Another Setback

Christian and I have the worst luck.  I always feel like when things can go wrong, they do.  Thanks a lot, Murphy!  Sometimes even the best-laid plans fall through.  However, what do you do when that continues to happen?  A wedding is bound to have its hiccups, but at some point, enough becomes enough.  The other problem is I feel bad complaining.  I don't want to be a debby-downer, and I generally want to talk about my wedding in the most positive light.  On the other hand, these setbacks make me sad. I realized, talking about it on my blog is the perfect way to vent, and to get your thoughts on these issues.  Some problems are okay to ignore, and others are not.  But, sometimes a girl needs some prospective from her readers. 

So, to give you the back story...

lost weekends

This weekend I had big plans for, well, wedding planning.  Yet, somehow work got in the way again.  Christian, my fiance, and I both had so much work to do this weekend that we kept pushing our wedding planning projects off.  It's too bad, because one of my big goals was to start our wedding website this weekend. 

With so many [free] wedding website options, the process just seems a bit daunting.  I've heard great things about The Wedding Wire, eWedding.com, and mywedding.com.  Jamie has already started to work on her wedding website (yeh, she's way ahead of me!), so hopefully she can fill us in with why and how she chose the site she did.  And, I promise I will actually do some research this week, and share it with all of you.  I know, if I'm a total slacker then what can I offer my readers?  Well, I promise this week won't let you down!  I've got some plans for lots of cost-saving posts, plus a shiny, new inspiration board.  

Did any of you tackle any fun projects this weekend?  

Cheers,

Colby

Thursday Eye Candy: Hello Lavender

Every Thursday will feature some hot eye candy based on a simple inspiration.  Today, I've put together some of my favorite lavender pics after I saw these amazing (and way out of my budget) shoes from Mr. Alexander McQueen:

However, why not take something that I know is way out of my price range, and use it to help find other beautiful objects and ideas?  Affordable, purple beauty is just beyond the jump....

Apples to Apples

To compliment Colby’s post, I thought I would write my first piece about research – one of the most unglamorous yet important tasks of a new bride. I got engaged three weeks ago and am new to the process of wedding planning. While I was initially overjoyed to spend my days googling wedding stuff and pinning reception photos, I learned nailing down specific price details is very overwhelming. 

My fiancé, Phil, and I are trying to determine the city where we will get married ; we have three great choices (all of which involve planning the wedding at a distance with vendors with which we are unfamiliar): 1) Charleston, South Carolina; 2) New Orleans, Louisiana; and 3) Nashville, Tennessee. Because we love all of these cities and have personal or family ties there, we decided that price may be a good determinant. In order to determine if there was one city that was clearly more affordable or too expensive, we began internet-based research to collect quotes/prices and came to an early conclusion: this is overwhelming! Based on the information provided online and in response to inquiries, it is nearly impossible to figure out which venues are in our budget and which are not. Why? The quotes you see online include or exclude a variety of different elements; it is really a lot of work to try and turn the quotes into comparable apples.

Brides Can Be Shrewd Negotiators, Too!

Congratulations, you are getting married!  Next up?...working with dozens of vendors to help make your special day the perfect day.  But how much should those vendors charge?  More likely than not, you can get similar services for less than what you are originally quoted.  How?  Here are some negotiation strategies that will save you hundreds, if not thousands.

Revel Blog

Wedding Flowers Don't Have to Cost a Pretty Penny

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Depending on your wedding budget, you may be looking for ways to avoid spending thousands of dollars on flower arrangements.  The typical rule of thumb is that 8-10% of the wedding budget should go to flowers.  Personally, I can't bare the thought of spending that much dough on something that won't last more than a few days.  More than that, I think awesome centerpieces can be made with few or no flowers.  Also, I'm thinking about skipping bouquets altogether (but I'll save that discussion for another post).  For now, let's stick to tablescapes!

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So, how about a single, submerged flower?  Some good ideas are single roses, orchids, hydrangeas, calla lillies, or even silk flowers.  Choose a beautiful tall vase (or two, or three), add in a floating candle, or a submersible LED light, and you are already on your way to high impact.  

Martha Stewart Weddings, photo by Raymond Hom

How about thinking outside the flower box altogether?  Are you having a beach wedding?  Shells and natural elements make an awesome tablescape.  What about stacks of interesting and beautiful books, plus pictures of you and your lover?  Add a few tea lights, and you have a romantic and interesting table design without spending big bucks.  The sky's the limit, as seen by this fresh fishbowl idea below!  Don't forget to incorporate your talents (or your collections), as well as those of your friends and family.  What ideas have you come up with? 

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Well, Hello There!

Thanks for checking out my new blog.  I've never done this sort of this before, so any advice and/or feedback is greatly appreciated.  I'm writing to you because I've come across so many wonderful ideas to help my fellow budget brides.  I wanted to share my findings, my projects, my ideas, my successes, and my failures with you.  

My hope is to have this serve as a resource for other brides (and their friends, families, grooms, etc.), and a repository for ideas and discussions.  I want to inspire others, and I want to hear about it!  Let's get the ball rolling, because there's no reason every bride cannot have her dream wedding on her very real budget.