nicola mae plans a wedding
11
Whew! Time Flies!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: | January 11th, 2012
So. It’s less than a year till the old nuptials and I’ve got a lot done. And… I may have blown my budget slightly. Really, though, it’s slight. Let’s discuss.
My budget was based off of my sister’s 2006 wedding and wouldn’t you know it, food was a lot cheaper! Unless I wanted to feed my guests tapas (not a bad idea really), I needed to extend my budget for the food. I also needed to compromise. I can’t remember if I discussed it here because I’ve discussed it a gazillion times over the last six months, but I didn’t want to do a buffet. I hate buffets. Mostly, I hate buffets at restaurants because I like taking home my left overs for breakfast (and sometimes lunch) the next day. With buffets, I feel the food quality suffers plus you pay a lot for all-you-can-eat and I can’t eat that much. Also, buffets encourage over-eating which is unhealthy. Moving on.
I really wanted to have everything family style but the caterer, Cabbage Patch Restaurant, ever-so-kindly talked me out of what have been a big mistake. A big mistake because there’s a ton of waste and a ton of expensive staff. With a ton of waste comes big platters sitting all over tables. Then because the tables wouldn’t be big enough to hold all the big platters, I would need to rent bigger tables (whereas my venue supplies a bunch of round tables that seat 8 for free). That also means bigger linens which also ads to the cost. See where I’m going here? Family style is a bad idea for me. For you, maybe things are different.
My second choice was the plated meal. My caterer also did a good job of convincing me not to do this option. It’s too expensive because of the extra labor. Apparently, one must pay one’s waiter. And so, I announce, I’ll be serving a buffet of very delicious food at (ahem) 8 dollars per person more than my original budget. Ouch! And so that, my friends, is why I went over budget. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Aside from the caterer, I’ve also got my florist, cake baker, musician, venue, dress, and decor. They are listed in that tab that discusses the folks I’ve hired. I also need to include that if it weren’t for my wedding coordinator, BreeAnn Gale, I probably wouldn’t be this together with the wedding. I highly recommend hiring a BreeAnn!
29
Fitting the Dress
Filed under: Bridezilla-ness, Helpful Resources, What I Learned | Tags: | May 29th, 2011
Previously I wrote about being health conscious. A friend of mine saw my post and suggested Calorie King, a website that encourages weight loss through calorie monitoring, food and exercise diaries, and healthful tips. Of course, since this friend suggested it, I immediately tried it out and liked it. It’s similar to the Weight Watcher’s Online program but there are no points, just flat out calories and numbers. My favorite parts about this website is that it breaks everything down into steps. You don’t just dive right in, you gently nudge yourself into creating new healthful eating habits. It isn’t a dieting program either. My favorite part of the website is that the food diary doesn’t just record how many calories I’ve consumed but it also lets me know my cholesterol intake, my sodium, sugar, fat, sat fat, and protein intake as well.
You do have to pay for the program but there was a sale price of 56 dollars for an entire year which makes this a budget friendly weight loss program. I haven’t weighed myself so I’m not sure how I’m doing. I do know that I’ve started working out again and stairs aren’t as daunting as they were a couple of weeks ago. Phew on that one!
22
A Great Book for the DIY Bride
Filed under: Helpful Resources | Tags: | May 22nd, 2011
I took a chance and bought a book that seemed to have good ideas. And the “seemed” aspect turned into a reality when I opened it up for the first time. In this book there are multiple theme options, craft ideas that incorporate my chosen theme and even ideas on how to modify other craft ideas for other themes to work with your chosen theme. What book is this? Handmade Weddings comes with my full recommendations. I cannot wait to start making stuff. What theme did I chose? Homespun Retro. See? It’s that cool!
22
Wedding on a budget? Seriously, hire a Wedding Planner!
Filed under: What I Learned | Tags: | May 22nd, 2011
I know this sounds counter intuitive. If one has a strict small budget, why should one hire a wedding planner? Answer. Because a good, well-seasoned wedding planner knows the business and he or she can help you avoid venues that nickel and dime, can help you avoid costly mistakes, can help you save time, and provide creative ideas.
In this case, I hired a gal which, since I haven’t asked permission to use her name yet, will simply call her “Gale.” Gale, like other wedding planners have a variety of wedding planning packages from the whole kit-and-caboodle planning, to what she called, “Final Coordination Package.” A Final Coordination package, as explained to me, gets you day-of help. She will set up and take down and make sure all the vendors are in order. I paid for a package slightly above that to get a little extra help.
So far, what I’ve gotten is golden information about tipping, table sizes, linen sizes for table sizes, good suggestions for local venues… and we haven’t really started. I have a meeting in June to kick start the wedding planning. I will update you all on how awesome hiring Gale is then. Oh, and I should mention, yes, it’s costing me around $2000, and yes, is a lot of money, but a venue and mistakes can easily take you well over the $2000. (Not to mention the stress of it all!) Some wedding planners will do payment options should you hire them well enough in advanced to do so. Do your homework on wedding planners. Don’t just hire the cheapest. Check out Yelp and bridal sites to see what other brides have had to say about these planners. Then, email around. See what they can do for you. I’m sure you won’t be sorry.
5/23/11
PS. My wedding planner is Pink Blossom Events