games! We decided on axe throwing, as that seemed appropriate for a Viking Wedding. As well as your more traditional cornhole game. And we found these awesome blow-up whack things (I honestly don’t know how to describe them). You know the things! Where two people stand on a log and one person has to knock the other person off? Just me? Okay, well, we got those!

The wedding started to feel more real when we actually started to collect stuff for the wedding. We already got throwing axes for the wedding, and my father is building a target for throwing. We also started making a list of stuff we needed, and I picked up a pretty and simple white dress for the wedding at a local thrift store. My grandmother and her friend found plastic glasses for us at a thrift store for a nice price. And we are slowly picking up things as we go along.

I have tried to make sure that wedding planning didn’t consume my every thought (a hard task indeed), and so I’ve been trying to take it slow with the wedding planning. There feels like there is a lot to do, but when I have so many people around me willing to help, it takes the burden off me a LOT to where it feels like I’m really not doing much..

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There will be many more of these posts about my planning process, as I am nowhere near done with planning! But in the meantime I have a house to clean and stuff to do. so this is where I will leave you for the day.

As always, smile, have an amazing day, and remember to live the life you plan, don’t just plan it and never live it. ;P

Wedding Planning (Part 2)