As many may know, late in 2015 my husband and I found out we were expecting our first baby. We soon learned that our baby was due in early August of 2016, pretty much right in the middle of wedding season. Regardless of the timing, we found that the due date actually worked quite well as most of this year's inquiries were for April-July and September-November, leaving August for us to have our baby and adjust to the newness of that. That being said, I had several weddings booked while I was at varying stages of the pregnancy. 17 weeks, 30 weeks, 35 weeks, and 38.5 weeks. I put together backup plans for each wedding, in case something came up with the pregnancy that would affect the weddings. Thankfully I was able to attend each of the weddings before the baby was born and I felt surprisingly well at all of the weddings. I learned a lot during the process, that I'm excited to be sharing today, in hopes that it can help other wedding vendors who are braving weddings while pregnant. 1. Be Prepared I (over) prepared all the notes about the weddings I did while I was pregnant. I wanted to ensure that if I wasn't able to be at a wedding at the last moment, that the person filling in for me would know exactly every detail that I knew. I wrote up notes about each portion of the day: a detailed timeline, what needed to be setup at the ceremony, what needed to be moved from the ceremony to the reception, what needed to be setup at the reception, what needed to be cleaned up, special notes from the bride and groom, a detailed vendor contact sheet, and so on. It was really helpful for those who assisted me at the various weddings and I've decided that this (over) preparedness of notes is going to be common practice at all future weddings that I do. 2. Dress Comfortably Speaking from experience, pregnancy isn't necessarily comfortable a lot of the time. Your feet swell, your back aches, your belly is protruding. I knew that if I wanted to be successful at the weddings that I did, I needed to wear clothing and shoes that made me feel comfortable. I chose clothing that was still classy and formal, but that allowed me to move freely without discomfort. The definition of "comfortable" really varies depending on the person and I highly recommend wearing whatever will make you feel your best despite being pregnant. 3. Get Help I knew that with being pregnant, I couldn't do weddings alone. I was definitely capable of doing most everything while pregnant, but there were a few things that needed to be avoided for safety reasons. I brought in assistants for my weddings who helped with lifting, climbing ladders, and moving heavier objects from one place to the next. I learned that I couldn't physically do everything that I'd done before getting pregnant and that I couldn't be afraid of asking those around me for help. It was a learning process but it was definitely worth it. Overall, this pregnancy has been a major learning experience. I learned that I'm capable of doing more than I ever expected. I learned that asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of and will only make a wedding day that much smoother. I learned that weddings are important to me (and will continue to be important to me). My hope is that this blog post will help other wedding vendors as they brave the waters of doing weddings while pregnant. I'd love to hear tips from other weddings vendors about how they successfully did weddings while pregnant, so be sure to comment below!
Ps. Our baby was born on July 30th! Just six days after my last pre-baby wedding. I'll be sure to share news about the baby once we get the newborn photos back! Stay tuned! ;) Photographs by Natahsha Priya.
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February 2020
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