Hi! I'm Taryn, a writer, designer and soon-to-be-bride from Atlanta, Georgia. Sit a spell with me and catch up as I plan the wedding of my beer-loving, confetti-throwing dreams to the wonderful Mr. Williford.A Fairy Tale Proposal at Walt Disney World
Did I say “Fairy Tale”? Because what I meant was… This is our “I completely ignored all the obvious signs that Roo was going to propose and somehow still managed to ruin his plan” story.
I grew up in Florida and have always been completely wrapped up in the magic of Disney. I have so many great memories of traveling to Walt Disney World for birthdays and family vacations, and during my university years my friends and I were all so close to WDW that we may have made a few day trips to Epcot.
That’s little me in the Mickey ears with my cousin. Gotta love 80’s hair.
But once I moved to Atlanta, I had a 4-year dry spell in the magic department and never made another trip back to the kingdom (or anywhere else inside those walls). Mr. Rooster knew this, of course, because of my incessant rambling about how much I wanted us to take a trip to Disney together. Every time there was a commercial, or a new Pixar movie, or even when somebody said “mouse,” I always mentioned how badly I was dying to take a trip there with him. You see, Roo has always thought Disney was “a kids thing,” and as a native Floridian and unofficial ambassador to Disney World, I had to prove him wrong.
WDW Hints
Eventually he realized I wasn’t going to stop nagging him felt really strongly about it, and for Christmas in 2012, Roo got me a 3-day ticket to the parks. We planned the trip for May 2013, and it just so happened to coincide with our 4-year dating anniversary. How perfect! I even was lucky enough to score some bonus park tickets through work. Enough, in fact, to invite my best friend (and future MOH) and her boyfriend to come along on our little vacation.
Did I mention how oblivious I was to this whole plan? Yes? OK. Let’s move on.
So May 15th rolls around, and Roo and I get up early in Atlanta on the morning of our 4th anniversary to start on the 6-hour drive to Walt Disney World.
We’ve done early morning road trips before, so I know the drill. We both convince ourselves we’re going to pack the night before, but then we just end up just watching TV and deciding we’ll get up early to finish packing before we head out on the road. Oh, and Rooster always wears sweatpants. Always. But on this, the morning of our 4th anniversary and the day we leave go to my favorite place in the world, he put on jeans. His good jeans, y’all.
I even noticed he had nice jeans on. I commented on it. And we both laughed. He said it was because we were stopping for lunch in Gainesville (my college town) on the way there. And I just shrugged and believed him. I decided I should put on real pants too.
…But the thing is we always stop in Gainesville for lunch when we drive to Florida. And he always wears sweatpants. See? Me = Oblivious.
Glee Wiki
So, fast forward: We get to Gainesville and pick a quick spot to order lunch from a counter so we can get back on the road to the happiest place on earth. As we’re eating, Roo casually mentions that we should go walk around the football stadium. “Ummmm…. why?” He says that maybe I could walk around and take some pictures. “Um…. I have lots of pictures of the stadium. And I really want to get to Disney World. So let’s just get on the road.”
Roo would later tell me that he planned to propose right there in that there stadium. Oops. We could have added, like, three glorious hours to our total engagement, but dumb old me had to go and squash his plan. Bummer.
Luna Bella Photography via Festive Finds
This could have been us!
Eventually we get to Orlando, and since I am an experienced Disney veteran, I have planned every single detail of our trip itinerary to maximize time in the parks (Extra Magic Hours, y’all) and to coordinate with our friends who are arriving in a couple days. The scheduled entertainment for the night of our arrival was to check in to the hotel, then immediately head out for dinner and drinks at Downtown Disney, since he’d never been there before.
Head out after we take a picture of our Towel Mickey on the hotel bed, of course.
At this point I want to mention that I noticed Mr. Rooster acting super weird the whole night on the way Downtown and as we’re there hanging out. First, he insisted on being on my right all night. He made me switch seats on the bus, and was super clumsy trying to always switch sides as we held hands walking around. Second, Roo was uncharacteristically curious about the whole place. He kept asking me what was down this way and that way, and insisted that we stroll along the quiet little lakefront instead of heading in for a pint and some nosh like I thought we would do.
He persisted in his efforts, despite me being completely obtuse, and spent a while checking out all the spots around Downtown Disney that he might decide to pop the question. There was even a hot air balloon set up when we went, which turned out to be another big clue that I completely ignored. Roo was all gung-ho about paying $20 apiece for 10 minutes in a balloon, and was seriously and genuinely disappointed when they told us it was grounded for the night due to high winds.
Disney
The balloon at Downtown Disney. How cool would that have been, right?
Eventually, he found a quiet gazebo off the main path lit up with string lights and got down on one knee. SPOILER ALERT: I said yes and we immediately celebrated with a pint at an Irish pub, toasting to our first vacation together as nearly-weds.
The spot.
The ring. More on that here.
Us celebrating a few days later with our friends and a glass of champagne from France in Epcot.
We also got some sweet swag for celebrating our big moment with Disney. If you’re celebrating anything like a birthday, family reunion or graduation at the Disney Parks, let somebody inside Guest Relations know and they’ll hook you up with a free Celebration Recognition button.
::TV COMMERCIAL FINE PRINT:: Possible side effects include getting your shirt caught in a roller coaster harness, and making every person around you compelled to say “congratulations.”
It was all so wonderful, and so so strange. Did I make note of the fact that my boyfriend of four years—that day—had planned a trip to my favorite place, dressed up from his usual garb and spent the whole night acting so weird? Yep. Did it ever even once pop into my head that me might be proposing, even after we’d been ring shopping together? Nope! But you know what? I’m so glad that I never caught on. Even though everything was stacked against it, the proposal still managed to remain a total surprise, just like we’d both wanted.
I’m telling you. It’s that Disney magic, y’all.
Planning a Wedding with Out-of-Town Guests
Our wedding is not a destination wedding. We’ve each lived in Atlanta for more than 5 years and have grown to call it home. We’re getting married at a venue that’s exactly 1.5 miles from our apartment. That’s so close, you guys. We could walk there in 30 minutes.
But for the vast majority of our guest list, Atlanta is a destination. One that requires, at minimum, one plane, two taxis and a few nights at a hotel. Let’s figure out how this happened using a Miss Hen and Mr. Rooster stick figure infographic:
I grew up in Miami and went to school in Gainesville (Go Gators!). Roo grew up in Brighton and went to school in Kalamazoo (Go Broncos!). On our 100-person guest list there’s a handful of friends we’ve met in Atlanta and a few respective hometown friends who have scattered around the country and the world, but a huge proportion of our guests will be traveling hundreds of miles from Florida or Michigan to be with us.
Not that our rowdy crew of friends and family are strangers to traveling for weddings. Roo and I have made treks to Michigan, Florida and everywhere in between for our friends’ nuptuals before.
In Brighton, Michigan at Roo’s friend’s wedding.
Yours truly getting glam as a bridesmaid in Lake Mary, Florida.
Roo (far right) with the rest of the groomsmen at his own future groomsman’s wedding in East Lansing, Michigan.
The wedding party (me on the far left) at a friend’s bash in Clearwater, Florida.
As experienced out-of-town guests, I feel like we have a good grip on what we need to do to make our own out-of-town wedding guests comfortable during our wedding weekend. It’s impacted a lot of our planning, and added some unique struggles:
- Hotels: Arranging for hotel blocks is an even more important wedding task when you know the properties you choose are going to be the home base for the majority of your guests for the weekend. We chose two hotels in the same neighborhood to give guests options, and we’ve kept in mind things like transportation and walkability when organizing events around the wedding like…
- Host a Meet & Greet: In a previous post, I talked about our not-rehearsal dinner. With so many out-of-town guests, it would have been impossible to host everyone at another formal (or even semi-formal) dinner the night before the wedding on our budget. Instead, we’ve reserved a room and some snacks at a bar and grill closeby and our guests are all welcome to join and mingle.
- Getting Info Out Early: In our experience, as soon as we set the date, lots of our guests wanted to set up their travel and lodging right away. We planned on arranging hotel blocks and setting up a wedding website with travel details, but we definitely didn’t have it ready a year out from our date when we booked the venue. Even though conventional advice suggests sending out Save-the-Date announcements and details six months out from the wedding, we’re doing it a bit sooner for the early birds to make travel arrangements.
- “The Ratio”: Every former bride and vendor has told me, “You’ll usually get a 75% acceptance rate from your invited guests.” But I just. Dont. Know. There’s too many variables. Out-of-town guests are less likely to come, right? But our 100-person invite list is actually a really tight group for us (Roo comes from a big family), and is pretty much all VVIP’s. Skimming our invite list, we can’t pick out anyone who will for sure send back a “no.” We’re using a ballpark of 90 final guests (we’ll expand our list to include ‘B’ guests if we do stay true to the 75% rule), but I’m eager to report back after the wedding with our actual acceptance rate.
It might seem like a lot of trouble, but we’re happy to do it all. Like I said, our guests are all VVIPs and a huge priority for our day is to make sure they have a good time. Are there any other challenges or considerations for out-of-town guests that I’m forgetting? The goal is a weekend full of endless fun and hospitality.
A Not-Fall Fall Wedding
Mr. Rooster and I kind of fell backwards into having a fall wedding. In my pre-engagement understanding of wedding planning, I knew that having your heart set on a specific date and a specific venue can end in heartbreak. Because having a cool space was most important to us, I never thought we’d find ourselves in the position to just pick our wedding date out of the blue. But we did. Since we started planning pretty early in what we wanted to be a long engagement, our chosen venue was wide open in their availability.
We decided on October because it’s typically the dryest month in Atlanta (and the brewery is partially outdoors). And we picked the 11th because it’s right on the cusp of when it starts to get chilly (10-11 is just a cool date). It’s also Rooster’s best man’s anniversary, coincidentally, but he and his wife gave us their blessing before we signed any contracts (bridal ettiquette and all).
But here’s the thing, y’all: I’m so not “Miss Pumpkin Spice,” and I really don’t like fall colors. If I were ever chosen as a pinup in a calendar, I’d be winter, or maybe even summer. But definitely not fall. So our fall wedding isn’t going to be a fall wedding at all. When developing a style and color palette, I kept going back to bold neutrals with pops of bright color.
Jackie Wonders via Ruffled
Photo Love
Invitation Suite by Bash, Please, shot by EP Love via 100 Layer Cake
But some colors that I liked in other wedding palettes just seemed wrong for a fall fete. I know it doesn’t matter, and that I can have a pastel and neon wedding if I want to, but the truth is that I do want to be at least a little apropos for the season. Not all “Next on TLC: David Tutera’s X-treme Fall Pumpkin Wedding,” but you know, not pastel either.
Throwing another wrench into my wedding style plan was our venue. I love our venue. It’s totally got the vibe I want. But there’s a lot going on inside and outside the space, color-wise, that I feel like our wedding needs to harmonize with. Bright red benches, yellow walls, lots of mismatched furniture in colors like emerald and teal and silver. I wanted to play off that palette, without imitating it. Easier said than done.
Monday Night Brewing
So I struggled with choosing a color palette for a long time. When people asked me “What are your colors?” (and they do, oh they do!), I never committed.
That strategy of total avoidance worked for a while, until I realized that we were quickly approaching the part of our timeline when I needed to send out Save-the-Dates. As a graphic designer, I wanted to be hands-on with our paper products and design everything from scratch. Bespoke and totally custom. But without a color palette or defined style plan for the day, I didn’t know where to start.
Here’s a little secret: Coming from a professional creative person, when you don’t know where to start on a project, it’s best to just start. Just do it. Wake up one morning and decide to get your hands wet and begin. So I did. I started designing our Save the Dates without knowing what I wanted it to look like or what colors or patterns I should use.
And you know what? It worked. It’s impossible for me to explain my process, but when I allowed myself time to just sit down and play with different visual elements (including lots of photos of our venue and some weddings I liked), I found something that worked. It was bold, modern and true to fall, in its own way.
I’ll write more about our Save-the-Dates (and those stickers I’m so excited about!) in another post once we’ve got them all polished up and sent out. For now, I’m just happy to have made some progress toward deciding on a wedding style that’s true to season, fits our venue and is totally our style.
Look at us. Look at us!
I’m so not a “look at me!” person. I prefer to keep private. Mostly private, at least. I’ll share Instagram photos of every meal all day long, but when it comes to pictures of me? I’m not overly into sharing. Rarely will you get a selfie out of this girl.
Still, I really like our engagement pictures, and I’ve been looking for places where I can display them without being cheesy. I mean, Roo looks so handsome! Why wouldn’t I want to keep his face around? And some of our photos are just beautifully composed and something I would hang up no matter who was in them.
So we put one on the wall of our living room. And I put my favorite shot of Roo on my desk. It’s not that I want to be surrounded by pictures of myself. I just like having cool personal art hanging on our wall, and pictures of my fiancé on my desk. I just happen to be the other creature in this picture (instead of our dog, Bacon).
At this stage in wedding planning, our engagement photos are one of the most tangible things about our nuptuals. It’s something physical I can keep around me to remind me of our big day and keep me excited and motivated. Especially when I eat PB&J for lunch at work for the thousandth time in the name of “saving money for the wedding.”
Is it cheesy to display your engagement photos? I hope not.
Goofballs Getting Comfortable in Front of the Camera
To say I was excited about shooting our engagement photos is a bit of an understatement. I was eager to work with our wedding photographer, for one thing. Plus, I knew that I couldn’t wrap up our wedding website or save-the-dates until I had these photos in hand, since I wanted to use them in both places. So together with our wedding photographer, Paige Jones, we set a date for the shoot.
(Side note: I’m glad I started on both the wedsite and save-the-dates before we shot our e-pics, since it gave me some insight into the types of photos we would need. Specifically, I built a spot into our wedsite where we’d put solo photos, so I made sure we shot some individual portraits.)
We chatted a bit with Paige over email to decide on where might be a good spot for photos—something urban and a little gritty—and eventually settled on the Westside Provisions District. It’s a shopping, restaurant and entertainment district in the West Midtown neighborhood of Atlanta, conveniently located less than a mile from our apartment. We’ve been known to walk down here for dinner, drinks or just a bite of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams (SO GOOD), so it seemed like a good spot to shoot our e-pics.
I’d recommend Westside Provisions for any Atlanta-area brides looking for a fun spot to shoot wedding or engagement photos. Paige got a lot of great shots and really liked all of the unique walls and angles for photos. Plus there’s lots of cool architecture around.
I love our pictures, but most of all, I loved the experience. Paige is crazy talented both as an artist and a director (you can check out her post about our session for more shots). She gave us great direction as we posed, and had tricks for getting shots of genuine smiles and laughter. Getting a sense of how a photographer directs a shoot is difficult to do without actually working with them. If you’re meeting with photographers, I would try to ask questions to get a feel for how they would lead you in posing for photos. Our families commented on how “real” these pictures look, which is probably my favorite thing about them.
If this engagement session is any indication, I think we’ll have an incredible time on our wedding day with awesome photos to prove it. Anyone who is on the fence about an e-shoot should definitely go for it, as it’s a great way to get comfortable in front of the camera and to get a feel for how your photographer works. Oh, and you get pretty pictures, too. Icing on the cake, right?
How was your e-shoot experience?
