I’ll admit, these steps in our wedding planning process took place a couple weeks ago. I’ve been having some difficulty finding time to blog lately; I guess as I’m getting deeper into my novel I’ve been prioritizing that in an effort to ensure that I’m writing a little bit every day. But I love blogging and sharing here. So without further ado, some more of the progress we’ve made with wedding planning!

In a past wedding planning post, I talked about the necessity of finding a photographer that could do an engagement shoot with us almost immediately so we would be able to send out save-the-dates six months before the wedding. We had that shoot a couple weeks ago, and if anyone out there is trying to decide whether to have an engagement shoot, I would strongly recommend it. Yes you’ll have professional photos to use for your save-the-dates and other wedding-related things, which is great, but it also gives you the chance to hang out with your photographer for a bit. As a friend who got married last  year put it to us, your photographer is going to be right next to you for basically the entire day of your wedding, so if you don’t like him or her as a person it can get awkward. Fortunately, we had a great time with Kristen, our photographer, and after seeing the photos, like the ones below, I’m really excited to work with her on our wedding day.

The next step that was recently conquered was bridesmaids dresses. Where I was a bit nervous ahead of shopping for a wedding dress for myself, I didn’t have those nerves ahead of this trip, frankly because I wasn’t the one doing the trying on. I knew I would have a say, but I wanted to be sure that the dress we picked was one that everyone felt comfortable and beautiful in. We started our search at BHLDN, Anthropologie’s bridal line. I had high hopes for these dresses; there were a few that I really liked when looking online. However, during our appointment, we quickly realized that the options there are quite limited to variations on two basic styles and neither of those styles worked for us. Plus, at the location we went to, they didn’t let bridesmaids appointments use the BHLDN dressing rooms, so we were in the regular ones. Not quite the special experience we were hoping for. But for our second appointment, at Bella Sera Bridal in Danvers, Mass, that all changed. This was a bridal salon, with many more options in many more colors. And there was space! We had a lot of fun (at least I had fun, I hope they did too!) trying on dresses and swapping the ones they liked until we landed on one that I am really happy with in the color I was picturing in my head. Bridesmaids dresses: check!

The last thing we took care of on this planning trip was a visit to a florist. I know next to nothing about flowers, so I was looking for someone who could take my general ideas for what I wanted and run with them, and also someone with a more rustic, laid back aesthetic. It just so happened that on our trip to look at venues, we saw a florist setting up a wedding at one of the venues we saw on Saturday and then we saw her again at Harbor Lights on Sunday. We liked her stuff so we said hello and got her contact info then went to meet her at her shop last month. I think going to meet a florist at his or her shop can be really helpful; I really liked everything she had in there, and it gave me confidence that she would be able to deliver exactly what we wanted. I did do a bit of research after our meeting to figure out if there was anything we could do ourselves that might bring the price down a bit, but then we happily put down a deposit with Erin at A Touch of Vermont Florist in Cranston, Rhode Island. Flowers: check!

There has definitely been a lot happening on the wedding front lately. Even so, I feel pretty good about where we are with the planning, and it’s really starting to feel like it’s coming together. And all of a sudden, our wedding is less than six months away!