Miss Cupcake, Philadelphia
Age and Occupation: 27, Graphic Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Construction Project Manager
Engagement Date: February 10, 2007
Wedding Date: September, 2008
Blogging Since: December 7, 2007
Venue: The Desmond Hotel in Malvern, PA
About Me: Mr. Cupcake and I hit it off at a Halloween party and immediately began a long-distance relationship. After two years, he moved to my neck of the woods, and a year and a half after that, he proposed at the “place we fell in love.” I am a true perfectionist who enjoys designing and creating more work for myself, so wedding planning is my perfect outlet. Mr. Cupcake and I are both old souls, and we hope to weave that aspect of our personalities into our wedding day.
Unloading Baggage
July 2nd, 2008 @ 12:29 pm by Miss Cupcake
On Friday night, Mr. Cupcake and I had a cleaning party in our apartment — I know, we are absolutely wild!!! In our defense, though, our apartment was in dire need of some TLC, and neither of us could take the clutter anymore, so we decided that playing music and having a few beers while we cleaned would make it a lot less painful.One thing that I had to realize while we were cleaning: a LOT of the clutter in our apartment is the result of wedding planning. I have been storing a lot of wedding items in my mom’s basement (like my now-over-275 pieces of cut glass that will hold candles at our reception), but a lot of items have still seeped into our living space. The biggest culprit: my wedding magazines.
You may recall my creative storage solution for housing my mags…. but the truth is that the wine rack didn’t even hold 1/4 of the wedding magazines I have accumulated over the last 16 months. Others were hiding out on shelves, in corners, and under couches. Mr. Cupcake treaded carefully when broaching the topic, but when he mentioned the idea of possibly getting rid of a few, I knew he was right. Even though I was holding on to them for so long because I didn’t want to risk throwing away the most perfect idea for something that I had forgotten about, I had to face the fact that even if the perfect ideas are hiding in there, I am way too busy to sit there and look through them all again over the next 2.5 months!
So, I gathered a majority of them (except the REALLY good ones), spent one last somber moment with them, and said my goodbyes.
It may sound silly, but it actually felt pretty good to get rid of these. We’re getting much closer to the wedding now, and it’s time that I stop looking for ideas and just focus on sticking with the ideas I have already come up with and getting things completed. Having so many bridal magazines in the apartment was just making me feel pressured to leave no stone unturned to ensure every detail of our wedding is absolutely perfect, but I have to realize that perfection is just not a reasonable expectation (nor is it necessary!). Getting the magazines out of our apartment feels like I have unloaded a lot of unnecessary wedding baggage, and now it’s time to just move forward and be happy with all of my decisions.
Has wedding planning started to clutter your living space…. and conscience?
15 Responses to “Unloading Baggage”
What is threatening to take over my space is silk flowers — my mom and I are doing ALL of the arrangments, so every couple of weeks we have another big bag from the 70% off rack at Michael’s.
And oddly enough, I have yet to purchase a single wedding magazine. I wonder if there’s something wrong with me? 
I was so excited after the honeymoon when I could finally clear out our guest bedroom and have some space again! It was completely taken over by favors, programs, hotel greeting gifts, centerpieces…
It was REALLY nice to have my space back again! It’s amazing how much it helped me de-stress.
Becky
Cupcake I’m right there with you. Bridal magazines are everywhere… and if I’m being honest- so are every other type of magazine: home design, fashion, fitness- I have them all stored in every nook and cranny. But when I move in a couple months- I know I’m going to have to do the same thing
Hi! My name is Mindy, And, I too, am a wedding mag junkie.
I had a similar problem when we moved into another apartment this Spring. There were inspiration pictures and spreads that I could not part with, so I went through each and every hoarded page and tore out pictures of my favorite real-weddings, etc. I have a huge file and I plan to scan them in and throw them away…sometime. Thankfully, a lot of wedding blogs already scanned in many of the pages and I can toss them.
Aw, I hope you donated them, because even the older issues can be helpful to a future bride. I fully believe in reusing before recycling and a nice pile of wedding magazines would make a newly engaged woman on a budget very happy! I know what you mean about the clutter, but I promised my friends and sister I would send all the magazines their way once I am done, lol!
Like others, I also handed my pile of wedding magazines over to a friend that was newly engaged. Wedding porn is not cheap so I felt better that someone else was able to use them again.
I actually had a breakdown at the grocery store and I literally had to tell the inanimate bridal magazine that it costed too much and that I had way too many already, and I had better use for $7 - like stickers or tulle.
Then I went home and made paper mache hats for a BM event my parent hosted a few weeks later. Cutting them up was just as rewarding as the ideas inside. FH was SO happy.
I would gladly take them if you did not throw them away yet! I still have plenty of time to obsess over new ideas
I feel your pain! Right now my entire kitchen is overtaken with newspaper and gocco supplies, as well as our computer room has wedding supplies all over the floor. Because of the short work week, I am spending this weekend cleaning! Although, I just can’t part with my bridal magazine just yet!
YES! It’s currently cluttering up my guest bedroom - which is TOTALLY not an issue…until we actually have guests visiting.
Darn 4th of July Holiday weekend!!
yep. my bridal mag collection is tiny, but came to us via a friend who had a wedding and passed them on. the invitation suite, centerpieces and other assorted wedding stuff, however, have laid claim to our dining room and are threatening a coup. as a counterattack, i’ve corralled all goods into tidy bins and stacked them neatly, but with the next DIY project, i fear the tide may turn again…
last weekend, though, i did clean out my closet, which felt great! all the random clothes/accessories/books i’m now parting with are the inspiration for a big girly slumber party and clothes exchange. my place is too small, so my MOH is hosting. we’ll get a group of gals together for some girly time and then put out all the goods - what we no longer want may be the next person’s fashion find. whatever goes unclaimed will be donated. so, some free “shopping” a good time and clean closets, a total win-win-win scenario.
@akimbo - great idea! since mine were donated, i was hoping to keep it going, but don’t know any new brides in my area. however, i’m going to post on my local bee board.
First I never allowed myself to buy a bunch of wedding magazines since I prefer the internet. But the ones I did collect went to my friend who’s getting married in ‘09.
Our apartment could very well could have been overrun by wedding mags as well, but I got a 3-ring binder and tore out all the pages of stuff I like and file them away in the binder. Then as soon as something I needed ideas for is fulfilled (like the wedding dress), I immediately threw out those idea tear sheets. I want to avoid second-guessing my decisions as much as possible.
When we reach STD/invitation time, I think gocco supplies are totally going to do us in, though.
My fiance and I live in an apt that is around 650 sq ft. We are 9 months out now from the wedding, and already I am seeing the magazine pile up. I’m sure it will only get worse as I start doing my DIY projects!!
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