Can I have my Wedding and other COVID Questions We Can’t Answer with Christen Monise

Bride to Have Been

In today’s world, trying to get married has become... a hot mess. So, to all the COVID brides to have been, grooms and wedding professionals: you’re not alone. Welcome to Bride To Have Been, a StudioPod original podcast hosted by Emily Lewis, with the purpose of building a community by sharing the reality of this new normal in the wedding industry. Let’s keep inspiring each other and celebrate the thing we treasure the most: love.

Christen Monise was tasked with helping hundreds of couples who had booked their big wedding days at Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo, California to scale down or postpone their weddings. “The number one question I get is usually related to if they can or can't have their wedding or what that's going to look like, and I wish I could give people the answer. I wish I had a crystal ball,” Monise told Bride To Have Been host Emily Lewis on the podcast. “I’m just a catering girl at a country club.” Monise and her now husband also had to navigate their own nuptials during COVID and managed to stay positive throughout. While it was difficult not to sweat the small stuff, Monise said the micro wedding they opted for exceeded their expectations and they’re looking forward to celebrating their one year anniversary with a slightly expanded guest list.

Jump straight into:

(04:40) - How Christen’s husband proposed at Disneyland - “He proposed and right after I said yes and we were hugging or kissing, I hear this woman screaming from far away and like clapping and cheering. And I look around and I'm just like, ‘Oh look, we have fans.’ You know, people like saw us. And then I realized who was screaming and it was my mom.”

(08:56) - Planning their wedding during COVID - “Three days after I sent out my wedding invitations is when I found out the Santa Barbara courthouse stopped doing ceremonies.”

(12:23) - The Wedding Plan B - “I thought it'd be kind of funny if we read our vows again and just kind of did like a checkup to see how we built out the first year of all these like lofty promises we've made.”

(14:08) - Christen reflecting on the most difficult part of getting married during the pandemic - “Not sweating the small stuff was probably the hardest part because you get very emotionally attached to like the flowers that you pick out and the vision that's in your head.”

(15:33) - Remaining a team during wedding planning - “This was definitely a first good test for our communication and navigating uncertainty and just collaborating.”

(18:20) - On 2020 being set to be a huge year for events - “People just have this superstition almost as far as repeating numbers or even numbers and stuff like that. So it was definitely supposed to be a record year for all kinds of functions.”

(33:04) - The biggest questions Christen deals with as a coordinator at a wedding venue - “The number one question I get is, ‘Can I have my wedding?’”

(33:55) - On trying to be sensitive to what people are going through - “I try not to do a lot of these tough questions on email because I want them to hear my sincerity and I want to try and convey my positivity.”

(34:58) - The direction Christen sees the wedding industry heading in - “Up until the pandemic hit a lot of people would invite like 100 to 200 people, and you think about your circle and who's important to you, and then you get carried away with their plus ones and then you invite all your coworkers, and the next thing you know it kind of turns into this runaway train.”

Resources

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Thanks for listening! Follow us on Instagram, don’t forget to use the #COVIDBrideTribe, and feel free to send us your COVID wedding stories. Bride To Have Been is a podcast brought to you by GiftPod and produced at StudioPod. Edits were made at Nodalab and music was produced by GaryOAKland. Don’t forget to subscribe, rate and share with all of your fellow brides.