Miss Camera, Charlotte, NC/Charleston, SCAge and Occupation: 27 & Emergency Room Physician Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 31 & Newspaper Editor/Designer
Engagement Date: October 7, 2012Wedding Date: September 2013Venue: The Island House, Charleston, SCAbout Me: I'm a north-to-south transplant, currently living in Charlotte, North Carolina, but still representing all things Pittsburgh, PA. One month after I moved to NC, I went on a date with a guy I met on Match.com, and now we're getting married! I work in a busy Emergency Room as a Physician Assistant and while the hours are sometimes difficult, I can't see myself doing anything else. I live with my fiance in uptown Charlotte. We have an opinionated 5 year old tabby cat named Milo and a sweet, but rambunctious 8 month old mutt named Charlie (short for Charlotte - she's a girl!). I've embraced Southern culture, and our wedding is no exception---what better location than Charleston, SC? I watch too much TV and know every word to every episode of Friends (I've watched The One With Monica and Chandler's Wedding at least a hundred times...hope I have enough money for Wedding Scenario A!). I love baking cupcakes, cheering for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Penn State Nittany Lions and am openly addicted to celebrity gossip and pop culture.
Sorry for the lag in posting, but I’m having some family health issues. Anyway, back on track—our wedding is turning into the most expensive backyard cookout of all time. It’s under a tent, next to a river…but there will be no vans in site, sorry Matt Foley…
Image via GifSoup.com
Early on we decided we did not want the hotel ballroom wedding with crystal chandeliers and uplighting in our designated wedding colors. We knew we wanted it to be more about having a good time and a fun experience, which in our circle of friends means two things: drinking and cornhole.
Growing up and going to college in Pennsylvania, we didn’t play much of this wonderful game. When I moved to North Carolina, it was everywhere I turned:
Miss Bicycle, Tallahassee, FL/Savannah, GAAge and Occupation: 30, Staff Director for Florida LegislatureFiance's Age and Occupation: 46, Government AffairsEngagement Date: August 16, 2012Wedding Date: October 2013Venue: Trinity United Methodist Church/GaribaldiAbout Me: I'm a Northerner by birth and a Southerner at heart, rooting for the New York Yankees all summer and the New Orleans Saints in the fall. Mr. Bicycle is a born-and-raised Floridian who lives for Gator football. We are political junkies and triathletes who love to travel and enjoy good food and wine. We have 16 years between us, and I am excited about becoming a step-mom to two great children. Our fleur de lis-filled wedding will be held one magical October evening in Savannah, Georgia, and we cannot wait!
Like many brides, I want to be somewhat “traditional” on my wedding day, but at the same time I want our day to reflect us. I think we are planning a good mix of what traditions to use and to what lose.
Traditions to Use
First Dance: I will go into more detail later, but we are already so excited for our first dance as husband and wife. No, we won’t be one of those cool couples who surprises everyone with an awesome dance, although I love how that is becoming popular. We are just very excited about the song we selected and we can’t wait to share it with our friends and family.
Love this! Photo by Kimberley Bednarski Anderson / Image via KB Image Photo
Somethings: We all know the expression: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.” And sometimes “a sixpence in her shoe” is included, although I don’t think I will go that far. I like this one a lot—it is a neat way to tie us brides together. You can easily incorporate these details into your ensemble, and it is sweet to remember the special meaning of each piece. I already know my earrings (and possibly shoes) will be my something blue. I think I am borrowing Bridesmaid Runner’s veil, so that will be my something borrowed. My dress will be new. Until a few nights ago, the only missing piece was something old—but then Mr. B gave me this:
Miss Scooter, IndianapolisAge and Occupation: 27, IT Project ManagerFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Operations ManagerEngagement Date: July 27, 2012Wedding Date: September 2013Venue: Indianapolis ArtsgardenAbout Me: I am a fun-loving list-obsessed gal who enjoys watching the Food Network on Saturday mornings and then butchering the recipes in real life. I have fun blogging, chatting with my friends, and trying new crafts. My fiancé enjoys gentlemanly pursuits (a fancy way of saying whiskey and golf) but also likes his quiet personal time. We met at Purdue University and are planning a fun-filled wedding with many personal touches. We are so excited to share this journey with you.
Finalizing our budget had to be the hardest thing for us to do for a multitude of reasons. One of the main reasons being neither Mr. Scooter nor I have had to really consider one another when making financial decisions. When Mr. Scooter wanted to spend a ridiculous amount of his hard earned money on ONE golf club…I had no say in it. Although I had my personal opinions, I kept them to myself since I didn’t want him to comment on my frequent runs to get outfits. Shortly after Before even getting engaged, I started researching activities to do once you are engaged. My search engine was filled with “you’re engaged, now what” or “top 10 things to do after your engagement.” I wasn’t surprised that every one said SET A BUDGET! So now, we had to decide how our money would be used…interesting.
OK, that is simple enough…right? Well, for me it wasn’t. If you are a newly engaged person (or soon to be) don’t feel bad if you don’t have a starting point to creating a budget, the Scooters were in the same boat. So I want to walk you through how we created our budget.
Research percentage breakdown of weddings. We researched the typical standard percentage breakdown of the average wedding. This allowed us to understand the baseline of what has been spent. Since we are both analytical people, we want to easily be able to know if we are getting a “bargain” by going with one option or another. We used free resources from websites like The Knot and Cost of Wedding.
Add to the list provided by the online resources. So now that we had an idea of large “buckets” that comprise a wedding, we sat down to see if there were any obvious sections we thought we should add. After all, it is going to be our wedding and we wanted to have a comprehensive list of what we want. We actually didn’t add anything to the list. Instead, we made notes of what should be included in a section. (For example, we will put the photo booth in with the entertainment/music.)
Prioritize the list and adjust percentage accordingly. After the list is compiled, we then prioritized the list. This actually helped in creating our theme. Since flowers were not that important, we were both OK with slashing the flowers budget because we would only need them for the ceremony. This gave us the latitude to tell people “We are going to have a flowerless reception.” Conversely, we found that cocktail and dinner (read: bar package) was really important. We also knew that would come with a hefty price tag, so we decided to increase our reception/ceremony percentage. We also kept items like miscellaneous and “just in case” because things come up and we don’t want those thing to break our budget drastically.
Determine if you will have any help paying. In order to get an accurate picture of what you are working with, you have to know if any family members are going to help with it. The Scooters went into the planning process with the intention of paying for it by ourselves. **news alert** I am somewhat of a control freak, so I didn’t want to accept money and then have to deal with people’s opinions. Funny thing happened after we started planning our big day—both of our families agreed to put money toward our event. Papa Scooter’s contribution really caught us off guard. It was given as a “here is a lump sum, do with it what you want, just remember a wedding is one day and a marriage is a lifetime.” That was sound advice and I have taken it to heart. Like Papa Scooter, Mr. Scooter’s parents graciously agreed to give us money to use as we wanted.
Pick a figure that you can live with. We reviewed our long-term financial goals to pick the big number. As cliché as this sounds, we had to determine if we were willing to spend our proverbial “last dime” on this wedding. It was an easy decision for us that we wanted a quality experience for our wedding guests, but it was/is more important that our marriage be set up for success, which meant that we needed to reserve money after paying wedding expenses to go toward paying off debt.
Populate your spreadsheet. Adjust your percentage breakdown (step one) based on your prioritized list (step two) to fall within your final amount (step five).
Review the final budget to see if you can live with it.
I created a few picture to give you an idea of what we did. This is not our final budget number (I am going to save that for the recaps), but the percentage breakdowns are our forecasts.
Mrs. Toadstool, Obregon, MexicoAge and Occupation: 23, Research AssistantFiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Sales ManagerEngagement Date: October 1, 2011Wedding Date: December 2012Venue: Hacienda los AgavesAbout Me: I’m a born and bred Mexican girl with a severe coffee addiction, an obsession for books and an aversion for exercise. I like to plan things, so this wedding’s my dream project---I just need to remind myself from time to time that I’m the bride and not just the planner. I recently realized brown’s my favorite color as I was trying to incorporate it in every aspect of our wedding and I'm dreaming of an autumn vibe since we don’t have that around here. I’m marrying my best friend and partner in crime on the day of our nine-year anniversary! He’s an awesome, smart, fun guy who is patient, and crazy enough to spend the rest of his life with me. We’re planning our not-so-dreamy dream wedding in December in a non-traditional way and making it our own.
After we were done with pictures I decided to hide. Guests started to arrive and I didn’t want to be in sight until the ceremony.
The sun started to set in a beautiful way, giving our guest an awesome view while they waited for the ceremony to start, listening to the sweet notes of the Vitamin String Quartet.
Part of my dad’s side of the family in front of the beautiful sunset / Photo by Niece K
Meanwhile I hid in a small tunnel that goes under the pool’s waterfall, alone with my thoughts. And then I started rambling: I can’t breathe, why can’t I breathe? The dress is too tight, but if anything, it’s looser than it was when we were taking pictures and I was fine then. Am I nervous? Is that why I am hyperventilating? Why am I nervous?
Then I realized BM A had been there for a while, just listening to my rambling, ready to get me out of it: I have the car keys, just say the word and we’re out of here, and hive, she meant it. She knew I wasn’t going anywhere, but I’ve known this girl for 23 years, and it would have been out of character for her not to give me the option.
Miss Waterfall, MontrealAge and Occupation: 27, Litigation AttorneyFiance's Age and Occupation: 27, Political Attaché for a Member of ParliamentEngagement Date: September 17, 2011Wedding Date: June 2013Venue: Le WindsorAbout Me: I am a loud, crazy Cuban girl who comes from a small but incredibly overbearing and tight-knit family; I'm a girly girl and a Scorpio who loves roller coasters, drinks too much coffee, and sings along to everything. By day, I’m a bad-ass litigation attorney, and by night, an overly excited bride-to-be and (wannabe) DIY goddess. I’m marrying the sweetest, most romantic and patient French-Canadian boy who balances me out perfectly, makes me laugh every single day, and loves my eight-year-old golden retriever like his very own. We watch way too much TV and get super competitive over board games and trivia. We can’t wait to say “I do” in Montreal`s oldest chapel, just a few months shy of our 10-year anniversary.
Today I want to talk to you about my fur baby. WARNING: EXTREME PUPPYNESS AHEAD.
I had wanted a dog for literally as long as I can remember, and my parents finally caved and agreed to get one when I became old enough to take care of him.
Miss Campfire, Seattle, WAAge and Occupation: 26, Researcher, Counselor, StudentFiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Software Developer ManagerEngagement Date: January 14, 2012Wedding Date: September 2013Venue: Sodo ParkAbout Me: I'm currently a graduate student in mental health counseling, and I work at two super-awesome jobs. I love dinosaurs, shoes, macaroni and cheese, and fancy dresses. I love to cook and bake, and I'm very excited about getting crafty. Mr. Campfire and I met totally by chance at a party of a mutual friend, and the rest is history. Together we're planning a wedding that is lighthearted and sweet, featuring a ridiculous amount of lights/lanterns and some delicious food!
Sometimes when your heart is heavy and you’re feeling the pain of the world, you need to find something bright or silly to remind you that pain fades and that life goes on. This is a sentiment that I try to teach my clients, and something I try to remind myself. It’s OK to grieve, it’s OK to feel your sadness or your pain, and it’s OK to cry. But once you’ve acknowledged your emotions and given yourself the time to really give your feelings and your experience their appropriate due, it’s time to find something that will make you smile again.
We love, we grieve, and life moves on. That doesn’t mean forgetting, it means learning to live with the pain and the loss without letting it rule your world.
For me, one of the things that helps me smile again is to find something silly. Sometimes you laugh to keep from crying. So I’m sharing a little piece of our wedding that I hope will make you smile.
I’m incorporating dinosaurs. (I can almost see your looks of disbelief.) Yes, dinosaurs. They make me happy.
These are the dinosaurs from my office at work. I have more at home.
One thing I may not have made very clear up to this point is that I’m kind of a nerd. Dinosaurs are one of the ways that I express that.
Miss Road Trip, TallahasseeAge and Occupation: 36, Writer, Artist & BookkeeperFiance's Age and Occupation: 47, AccountantEngagement Date: September 30, 2011Wedding Date: November, 2013Venue: Honey Lake PlantationAbout Me: Born in Louisiana (I share my birthday with the state, which I think is pretty cool), I'm a Florida transplant who has (mostly) stopped trying to escape the state and surrendered to its particular charms. I believe in the power of creativity, cocktails, (parenthetical asides), and laughter (usually at my own expense). Riding shotgun, Mr. Road Trip is a Nebraska native who still hasn't gotten used to the Florida version of "winter" but loves woodworking as much as I love paper and paints. We're a couple of sci-fi and gaming geeks who always break for wine tastings. Our wine-a-plenty morning wedding will be small with lots of DIY touches. And lots of bacon.
Last time we talked about what is a page and how many of them you have. In this second part we’ll talk about paper basics, all the pretty colors, and why your printer might ask if your image bleeds. (It’s not as gross as it sounds, I promise.)
Look at all the pretty colors!
Paper
Let’s go back and talk a little more about paper (AKA stock), OK? Paper comes in different weights, finishes, and sometimes different colors (beside the standard white and ivory/natural), though as mills react to the tighter economy, a lot of the variation is going away—especially colors. Standard copy paper is described as 20lb or 50lb offset. The slightly heavier paper you might use for a resume or other stationery is usually a 24lb or 28lb writing and often has a texture to it, like linen or laid. Offset (when describing paper*) means that it’s otherwise uncoated; writing sheets are also uncoated.
Mrs. Sword, ChicagoAge and Occupation: 28, Nanny/ActressFiance's Age and Occupation: 28, Software EngineerEngagement Date: February 19, 2012Wedding Date: March 2013Venue: Embassy Suites Bloomington West in Bloomington, MNAbout Me: I am a true girly-girl originally from the great state of Minnesota and my fiancé hails from the beautiful country of Scotland. We met and fell in love in our favorite city, Chicago, and are having a blast blending our cultures for "A Highland Fairy Tale" wedding! We are truly a case of opposites attract in that he’s a world traveling introvert and I’m a social butterfly who is never too far from home. We both love hanging out with family and friends, fine dining, and laughing at ourselves. He drinks a lot of beer and I talk too much. We wouldn’t have it any other way!
I woke up around 6:00AM on the morning of our wedding to have a shower and a shave. Usually I do a lot of thinking in the shower but I barely remember taking one that day! I spent the morning lounging around with my girls in our hotel suite, trying to think too far ahead.
NO MAKEUP! HAPPY!
My fabulous hair/makeup artist, Laura, arrived around 7:00AM with two assistants in tow to help with curling and makeup. Laura is a total blast to have around and she’s really good about making everyone feel comfortable while still making the bride feel extra special. As you can see from the pics below, planning to have a specific girls getting ready room was a low-stress and super fun way to get ready.
I don’t think I will ever be able to express how easy and awesome it was to have everyone staying at the hotel where the wedding was taking place! The ladies got to roll out of bed and ride an elevator (if they dared) to our room on level two to begin their day. No coats, no driving, no stress.
paolapiopi shares a photo from her trash the dress session in Colombia.
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