Wednesday, July 6, 2011

First Wedding Wednesday!

First, I'd love to thank all of you for your sweet words!  Kevin and I read through all of them together last night and we are so grateful!  Thank yall so much!  (Wow, thank you just seems so inadequate for how you all have made us feel!)

I promise not to overload my blog with wedding things but I know a lot of you have already gotten married, some are headed there and some have been in weddings!  I can't help but ask for yall's advice on certain things and post some inspiration photos as well!  Hopefully you all won't mind.

I've always seen girls do "Wedding Wednesdays" on their blogs so I guess I get to start that now?!!  How fun!

Every night I've been up in the middle of the night just still so excited and thinking about it all!  Last night I was up at 4:45am until almost 6am just glowing and thinking about all the possibilities!  Haha!

Guest list - has been so tough.  We have SO many people we want to invite but we just can't.  It's incredibly hard and I don't want any of those people to not think our relationship with them matters, because it does!  We just can't invite ALL of our friends.  Let me tell yall, if we won the lottery, we totally would!  I think most people understand and I know I'm not offended too much if I'm not invited to one, but it's still hard.  Anyone have any advice for this?!

Wedding planner - one of my girls told me to get the Bride's Essential Wedding Planner notebook.  She said it has the charts, checklists and all of that good stuff in it.  Have yall used this one?  I saw it yesterday at Barnes and Noble and it looks like the most comprehensive I saw. 

Bridal Party - just like the guest list, this is a tough one.  You don't want anyone's feelings hurt but then again you can't have 15 bridesmaids and groomsmen.  Ahhh!  It will all work out!

When and Where - we're still narrowing this down but my Mom is going today to reserve the church in Maryland for a certain Saturday in May.  Kevin and I feel good about doing it at the church I grew up in and where we have both been to church together.  At the same time, I'm working on getting some pricing together for some places in Charlotte as well so we have a comparison. 

Dress - my Mom talked to one our family best friends about when to do this and she suggested that we need to start as soon as possible.  She said to call a couple local bridal shops to ask when their next Spring collection will be in.  I'm going to do this today.  Our same friend is probably going to make my veil too which I think is very cool!

Okay, I think that is it for today!  Hope you all are having a nice short week!

23 comments:

  1. Ok, I am seriously so excited for you!! I would not be sad at all if you bombarded your blog with wedding stuff, I love it! But, I do agree that "Wedding Wednesday" is a wonderful idea for those who don't want to hear about it every day. ;) I felt like I was on cloud nine just about every single day of being engaged. It is such an exciting time in your life that will always be treasured.
    XOXO,
    Hannah

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  2. SUCH an exciting time! I couldn't sleep when I first got engaged either. Everything will work out and enjoy the process!!

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  3. Wedding Wednesday: I love that idea. I think I'll start that as well. I just got engaged in April and have been posting random wedding ideas. Congratulations, again! It's a very exciting time : )

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  4. ahhh this is exciting to hear about!!

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  5. I am so excited to see your Wedding Wednesday posts!

    I hadn't heard of that wedding planner but it probably would have been great. I did all of my planning mostly electronically (spreadsheets, saved pics) but I did have a huge black leather binder with tangibles -- fabric samples, paint chips of my wedding colors for comparisons, invitation samples, etc.

    Let me pass along one great suggestion: my wedding invitations were done by Betsywhite Stationery Boutique. They are all online and I couldn't be HAPPIER with my experience. I'll show you mine sometime!

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  6. I was given 3 wedding planning books/kits by friends and only looked at them once to see how to word something.
    I eventually passed them onto another bride because I didn't have any use for them.
    I did most of my research online and used friends programs, etc. as examples.
    As far as the inviting. I felt bad too because I would have liked to invite more people frommy work but it was too much.
    As for the wedding party -- I, too, was in the same boat and so was Brad.
    We didn't want to have 10 attendants at our age so instead we opted to have a MOH and BM but we still took pictures with the people we would have asked.
    PLUS.. at our age no one wants to spend the money on tuxes and dresses they'll never wear again.
    You, of course, are younger!
    Congrats again!

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  7. I used that wedding planner and it was pretty good, but I ended up hiring a professional planner. I was traveling extensively back in 2007 and I just couldn't get to all of the meetings, etc. so we went that route. It definitely made the process better for all of us.

    The 1 think I would say about the guest list is to really think hard about it. It is the one area that can really save you money. We both have HUGE families so a big wedding was really the only way to go for us, but it made us have to cut back in other areas.

    I'll DM you my email and I'd be happy to chat about anything wedding! :)

    Congratulations & Happy 1st Wedding Wednesday!

    Katie

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  8. AHHHH! I'm scrolling down to read the last post before I read this one, so so excited!

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  9. Okay, read the last post! I'm so excited for you--bring on the Wedding Wednesdays...and Thursdays and Fridays too if you want! And hmmm..obvi, I'm not married, but as to the guest list. A few years ago I babysat for a wedding. The bride and groom had it at a Plantation on the River over a weekend. That Friday night was the ceremony and it was VERY intimate--immediate family and maid of honor/man of honor only. The next day they had a huge party though for the reception with ALL their friends, it was much more casual. They had caterers, a band, and it was all outdoors--so they probably saved some mula doing it that way!

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  10. Love Wedding Wednesdays! Can't wait to hear all about it, and I think a May wedding will be gorgeous. :)

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  11. on the guest list....we made up rules:
    -no cousins unless they still lived at home(okay i have like 60 1st cousins)
    -if you haven't talked to them in a year then they are off---super hard but why haven't you talked to them?

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  12. Guest List advice: choose a reception site that has a reasonable limitation of people (mine was 150). Everyone chose their must haves and that was it. We did the "expect 1/3 not to come" & were almost overbooked because we only had about 1/8 reply no. But it worked out! My guest list would've been over 400 if we'd had it at a bigger venue. If the parents are paying, they basically can invite as many people as they want.

    Bridal party - do whatever you want! and what you're comfortable with. I had 9 bm's and 6 gm's - I wouldn't change it for anything, even 3 years later.

    best advice: always remember that all you really have to have is a bride, a groom, and a preacher - all the rest is icing on the cake!

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  13. ahhhhh! look what happens when you don't read blogs for one day! you miss the best news! this is so exciting, so many congratulations to you and K!

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  14. Congrats, Annie!!! That's wonderful news :) I'm so happy for you and Kevin and excited for Wedding Wednesdays in the future! You'll have so much fun planning!!! And yes - start dress shopping ASAP. I waited until the last minute (6 months before our wedding), and it was stressful!

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  15. I don't have much advice on the wedding front, but just wanted to pop in and say how excited I am for you and Kevin! I can't wait to hear how the planning progresses!

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  16. I missed your last post (I haven't been able to get on blogger in a few days) and was so freaking surprised slash EXCITED when I saw that you were writing about Wedding Wednesdays... because that means you are engaged now!! I'm so so excited for you and can't wait to be apart of your journey as you prepare :)

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  17. So exciting! Having been a May bride myself, I think May is the best month of the year to get married! HA! HA! Happy planning! Enjoy it, time will go FAST!!!

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  18. I had similar issues with the guest list. We wanted a small wedding and I have a HUGE family which didn't leave much room on the list for friends. Honestly, some people were upset and old friends who I didn't have much contact with were pretty mad. But I did what was right for me, my husband and our wedding! Do what feels right for you. The friends who REALLY care will get over it and celebrate for you anyways!

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  19. I use the Bride's Essential Wedding Planner and I love it! I love that I can literally check off things as I work through the binder. :) OMG, so so happy for you!

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  20. I am so excited to read your Wedding Wednesday posts! I love all things wedding related, so this will be fun! We are so excited for you and Kevin!

    As for the guest list - that was the biggest challenge for us when we got married. Putting together your guest list is just tough no matter how you go about it. We ended up with a large number of guests, but we both have large families, so it was unavoidable. In the end, I am glad that we included as many as we could.

    I am excited to follow along! :-)

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  21. I just started reading your blog...I love it! Congratulations again!! I'm so happy to see you enjoying it!

    Re: guest list...don't feel bad if you can't invite everyone you want to. The question I asked myself on the tough ones was this: do we see ourselves keeping in touch with them in 5 or 10 years? If the answer is no...then, well, you know to do :) Those people on the 'edge' will understand.

    Just my two cents of unsolicited advice!

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  22. Best Wishes on your engagement! Guest lists are the hardest part. Everything else is fun picking out what you love! Good luck and can't wait to see all the details!

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  23. So exciting! You definitely have more done than I do.. We have been thinking about a lot but not really doing anything haha. Good luck! Keep us updated on how things are going :)

    xoxo,

    Little Miss Southern Love

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