My Not So Good Wedding Planning Journey | Nikki’s Getting Married | Ultimate Edge Photography

Jason always said that he could care less about having a big wedding. If he could have it his way, he would just go to the courthouse and call it a day. A wedding is something I have dreamed about ever since I was a little girl! I never necessarily wanted a big wedding, but with me working in the industry as a wedding photographer, it’s kind of hard not to want one!

I see almost every weekend the love, happiness, and fun all my couples have during their weddings, of course, I would want that too! Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a simple courthouse wedding. But for me, I wanted a full day documented. From getting ready all the way until I smash the cake in his face!

The “First” Wedding

I wanted to have my wedding in Colorado with wonderful mountain views. I ended up booking a venue with only doing a small amount of research. Once I had the chance to make it out to Colorado to view the venue, I was super disappointed! I actually wanted to cry the whole time we were on the tour. I mean, there were NO mountain views and the bridal suite had ORANGE carpets! ?

All the roads that lead to this venue were under massive construction so guests would have had to travel on a super winding road that would have been very tough for guests at night. All this construction almost doubled the drive time to the venue as well.

To even make matters worse, there was literally no cell service at the venue or even within 10 minutes of the venue. It was a pure dead zone! I am not exaggerating either, you would have to use the venue’s WiFi to make calls or send text which was another huge turn off for me.

I tried to lie to myself and say that I was okay with this venue. I knew Jason’s heart was set on having the wedding in Colorado. But every ounce of my being knew I would not be happy. It wasn’t until it was we were back in New Jersey that I had what I like to call my awakening!

The Awakening

It was a rainy day in New Jersey and I was coming home from the grocery store. I was doing a massive amount of wedding planning earlier in the day so my mind was already set on wedding vibes. I started to ask myself, “what if it is bad weather on our wedding day, then what?” I knew the venue offered an indoor option, but the outdoor ceremony was the ONLY thing I liked about the venue. So naturally, I start to freak out.

I booked the venue in the winter months and Colorado can get some massive snowstorms. I wouldn’t have minded a light snowfall, I actually would have preferred it! But a huge storm that would prevent people from making it to the wedding or having to resort to “Plan B” I was not a fan of.

I started to think about my parents and how it would be so hard for them to simply travel to the venue and even worse if there was bad weather. Then I started to think about how a majority of our guests are from Florida and how tough it would be for them to travel.

Then it dawned on me that our own grandmothers wouldn’t be able to make it to Colorado for the wedding because of the travel and possible weather conditions. We had about 150 people on our guest list and only 50 of them confirmed they were going to attend. Everyone else on the list said “we will try our best but I am not sure. That is super far away and may be tough for us to all go”. That was it, I had enough, it was time to pull the plug!

At the end of the day, the single most important thing that mattered the most to us was to be able to be surrounded by all our friends and family. In a matter of 30 minutes of realizing all of this, what I should have realized from the beginning, I pulled the plug on our Colorado venue and asked to start the process for canceling.

The “Second” Wedding

Jason likes to call it the second wedding because the Colorado wedding was basically fully planned and then I pull the plug to just start wedding planning completely from scratch again. The only things that didn’t change were our guest list, our photographer, and our videographer.

We went from having a wedding in the winter months in Colorado, basically their offseason for weddings to having a wedding in Florida during their prime season for weddings. I was very set on having a Saturday date, but little did I know that when I finally found a venue in Florida we would only have 1 single Friday date to choose from… ONE. So we took it.

I was super upset about having a Friday date when I originally booked our Florida venue, however now I am actually grateful for it because now we and our guests have 2 days to recover after the wedding instead of just the one day. Our Colorado date was 02/20/2021 but now our official wedding day is 02/12/2021. I actually like the way our new date looks better than the other! Weird… I know thinking a date that looks better is weird, but it is a thing I promise!

The Light at The End of The Tunnel

When it came time for me to inform our guest of the twist, I was nervous because I knew the people that really wanted to go to Colorado were going to be upset. A lot of the guests that were going to attend our wedding in Colorado had planned to make a huge vacation out of it.

However, when I told our family that we have decided to move everything to Florida they were all so ecstatic! I swear I think my mother almost cried she was so happy! Our bridal party was relieved too seeing how they also all live in Florida. It just was an all-around smart decision!

The biggest thing I wanted most out of Colorado was the mountain views. I really wanted some stunning shots of Jason and me in the mountains! Even though the wedding was moved, I still wanted to make sure I had images of us in the mountains so I scheduled an engagement session with Emily Kowalski Photography while we were in Colorado last spring. All the images in this post were from that session and as you can tell she absolutely nailed what I envisioned as a Colorado engagement!

Moral of This Story

A lot of couples are going through the situation with COVID and affecting their wedding in ways they could not have imagined. My goal in sharing my story with you, although it is different, it may be relatable to some of you!

Choosing a season, date, and venue is the hardest part of wedding planning. To think about having to do it all over again, I am not going to lie, sucks! Sometimes things do not go as planned whether that is a date change, a season change, or even a venue change.

What may be happening to you and your wedding that right now may be tough, exhausting, and flat out annoying! I am not going to fluff it up and make it seem like it is anything but what is it. However, once I had time to see the light at the end of the tunnel I was happy with the changes that happened to our wedding. It took me a solid couple of months to appreciate all the changes though, so give it time!

At the end of the day, I am sure you would prefer to be surrounded by your friends and family without having to worry about social distancing at your own wedding. So even though your date may be postponed, know that it will all work out in the end <3