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.”
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

A Few Dos and Don'ts

Sometimes we get caught up in the moment of planning a wedding. And sometimes I am asked whether there are any certain dos and don'ts of planning a wedding. While there aren't any ideas that I think you must stick to there are a few quick dos and don'ts that I try to tell my brides to keep in the back of their minds when they are planning their weddings.

Do- Embrace both of your backgrounds; personalize your ceremonyDon't- Ignore your heritage and ancestry

Do- Have something sweet
Don't- Do away with the cake and have nothing to take its place

Do- Pay strict attention to timing; make a production schedule for everyone involved
Don't- Start the ceremony late, extend the cocktails past one hr. or dinner past two

Do- Rehearse it all, even the dress try-on
Don't- Make your wedding day the first run through

Do- Make it what you want it to be
Don't- Listen to too many advisors. It is your special day!
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Saturday, September 22, 2007

You're Engaged...Now What???

You just had one of life's greatest things happen to you and now you are saying to yourself...What do I do now? Here are a few tips to help you get jump started and start planning your event.
  1. Set the theme of your wedding. Do you want your event to be Big, Small, or a destination wedding.
  2. Create a budget. Find out who is paying for what. Your parents, his parents and the two of you each have a role in this. It is very important to figure this out up front so there are no surprises at the end.
  3. Choose your attendants. Make a list of all those who are important to the both of you. From your list decide on the number of who will stand up and who will take on other roles in your celebration.
  4. Start looking for where your ceremony and reception will take place. Do you want both to take place in the same location?
  5. Find your support team. Who is a great sound board for you? Is it a sibling, friend, or your mom? When you don't have someone on your team and you need to feel empowered hire yourself a wedding coach. A coach is there for you for support and to help you formulate goals that will help both you and your wedding planning move forward.
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Thursday, August 9, 2007

Welcome to Wedding Help At Your Fingertips!

Hello! Welcome to our blog, Wedding Help At Your Fingertips, geared toward helping YOU Brides stay focused and balanced during your wedding planning. We realize you have established careers and getting engaged as wonderful as it is it can also be a bit stressful too.

Our goal to launching this blog is to help make YOU and your planning process go more smoothly without hitting any barriers or hiccups along the way. We are based in Chicago and Washington, DC and work with career women who are now adding "Soon to be Bride" to their resume.

This blog is not about selling products to you. We want to be a resource for you and one that provides services that you will need. As recent brides ourselves we know what you will need to stay balanced and in the wedding zone.

Some areas that we will focus on in our blog are achieving Life Balance, Getting Organized and Staying Empowered during your wedding planning process.

Here are some questions for you to ask yourself to see if we can help:
1. Since your engagement have you been making time for both your professional & personal life?
2. Are you getting everything done on your to do lists? Do you have or need a system to help you get jump started?
3. Have you stayed in the driver's seat during your planning process? Are you allowing others to influence and sway you in your decision process?

If you answered YES to any of these questions we KNOW we can help you.

Please check us out at we build and make us a part of your "Wedding"!!!

Ready...Set... Go...
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