Just getting started Lots of questions HELP!

Hramse03

• Idea on Industrial loft venue
• October wedding but blue black and white are our colors, Should they change?
• Everyone in the party is wearing all star converse to match the blue so what kind of attire should they wear? formal,laid back?
• and lastly budget i have no idea how to budget this thing....Were are planning for the year 2013 just because we hope to have money by then, we are very DIY people and are open to any suggestions. Thanks for reading please help me

sjbajak14

Congratulations on your engagement!

Are you doing Smith Bros venue?

Personally, it's your wedding so I say do it your way! I think those colors are great for a fall wedding. There's a website I love, love, love called stylemepretty.com, and they have great inspirations plus a lot of DIY stuff. As long as you don't cut corners on photography, food, and liquor (if that's your thing), you'll be good to go!

My wedding in May 19th, 2012, and we are doing a lot of stuff DIY, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Best of luck!

Hramse03

Congrats to you as well and thanks so much for the help!! the webiste is great. I actually am looking at the smith brothers but it seems they are hard to get a hold of. so i need to keep my opitions open

sjbajak14

I had the same problem with them! One of the reasons I decided to go elsewhere (along with lack of catering options). Good luck!

Kate2dance

@ sjbajak14, we are date twins! Where are you having all of your festivities?

@ Hramse03: I think you should do everything the way YOU want it to be done. It's your big day! The colors should be colors that you love and will want to see in your photos for years to come. (the one's you picked sounds pretty!)

As far as a budget, my fiance and I made an Excel worksheet and have been listing everything in categories. One of the wedding planner books I got gave percentages (i.e. reception is 40% of total budget, etc.) We have been trying to stay in that range, but there are certain categories we will go over on, but will make up for in categories we don't spend anything. Hope that makes sense!

I highly recommend booking vendors as soon as you can if you find some that you love. Places seem to book fast around here! 

So far, we are using the following:

Catering = Nicole's Catering

Photography = Derk's Works

DJ = Buckeye Entertainment

Cake = The Goodie Shoppe

Flowers = Petals & Leaves

Hair = Michelle Buzaki from Salon Lofts

So, we pretty much have all the big stuff booked! And I highly recommend all of the above for your wedding I wish I were more creative to do some DIY... you will have to post pics as you start doing to DIY projects! Good luck to you! OH, and I am also wearing Chuck's with my dress... they are sparkly and the color is called "Waterfall." So I love your Chuck's idea!

csh96

I'd say for the colors and attire, choose whatever makes you the most happy.  I would have used my colors despite the time of year.  As far a budget, come up with what you can afford to spend overall.  Think about the areas where you don't want to skimp and plan for appropriate amount in those areas.  Then makes cuts or budget around the other areas to fit within the budget you have left.  Good luck and congrats!!

tiffanydaniels

It is your wedding so if you want black and blue! DO IT! And honestly I have seen fancy dresses with converse shoes, so do what you seem fit!

With the budget just whatever you feel comfortable with, there are a lot of hidden expenses or expenses you don't think about, when it comes to the big day. Just make sure you are comfortable with spending what you are spending and don't stray from that budget.

I also am doing a lot myself, my one tip is look for coupons!!!! I have saved so much money shopping wth coupons, Check out the flower factory as well, it is off georgesville and it has a lot of stuff for super cheap! ie i got 5 inch styrofoam balls which at michaels and joanns are 5 dollars each, for 1.80 each and then 20% off of it.

And use gift cards, go to giant eagle or kroger and buy michaels and joanns gift cards before you go, you will save so much on gas!!!

Good luck! any questions just ask!!!

GApeachOH

Remember to enjoy being engaged. Don't constantly think wedding and talk wedding with your FI.

To build a budget we:

Added together donated funds from parents, which ARE NOT required and SHOULD NOT be asked for

THEN, we totaled our total debts, car payments student loans, and our payments for each month.

We took our paychecks and totalled them together to determine who could then pay for what...

We live together, and both are paying for two cars, and two student loans and just decided it was dumb to do things separately. 

ANYWAYS,

After we determined that, we then figured out how much of each paycheck we could put away each paycheck for savings. 

Then, we determined how much we could pay for the wedding. 

I did a lot of "wedding couponing" Sometimes, custom packages were the answers, sometimes being a resident of a certain area helped cut costs. We aren't having a big wedding. Just search around and don't settle. 

tiffanydaniels

Also another thing to save money, if you can afford it, pay in full and ask if they offer a discount if they do. Our photographer offered 5% off which does not seem like a lot but every couple hundred dollars matter and we are kicking ourselves now.

sjbajak14

@ Kate2Dance- That is wonderful! We are having our wedding and reception at the Blackwell Hotel since my hubby is an OSU alum. It's funny that I tried to book Michelle to do my hair and she was already booked, probably with yours LOL I lost track of time since I'm currently deployed and had no idea hair and MUA booked so far out! Where is your big day going down??

green795

First off, congratulations on your engagement!
Idea on Industrial loft venue  If Smith Brothers doesn't work out, I would pick up an issue of Columbus Bride and scan through their reception guide and see if one the venues listed you think would for what your looking for. Depending on your guest list size, I know some of the Short North Galleries can be rented and used for events. You could also see if some of the condo communities downtown have event spaces or an empty condo you could rent.  It's a stretch, but it might work. Because you are just getting started, I would make a guest list because the size of your guest list helps determine which venues can fit your party size. I found our guest list kind of limited some of the venues we wanted to have our reception, even after we came up with a list that included the "must-haves," the list was still too big for some of the venues we wanted to look at.
October wedding but blue black and white are our colors, Should they change? I think I might be the odd one out when I say I would have probablychanged our accent colors if we weren't married during spring. I think blue,black, and white would work with any season, but a slate blue, smoke blue, or Wedgewood blue would look beautiful in October. I wouldn't do navy, black, or white though - just because it might resemble a black eye.
Everyone in the party is wearing all star converse to match the blue so what kind of attire should they wear? formal,laid back? What a fun idea!The look is totally up to you. If you want their Chucks to be seen at all times, a cute cocktail dress would be fine or if you want their Chucks for photos only and otherwise hidden, long formal dresses would be fine, too. For guys, I would stick to nice suits or modern tuxes. 
and lastly budget i have no idea how to budget this When I was planning, I thought theknot.com's budget planner was super helpful in diving the total budget into different categories. Once we got into checking off the list, we found we could be flexible. If we went a little over in one category, we tried to go a little under in another. In the end we went about 6% over our budget, which I would say isn't too bad in the big scheme of things.  

jnkreager

Venue: I had a hard time communicating with the Smith Brothers as well so we went elsewhere.  I agree with Green: there are so many wonderful galleries that have that urban loft feel and will allow you to rent them out.  For example, my shower is going to be at a small gallery called Wild Goose Creative (click for link) which would fit your theme perfectly.  It would be small for a wedding (I think it holds around 75 people?), but I am sure there are similar types of spaces that are bigger.

Colors: Go with whatever makes you happy!  I think some colors definitely lend themselves better for a specific time of year, but you can definitely find a blue hue that works well with black and white and works for the fall.

Attire: I think your venue should dictate the attire.  If you end up doing a fancy-schmancy downtown loft, really informal  attire might look out of place.  On the other hand, super elegant black-tie tuxes will look out of place if you ended up at a barn...

Budget: Make sure you talk to both sets of your parents so you have an really good idea on their contributions.  (It would be awful if you assumed they were paying for something, and it turns out they weren't).  If they are unable to help you out, sit down with your FH and determine what you can realistically save each month.  That will give you a starting point for your budget--which will help dictate how much you can spend on everything else.

Congrats and happy planning!

Hramse03

Thanks so much everyone. This will help me out so much!!

heathertory

When we first started planning I wanted to do everything all the time to get most of it done and over with. I ended up stressing myself out and had to remind myself I was not planning a wedding for 3 months away but 20!. I would say check out bridal shows to get ideas of vendors without feeling pressured. I figured out how  many people we wanted to invite (200). Then I put together a spreadsheet on Excel with the different vendors I liked. Once I got the cost for rental and food/beverage I determined the total cost. That helped out a lot! It gave me a perspective for how much a reception would cost and that seems to be where I am putting most of my money. Then my fiance and I sat down and did what GApeachOH did and determined what we coudl afford to save. We checked out the cheapest venue first and fell in love. I am sure there are cheaper venues out there than what we decided on, but out of the venues I liked the one I chose happened to be the cheapest. If you are a DIY kind of person the Flowerman is a wholesale flower company in Columbus and they are super helpful.

Do what ever you want to do it is your wedding. There are going to be people who are going to try and control it and eventually you are going to get tired of hearing their "opinions." Make sure you talk to your fiance and see if he wants to help in any way. Maybe he would like to have an opinion on the centerpieces or maybe he will just say do whatever, but still ask you may be surprised! I hope your planning goes well.

Side note. Does any one have any recommendations for DJ's. I am looking for what people have used or have seen at a wedding.

green795

Heather - We used Jodi with Night Music and she was amazing! She listed to what we wanted (and didn't want) to hear, she was open to our playlist, she was very flexible with music and timing, and she wasn't cheesy AT ALL. She was absolutely fabulous! I'd recommend her or her husband Steve - I've kept in touch with both since the wedding and I feel like they reallly care about their couples during the planning, at the wedding, and after the wedding, too.