The Big Day is Finally Here For Taylor & Matt

If you've been following along Taylor's wedding journal you will be thrilled to know the big day is finally here. But before they tie the knot Taylor dishes on some of her favorite details from along the way.

Taylor's Latest Journal Entry

Planning a wedding calls for some fun! Even though Matt & I don’t have a wedding party, our family and closest friends have been sure to make this experience memorable! We each had our respective bachelor and bachelorette parties and my mom threw me a bridal shower that was nothing short of amazing!

My bridal shower was hosted just across the river at Blooming Grove Inn, a local family restaurant that happens to be one of our favorites for date night. On a beautiful March day, the BGI team hosted a bridal shower brunch for myself and my guests. Thankfully the night before the shower, my mom, my good friend Jessica, and I were able to spend some time decorating to prepare for my special day. I created centerpieces with lovely spring flowers that I picked up from Trader Joe’s and Jess and I created a balloon ring masterpiece! Jess also created a custom vinyl sign to attach to a mirror to use as a welcome sign. Everything turned out beautifully! The morning of my shower, I decided to do my bridal makeup trial with Rebeca Esquilin. It was the perfect way to prepare and pamper myself, and having set up the night prior, it was such a low-key morning! I had such an amazing time at my shower and all of my guests raved about the food and the flow of the event.

Zola and The Wedding Wire have saved my life for wedding planning!  Having all of our 150 guests RSVP and select their meal choices directly on Zola made the process so seamless. I was able to export the guest list directly from Zola and edit the spreadsheet to add table numbers.  Then on The Wedding Wire website, I created a floor plan that I sent straight to our wedding coordinator, Gabbi, which laid out how many tables we needed and what size. We ended up with 15 round tables seating 8-11 guests at each. My love for spreadsheets has truly come in handy with our seating chart, day-of timeline, guest addresses, gift tracker and so much more!

For our wedding signage, we are utilizing mirrors as both decor and statement pieces.  I scored a great full-length mirror on sale from HomeSense and my friend, Jess, made another vinyl decal for me to use on the mirror. I can’t wait to see our guests’ selfies as they enter our ceremony area! Another sign I worked on creating is our seating chart. I am using another mirror with a vinyl decal as well as cards with our guests names (created on Canva!) to direct them to their tables.  I found it made the most sense to organize the seating chart alphabetically so that guests can easily locate their names without having to scan through the entire chart and create a backup at the entrance to the reception.  Both signs will have some greenery and florals to really round out the vibe we’re going for!

All of our details have come together beautifully. Matt and I have finished putting together our hotel bags for any guests staying at either HollyHedge Estate or the 1740 House on the evening of our wedding. Again, I was inspired by TikTok and Canva and I was able to create a “Newlywed Times” tag to attach to our bags! We also ordered custom drink stirrers with my new last name and bar signs to share our signature cocktails; mine is an Aperol Spritz and Matt's is an Old Fashioned! I broke my own rule about spending money on items that will end up in the trash and ordered adorable cocktail napkins with our dogs’ faces on them from Etsy! I just couldn’t help it, they turned out so cute and we are so happy to include our pups in our day in this special way. A little DIY project I completed was our “petal toss” bags for the recessional. I saved all of the flowers from my bridal shower centerpieces and purchased the little bags on Amazon, it was a great way to save some money! And finally, I headed to Sky King in Morrisville to grab sparklers for our grand exit!