I'm not so good at this wedding-planning stuff. At this point in the game, I am completely overwhelmed, and the only "encouragement" I get from anyone is, "6 months will pass before you know it," and, "It's going to get worse." How is that possible?!?!?!?
On the never-ending list of things to do:
get engagement photo
create and send 'save the date'
figure out floral arrangements
find a cake-maker
choose a dress ... and all that goes with it (veil, jewelry, etc)
find shoes
figure out a hairstyle
choose brides-maids dresses
find tuxes
decide on decorations
find invitations
get addresses for invitations
1000 other things I've probably forgotten already
I feel like all I've really done is book the church and reception hall. Wait, that IS all that is done at this point. Am I wrong to be TOTALLLY FREAKED OUT right now?!?!?
I think I am going to cry.
6 comments:
Do things one at a time. Like one little thing a day or two bigger things per week. I actually felt like everything was easier once I secured the place, the vendors, and the dress.
If your wedding is in the next 10 months, maybe you only want to do a save the date thing for a few people instead of everyone. Addresses are a pain. I used an excel sheet (which I still use today!).
What city is your wedding in? I used a great bakery in Brea. They worked with what I wanted and have tons of flavors to choose from. I had a small cake made and then had them do sheet cake for everyone else to save money:
Beverly's Bakery
3020 Brea Blvd
Fullerton, CA 92835
(714) 529-3989 (apt. for tasting)
Invitation money saving: Get the bare bones actual invitation made through a website, then buy your own envelopes, if you're not finnicky about having lined envelopes or perfectly matching embossment, etc.
Have you been to Allusions in Brea? They have a lot of dress choices, and reasonable prices.
I bought my jewelry at a cart in the mall. I bought a $20 veil on sale at a bridal shop. Wear whatever shoes are comfortable to you. No one cares if you wear heels.
The best way for bridal dresses is trying on. Allusions has lots to choose from there. Just take a maid or two with you there.
First things first. I think it all revolves around the dress... and the place.
I have a veil, if you need a borrowed something. It's fingertip length on me, which is pretty long probably, with the pencil edge.
You know, I think 6 months is a perfect amount of time to plan (assuming you aren't Martha Stewart, which you aren't). It's too short a time to completely panic and have a breakdown, but it's just long enough to fit everything in pretty well.
You can do this!
I went to the garment district in LA and found my jewelry, and my maid's jewelry. I think I paid about $10 for theirs and $25 for mine. And I really liked them. They came with me to help pick them out.
I found my veil on ebay. It was made by a wonderful lady. I liked her styles but it wasn't exactly what I wanted so I wrote to her and asked her to custom make me one, which she did. I can't remember her ebay name but I'll email her and ask her. She made exactly what I wanted (2 tier, finger tip length, pencil edge with scattered rhinestones) for $34.99 including overnight shipping (I decided 10 days before my wedding that I hated the veil I had settled on and my original one got eaten by moth balls because I got it too far in advance (so this was veil #3). It was gorgeous. I sold it on ebay and now am kicking myself for doing so.
Try www.ultimatewedding.com for great hairstyle galleries.
Invitations...we used rexcraft. We had our invitations within a week of ordering them. They made one small mistake on the reply cards, and they sent out replacements the next week. They were also the best price I could find. If you order more than $100 worth of product, the code INVITE10 will get you 10% off. I found that party city was NOT cheaper during their NORMAL sales (they advertise some percentage off all mail order invitations), but sometimes they give an even larger discount and in that case they were cheaper.
I put all my addresses in a spreadsheet including salutations and greetings/first names for inner envelopes so that when it came time to address, I just printed out the spreadsheet and had several people who could help me since all the info was right there.
Also this book was a life saver for me!
Sorry if I'm over stepping my bounds...tell me and I'll stop. I'm just one of those weirdos who actually LOVES wedding planning.
got the veil lady's info:
her email is kathyjohnson3@yahoo.com
her ebay store is here
I just emailed her directly and asked her about my custom veil (though it now looks like she offers in her store what I wanted)
Oops-meant that Rexcraft sent my replacement response cards out the next day, not the next week.
I ordered flowers from samsclub.com
I only wanted roses (they don't carry your lilies)--
I had 5 bridesmaids bouquets with 6 roses each
1 MOH bouquet with 9 flowers
Grooms Bout-2 flowers
My bouquet-2 dozen roses (WAY TOO HEAVY!)
2 moms corsages-2 roses each
2 dad's bouts-1 or 2 roses each
6 GM bouts-1 rose each
1 altar arrangement-1 dozen roses
20 centerpieces with 6 roses each
Flower petals
and more rose things but I can't remember what... a total of 325 roses. I paid $202.23 including tax and shipping.
I think I found roses at the flower mart for about $1 each so Sam's was cheaper and more convenient to me because I could have them delivered any day I wanted. I had mine delivered on a Wednesday for a Saturday morning wedding because I wanted them to be over bloomed and romantic. It's sort of a hassle to do the flowers yourself but it saved a lot of money. My bridesmaids and I made the centerpieces the day before the wedding and a lady from church made my bouquets and bouts.
Need a DJ or a photographer? :)
I think I had about 80-90 dozen roses for the wedding party, altar decorations, and the reception. Total cost: $600. I went a little crazy with flowers. There were a dozen roses or more for each bouquet, one rose for each corsage, two giant pieces at the altar, and then I think about 2 dozen per table.
Jen's right, the spreadsheet thing is great. If you aren't too set on hand-addressing your invitations, you can have the spreadsheet all set up with the titles and do a word mail merge to make labels. Saved me LOADS of time. I actually found the identical font to my invitations online and bought it to use for my labels, maps, signs, and programs. That was a great investment!
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