Everyday Alaska

Everyday Life in The Last Frontier

Wedding

7 Reasons to Get Married in Alaska (And One Reason Why You Shouldn’t!)

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Are you stressing about where to get married? Don’t fret, Alaska is your place! Check out the reasons below to see why you should get married in Alaska.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links which I may earn commission from. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Commissions from these qualifying purchases help support Everyday Alaska at no extra cost to you. Please follow the instructions on all of the recommended items. All of the information provided is my personal opinion, unless otherwise cited or noted.

Beautiful Views

No matter what season you choose, you’ll always have beautiful views. Maybe you want to fly to a glacier and have that as your backdrop? Awesome! Hoping for a ski resort wedding with mountain views? We’ve got that, too. Or, how about saying “I do” at a historic mining area? Whatever view you can imagine, you can find it here.

Glacier in Alaska
Why not have a glacial backdrop or even be on a glacier when you say your “I dos”?

The “Off” Season

Alaska is a popular tourist destination year round, but things start to slow down during fall and throughout the winter. Alaska has all four seasons, although some are much different lengths than average. Summer and fall are short, and winter takes up about half the year. A great benefit to that, though, is that there is a long “off” season, AKA winter. During this time, and towards the end of fall, you’ll find better deals on venues, hotels, travel, and more, making it easier to stay within a wedding budget. Plus, it’s a beautiful time of year with plenty of activities still available (glacier and sled dog tours, and the aurora anyone?), you’ll just need to pack some warmer clothes.

Great Vendors

There are many talented and helpful vendors and resources to use if you decide to get married in Alaska. There are a vast amount of talented photographers (Narrow Road Productions, Sarah French Photography, Donna Marie Photography), bakers, venues, dress shops (I had a perfect experience at Bateau Bridal!) and more. And with Alaska as your backdrop and wildflowers as your bouquet, you’re set!

Bateau Bridal in Anchorage, Alaska. Best place to get a wedding dress.
Bateau Bridal will give you a one of a kind dress shopping experience.

Unique

Getting married in Alaska is a unique experience. Not everyone can say the got married in The Last Frontier. With the variety of unique areas to get married, including an Ice Museum, on glaciers, and surrounded by some of the tallest peaks, the 49th state will give you and your guests an extraordinary and unforgettable wedding experience.

Eloper’s Paradise

Hoping to elope and get away from it all? Perfect! It sound like getting married in Alaska would be a great plan for you! There are many many ways to escape the hustle and bustle of wedding planning and get married in the quiet and solitude of Alaska’s most beautiful locations. Plus, many of Alaska’s photographers do unique elopement sessions, and can give you tips and advice on planning and more.

A DIY bouquet from Alaskan wildflowers can be made for a wedding.
DIY your bouquet with some of Alaska’s beautiful wildflowers. P.S. Those aren’t dandelions. 😉

Destination Wedding

Alaska makes a great place for a destination wedding. If you’re a U.S. resident, you don’t need a passport to fly to Alaska, you only need one if you plan on driving through Canada. If you choose to get married in Alaska, chances are that people will make the trip up and spend extra time here vacationing in a place many people dream of visiting.

Start Your Honeymoon Here

Whether you’re an Alaska resident or just planning on having your wedding in our beautiful state, Alaska is a great starting point for many honeymoon adventures. We live in Alaska, but had our honeymoon here as well before taking a vacation a few months after the wedding, and Alaska is really a beautiful spot to honeymoon. You can spend your honeymoon roadtripping around the state, zip lining in Southeast Alaska’s rainforest, relaxing at Alyeska’s spa or Chena Hot Springs, visiting some of our many National Parks, and more. But, this is where the reason you shouldn’t get married in Alaska comes in: chances are, you may never want to leave!

A moose shed ring from Jewlery by Johan on ombré purple lupin in Alaska.
Add the detail of a moose shed ring from Jewelry by Johan to really bring out the Alaska vibe.

You may have started off reading this post and wondering why on earth you should get married in Alaska. Well, now you know! Having your wedding in Alaska can provide you with some of the most breathtaking views in the world on your special day, give you access to talented vendors, show your guests a magical time, and even be the spot for your honeymoon! If you’re considering having your wedding in our beautiful state, feel free to put any questions you have in the comments.

7 Ways to Stress Less (And Spend Less!) When Wedding Planning

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How do I have a stress free wedding? That’s probably one of the most asked questions regarding wedding planning. Truthfully, the answer is there really is no way to avoid 100% of wedding stress, but there are multiple ways to mitigate and minimize it to make your special day as stress free as possible.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links which I may earn commission from. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Commissions from these qualifying purchases help support Everyday Alaska at no extra cost to you. Please follow the instructions on all of the recommended items. All of the information provided is my personal opinion, unless otherwise cited or noted.

What things can I do to stress less when wedding planning?

If you’re stressed about wedding planning, you’re not alone. According to Brides.com “40 percent of couples categorized wedding planning as “extremely stressful””, so avoid that pre-wedding stress and anxiety by checking out the tips below.

Accept Help

People will likely volunteer to do all kinds of things to help with your wedding. From arranging flowers and decorating, housing guests to making food, etc., your friends and family will probably offer to help with various tasks to make your special day as perfect as possible. If you’re not the type of person to accept or ask for help, I completely understand. But, in the case of a wedding, take all the free help you can get and share the load!

If people are offering to help you, that means they want to help you. Don’t feel like you’re imposing if you take them up on the offer, just make sure you trust those people to get the job done. We really lucked out having so many wonderful family members and friends that helped make our wedding special. 

Kransekake with roses at our wedding.
Check out this beautiful kransekake my aunt and uncle made for our wedding!

Delegate

Delegate, but don’t get too bossy! Which is easier said than done. If you have some tasks that need to be done, keep a few close and dependable attendees in mind to help with any last minute plans or issues. You may have a wedding planner, coordinator, or day-of director to do this, but if not, ask a couple people if they wouldn’t mind helping with some last minute tasks or details. Almost every wedding I’ve been to I’ve had some sort of task to do to help with the wedding. More than likely, whomever you ask will likely be flattered you’d trust them to help with your big day, and not at all imposed upon. Just ask nicely, and don’t get too bride/groomzilla on anyone!

Plan Your Own Wedding

Plan your own wedding. What I mean is don’t let anyone make all the decisions for you, unless you want a hands off approach, which is also understandable. You will get many, many opinions about what you should or shouldn’t do at your wedding; some helpful, some not. Don’t let anyone pressure you into the dress, venue, photographer, hairstyle, or whatever you don’t want. Remember, it’s your wedding after all!

Keep It Simple

Keep it simple. Unless you don’t want it to be simple (refer to above tip). But by simple, I mean don’t over complicate everything and add additional stress to what is going to be one of the best days of your life. Honestly, there’s a 100% chance most of your guests won’t remember all of the little details you spent time worrying about, and there’s a 99% chance you won’t remember them either! (Check out the next tip to see how to avoid stressing the small stuff!) Don’t get too crazy trying to incorporate every Pinterest perfect centerpiece, flower arrangement, accessory, and wedding favor you’ve ever seen. Take it from me, it gets to be a little too much, and keeping it simple will help you avoid a ton of stress (and stay within your budget) when wedding planning.

Top Things

I read this tip somewhere when I was wedding planning. It basically suggested picking three main things to focus on during planning that you want to have a certain way. For me it was photography, food, and my dress. For you it may be flowers, music, venue or cake, makeup, and decor. This will help you get the main details that you’ll remember exactly how you want them, and then the more minor details can stay minor and not turn into a stressful to-do list. It’s a helpful way to not get overwhelmed and avoid literally sweating the small stuff.

Stay in Budget

Know your budget and stick to it. That may mean not getting the designer dress you want, but more than likely there is a similar one from a different brand that you’ll love almost as much. Maybe you wanted a five course meal to be served to your guests. Likely, that’ll take up most of your budget. Try having the same types of food, but served buffet style. There are always ways to change things up to save money.

DIY wedding centerpieces made by family before the wedding.
Having family help put together DIY centerpieces is a great way to stay in budget.

The Guest List 

You don’t have to invite everyone. Or anyone. If you want to elope, elope. If you want to invite all your neighbors and everyone you’ve ever gone to school with, do it. (Buuuuuut, unless you have an unending budget, you’d probably be breaking the budget suggestion above.) If your mom wants you to invite all her friends from book club that you’ve never met, but you don’t want to, guess what? You don’t have to! You can politely explain that you have a limited guest list, but maybe suggest having a separate party with them to celebrate sometime if she’s insistent. It’s your wedding and you can invite who you want.

Bonus: Have a Backup Plan

As I mentioned above, food was one of my top three things I was most concerned about. Celebrations revolve around food, and I wanted it to be delicious and on time. We had plans made to have Olive Garden cater for us, but it all just seemed a little too good to be true with pricing and them bringing it a long distance to us. In the back of my mind, I decided we’d just have pizza if it didn’t work out. And, low and behold, they basically bailed on us, so we used the backup plan and had enough time to order Pizza Hut for our guests. Was I thrilled about the Olive Garden situation? Nope. Did I have a complete meltdown over it? Nope, because I had a solid, easy backup plan. I’d suggest that if you have any vendors, caterers, or details that you feel like might fall through, have a contingency plan for them. This way, if things don’t work out, you’re not up a creek and in a panic.

Eating Pizza Hut at our wedding. Stress less when wedding planning by having a backup.
Clearly I wasn’t too upset about having pizza as an alternate option!

Although there is no way to have a stress free wedding, the tips above will help you manage the stress and stress less when wedding planning as well. Remember, it’s totally normal to have some amount of stress while planning your wedding, but don’t let it take over. Even if everything does’t go 100% as planned, or there are some hiccups along the road, as long as you and your fiancé are husband and wife at the end of it, you’ve had the perfect wedding.

Jewelry by Johan: My Experience with Custom Jewelry

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Please note that this post contains affiliate links which I may earn commission from. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please follow the instructions on all of the recommended items. All of the information provided is my personal opinion, unless otherwise cited or noted.

Weddings can be pretty stressful. There are so many decisions to make. What type of cake to serve? What shoes to wear? What songs to play? What ring to buy? And that question is how I happened upon Jewelry by Johan.

I’m a pretty sentimental person, so I knew I wanted to get something unique and custom for my husband’s ring. Something that fit his personality and was memorable. When I found out I could use a moose shed he found to make his ring, I was hooked. That’s when my experience with Jewelry by Johan began.

My husband’s moose antler shed wedding band turned out even better than expected.

Jewelry by Johan

Jewelry by Johan is a custom jewelry designer. They make their jewelry in America, using a variety of unique materials to create one of a kind, heirloom pieces.

Materials

Is your loved one interested in more traditional diamond pieces? They have that! Do they love space? Meteorite jewelry may be the perfect out of this world gift for them! Outdoorsey? Try an item made with antler! Are they musically inclined? Check out their guitar string rings! Going for a prehistoric vibe? Dinosaur bone might be just the ticket! There is really a material that will fit any interest and personality.



These custom crushed antler earrings from Jewelry by Johan turned out beautifully.


As I mentioned, I chose a moose shed that my husband found to create the pieces of jewelry that Jewelry by Johan made for us. JBJ does have antler that they can supply, but if you have your own piece that is large enough to use, you can send it to them and they will use it to create your custom piece. If your piece is too small, they can still use it by turning it into crushed antler. They then use the pieces of it to create your unique accessories.

Additional Customization

In addition to the variety of materials you can choose from, there is also the option for text and image engraving for certain sizes and materials of rings. Since I chose to use antler for my items, I was not able to use this service, but if you are able to do so it adds an additional personal element to your pieces.

The antler in this band really created the classic look I had hoped for.

Pieces

There are many possibilities when it comes to what jewelry you can create with JBJ. They make and design rings, earrings, necklaces, tie clips, and more. I purchased my husband’s wedding ring, two sets of earrings (one for me and one for my mom), and three tie clips (one each for my husband, dad, and father-in-law) from them. All of the pieces turned out incredible and came in beautiful boxes. I couldn’t have been happier with them, and my experience of dealing with JBJ was absolutely awesome.

Customer Service

I didn’t go full bridezilla during wedding planning, but I was pretty darn picky about what ring I was going to get for my husband. I had so many question about how ring sizing with antler worked, if my antler sample would work, and more that I called and emailed wayyy too many times. Each time I got the best, most polite customer service, and got all of my questions answered. They do a great job of walking you through the process of custom jewelry design and explain all you need to know. I was so impressed by their professionalism and kindness, and can’t recommend them highly enough for both their products and great customer service.

Whether you’re looking for a wedding ring, earrings for mom, or a bracelet for a friend, Jewelry by Johan has it all. Their mix of high quality, unique, custom jewelry and exceptional customer service has earned them a lifetime customer in me, and I hope they can do the same for you.

For any questions about my experience with JBJ or about what I had made, please comment below and I’ll answer as soon as possible. Also, don’t forget to check their website for discount codes and sign up for their email list to see current sales! Thanks for reading and happy shopping, folks!