By: Preston Young
Since getting back from our honeymoon, I’ve answered the same question more times than I can count.
“So… how was the wedding?”
Usually, I give some version of the same answer: “It was incredible.” And while that’s true, it’s probably not a very satisfying answer for the people who spent the last year listening to me talk about wedding planning, seating charts, and whatever wedding-related crisis Rachel and I happened to be dealing with that week. So for everyone who has asked, or hasn’t asked, here’s the longer version.
The wedding was everything we hoped it would be, and somehow it still went by way too fast. For twelve months, Rachel and I planned June 5th. We spent countless nights making decisions that felt enormous at the time. Then June 5th arrived, and before we knew it, it was over.
The first moment the day felt real was our first look. If you’re planning a wedding and debating whether to do one, I’m firmly on Team First Look. Seeing Rachel for the first time that day was one of my favorite moments of the entire wedding. She looked incredible. The dress was perfect. Her hair looked perfect. Her makeup looked perfect. More than anything, it was the first time all day that I stopped thinking about timelines, weather forecasts, transportation schedules, and all the other things that had occupied my brain for the previous year. For a few minutes, it was just us. No guests. No vendors. No schedule. Just the realization that after nearly eleven years together, Rachel was about to become my wife.
The next moment the day became real was walking out before the ceremony. For over a year, Rachel and I had talked about the guest list. We revised it, debated it, and probably looked at that spreadsheet hundreds of times. But then, all of a sudden, it wasn’t a spreadsheet anymore. It was family. Friends. People from completely different chapters of our lives, all in one place. Everyone was dressed up, everyone was smiling, and everyone was looking in our direction. That was probably the moment it really hit me: Wow. This is actually happening.
Oddly enough, I remember that part perfectly. The ceremony itself, though, is almost a blur. People always tell you to soak it all in because it goes by fast, and they’re right. Rachel and I have already joked that we should probably read our vows to each other again one day because I don’t think either of us fully heard what the other person was saying. You’re trying to process so many emotions at once that parts of the ceremony almost feel like they’re happening in fast forward.
The speeches, thankfully, I remember. Our wedding party absolutely crushed it. They were funny, heartfelt, slightly embarrassing at times, and exactly what you’d hope for. Rachel and I are incredibly fortunate to have the people we do in our lives, and hearing those stories and memories shared in front of everyone is something we’ll never forget.
Then there were the fireworks.
Rachel has wanted fireworks at her wedding for as long as I’ve known her. What most guests saw was a surprise fireworks show over the Harbor. What Rachel and I saw was months of applications, maps, approvals, meetings, coordination, and a surprisingly memorable appearance before the city council. Newport only allows a handful of fireworks displays each year, so there were several points throughout the process where it felt like the whole thing might not happen. Then, once it was approved, we got to spend the final week before the wedding checking weather forecasts every six minutes.
Thankfully, everything came together. We even had a signature fireworks cocktail with light-up ice cubes, Pop Rocks on the rim, and rock candy stirrers because apparently once you’ve committed to fireworks, moderation is no longer an option.
One thing Rachel and I talked about throughout the planning process was creating little moments for our guests. Not because anyone needed them, just because we thought they’d be fun. We wrote handwritten notes to every guest attending the wedding. We put together welcome boxes for everyone staying in a recommended hotel. We had a watercolor artist painting guests throughout the evening, that turned out to be our guests favors. We turned a phone booth into a guest book where people could leave us voicemail messages instead of signing a book. At the end of the night, guests could take home a custom newspaper we created about our story, our families, and the wedding weekend.
There were also approximately one thousand tiny details that nobody will ever know about. At one point, Rachel and I spent more time discussing napkins than I care to admit. We had seven different ones. Seven. Different. Napkins. To this day, I couldn’t tell you why we needed seven napkins, but I can tell you that Rachel’s attention to detail was unbelievable. She thought of everything. There wasn’t a guest experience, welcome gift, sign, note, or detail that didn’t have a purpose behind it.
One of the few things we actually disagreed on involved tambourines. Rachel wanted them. I did not. I thought the dance floor would survive without tambourines. I was wrong. People loved them. By the end of the night, guests were actively searching for more tambourines, and since the wedding multiple people have asked us where we got them. As it turns out, Rachel was right again. I’m becoming increasingly comfortable with this reality.
The live band might have been the best decision we made all day. They were unbelievable. The energy never really dipped, and by the end of the night the dance floor looked exactly how we hoped it would. Throughout the evening, different groups jumped on stage for karaoke songs. Rachel and I had our turn. Our maid of honor and her fiancé had theirs. My sister and cousin somehow found their way up there. My parents ended up on stage with my aunt and uncle. It was loud, chaotic, and incredibly fun, exactly what a wedding should be.
One thing I remember thinking before the wedding was that seven and a half hours sounded like a really long time. Surely we’d have plenty of time to talk with everyone, eat dinner, and soak everything in. Then somehow it was 1:00 in the morning. The band was playing their final song, people were still dancing, people were still singing, and somehow there were still tambourines everywhere. It felt like the day had lasted about fifteen minutes.
Looking back, what I’ll remember most isn’t the linens, the glassware, or even the seven napkins. It isn’t any of the tiny details that consumed countless hours of planning. What I’ll remember is looking around the room and seeing so many people we care about genuinely enjoying themselves. That was always the goal. Rachel and I wanted to create a wedding where people felt welcomed, celebrated, and had fun. Looking around the dance floor at the end of the night, I think we accomplished exactly that.
One thing we’ve talked about constantly since the wedding is how much of our own wedding we actually missed. Every time someone sends us another photo or video, we discover another moment we never got to experience ourselves. We barely saw cocktail hour. We never really got to appreciate the raw bar. We didn’t get to stand back and watch everyone’s reaction when the fireworks started. We didn’t see guests reading the handwritten notes waiting for them at their seats, or the look on their faces when they walked into the reception for the first time. While we were taking photos, greeting family, or simply caught up in the moment, all of these little experiences that we spent months planning were happening around us without us.
That’s honestly one of the things we’re most excited about now. We can’t wait to get our wedding film back and see the rest of our photographer’s gallery. Between that and all the pictures our friends and family took, it’ll almost feel like getting to attend our own wedding as guests. We’ll finally get to see the parts of the day that everyone else experienced while we were busy living our own version of it.
People have asked if I’d do it all over again. The answer is easy: absolutely. I’d relive June 5th over and over again if I could. That single day, and our honeymoon right after it was about as perfect as I could have imagined. The planning, though? I’m good. Rachel, on the other hand, would happily relive the entire year. She genuinely loved the planning process. She loved making every decision, thinking through every detail, and watching everything slowly come together. I loved seeing it all come together. She loved putting it together. That probably tells you everything you need to know about the two of us.
So for everyone who has asked, that’s how the wedding was.
It was everything we hoped it would be.
And if I could go back and relive that night again tomorrow, I’d be there in a heartbeat.
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