A Nontip For You

Today's tip concerns the guestlist/RSVPs.

Here's a really great tip: No matter what you do, how hard you plan, how many wedding blogs/books/magazines you read, nothing's an exact science and you can't plan for the unplannable. Yeah, that's what I call a nontip. Just a heads up really. Lol. Yes, this can encompass many things involved in the planning process, but more specifically I'm talking about trying to guesstimate how many people will be at your wedding.

For example, "they" say you should expect 30% of the amount of people you invite will not be there. So when estimating size for a venue, costs for catering, amount of alcohol to purchase, how many favors you'll need, how many place settings you'll need, etc., you should take 30% of your total invited amount and just expect them not to be there. I mean, it is a good estimate, but nothing's really going to be exact. Shoot, it might not even be close! In my case, I had a whopping 57% not come! Yeah, that's a lot. I originally invited 160 people, and had 86 coming within the final week... then 5 dropped out in the week before... then 5 dropped out the DAY before. Then 6 people just didn't show. That's right, just.didn't.show. To quote Stephanie Tanner, "How rude!" It's a good thing we didn't pay per plate. It's also a good thing I love to freeze leftovers, although that doesn't help the extra plates and glasses I had to rent. Tip: Please make sure to let people know within a decent amount of time that you can't come. I could've cut down my catering and rental costs by a lot if I knew how many people would drop out at the last minute.

Oh right, then there were 4 people I made HANDMADE invites for and NEVER heard from. Like what the hell? Again - how rude! Tip: If you can't make it to someone's wedding, TELL THEM! Trust me, if they're upset that you can't come it'll be MUCH less upset (or pissed off!) than they'll be if you just don't respond. You'll never truly understand the importance of RSVPs, or how much it will piss you off when someone doesn't RSVP, until you plan a wedding. So if you're not married yet, trust me on this one.

This will also really gnaw at you when you start to realize that you could have invited those people you initially left off the guestlist because it was getting out of hand. If I would have known that certain people wouldn't have the courtesy to even RSVP (or RSVP and then not show up), then I wouldn't have invited them in the first place. Oh, btw, did I mention it was initially 14 people, but I had to basically stalk THEM for MY wedding, and out of those 14 I never got a response from 4, yeah.

Oops. This kind of turned into a rant. Sorry! But maybe it's a rant that will prepare another bride that such things could happen... and therefore still a tip. :)

-C
xxx

Tip 'o The Day - Booze

I knew three things from the get-go in regards to booze for our wedding: I wanted to spend as little as possible, while making it not look like it, and have good beer. I'm pretty sure all 3 were accomplished, even if it didn't go according to plan. Good beer was important to me, because I will admit I'm a beer snob. If I even look at Bud, Coors, or Miller Light I get a headache. So even if it was for a selfish purpose, the rest of our guests benefitted from it! Lol.

We got kegs instead of bottles, had wine in a box, and made sangria from wine in a box as well. I got a ton of sangria recipes from people, but when it got down to crunchtime, our "Serendipity Sangria" had very few ingredients (and we got TONS of compliments on it): lemon lime soda, box-o-white wine (Franzia's Refreshing White), and green fruit! We used pears, apples and grapes. Even MOB liked it, and she doesn't really even drink! I had big plans of putting all the boxed wine into these glass drink dispensers we purchased so that no one would know it was boxed, but we ran out of time and that didn't happen. I also had an arrangement with the caterer that one of his people would "bartend" and pour beer from the kegs and wine from the boxes. You know what? That didn't happen either, and not one of our guests cared that they had to pour their own drinks, or that they came from kegs/boxes. So note to you all out there: it is possible to spend just a little over $300 on alcohol for your wedding, while still pleasing your guests as well as yourself.

If anyone is wondering, as I know I was stressing over calculating it all, we estimated that we would have about 80 people at the wedding, bought 2 boxes red, 4 boxes white (2 were for sangria), and had 4- 1/4 kegs of beer. It was the perfect amount. We ended up having a few less people (another post, another day...), and had an almost full keg of bud light (I guess because the rest of the beer was better), but I'm glad we got what we did because we didn't run out and everyone got enough. Score!

-C
xxx

Tip 'o The Day - Spend The Bucks On...

1 - an awesome photographer(s). I know this tip is all over the wedding world, but can't hurt to mention again! I haven't gotten our proofs back yet from ours (um we were only married on Saturday), but I know they're going to be sick. We saw some of the pics on the camera and they were freaking awesome. Not to mention, Julie and Gary (Hughes Fioretti Photography) were just a joy to work with. That can mean so much! They are fun people with tons of energy and creative ideas, which makes me totally confident that the big bucks spent on their services and travel was toootally worth it. I mean, come on, they even did a ring shot on gummi frogs. How perfect is that?? So trust me, these are your memories from your big day, do you really want to skimp on those??

2 - Your dress. Sure, if you can get your dream dress for a dream price, by all means do it! But don't buy 2 other cheap dresses that you only kind of like (um, like me) and then find your dream dress. Wait til you find the one. Do you know how hard it is to sell those other dresses?

PS anyone need a cheap wedding dress?? I've got 2 to sell! :)

-C
xxx

Tip 'o The Day - Totally DIY Wedding

*While on my honeymoon I thought I'd share a few tips I learned during the wedding planning process. Recaps coming soon!*

Not gonna lie, our wedding was pretty freaking awesome. However, I'm here today to tell you that having a completely DIY wedding takes a LOT more work than you think. I'm not talking doing decorative projects for your venue. That's a lot of work, yes, but doable. DIY backyard wedding, where you are the coordinator (and since you're the bride as well, unable to be coordinator all the time), and it's your own backyard. I'm not trying to talk anyone out of it, because I wouldn't have done it any other way, but word to the wise - it's a LOT of work, and if you don't have awesome friends like I do, you're going to have a really hard time with it. I would recommend a day of coordinator to anyone and everyone... except myself. I know that's contradictory, but I know that as stressful as my wedding day was (and days leading up to it), I ENJOYED it immensely. But that's just me. That's because I LOVE this stuff. Executing an event and paying attention to all the tiny details is what I do well. It's what I love. It's my thang, if you will. But for anyone else for whom it's not, get a coordinator. You won't regret being able to relax on your wedding day. I went for hair and nails, but couldn't relax because all I wanted to do was be back at the house doing things with everyone. I was told over and over that night how wonderful everything was, and I truly do think it was great, but there were things that didn't get done because I wasn't there to do them and no one else knew they were to be done! I can't thank all of my helpers enough. I wouldn't have been able to make my vision happen if it wasn't for them. Just wait til I show you pictures of everything they did! I have awesome, amazing friends. Anyhoo, that's my tip 'o the day.

-C
xxx

It's My Wedding Week!

Alright folks. I've got a sh-tload to do this week, seeing as how I'm GETTING MARRIED ON SATURDAY so I'm anticipating no blogging til after the nuptuals. There will be plenty of recaps and pictures after I get back from my honeymoon, though! You know, when I no longer have a wedding to plan (that actually makes me so sad!)! I'm scheduling some tip blogs for while I'm on my honeymoon. Hope you like.

Here's hoping it's a beautiful day like this:

(It's supposed to be 74 and sunny with 0% chance of rain as of today's weather forecast!)

And that I don't end up like this:

Or this:

All pictures via Google search

If I get free time (HAHAHAHAHA) or get the blogging bug (more likely than the former), you'll be seeing me on this space. But for now, it's adios muchachos. See you on the married side.

AAHH!

-C
xxx

Green Flags

via Team Green Britain

I have been obsessed with the "Green Britain Day" logo since the very first time I saw it. It was love at first sight. I'm sure it's probably obvious why. I mean, it's green. Come on. And FH is British and I have this thing where I buy anything with Union Jack on it, or says London. (His response, "Do we have to buy everything that says London?" the answer is obviously yes!) And plus the Green Britain Day logo is just plain awesome looking:

via Team Green Britain

I was AMAZED and shocked and HORRIFIED (ok maybe not quite horrified) to find out that they didn't actually SELL anything with this on it. It's only in ads. Are you kidding? In America, if there was something like this, it would be at every major chain and people would be buying it up like there's no tomorrow (because we're suckers like that). Anyway, all I wanted was a dress (not pictured, but I've seen it on the billboards), or even a freaking mug. Nope! It's for billboard purposes only. No Green Britain plate settings or guitars. Not even a T-shirt. Trust me, I googled my brains out looking for it.

So for our wedding I decided to make my own, and do one for both the British and American flags. Obviously it's not nearly as cool as the original, but it's the thought that counts... I was originally scared that people might get upset over the fact that the flags are green. Americans, at least, can be hyper sensitive about their flags. But then I decided it looked cool and I was doing it anyway.

(pinned and pre sewing)

I was determined to sew it by myself. If I'd started this project like 9 months ago I would have. But A - I suck big time at sewing and B - MOB said it'd be quicker if she did it (true story). BUT I designed it and pinned everything into place for her to sew it on! I really liked the quilted look that the original had, so that's what I was going for. I used pieces of 3 different green fabrics to achieve this.


I couldn't tell you where to get those dowel thingies if I wanted to. I think I've told you before that I keep things that I feel like I could have a use for someday. Well, a decoration that we used for a past event at work broke, and had these white dowel thingies on either end. I had to throw out the rest, but kept these for some unknown reason. Sooo yeah, I have no idea where to actually buy them. Sorry!

Anyway, I plan on hanging these from shepherd's hooks somewhere in the yard for the wedding. You like?

-C
xxx

Licensed to Kill... My Brother?

We're licensed to marry now. I mean, technically there's a 72 hour waiting period (and we applied for it on Friday), but we're basically licensed. This did not happen without incident, though. You see, my brother kind of has a reputation. A reputation which makes every single one of my friends who is coming to the wedding say, "Oh my god - I can't wait til your wedding... so I can meet your brother!" No joke. People aren't looking forward to seeing me in a white dress, or checking out all my little DIY touches. No. They're interested in seeing the man (boy), the myth, the (infamous) legend, that is Brett. My brother is special. He pretty much just doesn't *get* a lot of things. He makes me do the face palm a lot.

via Google Images

He gets some of it from MOB, for sure. For example: We went to a NEW YORK (this is important) Mets game one year (me, MOB, and my brother) and it was a day where they were giving things away at the gate. They gave us all Mets jerseys as we walked in. So we put them on and went to our seats. You know those electronic scrolling banner things? Well it started scrolling "Jersey Day!" and MOB goes, "Look! Look guys! It's Jersey Day!" As in, she thought it was NEW Jersey day... in New York (we're from NJ, if you don't know, so she was really excited that we were there for NEW Jersey day). My brother and I were like... "umm mom, we just got jerseys when we walked in. It's THAT jersey day. Not NEW Jersey day." She's going to kill me for writing this, but I couldn't just pick on Brett. Ok, I could have, but this is more fun. :)

Every time I try to remember a Brett story to tell someone, I can't come up with one. But trust me, there are PLENTY. MOH Cassie could probably tell you some good ones. As I mentioned above, the newest one has to do with us getting our marriage license. I left work early on Friday to get up to NJ in time for us to get our license (since there's that 72 hour waiting period and we weren't planning on going back to Jersey til like 2-3 days before the wedding). Well, I TRIED to leave work early. We ended up being a little late. As in, they close at 4pm and we didn't get there til 4:05pm (I called to make sure we could still come down and LUCKILY they said yes!). We had no other choice but to have my brother come as our witness. We get there and the registrar says she has to ask him a few questions and my face must've visibly dropped. OH NO. Brett?? Questions?? Crap, I didn't know about this or I would have picked anyone else! I didn't prep him! This is going to be disastrous! Ok so it wasn't disastrous, but it was pretty funny. The registrar asked him a few questions and then asks him if he's aware of either of us lying on our application (but in legal jargon) and he pauses and says yes, quite proudly (bc he didn't understand the question, but thought the right answer was yes). The woman looks at him and whispers "The answer is no."

via Google Images

Classic Brett. I then asked if I could get a new witness. Lol.

Hope you all had a good weekend. I'm at less than 2 weeks and about to lose my mind.

-C

xxx

PS Did you know it's legal to marry your first cousin in New Jersey? Yeah. Even worse than that being legal is the fact that it's listed on the FAQs section of their website. Why is that a Frequently Asked Question?! I wonder what other things are legal out there. I mean, if this is happening in NJ, lord knows what's happening in, say, Alabama! :)

It's Really Real!

via Google Images

We're going to get our marriage license this afternoon. And getting married in 2 weeks (and 1 day)! This is really happening. How crazy! How exciting! How... scary!?

No, I'm not scared to get married... yet. Although I know there's still plenty of time to freak out. I'm scared that things won't get done, or that I'll forget something major! I mean, I know the important projects will get done, but I can't help it. It's what I do. I plan events at work, and this happens when the big ones roll around. Well, what really happens is that I freak out (usually internally) in the days leading up to said event, then the day of I just let go of things that haven't gotten done. I tell myself no one knows what I was planning, so no one's going to notice what's not there. Hmm. Do you see the irony there? Yeah. I have a blog. EVERYONE knows what I'm planning for my wedding. Damn! Maybe that's why I've recently had this problem with posting pictures of my projects. That way, if certain things don't get done, no one will be able to say, "Hey! I saw blah blah blah on your blog. Where is it?" Not to mention I'm all of a sudden having a problem with sharing every detail because I want people to be surprised by SOME things. I guess maybe before there was the chance people would forget about some of my projects and when they see them at the wedding go, "Ooh! I forgot about when I read about that!" But now? The possibility of people forgetting things within 2 weeks is pretty slim. I promise I'll post pics of everything after the wedding. I hope you'll still read my blog after I'm hitched? Pretty sure I'll still have plenty to say if you'll still listen. :)

Like I alluded to above, I've been getting things done that you haven't seen. I still have A LOT (at least in my mind) to do, but here's a taste of some things that I've managed to fit in, inbetween unpacking and cleaning for FH to get here. Yup, FH is here now, for good! :)

- my bolero is practically done. had my fitting with Bonnie this weekend. This was the first fitting, which is ridiculous because she's been doing this all off of measurements she took and it fits perfectly! Can't wait to see the final product!
- placecards - DONE!
- programs - 78% DONE! (I just need to go get more of the accent paper from Michaels this weekend and they'll be completely done!)
- coasters with conversation starters calligraphed on the back - DONE!
- booked rentals for things like plates, utensils, etc.: TaylorRental
- booked potties: Mr.John
- ordered/received the candy for my candy bar (aka candy buffet, but I like bar better): MetroCandy is SO FAST! I ordered it Monday evening and it was here by Wednesday.
- ordered cupcake liners for our dessert (spoiler alert - we're having cupcakes!) from Etsy seller LittleMonsterHugs (I spent wayyyy too much time worrying about this, but I can't help that I wanted them to be pretty! It's ridiculous the things I worry about, and the things I don't. Lol.)

My hair trial's tomorrow, too!

Alright, alright. I'll give you one picture. Let's see if you can figure out what they are!


Happy Labor Day Weekend ya'll!

-C
xxx