Wedding Planning Made Easy
My dreams of marriage came true on January 21st at about 7pm when my Fiance David asked me to marry him. To make it even more exciting, we were leaving for a cruise to the Bahamas the next day to celebrate! I knew I would be taking the wedding planning head on because my family and friends (most of my bridal party) are all in Pittsburgh, PA and we are in Orlando, FL. I thought being un-familiar with the area would make it challenging to plan such a big event but it all comes down to being organized, researching and referrals.
One our way to the cruise port we stopped at Walgreens and I picked up my first Bridal magazines. I have wanted to pick up these magazines many times before I was engaged but didn’t want to jinx myself. I couldn’t wait to dive on into these magazines and get some ideas for our big day.
I started organizing my thoughts with a cheap spiral bound notebook where I wrote down sections such as:
- engagement party
- engagement photos
- venues
- photographers
- djs
- caterers
- rehearsal dinner
- florists
- guest list
- financials
I started tearing out photos from magazines of gowns, bridesmaid dresses, flowers, cakes and decor. This made things really easy when I went dress shopping and met with vendors. When it came to “the dress”, I was able to show the ladies in the bridal store exactly the dress style I was interested in. This made it easier to choose the dresses to try on and the 3rd dress I tried on ended up being the one! I was able to choose the bridesmaid dresses I love and I am going to make a trip to PA to have the girls try them on. I was able to take pictures to the florist of bouquets I was interested in. I would absolutely recommend researching flowers that are in season to use for your wedding to cut down on cost. Centerpieces made from flowers are super expensive, usually $40-$150/centerpiece! I am getting married in April so I am using tulips and callalillies! I have chosen not to use flowers as centerpieces due to the increased costs. I also have the exact design of the cake I am interested in as well as many ideas for centerpieces and gifts for our guests.
Since most of our guests are coming from out of town, it was really important for us to have our ceremony and reception in the same place and have hotels close by for convenience. Many of our guests expressed interest in going to the Disney parks so finding a venue close by was a goal of ours. Luckily with the use of www.theknot.com I was able to locate a venue PERFECT for our tropical wedding in the Disney area! The Knot was a great resource in my wedding planning! I would also recommend booking an “open room block” at the hotel of your choice, therefore you do not become financially responsible for rooms that do not get filled.
After we booked our venue we were given a list of preferred vendors which was a huge help. We were able to contact different vendors, set up meetings with them and then get even more referrals from the vendors we met with! This made planning very easy. The earlier you can plan and get vendors locked into place the better and less stress it will cause later. The only challenge with this is if you don’t have the money stacked up it can be hard to pay for all of the deposits at the same time. Vendors do get booked many months in advance so if you find someone popular that you really want, book them asap! Bridal shows are also a great way to meet vendors but you end up getting spammed like crazy which is pretty annoying so beware!
I have only been engaged for 4 months with 11 months to go until our big day and I have all of our vendors chosen and under contract. The only thing we have left to decide on is our honeymoon destination and small things like accessories for the bridesmaids, groomsman and gifts for guests! Another challenging aspect of wedding planning is figuring out the budget and staying within that number. It is so easy for costs to sky rocket. I have also been challenged with limiting my guest list to 75 people. I feel I have been able to be so efficient with my wedding planning because of my organizational skills, research and an attitude of “get it done”. My cheap spiral notebook has now transformed into a hard bound spiral binder with organizational tabs that I take with me to every meeting!