Motivational Monday| Carly + Sean Wedding Planning Adventure in North Carolina @WeddingMix

Today’s Motivational Monday is written by stylin’ May bride-to-be Carly! While Carly and Sean are getting into  full swing of wedding planning and DIYing personalized details for their spring wedding, they are also giving pause to what’s truly important for the meaning of their marriage. 

What a beautiful and crazy journey wedding planning has been! I have loved every minute of it (mostly!)

Sean and I met in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I had just moved here for graduate school and he was working on his Ph.D. He showed me all around Chapel Hill on our first date, and I fell head over heels for him. I knew that we would get married when I realized how much we both loved adventures and showing each other the things we cared about.

We dated for 2 years before we started talking about getting engaged. I had decided to stay in Chapel Hill so that we could be together while he finished his Ph.D. I assumed that we would start the getting engaged process after he was done with his Ph.D- I was wrong! Last February, Sean and I went to my hometown to visit friends and family. While we were there, I went out to a bridal shower for my best friend; while I was gone he asked my dad if he could marry me. When I got in from the bridal shower, the dining room table was set and I assumed that it was because my grandmother was in from out of town. We put the food on the table, and right before we sat down Sean got down on one knee and proposed to me in front of my Dad, Step-mom and Grandmother. I was beyond surprised and so glad that my family was there with us.

Fast forward 1 year later- we are a little over 2 months away from our wedding! Wedding planning has been really fun, really stressful, and really humbling. For us, the biggest hurdle has been planning our wedding while Sean is finishing up his PhD and we are also planning a move to California shortly after! We are having a cultural hodge-podge, semi-DIY, urban, chic wedding. The DIY has been overwhelming, but I like knowing that the some of the little details are done with care and out of love for our friends and family that are traveling for us. We hand wrapped all of the invitations, built a chuppah, are working on beautifying a chandelier, and are doing our own centerpieces. My mom is helping with the place cards, the guest book, the table numbers and the invitations. To any bride that is DIY-ing I would definitely encourage you to give yourself plenty of time and have a backup plan!

 Wedding planning has forced Sean and I to step back and survey what is important to us about our relationship and what being married means to us. We recently wrote our own vows (which I would highly recommend to anyone considering it!). For me, this is when I realized that a lot of the things that you get caught up in during the wedding planning process are just minutia-in the end, we will be married (and that is awesome!). This planning experience would have not been as awesome without all of the help and support from our friends and family. My favorite thing about wedding planning has been realizing how many people in your life are on your side, and we feel like we are adding so much goodness and love to our lives through the combining of our families (and in becoming our own). Don’t get me wrong- wedding planning brings out the crazy in everyone, but it really is so good and so wonderful.

From the beginning, I wanted to enjoy every minute of it- and I have, and now I can’t wait to enjoy being married and embarking on more adventures together!

-Carly Shatten (Soon to be Mrs. Bailey!)