Happy.

Happy January!

I'm so blissful lately. Adam and I have always been a close couple, but since we got engaged, my witty, funny, (sometimes offensive) soon-to-be husband has turned into the sweetest, adoring, mushy gushy, most romantic man I've ever met. I'm not complaining! He's fantastic either way, but I'm enjoying this wonderful time planning our wedding together.

Every part of this wedding has been fun (and sometimes frustrating) to plan, but we're doing it together. The most important thing for us was to have a highly customized wedding with a close circle of friends and family that we love. We have taken advice from other couples, family, friends, and put together a perfect Adam-and-Laylan kind of ceremony.

Bridal Party
We decided not to have a bridal party for a few reasons. In 2011, Adam's brother got married and only he and his wife stood up before everyone. We really liked the simplicity of this! On top of that, I have three sisters and five nieces that are old enough to be bridesmaids, and I didn't want to choose. What we decided instead was to have our families dress in a certain color palette for the day to make family pictures easy and complementary.

Being Married By Someone We Know and Love
Adam and I aren't particularly religious, so being married by a pastor wasn't something we really wanted. Instead, we have a friend that is an ordained minister and is delighted to be marrying us. We felt that it was important to be married by someone who had a good feel for the people that Adam and I are and this was the perfect choice.

Music 
One of the only issues Adam and I disagreed about was the music for the ceremony and reception. I didn't want a DJ blabbing through the whole reception, doing The Chicken Dance with my guests. That didn't appeal to me or the theme of the wedding. I preferred a string quartet,  which Adam found boring (even though he loves classical music). He thought our guests would fall asleep.

We compromised by finding a DJ that was comfortable playing music that we chose to keep the reception going even though we aren't big dancers. We chose a Motown/ 60s/70s theme with songs like "And Then He Kissed Me", "Baby Love" and "Dancing in the Moonlight". We chose a huge selection of songs to appeal to all sorts of tastes.

An Adult Affair 
Another important aspect of the wedding was that we felt that it should be adults-only. There were several reasons for this, but the biggest one was that our venue doesn't differentiate between a 3 year old and an 11 year old, and the prices of kids ages 12-18 were nearly as much as the adults, even without alcohol (included in the adult price). Since we're paying for the wedding and reception ourselves, we chose to include more adults than allow children.

We know that some families may find it hard to attend a wedding without the kids, and we completely understand, but this was a choice we had to make for us.
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We are eight months away from the wedding right now but I know it's going to go by so fast! I've already started purchasing table decor and starting my do-it-yourself wedding projects (like a keepsake corsage for my mom and Grandma) I looked at wedding dresses yesterday and found a style that I absolutely adore, and Adam has been begging me to go cake-tasting lately! We'll go soon, I promised. 

Stay up to date with us at http://adamandlaylan.ourwedding.com and with my ten wedding Pinterest boards at pinterest.com/laylanelle. I plan for all sorts of weddings, not just mine! Check it out! 

xoxo, 
laylan