Annnd here is another wedding wisdom coming your way!! Sami had SO MANY good things to share – I would definitely take notes on what she had to say!

Question #1: What did you love about planning your wedding?

This is a trick question because I had a love-hate relationship with planning our wedding haha but I would say the things that I enjoyed a lot was being able to take the things that I loved about us and our relationship and what made us unique, and put that into our day. And so with every aspect of our wedding, it was really important that it felt like us. Even if that meant that it wasn’t a “traditional” thing to have at a wedding we were like, “whatever!” We’re gonna have tacos and we’re going to have it at a brewery, and we had our favorite donuts from our favorite coffee shop down the street – it was just being able to incorporate all the local things that we love especially because it was a destination wedding for more than 50% of our guests. So it was just really important that we just made it 100% us.

Question #2: What were some not so fun parts?

I mean, budget is definitely one of the hard parts, and you were even talking about it recently! It’s just… you see the things on Pinterest and you’re like “That’s what I want!” and you’re so excited, and you just got engaged… and then you have the reality check of “Okay, I actually have to have a budget…” and then you realize how much weddings cost. And so then you are trying to make sure you get the things that you want, but still work within your budget — Quick note… I would also say it’s pretty safe to plan to go over your budget slightly — but yeah there were definitely times where I would see something and be like “Ahh! I want this!” and then be like “Mmm nope. Not gonna happen…” haha you just have to get more creative with it, especially if the sky’s not the limit with your budget. So I think that was definitely challenging. Another part that was challenging was dealing with other people’s opinions because other people will love to give you their thoughts and advice even if it’s unsolicited haha so that’s something that you have to balance too. But ultimately, it’s always important to remember that this is about your relationship and your love.

Question #3: What was important to you when planning your wedding? Style, experience, time, etc.

Making it as authentically us as possible was definitely most important, but other things that were really important to me were incorporating my mom. My mom passed away when I was 8 years old from brain cancer and being 29 now it’s been a long time without her and so it was really important to me to have her represented throughout the day and throughout the experience. And I think that for other couples who have lost a parent, it’s a really hard time and going through the whole wedding planning experience without them and having that reminder is hard.. but then on the flip side you can almost pay respect to them through the process too. So I was able to use my mom’s wedding dress, I was able to wear it for the rehearsal dinner – I changed it a little bit so that it was a little more modern – but I also took photos in it as well and that was part of the gift I gave my dad. And then my aunt made a hairpiece from my mom’s hairpiece that I used in my hair and so yeah… it was really important that my mom was incorporated.

Another thing I would say is the food was really important to us haha John and I are definitely foodies and because we did have more of a budget wedding we were like “What do we do??” because we still wanted to make sure that people were fed. I think that’s one of the most important things – are people fed, do they have drinks, and is there music – so being able to have food that we felt was up to par with flavors and food that we like – aka the Taco Stand – was important rather than having a more catered experience that was maybe not as good or mediocre. So yeah that was really important to us too, that the food be good.

And then I think the last thing was just that I wanted everything to speak to our industrial and rustic vibes. So any touches that we added I wanted it to fit into the venue and the space, so I think that was another key/important thing.

Question #4: What was something you wished you spent LESS time stressing about or working on?

Definitely the seating arrangement for the ceremony. I stressed out SO MUCH about that. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent on that haha when I was interviewing planners I was like “Where do the ceremony chairs go, like does someone move them??” I just couldn’t grasp it. And I just spent SO much time on that. My friend and I even went out there and took measurements to figure out how it would all work, and then eventually I had seen other people get married in the parking lot and so I was like “Wait… is it weird if we just get married in the parking lot??” Because doing that fixed the space issues and then all of our photos were in front of that really cool wall of shipping containers – which felt very much US too – but yeah, I spent SO much time trying to figure out the floor plan and how it all worked logistically. And everything really worked out so well, it was just kinda one of those things where I was like “What do you do with the chairs?!! Who knows these answers??” 😛

Question #5: What was your favorite part of your wedding day?

I mean our ceremony for sure was amazing, my brother officiated it, and John and I didn’t talk to each other about our vows or anything, and so I feel like we were all perfectly aligned in regards to the amount of humor that was involved but also the amount of sentimental type things too and so we were all just so in-sync and it was very us again. It was by far the best thing about our wedding day!

Question #6 & #7: What was your thought process for choosing a photographer? And what stood out to you the most about Kate Garcia Weddings?

So I can’t remember exactly how I found you, but I know when I landed on your website that was immediately what sold me because I automatically felt like I wanted to be friends with you. There were so many cute and funny things on your website that I could really feel your personality through it and I honestly don’t think I felt that with any other photographers while we were doing our research and trying to find one that matched our aesthetic. But yeah, I mean that alone was what stood out, and just in general I think it’s really important that couples book vendors that they feel like they can be friends with. Because those vendors are going to be celebrating the couple’s most important day too and the couple should want to be friends with them – I mean they’re going to be with you a majority of the day by your side haha and I think that that stood out to me, and then we talked to you and I could just tell that it was a good fit. And then obviously, you’re very talented and I saw your photos and was like OMG this is exactly what I want! Your style had some edge to it and I loved that and so I really feel like we made the best decision ever. And you could just tell that people were authentically themselves in your photos, which is what we were looking for.

And hands down the day of the wedding we really didn’t have to think about anything. Right off the bat you came in there and started making beautiful magic – my bridesmaids would come back to where I was getting ready and be like “I see what’s happening in there and it’s BEAUTIFUL!!” haha and you were just so professional from the start. Even how you made us all laugh like, you couldn’t NOT laugh when you did what you did to make us laugh, and that really did stand out.. I even used you as an example for work when we were talking about photographers, I literally said “No… our photographer got it out of people! Like she was getting people to relax and got the best out of everyone!” And everyone from our wedding literally kept commenting on you, my wedding party, my brother, literally everyone was talking about how amazing you were. And on the day, you could just tell with the things you were doing and how you were so professional, and creative, that we made such an amazing decision!!

Question #8: Did you feel like you booked an adequate amount of time?

I do! We did 10 hours with you and it really was the perfect amount of time because you arrived right as we were finishing up getting ready and then were there till the sparkler exit, so 10 hours worked for us. I think our event itself was in total 5 hours, so maybe if someone had a longer ceremony or reception then they might need more but for us, 10 hours worked perfectly. We did a first look and we did a lot of our group photos before the ceremony, and I feel like that was purposely done so that we can enjoy the rest of the party and not have to dip out for an hour and a half in between ceremony and reception during cocktail hour, like we wanted to be there and enjoy it with everyone, so formatting our day that way made it possible to be able to have more creativity with the photos ahead of time. I HIGHLY recommend doing that if couples get the chance to format the day that way because there was less pressure and I mean the day is so short to begin with from the ceremony to the reception so the more time that you can get to be there in that moment – DO IT!

Question #9: Was there any other vendor that you couldn’t imagine not being there?

I mean, I would say ALL of our vendors?? haha I literally loved every vendor we had so much, and I literally just want to live that day again so that I can hang out with everyone again. Obviously, our coordinator V Party & Events, she was SO CRUCIAL to the day and helped so much with the day-of planning and even ahead of time (like if I had weird questions about the chair set up thing haha) and even during the wedding people were coming up to me and complimenting V on things that I didn’t even know people noticed about what she did! haha

I was completely obsessed with our venue, it was the perfect setting and fully customizable.. 32 North Brewing killed it. Our florist absolutely CRUSHED it too. So did our videographers, and rentals, and DJ – and you guys hadn’t worked together before either but it seemed like you guys worked so well together and I really felt like we had a dream team! I was so happy in a sense to bring everyone together and I know that connections are still being made and what not through our wedding. Genuinely, every single vendor I could not imagine our day without!

Question #10: If you could give advice to all the newly engaged couples out there, what would it be?

Number one is: remember that it’s about the two of you. I feel like people told me that during planning, but then you get caught up in all the details and what not and then start to stress about everyone else – but at the end of the day everyone is there to celebrate YOU and they want you guys to be happy, so whatever makes you happy should make them happy because that’s why they’re there. So I think it’s really important to constantly remember that and not lose sight of the reason why this day is happening 🙂

And then just going back to the vendor thing, just making sure that the vendors that you pick you 100% trust and that you WANT to be there to celebrate your day! It was so very clear that all of you guys wanted to make our day the absolute best that it can be for us, and everything that everyone did to make sure that our day was perfect – we felt it… and that’s WHY our day was so amazing. And so it’s so important that the people that you select are going to be your biggest fans on that day! And that they just want you to win and have an amazing memorable day.

As we close another time with a fabulous bride, I am filled to the brim with gratitude that Sami was able to take the time to go live with me on Instagram. If you want to tune in to the next interview with a past bride, follow me on instagram @kategarciaweddings – I go live every Wednesday evening at 6pm PST with one of my past brides. All live videos can be accessed for 24 hours after the live happens.

Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments below, and I cannot wait to share next week’s interview!

Kate