WEDDINGS, HABITS STYLE
Untraditional Weddings that dare to buck the trend of over the top events. Lowkey, beautiful, and intimate gatherings.
JUST SAY I DO
Wedded Bliss. The idea conjures up the ideal wedding. A trip to the Bridal Salon, visiting caterers, researching venues, hiring a florist, and interviewing photographers. Agonizing over the guest list and the perfect date. It also conjures up Bridezillas, controlling mothers of the bride, and an over-the-top event.
It’s wedding season and we wanted to look at the Habits way of creating the big day. We love a beautiful dress, an intimate setting, delicious food, and good people to share in the celebration. What we don’t love is the excess. Gowns that feel outdated, venues for hundreds, over the top florals, and the unconsumed food that will be thrown away. Weddings are big business and Jackson is the ultimate destination with a stunning backdrop for all those Instagram worthy photos. Weddings shouldn’t be about “Go big or Go home” they should be about the people. People enjoying the day so much they forget to even take a picture. It should be about the TWO people who chose you to be there. That’s an honor. Celebrating love.
I was married 30 years ago down Fall Creek Road at my mother-in-law’s home. A family wedding. There were the obligatory invites, when you marry into a family that has deep roots in Wyoming that’s a given. Fortunately, for me they are lovely and welcoming. I come from a large Hispanic family that finds any excuse to have a party. Our family wedding was no exception. I bought my dress from a local boutique that was in the exact spot where Habits is now. I hired a local florist, and we scattered potted flowers around and put flowers in my hair. The day of we foraged wildflowers from the property. My mother, aunts, and mother-in-law cooked up a feast. A dear friend took photos and friends danced the night away. A perfect mix of old friends and family.
What I think about when I look back is how little we fussed over details. How the simple things were the most memorable. The trunk of my parents car filled with tamales they drove up from El Paso. The 300.00 wedding dress my mother-in-law embellished with a beautiful collar of pearls. The ease in which our dirtbag climber friends chatted and danced with lawyers, entrepreneurs, and movie executives. This was a family wedding.
Habits Style of wedding would be the perfect blend of all the above. Thoughtful and put together with love.
HOW TO GET HITCHED SUSTAINABLY
GO PAPERLESS
Instead of the traditional wedding invite, send out digital invites. Wedding websites are becoming increasingly popular and give your guests a place to answer any questions. Also you don’t have to stress about the invites getting lost in the mail, or people accidentally losing them.
WORK WITH SUSTAINABLE COMPANIES
Your wedding venue does not have to be at the fanciest hotel or event space, you can achieve something beautiful in the outdoors. Some people opt for an elopement or small wedding ceremony in National Parks. This could also make for unique and memorable moments. If the great outdoors is not your thing maybe consider eco-friendly venues. Maybe they use solar power or have the ability to compost food waste.
A HABITS WEDDING
From as early as I can remember, I have dreamt of what my wedding would be. When I was a little girl I had a wedding box, I hid it under my bed. It was filled with drawings of wedding dresses and clippings from magazines and I would live to dress my Barbies in wedding clothes. Now that I am a little older, although I am still growing up, I have my digital box. My Pinterest board is full of ideas, florals, dresses, rings, hairstyles, and shoes. As fun, as it is, none of that really matters.When I sit down and think about what my wedding may be one day, I think about the person I choose to marry and the family and friends I will be surrounded with. (Don’t worry parents, it won’t be for a while).
When I think of that, the rest of the nonsense fades. The only thing that matters is who I am with and the actual celebratory moment of a wedding. By definition, a wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Unity defines a wedding, the choice to pair with someone for life, to merge two worlds into one, a new beginning, a lifelong commitment. What kind of flowers you will have or how expensive your shoes may be does not add anything of value to the commitment of two humans to spent their lives together.
We are constantly battling in so many directions with the idea that we need more and that our things define us. This happens in the wedding industry so often. A Habits Style wedding is focused on “less is more”. The idea is that the wedding is truly about a celebratory moment and choosing to join together for life with the support and love of family and friends. Being thoughtful and intentional about your joy, and representation of a wedding will go much further than anything money can buy.
Weddings are a great time to make dreams come true and create memorable moments you will cherish for the rest of your life. Let’s circle back to intentionality and cherishing memories of love and life as one. If I could fill my “Wedding Dreams” shoe box with photographs of loved ones, memories of delicious foods (cake included), unique things, sacred new traditions, and treasured moments full of love, that would be an authentic Wedding Box. Now that is a Habits Style wedding.
