Violet Dude and I are currently on a search for vendors. Since we are still a while away from our wedding and we’re both currently going crazy with school, it’s been a weekend thing for the last couple of weekends. We’ve gone to one venue and interviewed three different photographers.
The venue was pretty awesome, but he definitely wants to go see a few more just to compare before we settle down…which is understandable. The three photographers were all very good, we liked some more than others, but I enjoyed meeting with all of them.
Here is where my problem is, I’m just too nice. We have one more meeting with one more photographer, even though I’m completely ready to sign with one of the ones we already interviewed. I don’t know if I should go through with the meeting and give the other photographer a chance, or if I should just cancel the meeting and go with the photographer we like. I also am getting sick to my stomach just thinking about when I’ll have to e-mail the other two photographers and tell them we aren’t going with them. I absolutely hate the feeling of disappointing people, and although that’s just part of their business, I honestly hate the idea that I have to tell them we aren’t choosing them. With an unlimited budget, I would choose all of them, but that obviously isn’t an option.
So, for those of you who, like me, hate making people sad or disappointed…how did you write your rejection email? Did you give a reason as to why you weren’t going with them or did you just say you had chosen someone else? Put me out of my misery, please!
MG Bear and I keep getting asked wherever we go “Have you thought about where you want to go on your honeymoon yet?” and it makes me want to scream! Our parents ask us everytime we see them and casual conversations with friends end up with questions about the honeymoon. I decided to finally buckle down and start my research and it has had it’s ups and downs.
Our original plan was to travel somewhere lavish (think Bora Bora or the Maldives) but…. the prices to fly out there were enough to scare us off! Next we thought of going somewhere no one would ever think of going, Brazil. The way we saw it was “who knows when we will have the money to go somewhere unique again, so why not for our honeymoon” well…. flights were STILL expensive and most resorts were about the same price as Bora Bora. We know we are on our own since our parents are paying for the wedding, so we had to start over, again. The Caribbean is closer and more affordable, so that was a starting point. I don’t like doing things that everyone else does and that meant that anywhere in Mexico, Bahamas, Jamaica and St. Lucia are out of the question. I don’t want to go to a mass resort (think Sandals) so I looked into cruises. Then it hit me… Hurricane Season.
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About 2 weeks after we got engaged, my mother and I sat down to write the guest list for our engagement party. We soon discovered that this task was a little more difficult than what we originally anticipated. Of course there were the definites, family and close friends, who we put on the list right away. Then, it got more difficult.
My parents both work at the same place, a car dealership, and they have worked there for the last 30 years. This means that I essentially grew up roaming the halls and thus I know most of the people that work there, some of them have literally known me all my life. We ran into a problem with this as we were making the list for the engagement party (and we subsequently decided to make the wedding list as well.) If you invite one of my parents coworkers, you have to invite them all. This leads to a bit of a problem, because the dealership is by no means small, and it would mean adding about 30-40 people to our guest list to invite them. When our guest list is already at 166 on just HIS side, that means inviting at least 250 total…way more than our original estimation of 150.
It seemed like it was a snowball effect. Even if we just chose to invite a few of them, we knew that other people would be hurt by not getting an invite. So, if you invite one, you have to invite someone else, and then someone else, and then someone else…until you’ve got way too many people you’re inviting.
 I feel like the person at the end...run over by a GIANT snowball. Continue Reading
When I was in high school (5 years ago) I had a group of girlfriends that I swore up and down I would be best friends with forever. We were inseperable. Now, 5 years later it’s definitely changed. Between going off to college, jobs, and changes in lifestyles, I’m only still close friends with one of those girls. Now, I’m not the social butterfly of the world, by any means, but I’m also not unfriendly. The college that I went to was a commuter college, and I was a commuter myself, which made it difficult to make and keep friends.
Fast forward to today…when I’m trying to plan my wedding and I only have two female friends that I consider close enough to be bridesmaids. All of my other friends are either boys or I’m just not close enough to them to feel comfortable asking them to be in my wedding. Now, I would be completely fine having only two bridesmaids, except for the fact that Violet dude has about 5 guys in mind for groomsmen. This creates a bit of a number problem.
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We officially booked our photographer for the wedding! He was actually referred to me from a friend and when I looked at his website I was WOW’ed by his work.
In one of my previous posts, I had mentioned doing offsite pictures at a park/beach up the street because of the lack of landscape for creativity at our actual venue. Well, in talking to Mr. Photographer he actually recently did a wedding at our venue and did the same thing. He said it took away from time at the reception and that there was actually not that much more to work with at the park. He really gave us faith in his work and told us there was so much more to work with then what we think! I’m really glad we decided not to go offsite for the pictures mostly because I don’t want to drag my wedding party away for too long, especially since it will be hard to keep the attention of 6 groomsmen to take pictures! 
Now, the next issue is engagement pictures. Booking Mr. Photographer came with a free 2 hour engagement session. Well, the problem with that is we already did one engagement session with a friend that does some photography and we are planning to do another with another friend in the spring. So, my question is, how can we utilize another set of pictures? I know it seems like a little much but our two friends offered to do these pictures for free and we figured we would help them build up their business.
Mr. Photographer suggested a “day after” shoot, since MG Bear would still have his tuxedo, but that entails sunrise shots and…. the reason why my fiance is called Morning Glory Bear and not Dude is because… he is just that! Waking him up period is like trying to get a bear out of hibernation, especially after our wedding and lots of adult beverages! So, a “day after” shoot is out of the question. I am also not feeling it because I would have to do my hair and make-up again and I know I will probably not be looking my prettiest as I would on the big day.
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Everything from deciding on a wedding party to what they would wear to Lilac Dude finally asking his best man was a bit stressful. Please note that our friends do not stress us out, we just had some interesting choices to make.
My bridesmaids were originally to be: my sister, my sister-in-law, my good friend from high school and my good friend/roommate from college.
That didn’t happen…. more accurately most of it happened.
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I went to a bridal show on Sunday, my first since becoming engaged. There are usually a lot of bridal shows in January and February because of the number of people who get engaged over the holidays and because the vendors aren’t usually at weddings during those months. I took my mother and one of my best friends with me to the show to help me gather as much information as I possibly could. It was pretty overwhelming, but what was more overwhelming was having to sort through all the information after the show was over.
Once I got home and I had sorted the business cards and pamphlets into piles, I decided that I wanted to start looking at photographers. Some of them were in our price range, and some of them were very far out of our price range. But, I ran into something very disappointing as I was going through websites. The photographers’ websites had expired and they hadn’t renewed their domain. I suppose this advice is for the vendors who read this blog, but if you don’t renew your domain then potential customers can’t view your website. In my own opinion that is very poor business practice, especially considering most domains aren’t all that expensive to maintain. Communication with potential clients is so important, and what is sad is that those vendors will never even have a chance with many brides because their websites weren’t up and running.
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I like to think that with a long engagement you better manage your time but I’m not sure so that is the case. Here I am with 5 months to do and I feel like I have so much to do still! Fortunately, most of things I have left are just the little details such as reception decor. I believe I have mentioned where we are having our reception before but here is an inside look of the Glendale Lyceum through some pictures of a past wedding that have taken place there. I intend to have mine look much similar. Funny story about the gold chargers…my Mom and I ventured to the Christmas Tree Shop on Sunday in search of them. I told myself I wouldn’t spend more then $1 a piece since I had to buy almost 225 of them. Well….they were $1.50. So I went to the register and told myself I would buy 10, take them to the Lyceum to see how they looked and decide from there. The awesome, wonderful, fantastic sales woman, Dakota, told me that she would not only give them to me for $1, but she would also give me a 20% off coupon. Needless to say, 2 hours later, my Mom and I walked out with 225 gold chargers at just $.80 a piece! Whoo hoo!!!!
 The whole set up....so pretty! Continue Reading
Deciding on colors was a pretty difficult choice for me. I knew that it had to be one of the first things I did because so many other aspects of the wedding depend on your colors. After a lot of pinning on Pinterest, looking at inspiration boards, and going to a few different craft and home improvement stores, I decided on our colors. Our colors are going to be teal, baby blue, and white.
I know how difficult deciding colors can be, so I wanted to offer some advice to those of you who are still trying to decide what you want your colors to be.
1. Start out with some inspiration- I started my adventure into color by looking at real wedding pictures on websites like the Knot and Pinterest. I saved the color schemes that I really liked and kept them to ask my family, friends, and fiance about their opinions.
2. Go to a home improvement store- I know this sounds crazy, but it really helped me. I went and took about 50 paint samples from the paint department at my local home improvement store. They’re free and it’s nice to be able to lay them out on your carpet and match up the colors. Take different shades from all the colors you like and match them up to each other. Once you’ve found a combination you love, you can move on to the next step.
3 Go buy some ribbon- Once you have your colors chosen, go to a craft store and buy ribbon in those colors. Sometimes seeing the colors on a flat paint swatch doesn’t do you as much good as seeing it on a satin ribbon. Satin ribbon has a way of catching the light and making things look brighter. And don’t forget that your bridesmaids dresses will be in fabric, not paper, so seeing how the color moves in the light will help you feel more confident in your decision. Then, go home and make a pretty bow out of your ribbon and keep it around…if you see it every day and still like it then you know you’ve made the right decision. It’s also great to have a piece of the ribbon in your purse for impromptu shopping trips to the craft store or to look at bridesmaids dresses or tuxes!
4. Wear something in your colors- Even if you go and find a pair of earrings in the colors that you love, or find a shirt with your colors, wearing them helped me feel like I really did enjoy the colors that I chose. I actually went out and bought yarn in the colors and crocheted myself a scarf. It’s great because if anyone asks me what my wedding colors are going to be, I can pull it out and show them right away!
 My wedding colors scarf! Continue Reading
It’s only been a little over two months since MG Bear and I got engaged, but wow the emotions are all over the place from every end!
I wrote this post to put out a sigh of relief! When MG Bear and I got engaged there was a little static from my parents and how we should be going about paying for things and making decisions. To break it down for you, our parents are being very traditional. My parents are paying for the big stuff (catering and all that comes with it) and his parents are paying for the major things outside of that (photographer, DJ, flowers, rehearsal, etc). It was hard at first because my parents had the attitude that whoever is paying for what, should get to make the decisions. That was a nightmare to deal with and MGB’s parents thought the exact opposite, that WE should be making the decisions as long as they aren’t unreasonable! The problem was that my dad never sat down and gave us a hard budget for the portion of the wedding they are paying for. He literally said to us, tell me what you want and I will make it work. So this lead to a lot of confusion and things being misinterpreted. We finally sat down and after a few tears we were finally able to agree on how things would work.
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