I was anxious to share how our Save the Date cards turned out (before wedding planning kicked into high gear). I am pretty proud of them! The only downside was the matte printing from Staples was not the best on the back side of the cards (some ink was missing in part of the design). All-in-all they got the job done, and under budget! See this post for more details about how I designed them.
Now that we are less than a year out from the wedding date, it's no longer cupcakes and giggles. It's time to get down to business. Before I start a big girl job and don't have time to do any wedding planning for the first few months. Ah!!
Here's what I we have accomplished over the last few months:
Engagement Photos|Round Two:
We met our new photographer last spring at a wedding show we randomly went to with my mom and brother. My mom's instinct was right, she takes good photos! I was instantly drawn to how passionate she was about us and our vision (not a vision of her own). Trust your gut when you are hiring a wedding photographer. They are the person you end up spending the most time with on the day of your wedding!
Save the Dates:
They arrived today!! I am super excited to get them addressed and mailed out. I designed the images on Illustrator using a photo from our engagement shoot and a template from the Staples Copy and Print center for a postcard. I figured cheapest postage, cheapest cost to produce, why not do a postcard?? I was tempted by some beautiful ideas on one of my favorite blogs, Oh So Beautiful Paper, but decided to stay true to our budget vision and make some rockin' postcards. Pics to follow after all the friends & family get them!
Tip: I ordered them through Staples Copy and Print, was able to fully customize the front and back, full bleed on matte recycled paper (my preference- glossy also available) for only $42 for 100 with shipping! Just add postcard postage & some circle stickers for the address and voila! Save the Dates for under $75.
DJ:
Booked! I met him at one of the weddings I was assisting at as an intern this summer and he was a HUGE life saver the whole night. Plus, I loved the way he mixed the music (like a real DJ with turntables!) and acted as a subtle MC through the evenings events.
I highly recommend being able to actually see your DJ in action before you book him (your actual DJ- not the owner!). It's not always a standard in today's wedding market, but I feel like it should be required! Some of the newer wedding show concepts have DJs actually spinning at the events; a great way to test a potential DJ!
Invitations:
After developing around 10 prototypes on the computer, and a few physical ones, I have finally held on to the current prototype without making any changes. A good sign it's time to stop! I have purchased all the materials to produce them and have started assembly on a few items like envelope liners. We have to hold off on printing the invitations until we verify the start time with our venue.
Registry:
I know it's still way far out to register for most reasons, but I keep getting hounded with the question "Where are you registering??". So I dragged Spencer to the mall to do some preliminary research. I think we've narrowed it down to Williams Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond, and maybe Pottery Barn.
Any horror/success stories on registering?
My does time fly! Here we are midway through wedding season, and I've already learned so much as an intern for a wedding coordination company. Life has certainly been crazy as I've kept my day job in retail while working an occasional Friday/Saturday wedding. There is so much about wedding coordination that I would have never expected, so here's a quick rundown on what I've learned so far:
So small bit of news that I haven't shared with the world yet... I will be interning/assisting at an award-winning Portland wedding planning company this upcoming season! If all goes well, it will lead to becoming a full-blown wedding planner with them. The reality that it's finally happening is still incredibly surreal. My first wedding with them is this Friday... I cannot control my inner giddiness! Our personal wedding planning is coming right along as well. I thought I would share some of my favorite tools that I have found in the process. Budgeting is one of the most important parts for us because we have little buffer of going over! I wanted to make sure that we divided our budget fairly among the different elements (photography, venue, attire) so we would avoid going WAY over in one category, leaving little funds left over for minor things, like, oh say FOOD.
I'm in the process of reading a great book by Meg Keene called A Practical Wedding. Make sure to check out her blog for great stories by real brides that will give you a serious reality check on the whole point of getting married... the marriage! She recommends sitting down with your partner to discuss what's really important to you both about the wedding (like top 3), then write those down and put it somewhere that you can see it all the time. It's important to listen to what your parents want too! Then don't stress about the rest, or what everyone else says you have to have.
Next, we figured out how much we could save before the wedding (one of the biggest benefits of a long engagement!). We used Mint.com to set our budget, one of my favorite budgeting tools! We created a new goal, then inputted how much we could contribute every month to our "Wedding Fund". This gave us a rough estimate of how much money would be saved by August 2013.
We sat down with each of our parents to get a solid number of what they would feel comfortable contributing. So there's no surprises on either end! Then we had our grand total that we could budget with.
My other favorite budgeting tool comes from Vertex42. The heavens opened when I found this site! This Excel spreadsheet has an average breakdown of how to divide your budget among each category. You can then adjust the percentages according to your personal needs (for example: my parents are generously letting us use their timeshare for our honeymoon, which drastically cut our honeymoon budget). I also love their Guest List spreadsheet. I did a lot of research before deciding on this one. It may not be the prettiest, but it's the most practical and easy to use! Plus, you can also change the fonts and colors to match your tastes. There are so many other awesome templates on Vertex42 for all walks of life, I highly recommend them all!
Yesterday we shot our first (and hopefully last) round of Engagement Photos! At this point, I'm am just glad our relationship survived. I equate this engagement milestone to the canoe test. We made the mistake of scheduling a relaxing weekend at the beach, then realized when I got my work schedule that we could squeeze in a photo shoot the following day. This is a big deal, because I work most weekends, Spencer doesn't, and our photographer is actually a doctor-in-training who moonlights as a photographer. Needless to say, when the stars aligned, we jumped at the opportunity. The only problem was... these were our Engagement Photos. The photos we will stare at for the rest of our lives. The photos that will show the world "Look, this is who we are as a couple!". You need to plan these things with new wardrobes and haircuts and juice cleanses at the very least! (Just kidding about the juice cleanse thing... for now). Explaining the gravity of this situation to my fiancé was, well, frustrating. He clearly did not share my level of understanding on the matter. So I got him up to speed, and we headed to a nice relaxing weekend at the beach.
And then it turned into a beautiful weekend. So beautiful that my fair-skinned Bavarian fiancé not only burned, he turned into a splotchy lobster. The day before our photo shoot. As we drove aimlessly around the island that we were planning to shoot at the next day, he grew more and more irritable that there were no "obvious" spots. The sun had zapped him of his energy, and he was NOT a happy camper.
Panic. I frantically blotted him with baking soda & water (the verdict's out on how effective this is) and urged him to take ibuprofen. The next morning, in my nervous calmness, I failed at convincing him to try a clay mask to reduce the redness (the blue will offset the red!). I did, however, convince him to use teeth whitening strips. Yes, I do realize that one application hardly makes a difference, but it somehow made me feel somewhat better.
As he headed off to get a haircut, I went into full blown "I Have Nothing to Wear" meltdown. I started a load of laundry and threatened to go out shopping with an hour before we had to leave. Not my proudest moment. I threw some powder on my fiancé's two-toned nose and we ran out the door, pug in tow.
Thank goodness for our photographer and his wonderful girlfriend. They calmly held our frantic pug who was yelping at the end of her leash when she was pulled away from us (separation anxiety much?). And they kindly eased Spencer's nerves that his blatant lobsterness could easily be Photoshopped out.
So here we are, exhausted, and relieved that our Engagement Photos may be finished. If not, I'll know what not to do next time:
The most important thing to remember is just to relax and have fun with your fiancé. Because you're getting married! And the camera doesn't lie.