Love Doesn’t Have to be Dramatic for it to be Real with Bride Mercy

Bride to Have Been

Show Summary

In today’s world, trying to get married has become... a hot mess. So, to all the COVID brides to have been, grooms and wedding professionals: you’re not alone. Welcome to Bride To Have Been, a StudioPod original podcast hosted by Emily Lewis, with the purpose of building a community by sharing the reality of this new normal in the wedding industry. Let’s keep inspiring each other and celebrate the thing we treasure the most: love.

While so many brides have been scaling back their dream weddings because of COVID-19, Bride Mercy has been considering the opposite approach. From bold and dramatic elopement plans to a large wedding that includes input from her friends and family, Mercy’s perspective on what’s important has changed since the global pandemic hit. Having many friends who have lost loved ones to the deadly virus, Mercy says her wedding isn’t all about her and her groom anymore, but a chance to celebrate with the people they love the most. Still, despite vaccinations ramping up, the unknown-ness of the pandemic looms and Mercy and her fiance have yet to set a date.

Jump straight into:

(04:37) - Mercy on meeting her fiance Chad - “I never got the sense he liked me. In fact, even on our first date, I didn't think he liked me, but it turned out he liked me.”

(05:02) - How they complement each other - “We are so different. I walk into a room and I'm trying to talk to everyone and he's there to observe.”

(11:00) - Why Mercy may opt to not elope afterall - “The pandemic has just made us all super hungry for connection. I think what I'm sensing is everyone wants to be together, and our wedding could be that.”

(20:35) - On how Chad surprised Mercy with the proposal - “I had been waiting. I was like hyper vigilant. I was like looking for this. Okay. I was like looking for the signs and I missed it, which is so beautiful. Like he knows me well enough to surprise me. That's like really hard.”

(29:22) - Mercy on knowing when they’re the one - “I think everyone kind of knows earlier than they think, and some are just more upfront and some like it's top of mind or like back of the mind, but I feel like we all kind of know. I think we get that feeling earlier than we actually act on it.”

(30:22) - On planning their wedding - “I'm a really big believer in setting dates because everything gets figured out, but without urgency or commitment, it just doesn't.”

(32:38) - The real reason they feel pressure to get married - “I have an amazing soon to be mother-in-law and a wonderful mother who would both love grandkids, if I just call a spade a spade. And I actually don't think that the real pressure is about the wedding, it's ‘who doesn't want a grand baby.’”

(39:15) - On including her family in the wedding planning - “My mindset before this, it was all about me and Chad, what we wanted. I actually think this has shifted me a little bit to want to have them also involved in how we do it because I recognize how lucky I am to have them.”

Resources

Follow Mercy's French Bulldog on Instagram

Thanks for listening! Follow us on Instagram, don’t forget to use the #COVIDBrideTribe, and feel free to send us your COVID wedding stories. Bride To Have Been is a podcast brought to you by GiftPod and produced at StudioPod. Edits were made at Nodalab and music was produced by GaryOAKland. Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and share with all of your fellow brides.