Today, we are featuring another "real bride". She will share her experience with the wedding planning process and provide some fun tips. Fun fact: I babysat this beautiful young woman in her younger years. Congratulations, Miranda!
1. What is the best part of the wedding planning process for you?
My favorite part of the wedding process so far has been finding the best venue, flowers, decorations and photographers for the best deal. I am always on the look-out for the best sales every time I am in a store and I have treated the wedding world the same way (mainly because my fiance and I are funding our entire wedding). I have looked at so many blogs on "budget beautiful" weddings and they looked amazing so I knew that my wedding would look fabulous and still stay within my budget.
2. What is the most difficult part of the wedding planning process for you?
The most difficult part of the wedding process has also been finding the best venue, flowers, decorations and photographers for the best deal. Two weekends ago, my fiance (Daniel), my mom and I went to look at a venue in the Santa Cruz mountains that was mentioned in herecomestheguide.com as one of the cheaper places for a reception and had excellent catering services. But when I went and talked with the owner, I realized that the final cost was $10,000 over my budget for the reception. The site was beautiful and sometimes I wish that I could get everything I ever dreamed, but it was not practical on a financial stand point. So I waited another week and found an even more beautiful location for the ceremony and reception that fit within my budget beautifully! Its possible!!!
3. What surprises you about the process or about yourself in the process?
I expected myself to stress out...and there is definitely still time for me to stress out as the days get closer to the wedding...but I found some really helpful checklists on theknot.com and herecomestheguide.com that I have modified to fit my schedule. Also, my fiance is one of those grooms who wants to be a part of the wedding planning. At first I didn't really know what to do with that, but I started gradually showing him photos of ideas, and timelines in magazines and he has appreciated that I let him in on the loop. Since he knows me so well, I have been able to talk through ideas with him and then he ends up having some good ideas as well!
4. What has been your best idea or find so far in the process?
I love plants! If anyone has spent any amount of time, they know this fact and I have even had some close friends joke about how I will have to have a lot of plants at my wedding because flowers are so important to me. So, for my take-home-gifts, I'm going to give small individual pots with a single succulent in each. Now, I know what you're thinking if you have spent any time looking at wedding blogs that this idea has been done before. But, my advice is that as a bride or wedding coordinator, the take-home-gift must fit the bride and groom's personality, lifestyle, etc. so that when your guests leave with this gift, they understand why I gave them a succulent plant, or a box of chocolate, etc. Be creative!
5. What are you most excited about regarding the wedding planning process?
I am excited about the reception table decorations! I love textures and different shapes and sizes of flowers...so we will see what it ends up looking like! I wish I could do all the set-up myself but I know that is impossible. I gotta find some reliable friends who can do things my way on the day of the wedding.
My favorite wedding websites/blogs:
greenweddingshoes.com
stylemepretty.com
snippetandink.com
theknot.com
herecomestheguide.com
weddingchicks.com
Miranda~
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