Wedding Reflections – Casey and Alex

Gratitude  //  1st February 2016

Casey and Alex were married on May 28, 2015 in the magical Castello Vincigliata just outside of Florence, Italy! Below are some of their reflections from the beginning of their married lives together!

1. When reflecting on your wedding, what is it that you remember most?

Casey: It is so hard to specify a single thing I remember most about our wedding day. The absolute best part of getting married was creating a little island of people we love inside a castle in Italy where we could eat and drink together all night. But when I close my eyes and think back to the actual minutes of the day, I can still smell the peonies from my bouquet and the lemon trees that lined the aisle at Castello Vincigliata. I remember sneaking up to the balcony with Alex and dancing as the sun set over the hills of Fiesole, and I remember being surprised at the love I could feel for a single moment while listening to Molly’s service.

Alex: I remember the way everyone seemed so happy. We had gathered our closest friends and family in a really beautiful place to celebrate with us, and it felt like the happiest and best party I have ever been to. I also remember vividly standing in the sunshine waiting for Casey to come down the aisle and feeling nervous (because everyone was looking at me) but also calm because I knew this was exactly what I wanted to do.

2. If you could plan your wedding again, would you do anything differently?

Casey: There are three things I would have done differently. 1) I would not have waited more than a year and a half after our engagement to get married. Because Alex didn’t graduate until May of 2015, there was no break in time where we could take the kind of honeymoon we hoped to take. It turns out that you fill the time (no matter how much you have) with planning, but in reality a person could plan a wedding in a few weeks. 2) I would have rented out our room block at only one hotel so everyone was together. 3) I would have given more thought to the getting ready side of things on the day of the wedding. Hire professionals so everyone can sit back, relax, and feel pampered, and surround yourself with your very best friends and family during those precious hours.

Alex: I would pay more attention to the music. Our DJ was not so good, and ultimately we had to commandeer the music controls from him. Turns out that you cannot just trust the DJ to get it right, so it is worth taking the time to lay out what you want in detail.

3. What, if anything, did you do before your wedding that helped prepare you most for life after saying “I Do.”

Casey: Alex and I made sure to travel together as much as we could while we were dating. During those travels, we often found ourselves in uncomfortable or high pressure situations, so figuring out how to deal with that as a team was good preparation for marriage. Those trips usually meant we didn’t have cell phones with us, so we filled in the time with the “big picture” conversations that helped us figure out if we were compatible for the long term.

Alex: We planned out a really long honeymoon, so after we said “I do” we spent 3 months just relaxing, exploring, and having a good time together. The months leading up to the wedding can be unnecessarily stressful, so creating something to balance that out was the best thing we could have done.

4. What is it that you LOVE most about being married that all of those engaged couples can look forward to?

Casey: It’s so funny looking back, because on some level I found the concept of marriage pretty terrifying. I was worried that I might lose some of my identity as a strong and independent woman, and the opposite happened; I actually feel stronger and more like myself now that Alex and I are in this partnership together, and I love that. Also, waking up next to your best friend every single day is just the best.

Alex: Everyday start and end the day with my best friend, which means that I start off every single day happy. It is pretty incredible.

5. What advice would you give to an engaged couple who is currently planning their own wedding?

Casey: The day goes by in an instant. You spend months and months planning this thing, and then BAM – you feel like you’ve entered a time warp because eight hours felt like one. The details are important to an extent, but just be prepared to not get to see most of them. Use that image in your head to hone in on the most important things – what the officiant will say, how you will carve out a little time for just the two of you, and how you want to spend your time leading up to the ceremony. We only had 40 guests at our wedding, and I barely got to talk to everyone. With that in mind, make sure you have a gathering either before or after where you can spend time catching up with people so you don’t feel obligated to do the rounds during your wedding day.

Alex: You should have what you really want in your wedding, not what your friends have and not what your family thinks you need. Also if you think outside the box, you don’t have to break the bank to have a killer party.

6. Is there anything else that you would like to share with other engaged/newly married couples?

Casey: The things people mention when we talk about our wedding were things that I thought were small details. They remember the cake and the handwritten thank you notes I put at each place and the guest book I made with info about each person there. Two out of three of those things were practically free, so the amount of money you spend really has nothing to do with the impact your wedding will have on you, your family, or your friends. When you start feeling like you really need to spend $2000 more for the chairs you think will look prettier, try to remember that no one else remembers the details. What your guests will remember is a happy and in love couple and the promise of a happy life together. The rest is just background.

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We are so excited to start this year off with a Wedding Reflections Series on our blog from our 2015 Liz and Ryan couples! We understand that wedding planning can be hard and overwhelming… but we hope you never forget that all that really matters is that you are getting MARRIED! ;) That is so exciting! When wedding planning becomes stressful, please know that you are not alone and there are a lot of people out there (including us and our 2015 couples ;) ) who are cheering you on and want your marriage to start off on the right track! Please let us know how we can help make the start of your marriage AMAZING! ;)