Behind the scenes blog posts are perennial favorites of mine, and I’m excited to share a peek back at 2018 with you! 2018 was, quite honestly, the very best year yet for Stephanie Shaul Events, and it’s safe to say that I am deeply grateful and so blessed! It 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! These couples have geniunely become friends, and for that, I’m forever grateful.

I gathered some fun behind-the-scenes shots from throughout 2018 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 2018 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!
• For the first time in a few years, I was both the bridesmaid AND wedding planner/designer/stylist at one wedding, as well as the wedding planner and guest at another wedding! How fun is it to be able to be both a bridesmaid and wedding planner for a dear friend?! It may have been a hectic and busy day having so many roles, but it was SUCH a great day — and getting to celebrate Sarah and Clint becoming husband and wife was more than worth it. I didn’t partake in bridesmaid mimosas on the wedding morning, but I was as present as I could be as a bridesmaid… while balancing setup, all the vendors, decor, styling, etc as the wedding planner. I had a team of amazing assistants, for sure!
• 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. I love when my interns or the photographer snap shots of me in my element on wedding days.
• 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. But boy oh boy, there are countless special moments that I get to witness firsthand, and I adore my job!
• 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!).
• 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!

Thanks to Ally and Bobby, Anagram Photo, Lindsey Cash Photography, Rebekah Senter Photography, and Erica Serrano Photography for all of these behind-the-scenes shots — grateful for you all!