Please RSVP, I Promise I Won't Cuss With Bride Roma Bride To Have Been podcast

34:46

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Three and a Half Years and Four Wedding Dates Later with Bride Erin 35:06

4 years ago35:06

35:06

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. The house can wait and the business stuff can be figured out later, but the memories? That’s what bride Erin and her fiance Kory decided was most important to them. When Erin sat down with host Emily Lewis to trade wedding stories, she said she had to do a lot of soul searching to figure out what she really wanted, and in the end, it was the big wedding with a large guest list. So the couple decided to push their wedding date back a fourth and final time to August 2022, three and a half years after the couple got engaged and two years after their original wedding date, to a time when they hope gathering and celebrating in large groups will feel safe again. Jump straight into: (07:41) - Erin and Kory’s proposal story - “So we walk over to the Palace of Fine Arts and as we walk in, I'm hearing music, like a string quartet playing, and I start kind of singing along. I'm like, ‘Oh, I know this song.’” (11:48) - On finding a venue early on - “I actually only really looked at one venue, the Bel-Air Bay Club, in the Palisades, and I just fell in love with it.” (12:52) - How Erin reacted to shelter-in place orders due to COVID - “I'm like, ‘Oh God, Oh God, this is not good. I need a backup plan.’” (15:29) - Moving their wedding date back a second time - “I started to go through this process again, reach out to the venue, find out if there are any backup dates, and then at that time they didn't have anything for the rest of 2021.” (21:49) - Deciding to wait another year to have her dream wedding - “I don't know if it's an unpopular opinion or what, maybe it's not practical and maybe it's just like indulgent. I don't know, but it's what I want.” (24:10) - On having to find new vendors for their 4th wedding date - “I need to do a new hair and makeup trial anyway, because I'll be a whole different person three years later. Probably need a lot more help by then.” (25:18) - Being resilient after moving her wedding four times - “I really hardly cried about it. I was just very matter of fact, like, this is what it is. This is what we do.” (32:22) - Trying to brighten other COVID couple’s day - “So what I'm doing in my area is offering any COVID brides and grooms discounts on Invisalign, whitening, braces, whatever they want to get them ready for the wedding.” Resources Follow Erin on Instagram Book dental treatments with Walker Orthodontics Book the Bel-Air Bay Club in Pacific Palisades Listen to Emily’s interview with Wedding Planner Jane Gerwin Book a wedding package at JaneAlexandra Events 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.…

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The Wedding Industry is Made of Small Businesses with Floral Designer Marie 31:35

4 years ago31:35

31:35

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. From social worker to full time floral designer, Marie Crick was set to have a good year in 2020. But by the time the year was over she had lost half of her weddings. Still, when Bride to Have Been host Emily Lewis sat down with Marie to talk about her experiences navigating the pandemic, her concerns seemed to lie more with her brides. “We all got our fairytale weddings, and they just got screwed,” Crick told Lewis. She also noted that her clients really took her situation into account over the last year, going out of their way to support her and other small businesses. Meanwhile she found ways to pivot her business, focusing on a video series for couples looking to make their own flower arrangements and shifting her energy into individual flower deliveries. Still, as Marie says, it’s been a stay afloat kind of year . Jump straight into: (02:49) - On how Marie got into floral design - “I was working as a social worker with foster kids, and as you can imagine, it was just a little bit of a stressful job. And so I used flowers at the time as a hobby, and they were kind of a healing modality for me.” (04:48) - Trying to become a full time florist - “I was just finding flower shops and trying to apply, and they weren't impressed with my portfolio.” (12:40) - The trouble with Pinterest boards - “Sometimes I get Pinterest boards from brides and I'm like, that's not a real flower and that's not a real flower and that's been painted and that has a humongous filter on it from the photographer. That's not what it'll actually look like.” (17:17) - Marie’s initial response to shelter in place orders - “I had a bride call me in probably April about her September wedding, and I just thought she was goofy.” (24:37) - Feeling empathy for COVID Brides - “I remember my wedding a few years ago and it was so much work just for one wedding that actually did happen the way that I thought it was going to.” (28:55) - A little silver lining - “Some couples are delighted that COVID happened because it's their excuse not to invite aunt Betsy who drives them up the wall.” Resources Follow Laurel and Vine on Instagram Learn more about Marie’s Wedding Flower Academy Follow wedding photographer Regina K. Popova 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.…

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Redesigning a Tropical Wedding with Bride Llanée 36:27

4 years ago36:27

36:27

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Can I have my Wedding and other COVID Questions We Can’t Answer with Christen Monise 38:34

4 years ago38:34

38:34

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. Christen Monise was tasked with helping hundreds of couples who had booked their big wedding days at Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo, California to scale down or postpone their weddings. “The number one question I get is usually related to if they can or can't have their wedding or what that's going to look like, and I wish I could give people the answer. I wish I had a crystal ball,” Monise told Bride To Have Been host Emily Lewis on the podcast. “I’m just a catering girl at a country club.” Monise and her now husband also had to navigate their own nuptials during COVID and managed to stay positive throughout. While it was difficult not to sweat the small stuff, Monise said the micro wedding they opted for exceeded their expectations and they’re looking forward to celebrating their one year anniversary with a slightly expanded guest list. Jump straight into: (04:40) - How Christen’s husband proposed at Disneyland - “He proposed and right after I said yes and we were hugging or kissing, I hear this woman screaming from far away and like clapping and cheering. And I look around and I'm just like, ‘Oh look, we have fans.’ You know, people like saw us. And then I realized who was screaming and it was my mom.” (08:56) - Planning their wedding during COVID - “Three days after I sent out my wedding invitations is when I found out the Santa Barbara courthouse stopped doing ceremonies.” (12:23) - The Wedding Plan B - “I thought it'd be kind of funny if we read our vows again and just kind of did like a checkup to see how we built out the first year of all these like lofty promises we've made.” (14:08) - Christen reflecting on the most difficult part of getting married during the pandemic - “Not sweating the small stuff was probably the hardest part because you get very emotionally attached to like the flowers that you pick out and the vision that's in your head.” (15:33) - Remaining a team during wedding planning - “This was definitely a first good test for our communication and navigating uncertainty and just collaborating.” (18:20) - On 2020 being set to be a huge year for events - “People just have this superstition almost as far as repeating numbers or even numbers and stuff like that. So it was definitely supposed to be a record year for all kinds of functions.” (33:04) - The biggest questions Christen deals with as a coordinator at a wedding venue - “The number one question I get is, ‘Can I have my wedding?’” (33:55) - On trying to be sensitive to what people are going through - “I try not to do a lot of these tough questions on email because I want them to hear my sincerity and I want to try and convey my positivity.” (34:58) - The direction Christen sees the wedding industry heading in - “Up until the pandemic hit a lot of people would invite like 100 to 200 people, and you think about your circle and who's important to you, and then you get carried away with their plus ones and then you invite all your coworkers, and the next thing you know it kind of turns into this runaway train.” Resources See Spanish Hills 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.…

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Is There Going to be Dancing with Bride Jenna 36:31

4 years ago36:31

36:31

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. What’s one more year? That’s a question it took bride Jenna a minute to get comfortable with considering she and her fiance had already been together for eight years when they finally got engaged. But after thinking it over and knowing it was important to wait for a time when she and her fiance Zach could celebrate with their large families over an entire weekend at a “rustic nautical” destination wedding in Saint Michaels, Maryland, Jenna made the call last April to move their August 2020 wedding back an entire year so they could stick to their grand plans. A year later, they’re still not sure what their new wedding date will look like or if guests will even be allowed to dance. The only thing they know for sure is that there will be all the crab and lobster a person could eat. 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. Jump straight into: (07:57) - Jenna on when she knew Zach was the one - “I honestly knew right away. I know that's so cheesy but this felt so different from any other relationship I've ever been in, and I was like, ‘What's happening right now? What is this feeling?’” (09:02) - On Zach proposing after eight years of dating - “It became kind of like a joke of like, ‘Zach, when are you going to propose?’” (11:38) - The proposal - “When I came home, I walked into a candlelit room with a PowerPoint of all the eight years of photos of us, and then at the very end, it said, ‘Will you marry me?’” (22:05) - On postponing their wedding early on - “I was like, ‘I am not losing all of these vendors and it's not getting better.’ And so I switched it and my sister thought it was so early on, ‘You're being ridiculous.’ But I was right.” (25:34) - Finding the perfect wedding dress - “I'm definitely not one of those ‘say yes to the dress’ girls.” (27:31) - The hardest part of planning a wedding during the pandemic - “The lack of being excited about it is stressful to me. I wish that I could be excited about it, and I guess as it gets closer I will be. But I am just so emotionally drained about it.” (28:05) - All of the things that are still unknown - “I can't envision the day without it being like, ‘Are people coming? Are there masks? Is it going to get canceled? Is it going to be small? Is there going to be dancing?’” (32:55) - Not feeling like she can talk about moving her wedding - “I also don't want to make anyone feel bad and thinking like my problems are so big when people are dying and losing jobs and all sorts of things. So I feel like this kind of weird balance.” (34:45) - What Jenna has learned over the past year - “Things don't have to go as perfect as your Pinterest board pictures them to go, and that's okay.”…

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The Plan Changed Every Day with Bride Rachel 26:38

4 years ago26:38

26:38

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Tough Conversation After Tough Conversation with Wedding Photographers Lyndsi & Geoff 55:25

4 years ago55:25

55:25

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. It has been a tough year for wedding photography team Geoff and Lyndsi, but they won’t tell you that. Aside from raising a growing toddler with one more kiddo on the way and losing months of income due to COVID, this husband and wife duo prefer to focus on the silver linings and helping their clients navigate the pandemic as they’ve had to reschedule, scale back and even cancel their weddings. And while Lyndsi and Geoff are looking forward to a time when things get back to normal, they say they hope everyone’s new priorities stick and that intimacy and authenticity become staples in the wedding industry. Jump straight into: (02:42) - How Lyndsi and Geoff met - “The romantic version is we were both ocean lifeguards, or we were at the time, so the romantic version is that we met on the beach. Very Baywatch.” (03:49) - About their first date and early dating days - “Our first date was actually scuba diving. Yeah, she took me down pretty deep.” (07:45) - On Geoff starting to shoot weddings after finishing college - “It's so funny to me to think about like a young 20 year old male shooting weddings. Yeah. I mean, I really didn't have any idea what I was doing.” (20:15) - What it was like for the couple when COVID hit - “Our first postponement was April 10th, and it's crazy to think back on that time, because it was just, it was so unknown and so scary and people just, no one had any idea what the heck was going on. And it was just bad news after bad news, after like tough conversation after tough conversation. It was just, it was wild. It was a wild time.” (33:01) - How it felt helping their clients - “You're just seeing all these weddings postpone. I have to admit it kind of takes the wind out of your sails.” (36:50) - Focusing on the positives - “A big silver lining of this year: It has been this forced balance. And I think that that is such a transition, going from being like doing life at warp speed.” (40:42) - How Geoff and Lyndsi want to see the wedding industry change in the future - “The intimacy of not having to worry about all these extra things and all these extra people, you know, there's just something really special about that. I've never heard anyone say they wish they had a bigger wedding.” Resources Book with Geoff & Lyndsi Photography Follow Geoff & Lyndsi Photography on Instagram Learn more about Mean Girls Day See Unique Floral Designs for yourselves! 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.…

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Everyone Deserves to Have that Moment with Bride Brittany 29:49

4 years ago29:49

29:49

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. Brittany and her fiancé Sam knew they wanted to have a flashy destination wedding in Jamaica where her dad grew up and she still has lots of family. So when the couple got engaged in 2019, they decided to set their date for March 2021 giving their friends and family extra notice and ample time to save for their snazzy Caribbean nuptials. And while the couple still plans to keep their original date, it's anyone’s guess how the day will actually go as travel bans and local regulations have kept this couple on their toes and wondering how many of their guests will actually be able to attend safely and comfortably. Jump straight into: (02:53) - How Brittany and Sam met - “We just hit it off. Next thing you know, we had another date the following week that actually ended up being about five dates in one, and we really just kept seeing each other until I moved back to Boston.” (03:57) - Getting engaged after dating long distance - “Sam and I like to joke that long distance probably put like an extra, I don't know, five, ten years on our relationship. People say, ‘Wow, you guys got engaged super fast.’ And we're like, ‘Yeah. Try doing long distance, California, Boston.’” (05:42) - How Sam proposed - “We're sitting on the beach and Sam is saying the most beautiful things, and next thing I know, he's like, ‘Can you stand up?’ And he gets down on one knee and I'm just like, ‘What's happening? What are you doing?’ That's like, literally what I said is, ‘What are you doing?’ And he proposed.” (19:51) - Who is planning to attend their destination wedding in March 2021 - “My parents are planning to go regardless, but that also adds another layer because I feel a sense of guilt in a way.” (21:51) - How Brittany is trying to manage the bad days - “I try and center myself and bring myself back to the fact that regardless, Sam and I will have an incredible marriage and a wedding that will be special. And this is just one point in time for the rest of our lives.” (22:53) - On feeling sad about her scaled-down wedding - “I feel silly because I have friends who have had to postpone their weddings twice. Right? And we haven't gotten to that point. So I'm also kind of like, ‘Why am I saying why me ?’” Resources Follow Brittany 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.…

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The Three Year Engagement with Bride Alaina 30:41

4 years ago30:41

30:41

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. Alaina and her fiance Shane weren’t too worried when shelter-in-place orders started coming down last Spring. Afterall their wedding date was already set for April 2021 so it was hard to imagine there would still be issues by then. “Even up until November and December, we kept telling ourselves, ‘Next year we'll worry about it, and next year we'll worry about it.’ And now it's next year,” the bride-to-be told host Emily Lewis during her interview for the podcast. Ultimately the couple would decide to postpone their big dream wedding for almost another year making their already-long engagement stretch to four years in total. Jump straight into: (04:20) - Alaina on when she knew Shane was the one - “About two years into dating, I started badgering him with the ‘marry me’ every other day and then every day.” (06:16) - The proposal - “I knew he was nervous and I didn't know why. And I remember at one point during dinner, I picked up his hand. I'm like, ‘Why are you so sweaty? What are you nervous about? Are you okay?’” (08:24) - Alaina on dreaming of a big wedding - “The romance of weddings and brides was something I was drawn to while I was in school and working in the fashion industry.” (10:42) - The couple’s initial reaction to the pandemic - “Even up until November and December, we kept telling ourselves, ‘Next year we'll worry about it, and next year we'll worry about it.’ And now it's next year.” (14:39) - Why they decided to push their date back another year - “We figured what's the rush. People already waited two and a half years. We can wait another year.” (15:39) - On finding a new date - “If we wanted to postpone for 2021, they only had one date in June and one date in July available that were Saturdays.” (17:32) - Restrictions at their venue during the pandemic - “Just imagining the 50 people in this room that can hold 350 people, it just seems silly.” (22:08) - Alaina on saving mementos from the entire process - “I've been keeping everything, our engagement party invitations and thank you notes, just as a scrapbook thing. I think it's another way that we can document this crazy experience.” (28:26) - How Alaina and Shane have tried to grow - “The pandemic probably taught all of us being stuck at home, away from family and watching people we know and love get sick and just not knowing what's going to happen, that we have to cherish the day and be happy with what we have.” Resources Follow Alaina on Twitter Follow Alaina on Instagram Follow The Knot on Instagram The Knot's Official Guidebook for COVID-19 Wedding Help The Knot’s support hotline: (833) 998-2865 Book the Milleridge Cottage 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.…

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Wedding Planners were Built For This with Wedding Planner Jane 56:25

4 years ago56:25

56:25

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. Wedding planner Jane Alexandra had a wedding booked the very weekend that shelter-in-place orders were put in place in California back in March 2020. That was just the first of over 30 weddings she would end up helping couples postpone, scale down dramatically and even cancel throughout the pandemic. At first, Jane was in fix-it mode just trying to get through every day and every task, but eventually the reality set in that COVID wasn’t going anywhere and her business wasn’t going to be the same anytime soon. Jump straight into: (06:24) - Jane on becoming a wedding planner - “I was like, ‘I have no idea what I'm doing. This is scary, but I'm just going to go for it and see what happens.’” (19:00) - On couples who still wanted to plan large weddings during the pandemic - “The reality is, is it worth the risk? Like what if your wedding gets shut down literally the day before or that morning?” (20:12) - Planning big weddings during the pandemic - “My husband is a nurse and he works on a COVID unit. And so I personally don't want to put anyone at risk, and also I don't want to put my business at risk and I don't want to be on the news as the wedding planner that hosted a super spreader wedding.” (26:12) - Giving couples their money back after cancelling - “The deposits that we get, we spend those. We use that money to pay our bills and to pay our teams and to survive.” (28:41) - On how many weddings there were to move - “Everyone loved the idea of getting married in 2020. So dates that normally wouldn't have been full we're full.” (30:13) - On couples that had to keep postponing - “They had to postpone again and again and again. And it's just so sad for them. I can't even imagine postponing my wedding three times.” (31:55) - How Jane has been holding up - “I've probably had at least one mental breakdown a month this entire process. It's exhausting and it's tiring and it's horrible, but every day I just get up and I'm like, ‘Okay, what do I need to tackle now?’” (41:20) - Riding the COVID rollercoaster - “I've definitely had my moments where I’m like, ‘I'm going to make the best of it and I'm going to cook and I'm in a garden and I'm going to learn to make fun cocktails,’ and that lasts like a week, and then you're back in the tub crying.” (43:26) - On not having all the answers - “Especially for planners, because this is what we do, we do well under pressure. Our job is to manage crises and to manage anything that could happen day of, which I've seen it all, but the hard part is that I'm used to having the answers on how to fix things.” Resources Follow Jane on Instagram Book a wedding package with Jane and her team at JaneAlexandra Events See XOKatieRosario’s delicious cakes on Instagram Book a trip to Flying Flags in Buellton, CA Buellton 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.…

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Please RSVP, I Promise I Won't Cuss with Bride Roma 45:29

4 years ago45:29

45:29

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. Bride Roma has been with her groom Adam for over ten years. Due to Colorado laws where the couple live, they are even considered common law married. So having a big wedding wasn’t a priority, or even something they thought they wanted, but when they decided to plan a small celebration for their 30 closest friends and family, their guest list quickly grew to over 120 people. The only problem was the date they chose: September 13, 2020. Now, that date has come and gone and the couple is still trying to decide how to move forward with their celebration. Throughout their COVID journey there has been tears, lots of cussing and all of the other unknowns that come with both wedding planning and dealing with a global pandemic. In the end Roma is looking forward to creating a fun and romantic event that they’ll want to remember for decades to come. Just how many guests will be able to attend the event, only time will tell. Jump straight into: (02:27) - Roma on meeting Adam - “I'm just going to apologize to my family if they're listening to this, because it's going to get real raunchy here in just a little bit, but I don't know how else to describe it.” (06:47) - How their relationship works - “He really is my person and we just get each other on a whole other level. We even have our own secret language. We spend a lot of time together.” (07:18) - Roma on their attitude about getting married - “There was no proposal. So me and him have been against weddings for a really long time. We were always a couple of, ‘We're not going to get married. A ring? It's just a symbol. It's just a piece of paper.’” (09:21) - Why Roma and Adam started changing their minds about getting married - “Anyone who's a child of divorce, I think there's a little bit of hesitation when it comes to marriage, you know? And I think that's pretty natural. And so for him, I think it took him a while, but I think we both realized a marriage is so much more than a wedding and we already have that.” (10:52) - On Roma’s vision for the wedding - “I want it to be fun. I want it to be funny. I want it to be romantic. I think when it comes to the ceremony, I really just want it to reflect us.” (11:11) - Wedding rules - “I’ve already been told that I'm not allowed to cuss.” (19:50) - Deciding to postpone the wedding - “Essentially, we could have had 50 people there, but because we didn't know who the heck was going to come or who wanted to come because no one responded, it was just kind of, ‘Cool. I guess we'll just push it out a year.’” (37:08) - On the emotional roller coaster of postponing - “I full-on cried when we made the call. I told myself, ‘I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to get upset that the wedding gets postponed.’” Resources Follow Roma on Instagram Message Roma on Facebook Contact Roma for a Pure Romance consultation or party 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.…

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Love Doesn’t Have to be Dramatic for it to be Real with Bride Mercy 42:01

4 years ago42:01

42:01

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.…

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Keeping Spirits Up with Destination Wedding Planners Mitheo Events 31:19

4 years ago31:19

31:19

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. Mitheo Events, a luxury wedding planning, design and management company based in Lake Como, Italy and Athens, Greece helps couples from all over the world plan their destination dream weddings. Needless to say, their business has been completely disrupted by the onset of COVID-19. In this episode of Bride to Have Been, Mitheo Events’ Managing and Creative Director Michaela Theodorakakou sits down with Emily Lewis to talk about how she and her team have worked to support their couples and keep their business going by using their new-found freetime to create beautiful designs and inspiration for their marketing and social media channels. “It's a new reality that we are all living, but it is very important not to let fear block our inspiration and our vision,” Michaela Theodorakakou. Jump straight into: (12:43) - Mitheo Events Ethos - “It is important for us when guests arrive that they feel the ambience and to feel the couple, their stories. And we want to create the perfect wedding that totally represents our couples.” (14:14) - How their clients have been reacting to pandemic restrictions - “The couples and their families have been quite upset in the first wave of the pandemic, but now everybody is much more positive and much more prepared to confront any new standards that may arise.” (15:04) - Wedding planning going forward - “Couples that will get married this summer, we have to prepare the contingency plan for less guests attending the event that will follow it's country's health and safety regulations and any events restrictions.” (16:35) - On how the pandemic affected them and their fellow vendors - “The professionals in the industry, the hotels, the caterers, the venues, the photographers, all the suppliers’ companies, it was very difficult for them to reset.” (18:43) - On postponing their events - “Most of our weddings were postponed. We had no real events, no creativity, no images of beautiful sceneries or happy couples.” (19:02) - Mitheo Events’ Plan B - “We wanted to create some amazing photos and production for our audience. And it was also a very strong motivation for all event professionals and creatives to get together and craft something unique and inspiring for our community.” (22:05) - On staying positive - “It's a new reality that we are all living, but it is very important not to let fear block our inspiration and our vision.” (23:12) - When the pandemic subsides - “I'm sure it's going to be all over, and the only question is when. So we will be very optimistic and things for sure are going to get better.” Resources Follow Mitheo Events on Instagram Book an event with Mitheo Events 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.…

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Reimagining What A Wedding Should Be with Bride Leila 46:59

4 years ago46:59