#54. The 10 Best Moments From Our Wedding
And celebrating one year of writing this newsletter!!
We did it!!!
On December 9th–exactly one year from the day we got engaged–on an absolutely beautiful, sunny day in Palm Springs, Paul and I shared the vows we wrote for each other in front of 85 friends and family who traveled from Minneapolis/St. Paul, Los Angeles, Tucson, Seattle, Reno, San Jose, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Portland just to be there with us. I didn’t fall down the stairs! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky! I got a huge, angry zit on my chin from masking on the plane and had a bit of a mental breakdown, but an emergency trip to the dermatologist on Thursday did a complete 180 on both my zit and my mood! All in all, it was an amazing weekend. We’re exhausted but so thankful. Can’t wait to share more. Also can’t wait to go home and sleep.
I’m currently writing this in bed from the only Airbnb in Joshua Tree I ever want to stay at from here on out, and before I get to the 10 best moments from our wedding… tomorrow is this newsletter’s birthday!?! I kind of can’t believe it’s been a year spilling my guts online about literally whatever I want in a space that somehow just belongs to me. Before I started this newsletter, most of what I wrote on the internet had to be pitched, approved, and edited, but it’s been a year of being free to just let my curiosities, life, and interests lead me to share a new piece of my choosing every week, for better or for worse. No matter when you hopped on the bus, I’m just so thankful for you. I know this newsletter is weird and sort of unpolished and that I swear too much. Thanks for enjoying it anyway.
I’m not 100% sure yet what 2024 has in store for this newsletter in a paid capacity, but it’s honestly been on my mind pretty much every day. I know that for the next few months I’m going to continue to share essays related to my wedding for paid subscribers every other week, but after that, I’m still figuring it all out. I still want to keep most of my essays free, but writing this newsletter is a ton of work and I don’t think I would have the energy to do it without paid subscribers (ILYSM). Rest assured I have a ton of ideas for what to do for paid subscribers come spring, but if you have any thoughts, you can always reply to this email or DM me!
In the meantime, if you’re interested in hearing more wedding details–the best moments, what went wrong, more photos, all the makeup I actually wore after testing millions of products, how my friends and I did all the flowers ourselves, a full rundown of all the ~fashun~, all the brands I used for various logistical items like invitations, our website, and place cards, etc.–now’s the time to upgrade so all of it hits your inbox in the next few months. (I’ll share some light stuff on Instagram related to our wedding, and if that’s all you want or need, I’ll see ya there.)
Also! In honor of our wedding + 1 year of writing this newsletter, grab an annual paid subscription for 30% off until Sunday. That works out to $35 for all the wedding deets that are coming in hot if you want them, including all the things I’ll share here and not on the gram (plus everything else I get up to in 2024 and the entire back catalog of paywalled issues that I published this year; all 20 of them). Paid subscribers truly keep my motivational fuel tank full. And if wedding stuff isn’t for you, I’ll still see you every other Wednesday with whatever curiosities find their way out of my brain 🙂
And without further ado, may I present the 10 best moments from our wedding:
10. Getting some alone time before the wedding to do my hair at a leisurely pace
Holy cats you guys, I am so happy I did my own hair and makeup for our wedding. I curled my hair at the Airbnb where we were staying, and I had a solid hour alone (Paul was writing his vows outside lol) to just jam to Taylor Swift and do my thing without feeling at all rushed in a day that otherwise felt like it was happening in hyperspeed.
9. The coordinator’s assistant telling me I was one of the most relaxed brides she’s ever worked with
When the ceremony started, I was alone in one of the upstairs bedrooms in the O’Donnell House with the venue coordinator’s assistant, Kim, whose job it was to keep in contact with everyone below so we knew exactly when to open the door and send me down. We had about 15 minutes to kill and chatted a bit (I think it’s also her job to try to keep the brides calm) and she remarked that I was easily one of the chillest brides she’d ever encountered, and I’m honestly kind of thrilled she said that! I told her I was really only slightly nervous about tripping on my dress walking down the stairs, and she responded with a laugh, “We’ve never lost a bride yet, you’re not going to be the first!” before showing me exactly how I should hold my train on the way down. She was right, I made it down the stairs totally fine–it was only later when I was going up a smaller flight of stairs that I tripped, several times in a row, on the many layers of my dress. Unclear if anyone saw me, but probably. Lol.
8. Our friends making friends with each other
At one point about halfway through our dance party, I looked over from the packed dance floor and saw that only one table (out of 11 total) was still completely intact, seemingly deep in discussion. It was one of the tables we had heavily considered when making the seating chart because it was one of the only groupings where we paired both Paul’s and my friends together who had never met before, but we had a good feeling they would get along. I ran over and jokingly told them they could all stay sitting as long as they did so as a unit, but once one of them got up to dance, they all had to follow. They said they were just really enjoying their conversation (aww!!!) and they did run to the dance floor maybe 20 minutes later. We can’t remember what song it was, but I’m pretty sure it was either “Dancing Queen” by ABBA or “Everybody” by The Backstreet Boys. Naturally.
7. Ending our wedding with a slow dance to “New Year’s Day” by Taylor Swift (obvi)
We didn’t have a single slow song during our dance party, except for this one. The only time the DJ spoke all night was to get everyone on the dance floor for the very last song, and it was really nice to sway all together to end the night. Then when the music stopped, we all had a giant, crushing group hug. It was perfect.