When people ask me about our wedding in June, the first thing I say is that we did a kind of different wedding. But then I think about it and I realize that isn’t true. We actually had a really traditional wedding; we got married in a church and had our cocktail hour and reception at a hotel. What I think we identify as different is that when wedding planning, we made decisions that felt good. After years of seeing people so stressed out over their weddings, forcing the things they “should” do, we opted to…not. With the guest list, venue, flowers, weekend activities, music, you name it- we went with what was aligned with our priorities, looked fun, was within our budget and didn’t worry about the rest. While it doesn’t sound like it, it felt radical at the time and it resulted in a wedding weekend we loved. So, no- it wasn’t a really “different” wedding but it was so reflective of us, our friends and family had a blast and every time I think of the year we were engaged or the wedding, my heart just swells. I truly wouldn’t have done a thing differently.

I have gotten some of the sweetest emails from readers asking questions about the wedding so I am going to do a few matrimonial themed posts this week. I think everyone should enjoy their wedding planning process and want to share those things we did that we loved and the things we learned along the way.

First up: guest book.

I knew we would never look at a guest book. After a cursory glance post wedding, it would go in a drawer never to be seen again. So we did a guest champagne bottle. I ordered markers that wrote on glass and we had a bottle of my favorite champagne in the house. Boom. Done. Now we have a wedding momento on our bar, we love reading the notes every time we see it and drinking it will be a special thing in itself. Plus, we’ll still have a fun momento to leave out from our big day.

I also think because it wasn’t the traditional book, people were more relaxed with what they wrote. We laughed so hard at some of the messages!

Had we had more guests, we would have added a bottle of Ryan’s favorite bourbon for people to pen their note on. What I like about this is that it’s simple and cost effective- use whatever you like or have in the house. Sure, a “guestbook” might be expected but as with everything, have fun with it and do what you want. Just as there is no “I” in team, there is no should in wedding planning.