We have a special guest on the podcast today! Newlywed Rebecca Levine is one of Sara and Dan’s 2022 brides, and she is here to share her experience. As a bride who planned a wedding in her hometown while living states away, Rebecca shares her biggest tips for couples doing the same. If she had to do it all over again, what would she change? Honestly, not too much! So tune in to hear what she feels she did correctly to have such a lovely brunch wedding! This laid-back bride shares how planning ahead, trusting her vendors, and setting her priorities from the get-go helped her truly enjoy her big day!
We’re so excited to have you! Meet Rebecca.
I got married in August 2022 and we got married at Blithewold Mansion in Bristol. Our wedding was amazing and Dan did an amazing job for us. We had about 110 guests. It was such a great day and I’m excited to talk about it all today.
Yes, that’s exactly why Dan, and I had you on today. For the listeners. Rebecca, as she said, is one of our past lovely brides who got married last year. We just wanted to bring her on and just share with you tips and tricks.
So with that said, let’s just get right into it. Rebecca, I just want you to kind of just tell us about your day. Like if you had to do this all over again: is there anything that you just loved or something that you regret?
I guess we’ll start with the regret, which is only one we had. We had a wonderful day. The staff at our venue were wonderful. They were really on top of things. They were full service; they did all of the coordination. We had a Jewish wedding, with a Ketubah signing. They said to us that they could hang it during the ceremony using a board and some clips so it wouldn’t get ruined. It just showed us their attention to detail. We didn’t have to hire any other coordinators because they did it for us.
I think the only negative thing was that my parents live a couple of miles from the venue. We had a brunch wedding, starting at 11:00am. So, we were getting our hair done at 6am at my parents’ house. I actually managed to forget my jewelry so we had to try and turn around for that. It actually broke when we were in the car and my mom wound up giving me her necklace – that was my grandmother’s. It was disappointing that the look I wanted didn’t work but it was special to have that moment with my mother with my grandmother’s jewelry.
That turned into your something borrowed – so that’s a happy little moment. Was that the only negative thing from your wedding day?
Yeah, the weather turned out perfect. It was in the 80s. We thought it was going to rain, but it didn’t. We really did have a wonderful day – everyone just had a lot of fun. The vibe was really inclusive and casual. We didn’t want a formal wedding – that’s not our style. We just felt like it really, really was our own.
I mean, honestly, that’s, you couldn’t have asked for anything better. Ultimately, there’s a lot of pageantry when it comes to a wedding. And there’s a lot of personalities and a lot of things happening. So, the fact that you checked every box for yourselves is great. What was your big positive, or thing that set you up for such a successful and wonderful wedding?
I think the biggest thing that set me up for success was trusting my vendors. As I mentioned, our venue was a pretty full-service venue, and the caterer went along with the venue. When we were planning, we knew we wanted a live band, too. It was amazing to have the live music and it added to the vibe. We only chatted with them briefly before the wedding day and gave them a few songs we liked. The leader said he got it and I remember my husband asking me if I thought he really did get it. But, I did. I trusted that he knew what we were asking.
The other thing was our florist. I told them I didn’t want a typical bouquet. I wanted purple flowers and that was it. Here’s the number of centerpieces and we want them small so that they aren’t blocking people’s faces. We gave such minimal guidelines. But they wound up seriously amazing and were so easy to work with. Our vendors really took a lot of stress off us. We didn’t feel like we had to micromanage any of them. We got to defer to you and let you do what you do best.
I’m listening to you and getting so excited because this is why we loved working with you. You have to trust your gut and hire the right people. There are people out there who micromanage and that’s okay, too. But ultimately, if you’re hiring the right professionals, and they’ve been doing this every weekend for a while, it’s okay to put your faith in them.
Yeah, 100%. And one of the other things that really helped us with our photographs was we looking at wedding photos from our venue in advance. I live in Maryland now, not Rhode Island, so I didn’t have the option of trekking over to look around. Instead, I looked at photos online to really understand the different spaces at the venue that might work for us. We talked to Dan about those spots – what if we went down to the water after the ceremony or whatever. So, I think looking ahead like that helped me know what was a good fit for us. Especially if you’re not in state and you’re not able to look at the venue in person in the same way that you might have if you were close by.
Absolutely. And that’s why we have couples fill out their information sheets and speak with us. It allows us to understand what’s important to you and what you want or need.
Yeah. And I think for us, it was like, how do we get to the dance floor the fastest? You know, people are going to eat, but we didn’t want them to spend a large amount of time sitting and eating and kind of staring at each other. That wasn’t our preference. We really wanted to have fun with people and get to be with them. I think that’s what we got to do. So, we were really happy about that.
I love it. There’s something I wanted to tell you. You did something for us that we’ll always remember. You wrote us a thank you note – and it meant so much to us. It was so simple and it went a long way for us.
It was very important to us to thank our vendors. Somehow, by the grace of something, we got our thank you notes out within a month of the wedding – to our guests. I wrote them as gifts arrived. But, it was important to us. Sharing our time with everyone – guests and vendors – mattered to us. The fact that everyone came to support us mattered to us. And for us, photos were such a high priority because we love photos in my family. We specifically got so many compliments on Dan – people loved him, didn’t find him intrusive or like he was in the way. I think that was amazing and everything just flowed so well together.
So, it sounds like you had a pretty good day overall. What would you do differently if you did it all over again?
As I mentioned before, we live out of state and had to travel to get to my wedding. I decided that I wanted to buy my dress in Rhode Island or Massachusetts. And that was great. I had a great experience, I got to go with my mom and, and we had a great time. The downside was that being from out of state, there are two options to buy your dress. First is to buy where you live. That makes things like alterations easier. But then you have to transport it to where you’re getting married. The other option is to buy where you’re getting married. The upside is you don’t have to transport it at all. The problem was that I had to go back and forth for alterations. I was booking plane tickets every two weeks near the end of alterations. It was pretty tricky. I could have talked to the tailor about it and tried to better understand when they’d need me back. I had a great time working with them – I had a great tailor – but it was taxing to travel so much.
And like you said, there’s pros and cons – you just have to figure out what’s right for you.
Exactly. We just got creative about some of the scheduling, too. We did our big tasting with Blackstone Caterers in February with everyone who was getting married around the time we were. So we planned our cake tasting on the same weekend. We brought our fat pants and knew we’d be eating a lot, ha! I did my hair and makeup trial at the same place. We actually did that the week of the wedding, which felt a little close. But they handled it well and it worked out for me travel-wise. I came in the week ahead of the wedding so I had a cushion to prepare anything I had left, like place cards and gift bags. So like you said, it’s just packing your different needs in a way that works for you.
You just brought up so many things that can’t necessarily be done beforehand. I know so many people want to tie things up in a little bow months before the wedding, but you really can’t. There’s so many things that change and moving variables. As an out of state bride, did you delegate tasks to anyone else?
So, I listened to your podcast with Jenna recently, and I was so impressed with her organization. She talks about how she had binders for every day and a timeline. I don’t have that talent. For me, being out of town, it was important to have someone who could act as a point person throughout my planning. For us, it was my mom. I think having someone I trust to act, go to meetings, and make decisions on your behalf (not necessarily without consultation!) is really helpful. Being out of state, there’s just some things that are harder for you to make decisions on and you need a partner to help with that. We realized pretty quickly that we were going to need help. Some vendors just weren’t responsive, and it created a challenge for us. So, my mom was able to meet in person with some of the vendors and help us nail them down, especially since vendors were booking so quickly in 2022.
I honestly don’t think it’s slowed down that much since then!
As we got engaged, we started looking at venues just right off the bat, because things were full. And by the end, we knew we wanted a Sunday wedding. We wanted a brunch wedding so people could travel. We really tried to make our wedding about our guests, too. Again, the downside was that we started getting our hair done at 6am. But it allowed us and our guests to travel in and we were just really happy about that.
And with it being a morning wedding, I’m sure that lends itself to some savings too.
Yeah, 100%. A lot of venues are cheaper on Sundays. Anyway, we chose to have Sunday brunch, and it was a vegetarian brunch. That was cheaper, too. The venue also keeps the grounds open to the public on Sundays, which meant our cost was cheaper. And we only ran into someone that wasn’t related to the wedding once? But it kept our cost down and honestly, it was fun.
Wrap-Up Question
What are some key points that couples should be thinking about when planning their wedding to ensure that they are going to have an absolutely perfect event?
Put together everything you will need for the day ahead of time. You’ll be in a rush, no matter what you think. You don’t want to leave anything behind.
Plan for your dress alterations in advance. Talk to your tailor about the schedule in advance and determine if you need to travel or just take time off work. Whatever will make the most sense for you.
Really trust your vendors. They do this day in and day out. I’ve only planned one wedding. So, it was a huge benefit to hear from them and let them show off what they do best.
What We Discussed
Meet Rebecca (1:40)
Rebecca’s takeaways from the wedding day (5:40)
Know what’s important for yourselves (15:27)
Thanking vendors and guests (19:40)
Wrap-Up Question (41:26)
Links Mentioned in the Episode
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