 our storyAfter being together for almost 3 years, Garrett proposed on February 9th, 2019 under the Crescent City Connection bridge. Here’s how he pulled off the biggest surprise ever! It all started with my photographer telling me she wanted to submit print work for a local magazine cover story and needed couples to model for her. Little did I know the man of my dreams was going to ask me to take his last name! After the proposal, I was whisked away to another surprise! Garrett arranged for all of our closest friends and family to be waiting for us for an engagement party. I didn’t think things could get better than this day, but they did! BLUSHING with excitement, we spent the next year planning with wedding extraordinaire, Valerie Gernhauser of Sapphire Events. Valerie is an A-LIST planner who has produced weddings all over the WORLD. Fast forward to this past December… We were spending the holidays building excitement with family members, as this was our only Christmas as an engaged couple and also because we were less than six months out from our special day. Fast forward to February, less than two months away from our wedding, we started getting news about the Coronavirus that was quickly spreading. Everyone was so unsure of what direction things would turn and laws were quickly passed that no more than 10 people could be allowed to gather until April 13th. Phew! I felt relieved that my wedding weekend would be after the virus passed. However, as we all know, that is NOT what ended up happening. We were SO disappointed when we learned the ban had been extended to April 30th, and we would no longer be able to celebrate with friends + family. After a lot of talks about whether we would wait or just get married with no one or just a few people in attendance, we decided to still exchange vows and celebrate on our special day, 4.18.20! We immediately sent out postponement suites and started planning for a Mirco Wedding. Since we could not have more than 8 guests at our micro wedding, our full wedding party could not be there in person, but they were still adamant about having a virtual rehearsal dinner. Not all of them knew we were still getting married the next day, so we surprised them with the big news during the call! We spent a little over 20 days planning our micro wedding with planner, Minimal Matrimony. With even more excitement because no one outside our family and closest friends knew, our big day was finally here (even though) we had to celebrate in a small way. We only had six guests in attendance at our Micro Wedding to keep everyone safe + healthy. That was our top priority! We FacedTimed two of our parents who couldn't be there in person and had our wedding party on a separate FaceTime call. It wasn't the outcome we originally anticipated BUT we were surprised at how WONDERFUL our special day turned out! In no way did we feel like we missed out on anything. It was unique, unconventional, and even more special than I could have dreamed. Having a Mirco Wedding was a new adventure/experience for ALL of us. I can now check #MicroWedding off the bucket list! I left the venue on Saturday with a full heart and a new last name! So what is a Micro Wedding? Micro weddings are quickly becoming a THING. A wedding is considered to be mirco when there are only 30 guests or fewer. Anything between 30 and 50 guests is considered to be a mini wedding. Side note: the bride and groom are included in these numbers!   guest in attendanceI got a lot of questions about how many guests were at our micro wedding. We had six guests in attendance. My Maid of Honor/sister, my Matron of Honor, Garrett’s Best Main/brother, and our officiant were “in person” guests. My mom and Garrett's dad watched from their cars with the windows rolled down. His dad hasn't seen anyone since the beginning of quarantine! Everyone's safety was our top priority and legally, we couldn't have more than 10 people! We kept it as small as possible, because we knew that we were still going to have our BIG wedding celebration next April. Eventually, we would be celebrating with everyone in person! I don’t think either of us imagined getting married without our grandparents there, but for their safety they had to watch through FaceTime. Our parents watched from afar as well, and we only felt like my MOHs and his best man were necessary for attendance (even though we wish our whole party could have been there)! The photographer was there, but she wore a mask and stood far away from everyone the entire time - real life! We wanted her to be safe and follow legal guidelines about distancing. What about the people who should have been there? Garret’s mom and my dad could not be there as they are both (temporarily) living with our grandparents. My dad started remodeling his new condo right before quarantine started, and Garrett’s mom is helping his grandmother list her home in Joshua Tree, California. We FaceTimed them both so they could witness the ceremony! We also FaceTimed the rest of our wedding party. To make sure our parents, grandparents, and the rest of our wedding party could be there, we sat three phones on the white fold-out chairs we rented from Explore Element. ALL of our guests technically had a front row seat via FaceTime!    venue + vendorsI already had my eye on this venue, because it is where I was supposed to take my bridal portraits. It is a private residence that looks identical to the Wedding Cake house on St. Charles Avenue, and my sister just happens to be best friends with the family that lives next door! This was totally just a lucky coincidence. It was meant to be! Vendors Florals: Fallo Vanos 504-837-5338 (The florist was having trouble getting fresh blooms otherwise we would have lined the aisle with florals. She also had to make my bouquet with half silk florals.) Limousine Rental: Rolls Royce from Unique Transportation 504-455-1115 Cake: Ruthie's Cakes 504-733-6045 Tuxedo: John’s Tuxedos Welcome Sign: Rebecca Calligan (bridesmaid) Seating and Decor: Explore Element
elements for a micro weddingGiven the circumstances, we couldn’t have our day go exactly how we originally planned, but there were some elements I wanted to include to make our micro wedding just as special, if not more! 1. Ceremony 2. Music (we packed a small Bluetooth speaker which I’ll link here) 3. First dance -- half way through the song, our siblings, officiant, and my Matron of Honor (who are husband and wife) joined us on the “dance floor” for the rest of our song. 4. Champagne toast 5. Cake cutting 6. A proper send off with sparklers 7. Rolls Royce I think these elements are what gave us ALL the feels! We also managed to have a welcome sign, which made our venue feel like it was “actually a wedding.” I had the perfume I wore that day photographed, because even though I did not get ready in a traditional setting, having these small details photographed made it seem real. We rented 4 fold out chairs for our “virtual guests” to sit on. The easel for our welcome sign & the chairs are from Explore Element. If you’re a bride to be hoping to still have a reception, I would consider something in a backyard, because as of now, nothing is open to host a reception. I’m going to share some photos of a small wedding reception I found on Pinterest. All of these photos seem so perfect for a small gathering to celebrate you & your soon to be husband. Here is a photo list I made to make sure my photographer captured every single detail! (Inspiration for an intimate backyard reception.)
Photo List
We had no formal itinerary in terms of specific times and durations, we casually moved from one thing to the next. After arriving, we took some pictures separately. Then, we had a special moment, just the two of us, sitting in the back of the Roll Royce, soaking it all in. Rachel even managed to snap some pictures of this intimate moment. It was as close to a first look as we could get. After the ceremony, we had our first dance, a champagne toast, cut the cake, and an official send off as husband and wife. I need to credit my Photog, Rachel Madelyn and how wonderful she is! She kept things moving and her GOOD energy was felt by everyone in attendance. Even before the wedding, she was keeping me calm and collected! I texted her... it’s raining... she said WE’ve got this! I knew if we had to take photos in the rain, she would make them look like shots out of a magazine. 
what about our big wedding?!Another question that was asked is if we still plan on having our BIG wedding and the answer is YES! Garrett & I spent about a year planning for that special day, and we were SO excited to celebrate with our friends and family. I worked really hard with our wedding planner to hand select top vendors + I purchased a gorgeous wedding dress that I cannot wait to wear in 2021! I did not want all of my planning to be for naught. We postponed our wedding with less than 30 days to go, so everything was basically paid for! It would be such a waste of money to just cancel it all together. Nothing was canceled, we simply postponed.When we realized we had no choice, I inquired about dates in June & July but our venue, The Southern Hotel, was very hesitant to reschedule for Summer. I knew Fall would be such a busy time of the year, all of our vendors would not be available on the same date in Fall. Because of this, we just pushed it back an entire year. I’m also a big numbers person and loved 4.18.20 + April is ideal for us both. Garrett’s birthday is in March, and my birthday is in May... It’s what worked best for US.   how i plan on making 2021 still feel special!Reception? No! Everyone’s health + safety was our top priority. And again, our BIG wedding isn’t canceled. We know we’ll have a big party and celebrate with everyone in 2021, so we didn’t feel like we missed out. In order for next year’s BIG wedding to still feel special, here’s what we decided to do. 1. We exchange traditional vows this past Saturday and kept our personal vows for next year 2. We also decided to move our honeymoon to 2021 and take a mini moon once the travel ban lifts 3. I didn’t wear my original dress because I’m obviously saving that for 2021! 4. We’re saving our first dance song for 2021, so we danced to the song we were supposed to exit the altar to. The song lyrics mention blue skies so that was my “something blue”! (Which is somewhat of a stretch, but it worked :) 5. We also decided to get ready together with our two siblings. His brother is his Best Man and my sister is my Maid or Honor! This helped keep the vibe small + intimate. We laughed, toasted with champagne, and listened to an awesome playlist as we all got dressed. All outfit details are linked here! I wore Garrett's Grandmother's earrings (which was my something old) and my mother's garter (which was my something borrowed to be passed down to my sister).   and...I think we were both surprised at how well Saturday went! The overall feeling, excitement, & vibe was surreal. I'm an extremely detail oriented person, and I just kept telling myself that whatever happens HAPPENS. This was really challenging for me. I had to give up my original plan, expectations, and control of the situation. I feel like I grew as a person because of this experience (cheesy to say, but it is true!) I had to give up my "OCD-ness," accept the reality of everything and make the best of it. I knew I could not plan everything like I originally wanted, and that was OKAY! I rolled with the punches and at the end of the day, what mattered was marrying the man of my dreams. On Saturday, I got a few texts asking if I was concerned about the rain, I just kept saying that I was excited, because it's considered GOOD LUCK and clear umbrellas would easily fit into my micro wedding aesthetic (LOL). It ended up raining up until we were supposed to start the ceremony... HOW PERFECT! Some people ask me if next year will not be as significant because we had a micro wedding. I wanted April 18, 2020 so badly that I was going to make it happen one way or another. I think had we not done something this past Saturday, we would have felt like we did miss out. Our day would have passed, and we would have been thinking about what could have been all day long. But instead, we were able to celebrate in a small but special way. We're SO glad we had our micro wedding and can’t wait to celebrate all over again next year! All selections and opinions in this post are my own.
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