By Lauren Gibaldi
Contributing writer
I've survived my first two weeks of planning! It's been an interesting journey, full of ups and downs and decisions. I'll explain.
My absolutely fantastic matron of honor got me a wedding planner/organizer (like this one from Target), which has been my best friend for the past two weeks. While it doesn't sound necessary to devote an entire planner to just one day - believe me, it is. It's organized into sections, so whenever I see an idea I love from a magazine (I've finished four so far - the Central Florida Bride magazine is extremely helpful), I tear it out and stick it in. Plus, there are calendars that let me know when I should complete certain tasks. I'm ridiculous about being organized.
The first thing you do after getting engaged is set a date. Well, you can't set a date until you find a location because despite your determination to have it on a certain day, the venue may already be booked. That happened quite a few times for us. For instance, we want a year of being engaged, so we're planning our wedding for next September. Our first reception venue choice was the Winter Park Farmer's Market. Although they had Saturday nights in August available, September, October AND November were completely booked. Good for them, bad for us.
We've been to see a few venues and from that, we've decided to spend a bit more on place, and save elsewhere. We don't want a hotel, because to use that seems impersonal. While we really loved the Orange County Regional History Center and the Orlando Museum of Art, we've decided against them (mostly due to price) and narrowed our list down to two. I'll, of course, let you all know what we choose in the end.
The dress is next. According to my mom (who used to work in bridal), I should allow quite some time to order the dress and get alternations. So, my deadline for a dress is January. Now, I like shopping like the next person, but I really do not want to spend a lot on this dress. Sure, I want it to be beautiful, but I find it very hard to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on a dress I'll wear one day. With that, we went to David's Bridal in the Millennia area. I found one possible contender. We also checked out Something Blue Bridal Salon, and although they have nice dresses, they were mostly above my price range.
As for now, that's it! Save the dates are next (and we'd love to go through a local vender). After that, photography. I know I'm going to be extremely picky about the photographer (while the traditional pictures are great, I'm really more into the photojournalism style), so this should be interesting.
Of course, suggestions are always appreciated.
Previous post
Contributing writer
I've survived my first two weeks of planning! It's been an interesting journey, full of ups and downs and decisions. I'll explain.
My absolutely fantastic matron of honor got me a wedding planner/organizer (like this one from Target), which has been my best friend for the past two weeks. While it doesn't sound necessary to devote an entire planner to just one day - believe me, it is. It's organized into sections, so whenever I see an idea I love from a magazine (I've finished four so far - the Central Florida Bride magazine is extremely helpful), I tear it out and stick it in. Plus, there are calendars that let me know when I should complete certain tasks. I'm ridiculous about being organized.
The first thing you do after getting engaged is set a date. Well, you can't set a date until you find a location because despite your determination to have it on a certain day, the venue may already be booked. That happened quite a few times for us. For instance, we want a year of being engaged, so we're planning our wedding for next September. Our first reception venue choice was the Winter Park Farmer's Market. Although they had Saturday nights in August available, September, October AND November were completely booked. Good for them, bad for us.
We've been to see a few venues and from that, we've decided to spend a bit more on place, and save elsewhere. We don't want a hotel, because to use that seems impersonal. While we really loved the Orange County Regional History Center and the Orlando Museum of Art, we've decided against them (mostly due to price) and narrowed our list down to two. I'll, of course, let you all know what we choose in the end.
The dress is next. According to my mom (who used to work in bridal), I should allow quite some time to order the dress and get alternations. So, my deadline for a dress is January. Now, I like shopping like the next person, but I really do not want to spend a lot on this dress. Sure, I want it to be beautiful, but I find it very hard to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on a dress I'll wear one day. With that, we went to David's Bridal in the Millennia area. I found one possible contender. We also checked out Something Blue Bridal Salon, and although they have nice dresses, they were mostly above my price range.
As for now, that's it! Save the dates are next (and we'd love to go through a local vender). After that, photography. I know I'm going to be extremely picky about the photographer (while the traditional pictures are great, I'm really more into the photojournalism style), so this should be interesting.
Of course, suggestions are always appreciated.
Previous post