Wedding Help At Your Fingertips: January 2008

Meet Our "Real Life" Brides

Take this opportunity to meet our "real life" brides. We will be following them and blogging about their experiences from getting engaged to getting married. We will be introducing you to our brides and learning about all aspects of their wedding planning including organizing/planning, career balance and everything in between. Make sure to check back often!

AMANDA:Engaged: July 24, 2007, Wedding: Still not determined (maybe March, April or May 2008)
Goals: Create a wedding on a limited budget that doesn't look like it, Maintain a budget and savings plan, Find creative areas to cut the budget, Find a great reception site, Figure out how to delegate projects to others involved, Create a timeline and figure out how to pull together a wedding in a short amount of time, Make sure that everyone is happy along with herself.
Action items: Find a suitable reception site, Decide on the date of the wedding, Decide if a caterer is needed, Send out Save the Dates, Find a photographer, Decide on bridesmaids, Find a church, Decide on colors for overall wedding.
Planning items accomplished: Budget set, Maid of Honor decided, Decided that will go to a flower market and have bridesmaids help with the arrangements, Decided will look for dress in NC.

JUSTINE: Engaged: July 19, 2007; Wedding: September 6, 2008
Goals: Work on negotiating skills to get better deal with vendors, Work on communicating with support team on what dresses she wants them to wear and to stick to her vision, Empower herself in decision making process even when others have a different opinion or view, Find a photographer by end of November.
Action items: Speak with DJ and reduce per hour pricing for his services, Contact Church to work on original pricing quoted and to reduce it with questions and negotiating tools learned, Communicate her vision, so when dress shopping comes, there are no conflicts and everyone is on the same page, Keep Empowering herself that this is her wedding, how to say NO gracefully when appropriate, and to trust her intuition.

YVONNE: Engaged: July 12, 2007; Wedding: June 21, 2008 to be held on Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
Goals: To drop 3 dress sizes by wedding June, 2008 wedding!
Action items: Give up fried foods, Stick to exercise routine including 3 x week exercise classes, Getting in .5 to 1 hour extra exercise on the weekends.
Planning items accomplished: Budget Established, Ceremony and Reception Site Chosen, Save the Date Cards Sent Out, Wedding Party Attendants Asked Wedding Coordinator Hired, Rings Purchased, Accommodations Established, One of 2 Officiants Selected.
Biggest lesson learned so far: “Everyone has an opinion and will put in their 2 cents, so you have to do what YOU want when it comes to your wedding.”

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Justine-New Year New News...

Wedding Update. Back on track after the holidays, Justine is doing great with her new job, and is in the wedding planning mode. There have been a few changes to her wedding with the biggest being that Jim and her have decided to move their date up a month to August- now having a more intimate ceremony and reception. With a smaller wedding there still are many items to complete before the big day and many of the same vendors will be used. What is new is the reception site and her bridesmaid dresses. Her reception site is an intimate venue, and her bridesmaids will be wearing black off the rack dresses vs. ordering from a bridal house. Still the same: her church ceremony location, photographer, and her dress ordered from a bridal boutique. Everything is coming together nicely and next on the horizon is to decide on flowers and most importantly...where to honeymoon!!!

Check back again soon on Justine's wedding progress...

Friday, January 18, 2008

Yvonne - New Year, New Job!

Wedding Update: Back from the holiday hiatus, Yvonne has made significant strides both professionally and personally. For starters, she is down one dress size and is well on her way to dropping one more size to reach her goal!

Just as exciting is her new job as an Account Executive with an Alexandria, VA trade show company. A natural sales person, Yvonne made a big leap from powerhouse Oracle (where she worked for the past 7+ years) to following her dream of getting into the event industry. Already learning a lot, Yvonne is enjoying her new career at a smaller organization while busily keeping up with all things wedding.

Check back next week as she shares more on what motivated her to change jobs while planning her wedding in Mexico!