Wedding Wednesday: At-Home Celebration Ideas

Thinking about our original wedding date now gives me anxiety. I worry about how I will feel when that weekend arrives. To be honest, when I think about it right now, it makes me sick to my stomach. Will I want to celebrate? Or will I be a pile of mush and want to sleep and cry through that entire weekend? Obviously, the latter is not really good for me so I have to get. it. together. I've been keeping a list of ways we could potentially celebrate what was to be the best day of our lives. It sounds so sad and it really does make me feel SO sad, but I am determined to power through. I want to be happy and want to feel excited and want to celebrate. So, in the words of Dave Matthews, 'celebrate we will for life is short but sweet for certain.' 

I thought I would share the list with all of you who may be in similar situations. I'd also love to hear from those who have already had their wedding weekend come and go- what did you do to make it special? 

For those who celebrate, Easter is this Sunday. It's typically a time that we spend with family and friends and have a big dinner and go to church that morning. We can't do either, so we will get creative! We are going to do a 'treat hunt' with Henry that morning, ha!!! 

My 30th birthday is Tuesday. Normally, I'm not super into celebrating my birthday, but I was excited to do something fun and 'bigger' to celebrate 30. We have been trying hard to come up with something fun and different even just for that. So while this list is wedding-focused, I hope these ideas can spur your imagination and help you to celebrate whatever it is you may be celebrating...an anniversary, the birth of a child, a birthday, graduation, an acceptance into a program/job, etc. 

- Get our favorite takeout. This one feels like a no brainer. My all-time favorite takeout is Little Tokyo. They have the best sushi. This is what we are getting to celebrate my birthday. Any meal that involves Little Tokyo brings me happiness! I think we will be getting takeout from our rehearsal dinner spot for our faux 'rehearsal dinner'. 

- Pop a bottle of something GOOD. I typically drink Estancia which is an affordable (but delicious) cabernet or a $20 bottle of Chandon (also a very good inexpensive option). It always feels special when we open up something really good. Even this past weekend, we opened a bottle of Duckhorn cab which is 'an affordable expensive bottle' (ha!) and it just made me so happy. Unfortunately, our wine stores are closed right now, so we have very slim pickings of just the wine available at grocery stores, BUT, we do have a few bottles of really good bubbly and cab that I always have on hand and I foresee our entire 'fancy' stock of wine to be depleted by the end of staying at home.  

- Facetime with friends and family. We have all of the time now, so why not? Facetime/Zoom really does bring me joy and reminds me of all of the love and support I have. 

- Cut a cake. We were so close to our wedding day when we had to cancel that our schedule of the day was fully laid out. We can follow along in our schedule and cut a cake at the time we would have. It will be a good practice round, ha! 

- Do your first dance. Turn up your first dance song and dance away. It makes for good practice, too.

- Wear your wedding bands. We are thinking about doing this. Honestly why the heck not. Put them on just for that day and imagine what it will be like when you get to wear them forever. I think any rules, superstitions, etc. go COMPLETELY out of the window for this unprecedented time. 

- Listen to your wedding music. We have a playlist that I have very carefully curated for times when the band will break and that's what we can listen to all day! 

- Write a letter to each other. I think this is such a cute idea. Not necessarily a wedding letter, but just a thoughtful letter that will be cherished for years to come. 

- Set the Table. We obviously can't set the table exactly as our wedding tables would look, but we can try and replicate that vibe. 

- Open wedding gifts. We have gotten a few gifts come in over the past few weeks and have saved them so we could open them on our original date. 

- Put on a white dress. I have so many cute white dresses, maybe I'll get all dolled up and wear one just for the heck of it. 

- Take photos. I think years from now, the photos that we take from celebrating our original wedding date inside our home during a worldwide pandemic will be photos we will be showing people 50+ years from now, because what a freaking story. 

- Order flowers from your florist. It's a great time to support small businesses and it's a way to bring happiness into your home. 

- Give each other a gift. It doesn't have to be big wedding gifts or anything like that, but just something small, meaningful, and thoughtful. 

- Play Christmas Music/Watch Christmas Movies. This one is SO weird, I know. But when all else fails, Christmas music makes me feel good, as do Christmas movies. 

Missing all of these exciting, big, milestones just makes me realize how much sweeter it will be when we can all be together again. Oh, what a party that will be!!!!