ALL of My Wedding Details (So Far)
This post is all about the details of mine & Luke’s wedding so far! Wedding planning has been so much fun, but it’s also quite a journey! I wanted to share all of the little details with you so that it can help you plan yours, or give you some ideas for the future! Or maybe you’re like me, & just love hearing about other people’s weddings lol! Either way, let’s get into the details of our wedding so far, & a quick timeline of our relationship —
TIMELINE
2019 — Luke & I met in Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh
2020 — We started officially dating in January
2021 — Bought a house & moved in together
2022 — Continued dating, traveling, etc. No big events happened this year
2023 — Luke surprised me, & we got engaged in April!
& in 2024 — We’re having a June wedding!
Overall Wedding Style
As for style, I’m definitely keeping it classic & elegant. I’m not going to be doing anything too trendy. Also for some reason I always imagined myself having an intimate wedding. I never wanted a big wedding with lots of people. It’s just always been my personal preference! I talked to Luke about it, & luckily he wanted the same thing! Having a smaller wedding gave us some unique options for venues — which leads to my next point:
Picking a Venue
After getting engaged, it’s insane how fast the wedding planning begins! & I wasn’t ready for it! As much as I love girly things and all of the cuteness that goes along with a wedding… I absolutely hate panning events. Like, if I have to coordinate an event, my anxiety goes through the roof! So when reality started to hit that I had to plan this whole wedding… I was starting to get really nervous. Luke was so supportive & told me it would all work out, & of course it did. I started looking at venues, & knew I needed a venue who would do everything for me.
Destination Wedding
So a destination wedding it is! After looking at what feels like a milllllion places, we decided to have our wedding at Excellence Resort in Punta Cana. I really love a tropical & beachy environment! I think it’s so stunning for a wedding. Having our wedding on a resort is absolutely perfect for me because the resort handles all of the details. Maybe I’m crazy, but I could seriously care less about having tons of options of napkins and chairs etc. like other venues have. I love that the resort package gives me a limited amount of options! It’s like — “yup white napkins & plates sounds good” lol!
Example: I had three different wedding cakes to choose from & I was SO happy with that!
Bridal Shower Planning
Before getting engaged, I 100% didn’t realize how early on you have to plan your shower! Bridal shower venues get booked up incredibly fast. Picking this venue wasn’t a hard decision for me because I knew I wanted to do a tea party shower for years & years. I go to the Inn on Negley in Shadyside every valentines day with my friends, & had the idea to do a bridal shower tea party a while back! However, the Johnston Tea House is a little more suited for showers & events, so after touring I decided to book with them! It’s a full circle moment for me because my grandma used to go to tea here all the time before she passed. I love that I’m having my shower at one of her favorite places!
Wedding Dress Shopping
I could talk about wedding dresses all day! I have an entire post on my wedding dress shopping here. I decided to do my shopping with my bridesmaid Lindsay (who lives in Michigan) at the boutique Norah’s Bridal! They had so many of the designers & styles that I love. I was also lucky enough to check out the anthropologie wedding dress sample sale that was in Pittsburgh this summer! I ended up finding a second dress to change into for our reception. I can’t wait to reveal it with you next year!!
Bridesmaid Proposal Boxes
I’ve already asked all of my girls to be my bridesmaids, & my sister Emma will be my maid of honor! I put a lot of thought into my bridesmaid proposal baskets & will do an entire post dedicated to that very soon! One of my bridesmaids lives in Italy, & is coming home at the end of September and she hasn’t recieved her box yet! I have to keep the details a secret until then lol
Wedding Website
I decided to make a wedding website to help our guests navagate all of the details of our destination wedding. I couldn’t decide between the knot or minted but I decided to go with minted because I Iiked the aesthetic of their websites more. I was able to add travel info, a question + answer section, and all of our guests can RSVP on the site. I love how it turned out & definitely recommend doing this!
Bridesmaid Dresses
I’m going to have the girls wear Jenny Yoo for sure! I love the style of her dresses, and there are a ton of different options. I’m still deciding on the color/colors!
Save The Date Cards
I used Artificat Uprising for our save the date cards & they turned out amazing. The quality of the paper is really luxe, and I love that the company is colorado based / USA made. This is the template I used for our cards if you want to do the same! I also have a promo code hannahhoney15 for 15% off of your order! They have a lot of different templates to choose from!
Photographer & Videographer
Being that we’re having a destination wedding, it definitely makes picking a photographer more difficult. I decided that we needed to find someone who is local to Punta Cana to cut our cost a bit. Other than that, we would have to fly someone there, & pay for their hotel etc. and that can get super costly! Punta Cana has a ton of talented photographers/videographers and I’ve been in communication with a few already. Now we just have to book someone for our date! Yay!
Final Thoughts
We’ve been engaged for 4 months, but it feels like it completely flew by! Wedding planning takes up a lot of time… even with all of the help from the resort! I know I still have so much more to do, but I wanted to keep you updated with everything I’ve done thus far! This is such an exciting time & I love sharing all of it with you! Make sure to follow along @dearhannahp to see more wedding details as we get closer to the big day!
