What are you ladies working on?

BulgariHeart

Hi all, do you have any early projects to share? Or something you're looking forward to getting started on? (well, besides EVERYTHING! LOL) 

I'm starting to contact potential photographers and getting quotes. Today I meet with option #1. Based on what the prices turn out to be I shall figure out how much needs to be saved for the next 24 months.... hmmm, I feel like I've done this before...

The venue already emailed me a brochure with meal options and prices, although I won't be able to physically meet with them until September. 

joe&cassie

I'm pretty much just gathering information.  My parents are helping us pay for everything so i am just saving everything i can.  We aren't starting any actual decision making until next summer because I will have graduated from college and have a little more time to do that. 

SugarFoote

My parents are paying for everything except flowers. They will buy my bouquet, but I'm purchasing the rest of the flowers...which I cannot decide on what I want.

I've actually gotten a lot taken care of.
-Venue: My parents land. FREEEEE! lol
-Caterer: My cousin does it on the side
-Wedding cake: A lady at church makes them. I was in shock as to how beautiful they were.
-Chair and table rental service: I'm using the same service I was going to be using when we had it set for June 2013. The prices are great there.
-I've already asked my bridal party and the girls are getting different style dresses but same color (so I don't have to worry with picking a dress for them + I don't like the matchy-matchy stuff)

My biggest thing right now is the MY dress. I cannot decide what style I want. I know I want lace and corseted bodice but I cannot decide between a fitted dress or a ball gown.

Oh and coordinating the colors. We know what colors we like and want but I'm having difficulties "assigning colors" lol

joe&cassie

That is so awesome that you have your parents land to have it on.  In fact it is awesome that you can keep a lot in the family/church family.  I am hoping that my mom's friend who does cakes will do ours and that parent of someone i have gone to school with since elementary still has his dj equipment.  My aunt works for hobby lobby and is super crafty genuis lady and so i am hoping she can help me do my flowers (and discounts... love discounts!) My parents are paying for a lot of it but I haven't really asked what the budget is and I am afraid to ask them this early because they already don't want us getting married.

SugarFoote

It really is awesome, especially since we are going for a rustic look. One of my MOHs has a sister who went to school for photography. She's really good. I think I am going to let her do our E-pics and then if I am satisfied with them, I'll get her to do the Wedding pics...which means they won't be expensive

I'm basically exhausting all family/friend services I know of. haha If you have some sort of talent, and I know you, there's a 95% chance that I've enlisted you to help with the wedding

lynn614

Right now I'm just gathering information and getting some ideas on the prices of different things. We've started our guest list and we are working on our budget. I am having the hardest time choosing our wedding colors. Who knew it would be so hard? LOL

SugarFoote

oh crap....lol we haven't made a guest list yet...I need to jump on that boat soon

joe&cassie

My guest list keeps going back and forth on different things.  I have had a lot of family friends make comments about my FI and or our future marriage and they are not nice comments.  I am toying with the idea of just doing immediate family and friends and screw everyone else.  :P (that's my response to those people.. mature I know)  I know when it comes down to it and my parents say since they are paying they get final decision that I will have to invite those people but I really really really just don't want anyone that isn't going to be happy for us.  So my guest list keeps going up and down.

BulgariHeart

Wonderful, everyone's off to a good start! 

I'm sorry about the comments, Cassie - don't let them get to you. One thing I can suggest is to not share any WR details, thoughts etc... only good things can come from keeping everything to yourself and your FI for as long as you can. 

My meeting with the photographer went better than I imagined, only problem is she's a little too expensive.. meh. So for now option #2 seems to be the best candidate. 

joe&cassie

That is really unfortunate about the photographer.  The one I want has packages that I think can be customized.  Pretty much I want them but with some stuff taken out of the most expensive package... but it's almost 5,000 and sure to increase between now and then.  It breaks my heart that they are so expensive because i really really want them.  I follow their blog and such and I feel like they would be perfect.  Since we have 2 years is it possible for you guys to save for the expensive amount of money or is it completely out of budget?

SugarFoote

I contacted several photographers and all of them were super expensive. I'm a tightwad so that was big negative. So MOH's sis is gonna do them lol.

I think I'm most excited about getting a wedding dress

BulgariHeart

I guess we could save up enough money to cover her rate over the next 2 years but on top of that we'll have to pay for her travelling and lodging expenses, which will shoot the total up by at least another 2K. You know, If you request a quote from the photographers you like they're likely to honor that price once you're ready to make a down payment. It doesn't hurt to ask for a quote this far out. The dress shopping and finding experience is one of the best ones! For us it was that and putting the deposit down for the venue. Good times.

Gustafson28

My  FI and I have already booked the venue, made the menu (customized.. sweet!), selected wedding party (yes it's a little early but they are mostly childhood friends), booked a photographer, and picked our colours.

We are going to go look at the beach aspect of the venue this Saturday to make sure it's a good fit for us. Super excited!!!

I'm pretty excited about dress shopping too but styles and your body change a lot so I'm going to wait til August/September '13 before I start looking. I do have a binder for all my ideas though ha ha

Oh! Something that has been super helpful has been those binders.. I have one for insipration, catergorized by decor, food, dresses, etc and another for contracts and quotes from vendors. Really helps! And FYI PP they do agree to keep the amount that was quoted now or only increase by a pre-determined rate for then

SugarFoote

BulgariHeart, How long have you been married? I noticed your vow renewal in Italy ticker. Italy is on my bucket list

I don't plan on dress shopping until Fall 2013. I don't really have a binder either. I have a pinterest board dedicated to the wedding (lol like every other female) and a flash drive that is basically of my pinterest board but I have the files categorized.

joe&cassie

I have a binder that is somewhat organized.  My biggest problem is that I want to start making decisions but my parents are paying for everything the bride's family is traditionally responsible for.  However, I know if I asked them what my budget is this far out that I wouldn't get a response and that they would probably freak out a little.  So I am stuck gathering ideas and twiddling my thumbs for another year or so. 

SugarFoote

Cassie, my parents are paying as well except for flowers (with the exception of my bouquet). They never gave a set budget. I set my own budget only because I don't want to have a lot of money spent on one day. I know everyone sees it different and I respect that. But this is what I want. I don't want a big princess wedding. I actually don't want a lot of things that are traditional in my family...

joe&cassie

I don't want a big princess wedding either. The problem is that everything cheap is at least 30 minutes from my parents house where a lot of the out of town people will be staying.  We are from DFW Texas btw.  I have fallen in love with the idea of the texas discovery gardens because they have a butterfly house where you can do the ceremony.  My grandma passed away a year and a half ago and her thing was butterflies.  Whenever I see butterflies I think of her and I would feel like she was there with us if we had the ceremony there.  It's not a big fee for the place either.  Before paying for chairs and linens and such (i would just make all the table clothes and stuff to save money) it is 1200 for the ceremony and reception rental.  I just know that I could get family and friends to set the place up for me and I want this place so bad but I am afraid that they (parents) are going to tell me no because it is farther away from our house than they want to go.

SugarFoote

They consider 30 minutes far away? I'm having to rent chairs/tables from Knoxville! That's over a hour from me just for chairs and tables...My mom's whole family is from Georgia and and my dad's is scattered across Tennessee...FI's family is from Claiborne, TN which ranges from 25 minutes to like an 1 hour away...lol I don't consider 30 minutes far away at all. Maybe you could talk to your parents about it or save up and pay for the venue yourself.

joe&cassie

Well we have out of town guests that will be flying in and renting a car to get around to the ceremony and reception which is why they are concerned.  I kinda understand but I think it is ridiculous that I can't make those decisions.  If I had my way I would have the ceremony with the butterflies and then go to the fort worth stockyards for the reception.  I think the travel time from dallas to fort worth is too much for my parents though.

lynn614

This weekend I'm going to a Wedding Expo.  I'm excited because I've never been to one before. 

joe&cassie

Oh that is so exciting!  I want to go to one so bad but there aren't any that I know of for the rest of this year in the local area. 

lynn614

Oh that stinks!  There is usually an Expo in June and one in January where I live.  So if I missed this one then I would have to wait until next year too. 

joe&cassie

Yah I think it is in January here and I want to say there is normally one in the fall too but I haven't seen anything for it and the knot stuff says the only things are gonna be in Houston and I am not even anywhere close to houston.

lynn614

I went to the Expo.  It was a lot of fun.  I got lots of ideas and I picked up information at every single booth there I think! We picked out our cake baker.  They had a booth and they were so nice and seemed easy to work with.  They also had trays and trays of yummy samples out which helped us to make our decision. Hehe

I also met a bridal shop owner who is selling sample dresses this week and all of her profits are going to a local charity that helps battered women and victims of domestic violence. My dress appt. is Wednesday.  I can't wait! 

LotusLeaf20

I've been gathering information on different venues and trying to find something that works for everyone attending. We already decided on a church - we're going to get married in the same one my parents got married in (it's sort of a family tradition ). We're hoping to finally decide on a final venue sometime within the next month. Everything seems like it gets booked so fast! In addition to that, we've slowly started compiling our guest list and we've chosen some of our bridal party. We're saving a lot of money on a wedding cake because my fiance's mom actually has her own wedding cake business.  Our colors are lemon yellow, gray, and white. We're kind of going for a rustic style wedding. We live in the country in western PA and the weather here can be really tricky so we're planning on having the reception inside. Our favorite venue so far has been a Civil War era barn that has been reconstructed. Other than that we've just been having fun searching through magazines and we made a binder that has odds and ends of things we like.

lynn614

OMG!  SO much going on here.....

I had my dress appointment on Wednesday.............................................and I bought a dress!!!!  The bridal shop owner was selling sample dresses and the profits go to a local women's shelter so I knew that I had to go and atleast look around. It was the last dress that I tried on.  My mom actually pulled it off the rack for me to try on. I was skeptical of it at first but I tried it on and I loved it! And since it was a sample from a few years ago I got it for $300. I have to have it altered but that can wait awhile. My dress is sitting in my closet right now! 

http://www.alfredangelo.com/collections/productdisplay.aspx?productID=4c5bde25-163e-4c41-ab90-a1fc843a2373&categoryID=8b186130-0d63-4e3c-ac5c-aea0d9566e1c&pg=1&colorId1=

We have finally figured out what dates we will be able to get off of work for the wedding too. I was hoping to have the wedding on the 14th but it didn't work with our schedules. Next we tried the 28th. Again it didn't work.  The 1st and the 8th work but I didn't want either of those dates. So we both put in our formal requests for around the 21st. So far it's looking good. We would be getting married on the 21st then.

Neither of us are allowed to take more than one week off at a time.  I want to have a few days off before the wedding and a few days off after the wedding too. My week off has to run from a Wednesday to a Tuesday or I could take off a half a week. That is where the real problem is. Almost everyone it seems takes off half weeks all summer long. So rather than taking two or three weeks off you could take off four or six half weeks. Someone is always on vacation where I work!

And FH's vacation has to go from Monday to Sunday. He is always off on Saturday and Sunday so he wants to take a week off and take a sick day the Friday before his vacation and get married on that sick day (Friday) or on Saturday. Then he gets a whole week off after the wedding.

Our honeymoon will have to be taken sometime after the wedding too. 

lynn614

On a happier note I found a really nice banquet hall for our reception. I think that it will work with our budget too. I'm going to try and check it out this weekend. 

HTR10

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_june-2014-weddings_what-are-you-ladies-working-on?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:cd3555f8-fb3d-4290-b1fe-9de3e9d420b1Discussion:e0420a31-0900-4003-a2d7-6bff594b83a8Post:aa782d32-ae27-4103-b095-5584c0fd2fbd">Re:What are you ladies working on?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re:What are you ladies working on?: Married one year and one week! Whenever you start planning your trip to Italy ask away, I'll be glad to help! I'm from there BTW. The binder was a life saver. For the wedding I bought the Instant Planner, whose size was perfect, it fit everywhere. I wonder if I should by another one...
Posted by BulgariHeart[/QUOTE]

<div>I can't believe you are having your vow renewal in Italy! I was there in 2006 and want to go back so bad! In fact...that is where our honeymoon will be...and possibly Greece...and maybe another country or two if I can get away with it :) </div>

BulgariHeart

Very nice! Let us know when you booh your HM!