Welcome back to Wedding Planning 101! Once all of the big ticket items have been crossed off of your list, it is natural to have some down time for a few weeks or months – especially if your venue handles most of the details. With that being said, in this post, I plan to touch on a few things that you may forget about as your big day gets closer! But before we get into that, let’s talk about all things bridal shower and bachelorette parties which are so much fun!
Your Bridal Shower
In my last post, we talked about creating your registry in preparation for your bridal shower! I know some girls have questions as to how far in advance you should have your shower and I definitely shared in that myself! This is another one of those things that is up to you! Typically, showers tend to be 2-3 months in advance but it can honestly take place whenever! In my case, I was moving in May, so we had my shower at the end of April which was about 4 months in advance of the wedding. I am very grateful that my mom, sister, and bridesmaids did all of the planning and wanted most of my shower, aside from the date, to be a surprise which was really nice! We had it at a local Italian restaurant and it was such a fun afternoon!
When it came to finding something to wear, I of course knew that I needed a white dress, but wanted to make sure that it wasn’t super super specific to this one occasion and would be something I could wear again! I decided on this dress from a local boutique and paired it with some nude heels and pearl earrings – it was perfect!
One piece of advice that I could give would be to start your thank you notes as soon as possible! Especially if your shower is closer to your wedding day, this is one less thing you will have to worry about! Have your mom or Maid of Honor keep a list of guests and any gifts you receive. This will make it so much easier to keep track of who gifted what so you are not rummaging through gifts and cards at the end!
Bachelorette Party!
Bachelorette Parties are so much fun and very exciting to think about and plan. We went with a “Coastal Gran” theme which was very on brand! I personally didn’t want to travel for my bachelorette or ask my friends to take off of work or spend a lot of money. Again, this was just me! I of course invited the bridal party along with some of my closest friends and my sister was very gracious to open up her home and host for us after spending the morning at the beach. We ordered food, played games, laughed, and talked well into the night! It was truly the perfect day and everyone had a blast just being in each other’s company.
As you can probably tell from reading the other posts in this series, I tend to keep things simple. That is just my personal preference! If you are the complete opposite, that is totally ok! I know with the prevalence of social media and the comparison trap that can potentially come with that, it is easy to think that you need to go over the top for your bachelorette but that is definitely not the case! I am all for spending intentional time with your friends and enjoying yourselves, but there are multiple ways to accomplish this. At the end of the day, do what you want to do! If you want it to be elaborate, go for it! If you want to keep it simple, also great! Don’t feel pressured to match or surpass what other girls have done or what you have seen online. Being different is also fun and I can promise you that you won’t have “less fun” for going against what appears to be the “norm”.
Last Minute Details
Once you have had your bridal shower and bachelorette party, you may be thinking “what now?“. Below I have rounded up a few things that you may want to consider if they aren’t taken care of already:
- Place Cards: I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do about this. Seating charts have been very trendy this year, but I wanted to do something a little bit different. We also weren’t giving traditional party favors, so I was on the hunt to find a two-in-one so to speak – something that guests could use to find their seats but also something they could take home at the end of the night! I found this picture (left) on Pinterest and thought the shells were absolutely perfect! It just so happened that my mom was at the beach one day and found over 120 shells lying on the sand that I could paint and write on. It was meant to be and all of our guests loved them!
- Hair & Makeup Trials: if you choose to book hair and/or makeup for your wedding, make sure you schedule your trials if you haven’t done so already! Most times these are not required, but it does help to reduce some stress the day of when you have an idea of what you’re looking for! Make sure you also ask your bridal party and the moms if they would like to be included as well! Most salons and makeup artists will be looking for final head counts about 2-3 weeks before the wedding.
- Marriage License: this is arguably the most important detail of all as this is the document that allows you to be legally married! But in all honesty, it is easy to overlook when you have so many other things on your mind. I have heard many different things regarding how to apply, but I think the easiest way is to apply for the license in the town you are getting married in. Your officiant will ultimately turn in the completed license to the town where the venue or church is located, but we found that going through the application process in the same town made the most sense for us!
- Also be sure to review the requirements for your state. In New Jersey, there is a 72-hour waiting period between the day of your application appointment and the day you can pick up the license. Once you have it in your possession, it is only valid for 30 days so make sure you don’t go too far in advance!
- Getting Ready Outfits: definitely not required but very fun if you’re interested! My bridesmaids told me that they’d rather have a comfy pair of pajamas rather than a robe to get ready in. I found so many cute pairs on Etsy and Amazon, but ultimately decided on this hydrangea pair for me, and a set of striped pajamas for the bridesmaids! They were so comfortable and made for really cute pictures when we arrived at the venue!
That was everything I could think of off the top of my head, but please feel free to leave a comment or message me on Instagram if you have any questions!
Thank you so much for reading!
