Written by: Alexandra Sferra
Wedding planning isn’t easy, and it is almost unheard of to hear someone had a smooth ride when it came down to planning every detail for the big day. Imagine planning the best day of your life, with all your friends and family, and a pandemic hits. Oof. There are thousands of brides around the world planning their wedding day during Covid-19, and there are so many things that have to be debated. Most people opted out until further notice once the pandemic settled,and some carried on with their plan. Our very own Blush Bride, Cassie, was willing to answer some questions regarding this crazy time, and her own personal experiences while planning her wedding day.
Originally,Cassie planned on having her big day at a beautiful venue in the middle of the woods at Red River Gorge in Kentucky. They had huge cabins reserved, and a whole weekend planned. Covid-19 struck, and everything went up in the air from there. Now, it is on beautiful private land here in Ohio this September, with anthropology vibes bringing it all to life. We wanted to ask how her experience was, so we came up with some questions that most people would want to know regarding wedding planning during Covid-19.
Well,it wasn't an easy decision. I think we had ran through every other idea you could think of before finally deciding to just trudge on. When it comes to wedding planning, you fantasize about every little detail it starts to add up and all the "perfections" begin to consume you. At the end of the day, it's to marry your best friend, the love of your life, the person you will spend every waking moment and night with. Your wedding day is supposed to be about you two declaring that love and should you choose to invite hundreds of your family members and friends or elope , you still end up married in the end.Throughout my personal wedding planning process I've tried to focus on the core of what it's all about. So no matter how many changes, how few people from our original 200+ guest list were there, money lost, I wanted to marry Kyle and we weren't willing to postpone another year of our lives to make that happen.
ABSOLUTELY.I think I had that initial "oh crap, is this really happening". You know, here in the Midwest, I think the worst case scenario every bride dreads is "is it going to rain on my wedding day" but now we had to think"will it be SAFE to get married and celebrate" "will it even be LEGAL to get married with our friends and family" like, what?? This pandemic threw a whole new wrench into wedding planning. My wedding is due in September of this year. So with the timing of COVID it completely halted my planning process. I almost had to just block wedding planning out of my brain for about 2-3 months entirely because there was no sense in trying to book anything or make any inquiries if we had no idea what the heck we were going to do or even allowed to do. We toyed with eloping, keeping our same venue but trying to work out some sort of payment grievance if we were only allowed to have 10+ people, just keep our lodging we had booked with the venue and just get married there and cancel the venue entirely, postpone all original ideas to next spring so it wasn't THAT far away still, and lastly, just cancel all original plans and start from square one again. We eventually chose the latter.
Luckily,all we had booked so far was our venue, lodging for the venue, florist, and our photographer/videographer (bless her heart, shout out to Lindsay Toops @lifethroughalinds. I was so close to booking our catering and about to start purchasing custom decor like our signs and such but COVID hit just before. We were way too nervous to pull the trigger on anything when it came about. We held onto all of our vendors with our same date until the beginning of June. That was the cancellation deadline to only lose 10% from 50%after the second week in June from our venue and lodging (booked through the same company). The numbers were rising and state closures were starting to happen. We just couldn't risk it and at that point had already gotten semi-comfortable with the idea of changing our plans entirely so we canceled the venue and lodging, lost out on some money but chose an alternative route that should be pretty COVID full proof. Our venue was already kind of sending us some red flags during our planning process and when we started to ask about their COVID precautions they were being very short with use and weren't very forgiving if we had to postpone or significantly decrease our guest list. It made it even easier for us to pull the plug on them. Our florist is through an online company so changing the shipping address from KY to OH was no big deal.And our photographer/videographer, rolled with all of my crazy ideas. I didn't want to lose her business so I kept her in the loop with all of our last minute decisions, she probably thought we were so crazy but it was comforting to know she was on board and there for us with whatever we decided.
4. What are your worries,if any?
The unknown. There are still a lot of unknowns happening. We feel blessed to have a space that gives us a lot of freedom so we know no matter what, this thing is happening and can proceed with planning. But we don't know what our guest count will look like, we don't know if we'll be able to dance or hug our loved ones like we always envisioned on this day.
Kyle and I have been together 7 years come our wedding date. Everyday is a new adventure with him, seriously, if you knew him, you'd know what I mean. He's said he's known since the first day that I was going to be the one he marries and although I wasn't as sure as he was that early, when I knew, I knew I couldn't wait. (; He could have asked me to marry him a few months later and I would have said yes then. I won't get too mushy, but he completes me in every way. Where I lack, he goes above and beyond. It's never been 50/50 all the time with us and I think that's the secret to marriage. Like his mom says, neither of you will ever be half and half, perfectly split down the middle, one will always be pulling more weight than the other but that's how love works. After almost 7 years, I still get butterflies, I still look at him with so much lust and excitement for the future, I still think of him first with every love song and every sappy romantic movie, he's the first one I've ever told all my secrets to, and the only one I’ve never had to question my love for even for a second. I'm excited to continue to see us sacrifice for each other, the hoops we'd jump for each other, see what our babies will be like raised by us together. I look forward to all the big moments and to continue to share in all the little moments with him everyday.
I'm right in the middle of "normal/typical" sizes and "plus"sizes. I was dreading dress shopping because of this. I had previously gone to two other shops in the bridal district but Blush was the only bridal shop that didn't make me feel like I couldn't shop there or was deserving of a beautiful dress because of my size. From the moment I walked into the store they were warm and genuinely seemed to want to help me find my dress. They were accommodating to my budget, and really paid attention to the style and look I was going for. They remembered me when I came into my fitting, and had remembered the details I had shared about my wedding day during my initial visit. I will always recommend them and remember them as a vital part in my wedding planning. Thanks for always making me feel special and beautiful without ever having to say a word!
“I think it's important to trust your gut. None of our current wedding plans were our original plans or what I had envisioned but we've rolled with every punch and every new idea seems more perfect than the last. It's not about the champagne, the fireworks, the cutlery, linens, or even the hundreds of people.It's about you and him(her), your love, and your future. Be in the moment as much as you can. Soak it all in. Try to remember the importance and the true core of what your wedding day symbolizes and everything will fall into place just the way it should. “
We loved talking to Cassie, and we’re incredibly lucky to have all the details on her experience during this weird and uncertain time. It looks like she has her heart in the right place, and we are so excited to see her marry the love of her life! Thank you Cassie for letting us be a huge part of your big day, and we cannot WAIT to see pictures!
To follow her story on Instagram: @cassiereynolds
Cassie’s wedding photographer: @lifethroughalinds
Cassie’s engagement photographer: @kalimphotos
A quote that keeps the bride going…
“Thejoy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there isno greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to havea new and different sun.”
- “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer
