365 days until I DO!

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Hello Everyone!!! Some exciting things to share with you today, as today marks the one-year countdown until Patrick and I say “I do!” to each other forever! I am SO EXCITED! We have been all over the map in terms of dates and planning, but we have finally gotten all of our ducks in a row and it is such a relief. I have some majors tips and tricks for all of you soon to be brides that I wanted to share!

Being a (soon to be) military spouse, it is about 20x more difficult to try to plan a date for anything, especially when you are currently not living in the same state as your fiance and don’t even know where you will be living a year from now! Talk about a headache for this borderline bridezilla! lol just kidding… kind of. Anyways, if you are anything like myself, you already have a year, time of year, month, and date for a wedding set in your head, maybe even before you have been proposed to. Well, I’m here to tell you, do yourself a favor and wipe that from your memory and wait until it all happens, and do your planning in the moment. Otherwise, you are going to be crushed when for whatever reason you can’t get that exact date you have been dreaming of! Trust me, it happened to us. But guess what, I am just as happy as I would have been if I got the date I wanted to begin with. I guess Patrick IS right about some things after all.

So here we are with 365 days to get this wedding planned on a budget! Anyone can tell you, I’m not a fan of budgets, especially when I have an image in my head of exactly what I want. But we have discovered that it is totally possible to get that dreamy look you want without breaking the bank.

Here’s how we are making our wedding dreams come true without going over budget!

1. Find out what you can make yourself rather than paying someone to make for you.

2. Pick and choose what to splurge on and what you don’t need to splurge on.

3. If you are a military spouse and in San Diego, take a look at the venues on base. They are literally right on the water and beautiful for much less than every other venue space that shares the exact same view!

4. Write a list with your fiance on your must-haves and what you can live without.

5. Don’t invite people you haven’t spoken to in the last year.

6. Do some research before you just buy the first set of “Save the dates” or wedding invites you see. Sales exist and are always happening people! Start prepping for when the best times to buy are now.

7. Celebrate everything you get done together! This is a fun time!