It’s no secret that we live in a world that is always saying more, more, more and that mentality carries over into the wedding industry. Pinterest becomes your worst enemy while planning your wedding. It starts out as fun but very rarely does it stay that way. You need less, not more.

As someone who has been in the wedding industry for 10 years, everyone has always said “oh you must know exactly what you want for your wedding”. In some ways it is true, but really I just know what I don’t want. I don’t want our wedding to stress my relationship with my fiancé, I don’t want our wedding to go over budget and start our marriage off not stewarding our money well, I don’t want our wedding to be about the details more than the start of our marriage. I do know in order to achieve that I want a simple wedding.

I absolutely love detail filled weddings but every time I start thinking about details, I stop and ask myself, “In 5 years, will this matter?”. The answer is usually no. If money & time weren’t a thing and Pinterest dream wedding could come to life, I wouldn’t be upset but I had to hone in on what my priorities were and are. My priority is getting married to the love of my life and starting our marriage off well. If something doesn’t align with those priorities, then it goes.

Talk about what matters to you

We sat down together and talked about what was important to us about our wedding day. For us, we agreed that it was having our family there and having photographs we love.

Do Your Research

Do some research on vendors that you love and want (going back to what are your priorities!) and come to the conversation of budget with some homework done so you have an idea of what you expect to spend.

Have The Money Talk

Talk about MONEY. Make a budget. Stick to it. Our budget conversation was pretty funny. I asked what Paul would be comfortable spending on our wedding, he said an amount and I was like “absolutely not, I’m not planning on spending over xx” (which was half of what he was comfortable with) and he was like “ok great, this was easy”. Now I know all conversations are not that easy so come in with an open mind and soft heart with lots of grace.

Be Inspired but Have Boundaries

Make an old school paper inspiration board for your wedding or limit your Pinterest board pinning. It will take away your contentment and a lot of your time if you don’t set boundaries. Spend an hour together finding your color inspiration, flowers, and other elements that you would like to incorporate and then stop. You’ll always find something bigger and better when you keep looking, but is it necessary? Is it worth wasting your time? Your hard earned money? Your peace over? Paul and I enjoyed doing this step together and it gives an opportunity for your fiancé to be involved. Some of the things Paul liked surprised me and I would have never known if we didn’t do some looking together.

Marriage Matters.

Remember that at the end of your wedding day, the flowers will dry up, your cake will be eaten, tuxedos returned, guests gone home and you will be married. Your marriage is what matters. Nothing else.

Remember, Less Not More!

As your wedding photographers, we promise to encourage and pray for your marriage, long after the wedding day has happened. We promise to capture your wedding day in a way that evokes love when you see your photos hanging on the wall on a hard day. Marriage matters to us.

We are now booking 2021 weddings!

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Some of our favorite weddings that really celebrated the relationship, not just the wedding are:

Rachel & Shane’s Farm at Cottrell Lake Wedding

Rachel & Oliver Quaker Lake Summer Wedding