2017 was quite the exciting, fulfilling, fun, beautiful, and wonderful year for Stephanie Shaul Events! The weddings I had the privilege and honor of planning, designing, and styling far surpassed my expectations, and I cannot tell you just how much I ADORE each and every couple I was able to work with this year! I don’t take my role as their wedding planner lightly, as I know my brides and grooms place so much trust in me to make their engagement and wedding planning season as fun, meaningful, easy, and stress-free as possible… and to bring to life and flawlessly execute their dream wedding days! Each and every couple has geniunely become a friend, and for that, I’m forever grateful.

I gathered some fun behind-the-scenes shots from throughout 2017 that I wanted to share, as they’re a very real-life capture of some fun moments throughout the year on wedding days. I hope you enjoy taking a peek into what my side of wedding days can look like!

A few 2017 highlights:

• Quiet moments alone with my brides before their first look or before their walk down the aisle! This is most definitely one of my personal favorite parts of the wedding day. I love being able to love on, encourage, and celebrate my brides, as they’re usually the most nervous at these points. I’ve had some of the sweetest moments, and I cherish these times so much! I especially love this image of me (holding the bouquet and her train!) walking Shelby down to her awaiting groom during their first look. She was so nervous but so, so very excited!
• Apparently I’m always on the ground styling invitation suites! Sometimes natural surfaces/backgrounds like stone or the flooring of a porch (or just fabric/a styling board laid on the ground) provides the best platform for styling all of those gorgeous details, paper goods, and meaningful objects. And sometimes a floral bridesmaid gown in the middle of the hotel hallway works best, too! I love when my interns snap shots of me in my element on wedding days.
• Pinning bouts on the groomsmen is always entertainings; that’s for sure!
• Some days I get to double as the ring bearer’s escort! And isn’t he a cutie during Megan + Evan’s rehearsal?! As a wedding planner, I get to do it ALL on a wedding weekend… the glamorous, the not-so-glamorous, the “yes, I’ll gladly do absolutely anything possible to make that happen or get it done with a smile on my face” girl. Someday I should write a book (or at least a blog post!) on all of the fun, dirty, random, wacky, selfless (I hope!), crazy things that I’ve done on a wedding day to ensure it’s the most joyful, flawless day imaginable. There’s a lot (a whole lot!) of hard behind-the-scenes work that goes into the execution of a beautiful wedding. This moment with the sweet ring bearer sure was a cute one, though!
• Wedding cake! I love that Anna, one of my Carolina Inn brides from this year, asked me to join her in eating wedding cake in the middle of their reception. I was so touched that she wanted to spend time with and talk with me during her wedding! And once all of the guests have had their fill, it’s a definite treat to get to have a slice of wedding cake, and I know my interns and I sure do love that cake (Lea in particular!).
• I also had the honor of being the florist and wedding planner for a Carolina Inn wedding this year, and you can see evidence of how my home was transformed into a flower shop for a week this summer! It was a massive undertaking to have over 1000 fresh blooms in our home and to create and design 12 bouquets, 18 bouts, and 20 centerpieces (among other floral details). What an adventure!
• Black is not my favorite color to wear, especially to such a joyous event as a wedding… but it’s practical, classic, and then I’m not the center of attention! I have a slew of black wedding-appropriate dresses that I rotate among, and you’ll never find me without my Oatmeal Lace vendor apron, which stores all sorts of goodies throughout the wedding day! McKay from Oatmeal Lace interviewed me and I’m spilling the beans about what I keep in this incredibly practical, magical apron. And I now have my NEW Stephanie Shaul Events apron with my new logo and in a new color palette/design!!
• I love getting to work alongside my favorite vendors (and meet new ones too, of course), and this year I had the priviledge of spending wedding days with the most talented, kind, gracious, and hard-working men and women in the wedding industry! They’re an endless source of inspiration and encouragement, and they constantly pull off stunning work and serve our clients so well.

Thanks for following along with a fun little peek into what wedding days look like for my team and me! It’s not always glamorous but it’s always SO worth it and incredibly fulfilling. And, as always, follow along on Instagram for a constant look into what’s going on!