Flowers: I had my mom’s favorite flower put in my bouquet to honor her. My mom and I dyed my altar flowers— many people thought they were real and professionally made! I had charms from my mom, grandma, and JJ tied around my bouquet.

Ceremony: we flipped which side we were standing on and flipped our parents too so they could see our faces during the ceremony. We had a moment at the beginning where we turned around to take in everyone that came for our wedding and soak it in. We had our photographer come around the back of the altar for our first kiss to get the audience behind us and it’s one of my favorite pics!

Cocktail Hour: we had Canadian goodies for our cocktail hour food in honor of my heritage and family. Our signature drinks were an old-fashioned called old fashioned love and a peach vodka fizzy drink called Paramour Peach— after the bar, we love near downtown and the meaning of paramour is a lifelong partner!

Reception: we loved doing a room reveal privately to take in all of our hard work and then doing a reception entrance of just the bride and groom— no bridal party. We loved having pappasitos to honor JJ’s Mexican heritage. At each table was also a pic of JJ & me at the corresponding age and a fun fact about us. Each person had a place card that doubled as a thank-you note. On the back, we surprised our parents with pictures of them from their wedding day and a thank you to them. JJ and I gave a thank you speech at the beginning before dinner. My maid of honor, sister, gave a speech and began singing Hamilton, but was crying so we sang together. In the parents’ speech, they gave JJ a gift. I cut all our formal dances on a sound editing system to make them customized. We did the mother-son/father-daughter (had to dance to Cinderella by Stephen Curtis Chapman), but then I did a mother-daughter dance to the song that played when my mom gave birth to me and then a family dance with myself, my parents, and siblings and at the end, we welcomed JJ into the family. For our first dance we did a lift too that was so magical! After the cake cutting, we got a huge group selfie with all of our guests. We did bundtinis for our guests and the groom’s cake was JJ’s favorite anime, Naruto. Being in theatre and ice skating several songs played were in homage to previous shows/performances. We finished the night with a private last dance where we bawled the whole time— just so happy and overwhelmed in the best way.”

-Jimmi

Try not to compare your wedding to others. And if there is something you want to do that’s unique or untraditional— do it. Don’t listen to others’ negative comments. Our most unique things that people critiqued while planning turned out to be their favorite wedding day moments!

I understand wanting to save money, but sometimes putting a bit more money into your vendors is worth it. We had vendors we thought we saved money on that weren’t as professional and didn’t work out so we would’ve saved more money in the long run just going with a vendor a little bit more expensive.

Start diy earlier than you think and try to have it all done at least a month before your wedding— wedding planning burnout is real!

Give yourself grace. Wedding planning and DIY can be hard and time-consuming so if you can’t do something, that’s ok!

Plan far out so you can soak in each chapter of wedding planning. It’s a unique chapter that is filled with some stress, but is truly a beautiful and exciting time so while you’re overwhelmed, take a step back to cherish it!

Really take time in considering your bridal party. That can sometimes be the biggest stressor of your day so don’t rush into it. Take time and pay attention to who’s consistently there for you.

Virtual invites can be beautiful and are super easy, convenient, and save hundreds of dollars!

If you have a beauty or fitness goal, start early and be consistent! It’s worth it! But know you don’t have to look a certain way for your wedding day. You’re beautiful and worthy already.

Get a credit card with great travel rewards and make wedding purchases on that— our honeymoon is already paid for!

Find ways to build moments you can soak in on your wedding day. It goes so fast so make dedicated time to embrace this special day.

Do your research on vendors and lean on them. Some of the most amazing moments and advice throughout are because of them!

Speak up if you don’t like something, you’re putting a bunch of money and time into this so make sure you love it all!

Try out and test out as much as you can if you’re DIYing beforehand, this will save you time and people asking you questions on your wedding day!

Do the bridal portraits!!

Make the wedding email. This will help you stay super organized!

Join San Antonio wedding resale groups and bride groups— this time can be isolating at times and it’s nice to build a community!

And of course, follow jimmithebride on TikTok for more wedding tips ;)”

-Jimmi