Guess what? Tomorrow is my birthday. I’m usually a birthday week kind of person, but this week has been so crazy busy I haven’t had time to be a birthdayzilla  (a good thing). 

This isn’t an actual list meant to give anyone any hints (promise) but they’re things I adore and want to share with you! And yes, a trip to Greece had to be thrown in for good measure.

Duffel, earrings, clutch, bracelet, a trip to Greece, and this stunning piece from Chassity’s Sally King Benedict sale today

Last week, on Wedding Wednesday quite a few people requested some post-wedding advice. Take it with a grain of salt, of course, every bride is different.

Today I’ll share what I learned about my actual wedding day. I will spend another post, on a different day, on things I learned about planning if you guys are interested.

(Our first dance)

I learned that you tip your vendors. I had absolutely no idea. I was the first of my friends and family to get married and somehow my planner never mentioned it. I was struck with this information a month after my wedding and was really upset that we didn’t have budget left to tip our amazing vendors. Instead I wrote thank you notes (still have a couple left to do) to everyone we worked with. They were truly amazing and I wanted them to know it. Budget for this. They deserve it!

I learned that things will go wrong. Your definition of wrong. Your guests definition of wrong. Your planners definition of wrong. It doesn’t matter whose definition. Shit happens.

I learned that things that you think you will care about, you won’t care about (at least not in the moment). For example, every square inch of my wedding was white but for some reason some purple flowers snuck into our chair garlands. I looked at them when I walked in, thought to myself “ohhhh I don’t really like that” and kept walking.  Its your wedding! Who cares about your chair garlands?

I learned that you have to make an extremely conscious decision to spend the entire night with your husband. It won’t just happen. There are so many people there for both of you, you will get pulled into a million different directions if you let it happen. I had my planners assistant on “Spencer Patrol” every time we got separated. I wanted to have my memories of our wedding night be together. I wanted to remember my wedding WITH Spencer. This one was huge for me. I can’t it emphasize enough.

I learned you can’t control the weather. It sucks, but you can’t. Our entire ceremony and cocktail reception was planned to be outside but a week before, when I saw the forecast, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. We ordered outdoors heaters and pashminas for our guests, but that morning I woke up and it was 50 degrees. There was no way people were going to be comfortable outside. It broke my heart. We chose our venue for the amazing scenery, but there was nothing we could do.