Kaleigh's NYC Wedding Morning: Part 2

To conclude my mini series on Kaleigh’s wedding festivities (click here for part 1) I thought it would be fun to interview the bride!

01. How did you physically and mentally prepare for your wedding day?

Physically I did a month of Pure Barre in mid April-mid May, which really got me toned! I mixed cardio in as well, and cut back on alcohol, sugar, dairy and gluten. I also took care of my skin and made sure to drink a ton of water. Mentally - it's easy to get overwhelmed when you have a busy job and other responsibilities, but I tried to just focus on one thing at a time to knock off the list. And when I got stressed, returning back to the main thing (a marriage, not a wedding) and remembering the details matter way less than that.

02. Where are all the robes from?

I actually got them from Kohls! I looked up a brand I really loved on BHLDN and then searched around a few department store websites to get them a bit cheaper.

03. Why did you decide to have a small wedding party?

My wedding was smaller, and I have a ton of close girlfriends from different parts of my life, so if I'd included more friends, it would have been 10% of the wedding standing next to me! That felt a bit weird to me, so I decided to keep it small and invite my best friends over to the venue early to be together before the ceremony.

04. What was your favorite part of wedding morning?

Just being surrounded by my favorite women! My wonderful coordinator/emotional support/MVP of life (Teale's mom) created a beautiful, calming and fun morning for me, and I loved just being surrounded by those I love.

05. Are you happy you decided to do a “first look” with your groom before the ceremony?

YES oh my gosh can't recommend enough.

While wedding morning was calming, I was getting a bit anxious right before the first look because we kind of messed up the timeline and I was just getting in my head a bit. Once I was alone with Brandon it was like nothing else mattered. And because we didn't have a long sit down dinner, it was our only alone time. It just grounded me in what was actually happening, and was so fun to have a moment to ourselves before everything began. Plus, after the ceremony, I wanted to run around and talk to everyone, so having to take an hour more of pictures would have not made me happy.

06. Is there anything you wish you would’ve known going into wedding week?

Honestly I just wish I would have slept more!!

07. Do you have an advice for future brides?

I literally read this advice on every blog about writing your own vows and still didn't follow it - but write your vows before the week of your wedding! I stayed up way too late one night finishing them (they turned out wonderful but this could have been avoided, hah).

On this note too if you're writing your own vows - choose a third party you and your husband share the vows with to make sure they're aligned. We chose a format/number of vows before, but having there be someone in the world who read both of them and made sure they weren't super different reassured me.

Also, SLEEP IN THE WEEK BEFORE YOUR WEDDING! Drink water. And if you can, definitely take the week of your wedding off. Having a few days to myself before our guests started to descend upon NYC was so helpful.

Images by Lauren Lucile Creative