IN Weddings

Last year Rachel planned her Colorado wedding while living in Alaska.  She was able to make it out to Colorado a couple times to help the planning process along and in the end everything came together beautifully.  Here is the inside scoop with Rachel!

 

When and where did you get married? I got married on July 5, 2007.

What was your favorite part about your location? The wedding was at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and reception was in Monument at a family friend’s house.  I loved our location because my husband is a graduate of the Academy so we had an a amazing chapel, and our reception was set in a gorgeous area with lots of trees, green and colorful flowers.

How long did you take to plan your wedding? The planning took about 8 months.

Would you have liked to have more or less time to plan? Eight months was plenty of time, the difficult part was planning long distance.

Whether your budget was large or small, any tips on sticking to your budget? We set a budget ahead of time and then started looking into the things we wanted to have in our wedding.  We soon found out how expensive all the details would be.  I really had to ask myself what was most important to me and start making adjustments accordingly.  The last thing we wanted was to be in debt over one day.  We also had to be realistic about how much things cost so we went over our original budget slightly to make sure we had what we needed to make our day perfect.

Is there any particular thing that made the planning process easier? The vendors that I picked were so key in making the wedding happen without any problems.  I also had a great wedding party that was willing to take on small tasks that I was overwhelmed with.

The question every girl wants to know, where did you find your dress? When I got engaged I immediately started buying bridal magazines and looking for dresses.  I actually found the picture of my dress pretty early on and stared making calls to see if anyone had any for me to try on.  I ended up ordering it from the picture.  I had tried on several dresses and knew the style of dress that would flatter my figure. When I received the dress I had to make several alterations to make it perfect for me.  In the end it was more expensive because of the alterations but worked out perfectly.  If I could change one thing I would have tried it on before I bought it.

Did you plan any activities for your out of town guests? My husband and I set up a wedding page at The Knot and we did not set up activities for our guests, but let them know what was going on around town at that time of year and where there were good hikes and other outdoor activities.  I did make a schedule for the wedding party and parents that I listed where and when they needed to be so that I wouldn’t have chaos and everyone would be where I needed them to be.  It worked very well.

If you could do it all over again, would you do anything differently? We really enjoyed ourselves, so I don’t think I would’ve done anything different. I just wished it lasted longer!

Who are some of your favorite vendors that were a part of your wedding? I ended up with the greatest vendors.  IN Photography, Melting Pot Catering, Sensational Sounds DJ

Any advice for brides planning their Colorado weddings this year? My advice to any bride is to try and and stay relaxed and enjoy the entire process.  I made sure that on the day of the wedding I was in the moment because the last thing I wanted was for it all to be a big blur.  I knew that I did everything I could and now it was in the hands of the vendors who I had complete faith in.  

What will you remember most about your wedding day? What I remember most about my wedding is being surrounded by all my favorite people, who were smiling and dancing.  When I look at my wedding album I just can’t help but smile.