Wedding Planning: The Ultimate To Do List (Part 1)
Last week I got together with the lovely Vanessa. After chatting for a bit about how her wedding planning is coming along, I realized that having just gone through the planning process myself, I had a few handy-dandy tips for my brides-to-be out there!
I thought it may be nice to put together a little blog post with all of the websites that were beyond helpful when I planned my own wedding last year. Here's a few to start the ball rolling!
First up: Fiftyflowers.com! Ahh-May-Zing. What a money saver! Yes, it took a little more work than just having them delivered by a florist, but putting together your flowers is something that is very doable, and with a little help from a few friends, takes no time at all!
Easy process: you can search by color, specific flower, etc. I personally really wanted a big fluffy flower like a peony or garden rose, but considering the season of our wedding (autumn), we opted for huge carnations and mums, which filled up the vases so well and had the same visual effect I was hoping to achieve.
Best customer service, ever! They called as soon as the order was placed to confirm. They called when the flowers left their facility. They called to let me know they arrived at the postal center. They called to verify that I indeed was the one that had just signed for them. They called the next day to make sure they were good. Awesome experience, and couldn't recommend them enough if you're feeling like you can tackle the floral process!
Every photo you see of our wedding day was taken by the AMAZING Laura Ivanova of Laura Ivanova Photography. Now, the websites listed are all aimed to help save you time and money, which all brides like! However, the first thing & most important investment that we gladly spent money on was our photographer: worth.every.penny. The photos of your day, if they're done by the right photographer, will bring you right back to the moment every time you look at them for the rest of your life! Invest in those memories, people!!!
2nd website lifesaver: Save-on-Crafts! Hold on to your glue guns ladies, we've hit the mother-load! Burlap, lace, birch bark, cake toppers, gift boxes, nests, floral, moss, banners, cake stands, chalkboard, mercury glass.... my heart SINGS for this site! If you ever had an "I could make that!" moment, this site is for you. Every piece of a DIY project you could possibly need is on this site, and at SUCH reasonable prices. Happy shopping :)
Purchases (Left to Right): 1. birch vases, chalkboard tags + twine 2. gray flower girl basket 3. sola flowers hand-painted with watercolor 4. gray striped paper straws
Our wedding took place in Long Island, Thor's childhood home. Sounds fantastic, in theory. However, we live in North Carolina. My family is in DC. Most of our friends are spread out across the country: FL, CO, TN, MN, KY, etc! So, planning a stateside "destination" wedding was pretty darned tricky. Well worth it...amazing...wonderful, yes! Of course! But very tricky! Specifically when it came time to book services, and we weren't able to go check them out for ourselves: bakers, musicians, officiants, etc. Then, I came across this little web gem: Gigmasters.com!
We were able to contact multiple musicians + officiants from NC, preview the musicians set list and hear them perform. The people we booked were great, the process was simple and we stayed in budget very easily by only contacting those who fell into our price range.
Good luck Ladies ( + you super helpful Grooms)!!! 2nd round of the To Do list will be up soon :)