If you’ve been engaged for a few months and are still having trouble deciding on a date, format, and/or wedding venue, then you will definitely relate to today’s show!

QUICK RECAP -

This year I’ve been sharing live wedding planning sessions with my sister Kate, who got engaged on Christmas Day of 2020.

It’s been an incredibly exciting and fun time, and a really fun project to share her planning process with you - totally unfiltered and in, more or less, real time.

If you’re new to the show or if you’ve missed these episodes, you can find them beginning in January of 2021, titled “BONUS, LIVE Wedding Planning Strategy Session”, there are 4 of them to-date.

In a nutshell, Kate & her fiance John have created a LOT of personal and financial freedom through their business that they run together.  They share a love of travel, family, & their friends, and it’s critically important to them that their top values of connection and intentionality remain front and center, integrated deeply within their wedding celebration. 

In other words? Spending as much quality time as possible with their closest friends & family is the most important element of their entire wedding plans. 

Over the past 7 months, Kate has remained open to any and every possible option in terms of how that actually plays out - that’s essentially the ongoing conversation that you’ll follow in Parts 1 - 4 of our planning strategy sessions. We literally go from coast-to-coast looking at various venue options, take it overseas with destination wedding scenarios, from a private chartered yacht to a wedding at their home in Puerto Rico. 

Now I know that not every couple has the same time & resources available to consider far flung venues and exotic wedding scenarios, but the undercurrent of indecision and uncertainty that Kate shares so openly is something that we can all relate to. 

Weddings have changed over the past year, and so has the way we think about them and plan them.  An event where all of your friends & family are in the same room was maybe taken for granted 3 years ago ... but today that takes on an all new meaning. 

Right now is a great opportunity to press pause and get intentional about exactly how you want to capture that moment, and one of the best ways to do that is to scrap everything you know, have seen, heard, or experienced about what a wedding from the past looked like. 

I’m not saying that this new way is EASY or QUICK - Kate’s been at it for 7 months, and still doesn’t have a venue or wedding date nailed down. But I can guarantee with absolute certainty that by not settling for the quick & easy traditional way, their wedding celebration will be packed full of meaning, intentional connection, and a moment in time that we will all remember forever.

And with that, today we’re going to continue the journey. In the first part of the show, I’ll be sharing a conversation between Kate and my husband John - I know, so many John’s - from our recent time together in Big Sur on the central coast of California. 

We camped together for a solid week under the redwoods, and I’m a firm believer in mother nature stripping away the noise and revealing the core essence of what’s important - with the help of John. 

And of course, stick around for the second half of the show for an update from Kate since that conversation, including detailed information on sending Save the Dates, bridesmaid proposal boxes, putting together a wedding website, & so much more!

Links & resources mentioned in today's episode:

• Don't miss a thing!  Sign up to receive show notes via email by visiting www.wedpodcast.com
• Learn more about the NEW WAY to plan your dream wedding celebration at www.alignedwedding.com
• BRIDESMAID PROPOSAL BOXES Blog Post

A special thank you to today's show sponsors for making this episode possible:

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