Oh boy, Miss Picky picked her dress!

Whoa..... I just bought a wedding dress!! It has taken me about a month, going back and forth on different styles and different fabrics, and now I have finally made the big decision.  I went to three bridal shops and spent many hours trying on dress after dress, thinking I found the one until I looked at the price tag or until I found another dress I felt looked better.  Let me just give you a few tips to make your dress finding experience stress-free:

1. DO search for dresses you would like to try on before making a bridal appointment.  This way, if you find some styles you think you might look good in you can walk in with confidence and grab the ones you had been looking at.  All bridal boutiques have email addresses, so simply email the ones you found and ask to try on anything and/or everything similar to them.  Also, grab maybe two or three dresses you wouldn't have ever picked, you might be surprised when you find you like one of them very much!  You don't know until you try.  You want to make sure you feel prioritized when you go in because most shops have you on a time block anywhere between one hour to two, so you may want to ask how long you have try on dresses to be respectful of their schedule as well as not overwhelm yourself trying on the who store, and you can always schedule a second appointment if you need more time.

2. DON'T let everyone else's words make your decision.  It is all about you and quite frankly, if you can believe it, it was very hard for me to understand this until it came to buying the dress.  I would try on a dress and absolutely love it, ask the people around me what they like and don't like, and get one tiny bad response which resulted in me putting the dress back.  Even if a complete stranger said "Oh I wouldn't wear something that tight." it began to make me feel like everyone I know would say that.  If you watch any wedding show or movie you will see this happen where the one person out of the group doesn't like it, the bride puts the dress back and the consultants have to remind them that it's their day and no one else's. It is very hard to not take others like's and don't like's into consideration because it's hard to not ask.  This is just my advice but I was having such a hard time deciding on a dress each time I went with my party, that my last appointment I went to by myself.  At first I was sad that no one was able to come with but once I realized I couldn't ask my friends or family what they thought of each dress, it really helped me to decide what I liked on my own.  So try one appointment on your own.

3. DO try to schedule yourself 3 appointments in one day if you can.  I wish I would have!  I didn't think I would like trying on dresses but after the first appointment and feeling upset that I couldn't find anything I liked, I was ready to try on more.  Like I said before, you have a time slot for how long your appointment is and if you feel you are not done trying on dresses yet you cannot just stop off at another shop, most require appointments for you to try anything on.

4. DON'T lie to you and your consultant about your budget!  You can be honest for your first appointment and tell your consultant you're just trying on styles to get an idea of what you like, just make sure you remind yourself that too. My suggestion is to try dresses on that are maximum $200-500 more then your actual budget.  I tried on a dress that was 4x my budget and unfortunately I loved the dress but I knew it was impossible to afford and it did NOT help me any when I looked around for something similar in my price range.  There was absolutely nothing that compared to that dress so everything I looked at was a disappointment.  Lesson learned, don't try anything you know you wouldn't be able to afford!

5. DO take pictures!!!! I am so glad I did because I took them home and studied them and instead of me looking at myself in a mirror in the dress, I got to view myself almost like an audience member.  It's funny how it works, but sometimes when you look through your pictures, the ones you didn't like trying on become your favorites, the ones you thought you loved you then change your mind, and the ones the person behind you in the pictures is trying on you've decided you would like to try on too!

6. DON'T pick dresses you like and keep going back to look at more, especially on line.  For fun, I would scroll around looking at dresses after I had just found the style I start myself back over again.  You begin to worry about the little details of things, like amount of alterations needing to be done, the amount of accessories like petticoats that will need to be added to your purchase.  When you feel like you've found that one, you will know it and stick to it.  You want to feel good and excited to wear this dress, not stressed because you think you made the wrong decision.

7.  DON'T find a few dresses you like and THEN show your fiance.  It should be the other way around if you want his opinion and it will make it so much harder to pick a dress if he says he doesn't like the dress you secretly tried on and loved.  Ask him before your bridal appointments what he wants to see you in and what he doesn't like.  Don't be afraid if you still want to try the thing's he doesn't like on and don't feel bad if you end up liking the one he originally disliked, because either way he will love what you wear.

Each woman is her own and we will all have different experiences but DON'T overwhelm yourself, DO remember you will look beautiful no matter what you wear!  

The Girls!

Choosing your bridesmaids can be a difficult decision!  Before I got engaged I had at least 10 people that I wanted to be for my bridesmaids, but now that we look at our budget, it just wouldn't be possible.  I chose to have sisters and sister-in-law for my party, which is generally tradition for bridesmaids.  When picking the Maid of honor, you choose the person most close to you, sometimes your sister or best friend, but remember this person is going to take on a lot of responsibility so choose wisely.  Now, because I have two sisters and I love them both equally, I decided I wanted just one Maid of Honor, so I chose my oldest younger sister.  You do want to take into consideration this persons life or schedule.

As far as James' party, I have left that completely up to him to pick his party as long as both parties are equal!

I discussed with my Maid of Honor, when I offered the position to my sissy, the responsibilities and what she covers to make sure she could handle it.  She right away said as long as it is in her budget she could do it and she immediately started on all the research of her position and what she would be responsible for.

Next step is to go get their dresses!  I can honestly say, I don't know what I'm wanting them to wear, so keep posted with my dress shopping experience blog, coming soon!

I cannot wait to make new memories with my sisters and sister-in-law!  

Location has been established!

FINALLY! It is unbelievable how difficult it has been to find a location for our wedding and through sweat and tears, I have finally found the perfect place!

James asked me to marry him on March 13th, 2012 and since that night I have been looking for the right place I have imagined for our wedding to take place.  In the evenings, I sat down and searched the internet for all outdoor locations, I then would write the one's I liked down, think about it over night and make phone calls the next day to the one's I was still interested in.  I was so lost in what I was really looking for, which most of you will understand, so let me tell you how I did it all.

First off, sit yourself down (invite your partner if it helps to think aloud) and think about what kind of wedding you want.  What date have you decided for the wedding or what time of the year would you like the wedding to take place?  Would you like it to be indoors or outdoors? Small or large amount of people? Traditional church or on the beach in Maui, Hawaii? Really think about this because this will help limit down your search (Not by much, but it will help).  From the moment I met James I knew I wanted to marry him and I remember when I began my Wedding Planning career I found places that I put on the list of who I would contact when we got engaged.  Funny thing is I never thought about money, but not to worry we will come back to that $topic$.  A large majority of women I have assisted and helped plan their wedding have done the same as I, dreaming and planning their wedding before they are even engaged.  Trust me when I tell you, plans will change whether you thought you had it all planned out and the funny part is that it will be no one else who changes the ideas but you.  As far as money goes, it is best you have a budget in mind! Now, James and I have 4 months until the wedding, so we have to be quick about our plans but he told me to plan everything out and worry about the money later.  Well, I like structure and most of all I enjoy budgeting, which you should too because if you actually stick to your budget you will feel very proud of yourself.  We met with family the week after the proposal and a few family members decided to give $2,000 towards the wedding.  I immediately told myself "Okay, $2,000 is perfect and I am going to make that the whole budget for the wedding!".  Don't believe me? Continue to read my blogs and you will see how I do!  

So, James and I decided that the wedding will be on August 19th, 2012 and we wanted an outdoor wedding.  We have not decided what time the ceremony and reception will be and we are still working on a theme but we have picked out the colors.  Ladies, just to warn you, don't freak out when your fiance looks at you like you're crazy when you ask him if he likes the colors you've picked out.  He really doesn't know what you're envisioning, where the colors will go, what's dominate and what is just a hint of color.  Once you start putting the invitations together, he will start to see how the colors will come into play.  Colors are not majorly important yet, but of course you can't help but think about them!  Now that you've got the date planned (You should really pick three different dates) you can check out the following sites for the best results to finding some locations.  Even though I did not find my location through the websites, I did find the largest amount of results or locations for the best prices.  First I searched http://www.agrandwedding.com/home/ which gave me results for venues under $1,000 however I could not find a venue that would accommodate the amount of guests I would be inviting.  I continued on to Seattle Met Bride and Groom http://www.seattlemetbrideandgroom.com/index.php to find 17 long pages of venues.   Do what I did: Pour yourself a glass of wine, sit down in bed or on the couch before bed, copy each link to the venues website, paste in either a word document or an email you will send to yourself, think on it, and call the locations that you were still interested the next day.  Keep a clear budget in mind for what you would like to spend on a location and don't hesitate to tell the event planner your budget or negotiate, but remember they don't know who you are and may not immediately trust you when you say you will clean up as if you were never there.  FACT: Your rental fee for the space will increase if you have alcohol and need use of the kitchen onsite.  Now, if you would like to save big bucks, you can rent on a weekday during the off season (January, February, and March).  

I still could not let go of half my budget that easy, so I looked at parks and recreations in all the surrounding cities (Determine what cities you are interested in and search for the 'The city of ________' and look for the parks and recreations link on their websites).  When you find a park you like DEFINITELY go check in out in person.  We found one we really likes and it was just as beautiful as it was in the pictures, however I about killed myself trying to walk down the steep path to the gorgeous lawn, and I would prefer to have no hospital trips for my guests or even myself on such a wonderful day.  

I still could not find anything I liked, I really wanted a location to make me feel at home, comfortable, and familiar.  I wanted to have the wedding in someones backyard, so I headed over to craigslist and searched through the vacation rentals around my area.  Another great site to search through if you are interested in the same thing is http://www.vrbo.com/ which is a website that will let you pick the state you want and choose from every city to view all of those rentals.  Make sure to call each of them and ask if you can have the wedding there if their page does not mention anything about weddings.  Most of the people I called and spoke with said they've never had weddings there before but were willing to try!  I again could not find anything that fit my needs, which was beginning to make me feel hopeless and a bit too picky.  I knew I wanted a backyard wedding and I thought I didn't know anyone with a large enough backyard, but it was mentioned that I check out my Aunt's yard.  Sure enough I did and I KNEW! This was it and I was done searching from here on out, I definitely wanted the wedding here!!!  Moral of the story: Ask around the family and do not be afraid to ask some of your members to reach out to other family members and even friends.  

All in all, this was the most stressful part of planning so far and my advice to you is don't rush into it!  Take your time and don't look for locations 24/7 like I did because it will wear you out by the first week if you haven't found anything and it will no longer be fun.  If it helps to look at other things, then so be it but try to also stick to planning one thing at a time.  

Thank you to all of you who helped me find the right location, thank you Apagi for the most perfect recommendation, thank you James for being patient with me and thank you to the others who just listened to me whine and stress! 

Feel free to head over to the following sites I used to get great inspiration:

http://www.agrandwedding.com/home/ 

http://www.seattlemetbrideandgroom.com/index.php

http://www.vrbo.com/ 

We're Getting Married!

On Tuesday, March 13th of 2012 at approximately 7:45pm on a private dock looking over the lake in Kirkland, Washington, my "boyfriend" at the time asked me to be his wife! Of course, I said YES and scream/cried hysterically.  He brought me to the dock and asked me if I had remembered the last time that we were there? I really had NO recollection of us ever being on that dock but I thought I would get in trouble if I had forgotten this "Special" place, so my response was "Uhhh yeah, I think so, kind of, uhhh maybe, yeah I think I remember this place!" He chuckled, pointing off into the distance and told me to look over into the horizon.  I really couldn't see ANYTHING, so I just said "Oh yeah, it's really pretty."(It actually was gorgeous, the sun had set and the clouds rolled in but you could still see the lighter blue sky underneath the dark black clouds). I finally turned around and there he was on his knee, ring in hand, smiling up at me. I almost forgot to say yes because I broke into tears immediately, but I remembered quickly after I took my hands off my face and saw him still on his knee. YES!YES!YES! He stood up and we held each other tightly as I continued to ball.  My engagement ring is a round cut sapphire with a custom made band. BEAUTIFUL.PERFECT.AMAZING.WONDERFUL.SPECIAL. No words at the moment can express my excitement and feelings, but I keep randomly bursting out with excitement when no one's looking.

What an amazing day!