For years I always thought planning our wedding was going to be a breezy walk in the park.. but since day 1 the experience has been like walking on egg shells and constantly dodging land mines.
As the wedding quickly approaches, we have learned many many many things by trial and error and wished someone would have sat us down early in the planning and told us how important it was going to be to get those logistical details figured out before hand.. but elas, this is how Luke and I do things.. and that's not always a good thing.
We've started this series in order to share with you what we've learned along the way...
Rule of thumb #1:
Before obsessing about inspiration boards, getting lost in color schemes and the ever endless world of linen options; start the process by creating a realistic budget for the type of wedding you are planning on hosting. This was our first misstep and we learned the hard way... A few months into our engagement bliss and big dreams of planning our lavish carnival-esk wedding, my better half was laid off from his company due to downsizing and the recession. We had not foreseen or planned on this happening so it was a huge surprise and huge disappointment that our wonderfully expensive ideas of a huge wedding were down the tubes. Talk about it a wake up call!! Having said that, going through that period of struggle in our relationship, financial and personal aspects of our lives, it really put things into perspective and drew the focus back to what that special day was going to be all about.. we quickly realised that it wasn't just about having a huge party. It was more about celebrating of our love and officially joining as one, a family.
Rule of thumb #2:
Scaling back on the guest list.
Our initial head count was 180+. When the reality of our shrunken budget kicked in, we had to figure out how to either a) make more money or start to b) cut cut cut. Arguments were had, and I’m pretty sure 1 or 2 things were thrown, but in the end we really worked together to trim our guest list down to 130. And let me tell you, we couldn't have asked for a better guest list. Cutting a guest list is like cutting your own bangs.. at first you're not too sure where to start, but once you get going, look out!
Rule of thumb #3:
Pay attention and read your vendor contracts before you sign seal anything. Ensure that things are clear and concise and make sure you ask a lot of questions… a lot of questions…and amend the contract as you go. This is one thing we overlooked and almost ran into a huge issue just this week that could have derailed our planing all together (I’ll save that tasty treat for another post). Our venue ended up letting that one major detail slide; However had the venue refused to work with us in the end, we would have been out our deposit and would have had to pay through the nose to have our invitations redone to make it work. Can you say ka-ching?? But lucky for us, they were very understanding!!
Coming up: where to save $$, tap into your resources, DIY doesn't necessarily mean less expensive
