Our last “Journey Down The Aisle: Part I” shared our unique marriage proposals. Now that we—reporters Dillon Carr and Emily Johnson—are approaching our weddings with fiancée Caitlin McCue and fiancé Jon Dech, respectively, we’re plowing through the planning process. We can’t say that it’s been utter bliss, but there have been a few sources of encouragement and strength that have sustained us while we all prepare for our weddings.
Emily: As Jon and I began planning for our wedding, we knew that we wanted to keep it simple—not just because we’re both recent college grads who feel like we have holes in our wallets from paying off student loans—but because we didn’t want to make a huge spectacle of our wedding day. We’re both pretty down-to-earth and easily satisfied.
Dillon: To be a tad blunt, Caitlin and I were tempted to elope. We have never been among those with elaborate fantasies about “the big day,” so when it finally came time to start planning for one, we both felt like mice running a maze blindfolded.
Emily: I, too, was never a “big day, daydreamer.” I always pictured myself wearing a white dress, but beyond that I didn’t really have a clue what I wanted to incorporate into my wedding, so when people would ask me if I’d thought about this and that, I felt like my head was spinning.
However, we stayed grounded in our faith, friends, and family. It wasn’t without the help of at least one of those three F’s that we could check items off our 12,345-page list of “things-to-do.”
Dillon: Yeah, those three F’s were really huge in making these weddings plans. It seems like one of those—whether it was friends, family, or faith—stepped in on more than one occasion to help us out with the planning process.
Emily: While numerous instances exist in which Jon and I have witnessed how truly blessed we are, one example in particular deals with our decorations. After we started imagining how we wanted our venue, Light and Life Christian Camp, to be decorated, we landed on the rustic and simple look.
One evening, I went to Berean Baptist Church to visit Jon while he helped out with the youth group and spoke with a woman who works at the church. She told me that not only did she have flowers that we could use for the wedding, but she also mentioned that another church member had recently gotten married and used the exact same decorations in her wedding that I said I had wanted to use for mine.
I was able to contact the recently married church member and stock up on decorations. The only problem was that I picked arbitrary amounts without really visualizing how I would fill the space at the camp, and so I later realized that I would need to get more decorations.
Not sure how I would obtain everything I desired without blowing over our budget, I began to feel anxious about what I thought would be easy and fun.
However, not long after that, a good friend told me that she and her friend both had wedding decorations that I could use. Turns out, they had boxes and boxes full of exactly the items that I wanted, and even more than I ever imagined we could want to use. For instance, Jon and I had planned on mix-matching chairs because we didn’t want to pay an outrageous amount for chair covers, but our friend had purchased over 200 white chair covers that she said we could use, too.
On the surface it may seem like nothing, but Jon and I both feel extraordinarily blessed by the help and hope that we’ve been given throughout all of this planning.
Dillon: Our blessings have been extraordinary as well, but let’s be honest, planning a wedding is exhausting and expensive. There are so many moving parts and hidden expenses at times, but the process has given us valuable insight. One thing we’ve learned is that, according to costofwedding.com, the average wedding in America costs $25,200, even before the honeymoon. Let’s just say Caitlin and I have the privilege of driving that national average down a bit.
We always wanted to keep the wedding inexpensive, and by inexpensive, I mean under-ten-grand-inexpensive. We also love the simplicity of the outdoors. In the early days of planning, we looked at places that could host an outdoor wedding, but they were consistently too expensive for us.
Then we found Light and Life Christian Camp. It has an old, rustic barn that they call the “tabernacle.” The walls have panels that swing out to let fresh air in- so it’s almost like we’ll be totally outside, but we’ll be protected if it rains. The tabernacle also has a stage, which is ideal for the altar and band we hired for the reception. We felt tremendously blessed to have stumbled upon this location, and to have such gracious friends and family members eager to help with everything, including some of those hidden costs.
To stay within our budget and still have an enjoyably beautiful wedding, it truly took faith, friends and family.
So, as you can see, we all feel very appreciative and overjoyed by the help we’ve been given to ensure our wedding’s success and are looking forward to share our special days with loved ones. Be sure to check back next month for the culmination of our journeys down the aisle.
