Carly Pearce Reveals Why She Refuses to Use a Wedding Planner

Carly Pearce and Michael Ray will tie the knot at some point this year, but with their busy schedules, it would seem only logical that Pearce would enlist the help of a wedding planner. Instead, Pearce, who will spend a lot of the year on the road with Jason Aldean, serving as the opening act on his Ride All Night Tour, would rather do it all on her own – with her mother's help, of course.

"My mom and I are doing it by ourselves," Pearce told CMT. "We didn't want a wedding planner. I'm just very simple and never was the girl that dreamt of my wedding … I know it's kind of weird.

"I'm obviously enjoying it very much," she added. "I don't get to see my momma very much anymore and so this is kind of a way for us to have fun together because you miss your mom."

It's appropriate that Pearce's mother is helping with the wedding, since she also helped when Ray surprised Pearce by popping the question, while the couple was vacationing with her parents in Tulum, Mexico.

"I could not have done the proposal without her mom, at all," Ray admitted on SiriusXM's The Highway. "She helped me out completely. I wanted that because her and her mom are very close, and I knew that between her mom and I, we would really be able to make this exactly what she wants."

Pearce's upcoming nuptials aren't the only thing she is taking a stand about. The Kentucky native is also staking her claim in her upcoming sophomore album, which includes her current single, "Closer to You."

"With my first album, I was unsure how people were going to embrace me, and I had no idea how amazingly they were going to embrace me," Pearce said of Every Little Thing. "With this one, I obviously feel pressure to make sure fans love the music, but I feel like I very much know my place in country music now.

"I know the artist that I am, and I know there are people that want to listen," she continued. "I feel more sure of myself and happier, just able to really peel back some more layers and show a more sure of herself Carly."

More information on Pearce's upcoming album, including a title and a release date, is expected to be announced shortly. Download "Closer to You" on iTunes.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Taylor Hill