After celebrating your engagement, what’s next? Planning your big day!

About a year prior to getting engaged Nick and I visited Aruba and we decided once we got married it would have to be there. For anyone who’s visited Aruba before you know how relaxing and beautiful it is and for anyone who hasn’t gone there yet, I highly recommend it for your next trip.

Weeks after my engagement my mother in law asked me when am I going to contact the venue in Aruba to secure the date I wanted (April 6, 2019)? I told her I would do it in a couple months and she looked at me like I had 3 heads. She told me to contact them asap because with some of these venues you have to wait over a year for a date. Well, thank god I listened to her. I emailed the Ritz Carlton Aruba that night and they got back to me the next morning where they told me the first available date was in July of 2019. No worries, not a big deal instead of the original date of April 6th that I wanted, I will be getting married on Saturday, July 13, 2019.

A couple of weeks after securing the date we visited Aruba so I could choose where I want my ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. I chose to have my ceremony on the beach, the cocktail hour outside and reception in the ballroom. Once, everything was done and I finalized my wedding contract and received a wedding planner from my venue I realized I have so much left to do. I honestly had no idea what my next step would be.

As you guys know, I love to decorate, I love throwing an over the top party so when it comes to my wedding I knew it would take a lot of work to get it exactly how I envision it in my head. Plus, let’s throw in the fact that it’s a destination wedding which makes it even harder. I plan on going back to Aruba 5-6 times prior to my wedding to do tastings, talk to vendors, do mock setups, etc. So, since I literally make a daily list of things to do, it only made sense to make a wedding list!

• Start a separate Pinterest account for the wedding
• Find a wedding dress
• Find wedding shoes
• Choose wedding colors
• Find bridesmaid dresses
• Find mother of the bride and mother in law dresses (matching colors)
• Choose colors of flowers for bouquet, reception and ceremony
• Have a food tasting
• Finalize menu
• Talk with all vendors (videographers, photographers, florists, etc)
• Finalize vendors
• Choose all reception decor
• Have a reception table mockup
• Choose wedding cake
• Guest list
• Take engagement photos
• Send out Save The Date
• Pick invitations
• Set up transportation for guests from the airport to hotel
• Pick out everything for my guest swag bags that are put in their hotel room prior to them arriving
• Ceremony and reception entertainment (violinist, harpist, etc)
• Choose first dance
• Make a video for reception
• Choose signature drink
• Choose desserts for the dessert table

So far that is my list, I’ll definitely be updating it as I go. What were some of the first things you did when planning your wedding?

carousel Sincerely Courtney wedding