I have several friends that are now planning weddings.  My husband is a groomsman for a wedding this July, and we are going to a wedding in September for a college friend.  I am a bridesmaid for one in October and the matron of honor for my best friend’s wedding next March.

Preparing for all these weddings has got me excited again about the wedding planning process.  It’s great to be able to share my experiences and give advice to my friends.

Too bad those are not my legs!

One of the ways I have been helping some of my friends is passing along books and magazines that I found useful (not only did this help them, it helped clear out most of the wedding clutter from my house!  It’s a win-win!).  I was still getting some of my wedding magazines long after my wedding date. After skimming through them, I passed them along to these engaged friends.

I also bought wedding magazine subscriptions for three of my friends when they told us they were engaged.  It takes so long for wedding magazines to get you onto their distribution cycle that you have to start early!  As we all know, wedding magazines cost an arm and a leg at typical retail outlets, so it’s a huge savings to buy the year subscription.  My friends were all very pleased and excited when they received their first magazine.

Kim Kardashian shops for Bridal Magazines

Continue Reading

Location plays a very large role in the “look and feel” of a wedding, which is one of the reasons why venue was at the top of Periwinkle Dude’s and my decision list after we got engaged.  We began our search for the perfect reception venue by browsing through a book I picked up called “Wedding Sites and Services”.  Who knew that a $5 investment was going to turn out to be a HUGE help in the planning process.  The compilation of data in the book for each venue (e.g., price range, capacity, cuisine, sample menu, etc.) was a great starting point and let us compare and narrow down the different options from a numbers perspective before we went out for site visits.  Tip: There are different volumes available for various locations throughout the U.S. which means there might be one out there for you — and if so I would highly recommend you check it out if you’re in the market for a wedding site!

Wedding Sites and Services

Periwinkle Dude and I both grew up, went to school, now work, and have family & friends in the big apple – so we were pretty certain we wanted to get married in the New York area.  We looked into a few Manhattan venues, but quickly learned the capacity limits were not very high on the limited number of places that might be construed as affordable, and all the “big names” with great big ballrooms to match were out of our target price range.

Continue Reading