Happy Friday, friends!

This month has been good to me, and such a great start to the new year! I’ve photographed more weddings this month than I have any other January since I’ve started my business. Woo! If this isn’t any indication of how freakin’ amazing 2018 is going to be, than I don’t know what it is! 😉

Today, I’m doing something a bit different. You may have noticed that I’ve started a series of blog posts that are aimed at educating other photographers and creatives. Well, I’m also introducing a series educating brides on different wedding related topics! I’m super excited to start this. The great thing about these posts, is that they are made by brides for brides. I’m only here to introduce this post! Ha!

I photographed Kimberly and Jose’s small, intimate Summer wedding last June and I felt that her wedding perfectly embodied what intimate weddings are all about; family, close friends, and memories that last a lifetime.

Featured today, for our first installment of Bride Blogs is Kimberly!

1) Choose a number for the guest list you are comfortable with and stick to it. We asked ourselves, “How has this person invested in our relationship or in us as individuals?” Our guest list was a list of people we wanted to be a part of our marriage and joy… not because they deserved an invitation or someone else wanted to invite them.

2) We asked what is most important to us as a couple. For us, marriage and our wedding was about our covenant with God, and so that is what was most important to us, the ceremony and vows. Because of this, we started and shaped our wedding from there.

3) We also used the time of year as our theme. We were on a small budget, so we allowed the outdoors to give us a naturally beautiful wedding. We had our ceremony outside, in the summer, and so the flowers and garden were a perfect backdrop with minimal decorations needed. Also, having the ceremony in a small garden area made for an intimate ceremony, with just close friends and family. It felt so special, like it was just us and everyone we loved.

4) Since we only invited people who were most close to us, and loved us, we knew that anything we loved they would love too. So, we bought a cake that tasted great to us, rather than thinking about what would be most appealing to the most people. Because of this, our wedding was a reflection of us as a couple, down to the tiniest detail.

And finally…

The last tip is what my now husband and I have said to one another a million times in the process of wedding planning… The most important thing is that at the end of the day we are married. If that happen, then the wedding was a success and everything else is just details. We focused on what was most important and then everything else was just fun! It made the process so much easier, stress free, and a bonding time for my fiance and I.