Wedding Favors

When it comes to wedding favors,  it’s easy as a bride to overthink the perfect favor. She may even become overwhelmed with if their guest list is growing because in reality, it’s easy to consider skimping on costs in this arena. Favors, though, are a great way to add a personal touch so that your guests can walk away with a little something special from the evening. Of course these costs can add up as you think that you may want to do something unique, but keeping it simple here is the way to go! Your guests won’t neccessarily expect anything, but a simple token of appreciation can really make a sweet and lasting impression.

We’re flooding our Pinterest Board with lots of great ideas but here are a few of my favorites. Are you following Marrily!?

Mason Jar Jam or Honey. Perfect to beat the expense by picking the strawberries yourself and learning how to jam! (consider planning ahead for a late summer/fall wedding as you can start this process in the spring or early summer!) If you’ve never done any jamming, now’s the time to learn! While the process is a little bit tedious, it could make for a great Saturday with your beau and it will be rewarding knowing that you two actually DIY’d this tasty treat for your guests. Find some pretty fabrics and ribbon and tie the jars up with a pretty finishing touch! Picking out a cute name for the label is even a great way to incorporate your wedding logo if you have one!

Going Green: Miniture succulants or even tiny plants and/or herbs are adorable ways to have your guests walk away with something that will last. A cost effective route would be to create seed packets!

Last but not least, these are some neat ideas to consider as well!

No matter what you decide, plan ahead! These fun crafts may take a little time but keep things in perspective. Be realistic and attempt an easy DIY so you can take a little pride in knowing your adorable project will impress your guests!

Happy Planning!

xo,

Meg

Sassy Saturday

These Valentino shoes have me swooning today! Hint of pink and sparkles, how can one go wrong?

Aren’t they gorg!?

Grab some coffee and head to Inspired By This to see the rest of this fine affair.

Happy Planning!

xo,

Megan

You Gotta Treat Cake Like a Lady

Via SMP

Wedding cakes come in all shapes and sizes these days. Whether you’re going with a classic look or with something a bit more modern, all cakes have something in common: the sweet factor. Making sure your slice of confection heaven is finger licking good is almost just as important as the way the cake will look. The great thing about what goes inside the cake is how many options you can have. For example, for my own wedding, we had a vanilla cake with fresh strawberry filling & a vanilla layer with oreo cream filling. In addition to that, on the third tier, we had chocolate cake with chocolate mousse. It was great to have options that could make most people happy. One savings tip is to actually have your cake baker create a large sheet cake instead of adding in another tier. They’ll typically keep it in the back/kitchen and your guests won’t know the difference.When it comes to budgeting a cake, you can also aim to count for less than your actual guest list. Most likely, not everyone will eat a slice and slices can be cut slightly smaller if you ask. Your cake may end up coordinating flowers with your florist so make sure they’re in communication for measurements and quantity. Be sure to ask if your baker has their own cake stand or see about renting one or getting creative with that as well.

Aside from that, you’ll want to make sure you research your cake maker’s designs and research reviews. The last thing you want is for your cake to end up here! Unfortunately, that could be the case when a family friend has the best intentions. If you or a family friend or family member are going to DIY your cake, be sure to practice several times and you may want to try to keep it as simple as possible! Sometimes the simpler cakes can be the prettiest!

Via SMP

Enough with the chit chat here, though. Here’s some deliciously sweet eye candy:

Via SMP

Via SMP

And if cake’s just not your thing, remember to check out Wedding Cake Alternatives, thanks to Simply Bridal!

Happy Tasting!!

xo,

Megan

Gift Registry…and Thinking Outside the Giftbox ;)

So one of the most exciting things about getting married (or perks, I should say…as if spending the rest of your life with your best friend wasn’t enough) would be the wedding gift registry. While it can be slightly overwhelming, here are some tips to hopefully simplify the process.

Before venturing out into the major stores (Macy’s, Target, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, etc) browse online and talk to your friends first. See what their experience was like. Make sure the store has a great registry completion option (where you can get a major discount for buying stuff that you didn’t get!) and be sure to account for all your needs.

Be mindful of what could be included:

The basics: Kitchen supplies, china, everyday dishes, household linens. Most likely these items could be found at a department store and/or Bed, Bath, and Beyond or Target.

Step it up: That steamer you may be considering? YES. Shopvac? Why not. Tools? Even Better. Camping gear? OK! Decor? Yes, mam! Sometimes you may end up getting gift cards or cash to purchase such things that you realize you may need once you’re getting settled in, but it’s fun to include a few items on your list. Lowe’s, REI, and online retailers would be good options here!

Give ‘em something to talk about: Honeymoon fund…Donate to a cause worth giving to….Wine Club Membership….Season tickets to the local theater….Artwork….Now’s the time, guys. Go online with it and sign up for Newlywish.com or Amazon.com! Certainly you’ll find some creative items that you may just need to have!

When you’re registering for gifts, be sure to realize that now IS the time. Rarely in your life again will you have family and friends so excited for you that they are happy to help you get your life started on the best foot.

Select quality items that will stand the test of time. With that said, make classic choices with your linens and china, but spruce it up with some accents or your everyday plates. Have an idea of your decorating style so that you can register for matching or coordinating items. Go for style and not so much trend, as you never know where life will carry you and how many times your mind may change about your paint colors!

Feeling slightly guilty about crystal or that Kitchenaid Mixer? Don’t! Most likely, you’ll discover that perhaps your great uncle or your grandma may be more than happy to splurge on something nice for you. If anything, you’ll hopefully get a special discount later on through a completion event so that you can use some of the cash to buy it yourself!

Have a variety of price points included. This pleases everyone. There’s a chance that maybe a few of your friends could go in together on something big (like that mixer!) or they may be perfectly satisfied in getting you a place setting or even some wine glasses or candlesticks. Mix it up so folks may even get creative in purchasing a bundle of items or even so it’s easy on them if they’re invited to showers or pre-wedding festivities in addition to the wedding.

When it comes to sharing your registry information, I’d suggest creating links on your personal wedding website. Guests should gain access to that through your save the dates, prior to the pre-wedding festivities. This allows ample time for them to shop around and it shows them beforehand so they’re not showing up empty-handed!

Lastly, make sure you keep track of gifts so that you may send the proper Thank You notes in a timely manner. It is most important to show a handwritten note of gratitude towards your guests. They will be certainly grateful and appreciative! The track list also helps with you and your new husband for when it comes time to fill the registry or make returns. There will most likely be repeat gifts or items that you may even change your mind about so make sure wherever you go, they have a great return policy! You’ll also be able to see what you need and what you can start shopping for with the gift cards and cash!

It took my husband and I almost a year to go through that process, but slowly we got everything we needed and we returned what we didn’t! We had a fun time with all of it from the very beginning as soon as we got the scan gun for the very first time! Oh the power!

Cheers, y’all!
Megan

Hiring a Wedding Officiant

“Marwiage is what bwings us togetha today!”

The Princess Bride

Wedding officiants play a huge role in your big day. The ceremony aspect of your wedding may very well be the most important and significant portion of the day as you and your fiance share your vows and profess your love and committment to each other. As your officiant will essentially lead the ceremony, it’s important that you take the time to hire the right one for the both of you, based on your beliefs and personalities. Depending upon your backgrounds and current situations, you and your partner should decide if your wedding day will be religious based or secular.

I’d recommend meeting your officiant (whether it’s a Justice of Peace, clergyman, or an ordained friend) to make sure you’re comfortable with them. Sometimes it may be obvious to you who you’ll be asking to partake as this role-perhaps it’s your minister in your church or even a minister you grew up knowing. It may be a relative or even a family friend who you’ve asked to become ordained. Maybe it’s an official wedding officiant that you found from a local vendor research. You’d want to ask them some questions prior to the wedding so you can be on the same page about your ceremony. A few questions that I’d recommend asking would be-

How can you make this personable for the two of us? What types of stories or information would be beneficial from us so you can celebrate our love and make this special?

Are you open to marrying us in our preferred location? If you’re talking to a minister, make sure they’re OK with the ceremony location if it isn’t in their church or house of worship.

What do you need to know about our faith? If we’re of different faiths, are you OK with proceeding?

Do we need to go through pre-marital counseling with you?

What sort of structure do you normally go with in your ceremonies? Is there a homily? Will it be short and sweet?

Will you allow our friends/family to sing, give readings, or take communion?

I’d also recommend going over the vows. Are you writing your own? Does your officiant have scripted vows that you may want to review?

If you’re going the route of finding someone who is ordained, or even considering asking a friend or family member to become ordained for the occasion, be sure to check with your county clerk or your Secretary of State to make sure that it would be recognized where you’re located! You want to make sure they take the proper steps in doing so and also that they’re up to the responsibility!

Without the officiant and the license, you can’t officially get married! Make this a priority early on, brides, and your “I Do’s” will come true.

Happy Planning!

Megan

Sassy Saturday

Photo credit: My Instagram

Paris Hilton Shoes via My Glass Slipper

Aren’t these shoes darling?

xo,

Meg

The Wedding Feast

The next ‘to do’ we have for you, dear Brides, would be to find a caterer and start considering your menu! Food is definitely an important aspect of your big day, whether you’re serving simple pick-up foods or a six course meal. This is one area you may get really creative with and your groom may actually be interested in helping! When it came to my own wedding menu, my fiance (at the time) and I definitely knew we wanted our food to reflect what we found to be southern staples and old time favorites–fried chicken, mac n cheese, beef brisket, southern vegetables, and naturally, some sweet tea to wash it all down! Of course the gourmet details and the fancy twists dressed up our meal to please our guests and raise the standards for a special evening! Southern hospitality was our goal. Our guests were well fed and even walked away from the night with to-go bags and biscuits from our biscuit bar!

image: Nancy Ray

Picking out our menu was easy for us, as it was the same sort of Sunday after church feast we both were used to, but some couples may not have a special meal they find to be nostalgic. It’s fun to consider stations with a variety of options, mini food, or even a fare that reflects your new life together. Moving down south? Why not go for a crawfish broil or a fancy gumbo? Maybe if you’re starting your life up north, a surf & tuf with lobster and steak fits the bill. I’d love to see a fiesta styled reception in person, to be honest! Food trucks and midnight snacks are trending right now, but there’s always the option of going classic with stuffed chicken and glazed vegetables.

When interviewing your caterer, make sure he/she is open to your individual style. See what they may come up with based on your personality. If you’re going with a caterer who has standard options, you may not have much wiggle room for creativity, but maybe you have already been able to taste the food and you know it’s delicious! Working the budget and the guestlist is important for your contract. Catering costs will most likely change closer to the big day once you’ve finalized your headcount, but you don’t want any major surprises when the RSVP’s start coming in. If you base off cost per person off an average number, you’ll be able to see where your cost may rise or depleat. Say, you’re inviting 180 guests, but you expect that 20-30% won’t be able to make it. Base your food costs off 150 people so you can have an understanding of what you may be looking at when it comes to the bottom line. Be sure that head count cost includes your tips, fees, and anything you may be renting so there are no surprises!

averyhouse via Style Me Pretty

Food costs will not only include the actual meal, but also the wait staff, the beverages, the bartenders, the meat carvers, and then set up and break down at the end of the night. Sometimes your caterer may even throw in dishes or flatware and maybe even food risers and display options for your buffet or stations. It’s important to understand that costs may be high because they’re catering to you, for one night, for your event. It’s most likely going to cost more than it would for a restaurant dinner because they’re not serving a steady flow of tipping guests throughout the course of an evening.

image via Collin Cowie

Be sure that you’re going to get a tasting included with your catering contract! This was a fun evening out with my groom to be and my parents because we got to experience the amazing menu creations our caterer designed for us. It’s important to note, too, that our menu options changed a few times before the tasting. What we initially started out with ended up being a bit over budget, so we had to cut out a carving station and we had to freshen up some of the passed hors d’oeuvres. Our caterer was so flexible with us and was OK with us cutting things out to bring our costs down. We were really grateful because he cared about us being happy, rather than us costing him money. I would say that it paid off, because I’ve sent two other brides over to him for their weddings in the next year!

A Bryan Photo via Southern Weddings (food by Cru Catering)

You may want to ask your caterer what exactly he/she includes in the contract: from glassware to coffee to sodas and lemons for waters. Sugar for coffee? All of the little details shouldn’t be assumed. It’s custom to tip your caterer at the end of the night, as well! Be sure to see if that is something included in the contract, or if that will be additional. Ask about traveling costs. Arrival times, kitchen space needed. Your caterer may do a walk through of your venue to see if it’s possible to work in that space with the amount of guests you have invited.

Michelle Turner via Style Me Pretty

Once you’ve finalized your details of the catering contract, you can then get more of an idea of your specific menu items. I’d say, that’s the fun part! My mouth is watering just looking at all this yummy food, y’all.

Bon Appetite!

xo,

Megan

How to Delegate Tasks to Reduce Your Work Load

Planning your wedding can be a stressful time even though the process should build intimacy and closeness. Recognizing and managing stress makes the difference between people that are overwhelmed and those that are not. Some stress reactions are stomach aches, racing thoughts, irritability, moodiness, poor concentration, sleeping problems, and headaches. It is very important that you recognize these overload signs for stress and manage them accordingly.

Recognize the source of stress. There are many new roles, expenses, expectations, decisions, and wanting perfection in arrangements that contribute to pre-wedding stress. This stress can affect relationships and happiness. Other stress factors include illness, travel, work, moving, over committing, financial problems, and the loss of a friend or family member. Illnesses and personal losses are out of your control, but you can control wedding perfection and whether to commit to social invitations.

Manage the source of stress

If you have stress overload symptoms, figure out how to reduce your work load. Make sure wedding arrangements reflect true desires of both you and your significant other. If the budget allows plans for a large wedding, then you might consider employing a wedding planner or coordinator to handle the details.

Also you can reduce stress workload by some time taken off work. Saying no to social invitations is sometimes necessary and easily understood. Don’t hesitate on delegating some tasks or chores to your friends, family, or your partner. Try to be selective when supervising tasks personally and don’t take on tasks that are not easily handled. Doing everything yourself causes extra stress, stress causes grouchiness, and you may end up taking frustrations out on people you love. In all events that involve many people, there are bound to be imperfections, in later years they are cherished moments of your big day. Saying no to social invitations is sometimes necessary and easily understood. Stress support for your self.

Marrily has the sharing features built-in, so you can add your significant other, family member (mom or dad), or friends.  You can only let them see certain part of your planning too keep the details to yourself.   This way you can delegate the tasks you wanted them to help you on without revealing too much.

Additional things to do to recover and handle stress are:

• Exercise.
• Get enough sleep.
• Moderate, regular meals.
• Discuss stress with others.
• Avoid excessive sugar, nicotine, caffeine, drugs, and alcohol.
• Include some pleasurable and fun activities.
• Spend time and connect with your partner.
• Don’t make a lot of changes that put extra pressure on you.
• Don’t take on an abundance of tasks.
• Be realistic, things will and can go wrong, keep calm.

Stress happens when waiting to do things at the last minute. Take some time for yourself and just relax, getting your mindset off the wedding, get a massage at a spa, go to a movie, just have special alone times. You could also consider going with your partner to a seminar called Marriage Success Training (MST) These seminars cover increased stress for wedding couples and helps them handle it to deepen intimacy instead of stress.

How to Work with Vendors to help you Reducing Stress

How to work with vendors to help your reducing stress comes through many avenues from the wedding photographers to the mode of transportation. Hiring the right ones can ensure an elegant wedding with your sanity completely still in tact. Stress is unavoidable when there is so much planning to do for your dream to come true on your wedding day. There are many things to remember for your wedding, like decorations, catering, disc jockeys, invitations, bakers, floral arrangements, candles, lighting, transportation, wedding gowns and the photography that will capture the memories of your special day.

Limos or other transportation can be another clear area where working with vendors to help you reducing stress will be necessary. How you will get to the reception from the church upon closing of the ceremony is an aspect that many overlook. Transportation for the bridal party can be as fancy as a limousine to the quaint carriage ride, if the distance isn’t too far. A true fairy tale wedding in the winter can consist of a sleigh ride to the reception for the bride and groom, with the party following.

Begin with making out a wedding day timetable in order to work with vendors to help reducing your stress. Lists will be invaluable during the planning period and setting the time line in which to get them accomplished will lessen your stress. If you do not already have a wedding budget set, you should sit down with those that will be handling the financial support of your wedding. Parents and relatives or bride and groom will have to work together to create the budget, as well as help in sticking with it. Wedding vendors are priced affordably compared to the time, effort and legwork involved, let alone the stress that it will save you in getting ready for your day.  If you start your planning early, you can negotiate the price more since you’re not too pressed on time.

Reducing your own involvement in the legwork for the wedding and unnecessary work load will help you keep your sanity for a calm and comfortable walk down the aisle. Set up appointments early in the planning to meet with photographers and disc jockey, so that you will know what to expect and what you will be getting. When you find the right vendors to help you reducing stress go ahead and book their services. Another thing will be marked from your list and off of your crowded mind.

After you have hired the vendors and feel that plans are underway, take some time for yourself. Spending time alone with your spouse and relaxing throughout the wedding planning can alleviate stress from your life. Reducing additional stress can be achieved by getting enough exercise, eating healthy meals without unnecessary sugars or caffeine, getting an adequate amount of sleep and not waiting until the last minute for the planning and preparations.

Don’t forget about your photographer

Also, Kimberley Whitman, a wedding expert, recently shared one of her regrets about her wedding, that she did not have any photos with her grandmom during the ceremony and reception.  Her photographers took a lot of good shots, but they did not include any with her and her grandmom.  Kim’s tips is to have a list of people and shots you want to have  and give the list to the photographers.

How to Find Good Wedding Vendors

Knowing how to find good vendors can be as easy as an online search, asking friends and family or using the online directories that are widely available. Everything from wedding gown vendors to the bands that will play at the reception can be found easily online.

Bridal shops and boutiques for your special gown and bridesmaid dresses can be found either locally or in the closest major city to where you live. There are listings of excellent bridal shops online, as well, if you would prefer to order your dresses conveniently. Wedding gown vendors should be located within a close proximity to your home, in case of any mishaps with shipping or incorrect dresses being sent. Give the ordering process enough time for these possible things to occur without hindering your special day. Six months to a year ahead would be perfect, though a four month period would be sufficient when ordering dresses for the wedding party. Not every woman is the size that they initially order, nor are all sizes the same for every woman’s shape. Also, you should go ahead and pick out an alteration service for any last minute adjustments that will need to be made to the dresses.

When you need to find out how to find good vendors for making your reception as sophisticated as possible, there are multiple options. Caterers and bakers are the next vendors to find for the wedding cake and the reception dinner, if you choose to have one. These caterers can even be friends or family members, if you are planning an inexpensive wedding. Having a professional cake made for your special day is encouraged over having a novice baker to create it, even if it is only going to be crammed in your face by your new spouse. The wedding cake is important in the photographic memories of your day, too. Disc jockeys or musicians can be found online or in the yellow pages of your phone book. Sometimes, friends and family members can be the best way to figure out how to find good vendors when it comes to the musical entertainment.

Wedding consultants can assist with many of the above things like finding proper wedding photographers, getting the best disc jockey or how to find good vendors that you can trust. You can have the beautiful wedding that you have always dreamed of having, without all of the stress that comes with doing it all yourself. Consultants are experienced in planning weddings, whether it is going to be extravagant or a small, quaint wedding at home.

There are nationwide service directories, as well as international listings provided on the internet. By picking the best vendors that are in close distance to your residence, you will decrease the stress and headaches that may come with doing all of the wedding arrangements for yourself. Additionally, when you delegate some of the planning to vendors, it will ease up some nice quality time to spend with your soon-to-be spouse.