Hi friends, it's Wednesday. That means time to talk weddings. So let's get right to it, shall we?
At least that's how it was in 1987.
So I started searching wedding blogs and Pinterest to find out the latest trends. I was surprised to see a glaring LACK of ice sculptures or nut cups.
Instead, here are some of the trends I found for today's modern brides:
-having a personal wedding website to explain things like how your napkins are really recycled banana peels. Organic peels, of course
-having a wedding registry where friends and family can donate to charity in lieu of gifts
-wearing designer shoes (ie: Manolo Blahnik) which cost as much as an entire 1987 wedding
-buying new decorations to look old (tired of vintage yet?)
-having a professional video to document the "couple's story, " consisting of 101 ways to kiss and holding up love signs to make sure everyone knows you actually love each other (see below). Just in case you mistake the video for a mouthwash commercial
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| Photo credit: The Bride's Cafe |
We didn't follow any of these trends.
However, one of the trends that will never go out of style, and that we embraced wholeheartedly, is organization. Planning a wedding, especially a DIY wedding, requires good record keeping, no matter what year or style.
Excel came to my rescue. I made a spreadsheet with 3 tabs: Jobs (to keep track of what the bride's and groom's family was responsible for), Budget, and Guest List (including addresses). The addresses in Excel can be used to print labels directly from the spreadsheet, if desired. (We hand addressed all of our invitations to be a little more personalized).
The next thing I did was buy a little orange notebook, made tabs and divided it into sections:
do list
shopping list
photography ideas
music / playlist ideas
design ideas / sketches
vendors (paid and balance owed)
reception set up: specific list of what goes in each area along with the tools, equipment, etc.
list of things to bring to reception site
I carried this little notebook around with me everywhere. It had pockets for color swatches, ribbon samples, and business cards of potential and hired vendors. When ideas would come or I would remember things I need to do, it would get jotted in my book. Everyday, I recorded what I had done that day on the wedding, who I called, what conversations I had, what I purchased and where, etc. This proved to be a big help when trying to remember if I had asked so and so about such and such.
Someday the book might be helpful when Janessa is planning her daughter's wedding. I am amazed at how many details need to be kept track of. No wonder mothers of the bride have a reputation for getting crazy.
Which is why I made this poster: Don't mess with me I am the mother of the bride!
The Retro Version
The Gangster Version
Feel free to forward this to any mothers you know who are planning a wedding. It's good to help each other. MOBs have to band together. That's what they do best :)
Well, that's all for this week.
Lots of love,
Ms Fish
Up Next Wedding Wednesday.... THEME.
6 comments:
Jenni, you certainly were organized and it paid off big time - everything went off beautifully....and it certainly will be fun for you and Janessa to look over your orange notebook in the future.
BTW, you should have taken a picture of your little orange book to show us a page from its contents...that would be fun to share with all of us.
I envy people who are organized! I'm sure it was a great day.
It was SUCH a beautiful shindig! And I would love to see this notebook too! :)
The unknown is your favorite Mindy Marley! I need to figure out how to actually function in this blog world of yours....
Oh Mindy! Glad you 'revealed' yourself. Thanks for your kind words. I did take pictures of the notebook...I think I'll post them at some point. OR even better... you could just come see it in person :)
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