Newly Engaged...planning without my mom near...need some help

Re: Newly Engaged...planning without my mom near...need some help

• lizardrach812 member

  

  August 2009 edited December 2011

  hey kendel! it's rachel king...we student taught together. when is the wedding? if you're looking for a chain bridal shop, alfred angelo and david's bridal are up by quail springs mall. i'm getting my dress from the bridal showroom up on may and hefner. also, on nw expy is the moliere bridal salon, there's some good people there too. if i'm not mistaken, there's a couple of places in norman too, but i can't seem to think of the names right now. i didn't buy my invitations online, but i did get a great deal at a place called "paper n more" on may ave. i found some really unique invitations at weddingpaperdivas.com if you want to go the online route. some of the bridal salons offer discounts off your invitations if you purchase your dress from them. at alref angelo, you get 40% off invitations if you purchase your wedding gown there. good luck, and good to see you here!

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• chadandamy4christ member

  

  August 2009 edited December 2011

  Hi Kendel, My name is Amy Jackman, and I live in Moore. I am getting married in October, and have only had about 2 1/2 months to plan my wedding...it can be done, so no worries! If you'd like to save some money on your dress, there is a wedding dress/formal gown consignment store in SW OKC. It's called The Nearly New Shoppe. It's on SW 44th street, just east of May and sits on the southside of the street. Their address is 2709 SW 44th, & ph#685-8383. They are wonderful! So much cheaper then going to one of the bridal salons, and they have a great selection! I bought my wedding dress there for $200.00 (probably orginally about a $900.00 dress!). And, I bought my maid of honors dress there for $40.00!!! They can also order new dresses. And, the owner of the store also makes wedding cakes! I HIGHLY recommend The Nearly New Shoppe! On another note, I strongly do NOT recommend David's Bridal! I made an appointment, still had to wait, and the service was awful! I went there to find something on their $99 sale, and they were complete snobs when I asked about it! And, I've also heard that on their $99 sale, they only get dresses in very small sizes. I have not been to Alfredo Angelo's myself, but I have heard good things about them. One of my fellow, "wedding planning buddies" has been there several times, and has had good service every time she's gone there. And, you may want to check out Crossland's Rental. They rent EVERYTHING from arches, arbors, columns, chairs, tables, tableclothes, dishes, candle arches, dancefloors, tents, serving trays, hot wells to keep food warm, floral arrangements, and sooo much more! And, they are pretty reasonable price wise! They are also located on the southside, just west of I-35 on SW 44th street. Their address is 44 SW 44th street, ph#602-5522. Hobby Lobby puts all their wedding stuff on sale about twice a month, so checking in with them once a week or so, could save you some money. I can't offer a whole lot of advise on invitations, as we are making our own. However, one of my friends that recently got married ordered hers online, and they turned out great. If you are looking for a photographer/videographer...Forever Remembered is a fairly new business, but they do a good job and they would probably be cheaper then most others. They just did two of my friends weddings and they are doing mine as well! Here is a link to their Facebook page, if you'd like to take a look at some of their work: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Moore-OK/Forever-Remembered-Photography-and-Videography-by-Chad-and-Brady/102510294175 I hope some of this info is useful to you! I'm probably a little more ahead of you in the wedding planning process, so if you have any questions, feel free to email me at wi2ok@yahoo.com...I'd be happy to offer any advise I can! Good luck with your planning! Be blessed, Amy Jackman

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• Steven&Jamie

  

  August 2009 edited December 2011

  Hi Kendel, congrats and welcome!  I also live in Norman (just outside, about 10 minutes South) and I'm a teacher too so I understand trying to plan while teaching--luckily you'll be able to get lots done during your breaks.I got my dress and bridesmaids dresses and our shoes at David's Bridal and I have no complaints so it really just depends on when you go and who your consultant is.Invitation we DIY'd.My suggestions--if you haven't already, choose your date and venue, then photographer, baker, caterer (if using one), attire, invites....and keep going from there.  It will all fall into place so just take one thing at a time and let us know when you have questions or need help with anything!

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• MelB228 member

  

  August 2009 edited December 2011

  I just got married in April and had the same situation with not having my mother to help me plan things. I'm from Kansas City which is where my parents live, and they couldn't really come down to help me plan much, so I did as many things as I could to give her "tasks" to keep her involved. The first thing I did was have my mother and MIL come up with the number of people they would need to invite from each side, then added that to mine and DH's list of friends and then started looking at venue's that would fit our budget for the size of wedding we were going to have. If you mom is Internet savvy, you can have her help by looking up locations, photographers, etc online for ideas. I had her come up with the invitation wording, the something old, new borrowed, blue, she went and found a garter for me, I had her look at my registry items and go to the stores to see if there were any suggestions she had for me to add/change, etc....anything I could find that she could do so she would feel like she was a part of the planning process with being far away. They sound like little insignificant things, but I know she appreciated all of them because she felt like she was a part of it all. (It took me 1/2 way through the wedding and my father telling me I needed to find things for her before I realized she was disappointed she wasn't more involved) As far as dresses, and as people have mentioned, there are the chains of David's Bridal and Alfred Angelo....those are good places to go if you don't have a lot of time for planning your wedding (you can order a dress and get it in fairly quickly, my dress was special order and was going to take longer and the maximum it would have taken was 12 weeks, but it only took 5). I know that stores with multiple designers can take 5-6 months for your dress to come in, so make sure they'll fit into your time frame before you fall in love with something you can't have. Also, sometimes they'll have sample sales where you can take them right off the rack, so you can call and ask. In addition to the stores the girls mentioned above, there's a store on I-240 called Pom & Pageantry that I know several people have gotten very affordable dresses at, they can order numerous designers from cheaper to expensive. I had a friend who got one for about $240 and another for $450 new, and alterations were included in the purchase price. I had planned on going there but found a dress I loved at DB for a good price so just ordered it.Sorry that was kind of long, I got on a roll

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• KeyRyn320

  

  August 2009 edited December 2011

  Congratulations on your engagement! I'm Sharryn and I live in Tulsa but I'm in your same situation (my family is in Michigan and FI's is in Texas). What do you have done so far? Usually, the first thing you should get done is putting a deposit on your reception and ceremony places. All other vendors always want to know when your date is and if you don't have that set in stone, it's a little harder to get everything else done. In terms of keeping your mom in the loop, it will be easier than you think. Thank goodness my mom discovered her e-mail when she did because that is how I am letting her know about my dress, the reception, dresses I want her to wear, etc. She even indirectly picked out my wedding dress! So there will be plenty of ways to keep her involved long distance. I am having a friend design my invitations so I'm not ordering them online and I'm in Tulsa so I have no clue about dress shops near you. Sorry!

  

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• dylanandlisa member

  

  September 2009 edited December 2011

  Hi, I could really relate to your title although my mom lives here. Her mom has been really sick on and off with her cancer battle so she hasn't been able to help me as planned. Bella Rose in Edmond is very reasonable and they have been great to work with. JJ Kelly treated me like trash because I didn't want to spend over 3k on a dress and 1k on a veil. I got a dress at Bella Rose that was almost an exact replica of the JJ kelly one I liked....for $550 instead of $3000. I also ordered my invitations online. I found you can go into a local paper place like Paper N More or a place in Northpark and see the ones you might be interested in in person...then go home and find the cheapest price on the invitation websites...I ended up going with a completely different one at the last minute which I didn't see in person and I ended up loving them even more when they came. Also, I never buy anything full price online, use websites like www.retailmenot.com for coupon codes, it's wonderful. I used www.invitationsbydawn.com they were running a special on their site already and then I used a coupon code on top of that! They had a proof to me that day and I received them 4-5 days later. Sorry I wrote a novel.

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