For about 5 years I have thought about two colors for my wedding and two colors only. Dark brown and dark turquoise. beautiful combination of colors. I love that color combo very VERY much. My bedroom is decorated in that entire color scheme. I wanted a wedding in the fall so i could use those two colors. To be perfectly honest, the main reason i changed the color scheme is because of a previous relationship I had been in. My ex-boyfriend and I were together for over two years and of course we talked about marriage a few times. My super girly mind went ahead and started making a 'few plans' I was in the very beginning stages of planning that wedding and was set on my favorite color scheme as the wedding colors. When that relationship ended years ago so did that color scheme.
It took about two weeks of looking at brown wedding receptions and brown wedding decor before i started to envision a reception hall decorated in mostly brown or mostly turquoise and i just couldn't see it. I couldn't imagine looking around at all the brown. Even though i do love the colors I just couldn't get comfortable with the main color being brown. My fiance's favorite color is royal blue. At first I decided on a navy blue and a royal blue. After finding more things available in royal blue and white I quickly decided that was the color scheme i wanted to use. So now the colors are royal blue with accents of white and navy blue. If I could do it again i would probably choose royal blue and yellow or royal blue and a light purple.
ok... in my personal experience.. blue is such a hard color to work with. there are ten million shades of blue. for some reason it has been difficult to find flowers in blue. They are usually to light or to dark. just really hard to find royal blue flowers in my price range.
I decided on more of a formal traditional wedding. When choosing the style of our wedding I had to take several things into consideration.
One: My bridesmaids
two: costs
three: location
four: my personal preferences
I had to take into consideration my bridesmaids and what they would overall look the best in. I have one bridesmaid that is penecostal so naturally she would have a long dress. I had to decide if I wanted all my girls to have the same length dress or if they could be different. Since I decorate weddings and consult brides for a living, I have seen both styles. Both are absolutely fine. The prettiest wedding i have ever seen had every bridesmaid in the same dress and I loved it. So I decided to let the bridesmaid pick their own style of dresses as long as they are long.
My best friend was married last year and she had half the bridesmaid in cocktail dresses and the other half in solid black dresses and the results were amazing. It was super cute and super cheap for the bridesmaids. We each spent under a $100.00 for our dresses. We purchased our dresses at JCPenney's which saved us ALOT of money.
When picking a style that is more cost effective keep in mind that the more formal the wedding usually (not always) the more expensive it is. I have seen some really traditional weddings and some very contemporary weddings that have both been cost effective. The style of the wedding is not as important as a factor when determining costs. You can save money doing the wedding in any style. It's the shopping around and finding the deals that's the stressful part :) hang in there with me. That's coming. :) :)
3.26.2010
First things First. Set a Date.
Christmas 2009 I got the greatest surprise and the greatest gift I have ever received. My boyfriend, gave me an engagement ring. With that ring he also gave me a future, a family, and a lifetime christmases to look forward too. After the initial excitement wore off I quickly realized I had sooooo much to do and I had nooooo money to do it with. Since I run a bridal department I had some wonderful ideas of how I wanted my wedding to be and what i most definitely did not want it to be. I researched and price compared and spent hours scavenging the internet looking for the best deals. I realized what was really important to us and what truly mattered when it came to our wedding. I wrote about that in another blog. you can view that here http://spiritualhigh777.xanga.com/719679338/let-the-wedding-plans-begin/.
The first thing we had to do was set an approximate date. This seemed like an easiest enough thing to do, right?? well... no.
There were so many things we had to consider. I really wanted an outdoor wedding. My best friend got married a couple of years ago and her wedding was outdoors in may, and we were miserable because it was sooooo hot. So i knew that if i wanted to have a wedding outdoors it would be best to have it during a cooler part of the year. I didn't have to worry about my guests having a heat stroke or make-up running. The only problem with having a wedding in the fall was my fiance is a huge college football fan. An Ole Miss fan to be exact. As well as the rest of his friends and family. We had to schedule our wedding around the Ole Miss football schedule. (you think I am kidding, but i most certainly am not) If we had dared scheduled our wedding during an Ole Miss Home game.. our guests be minimal. Yes... people would choose to go to the game instead of our wedding. Believe me when i tell you this was an issue. So... after looking at the football schedule and the general tendency of the weather.. we narrowed it down to three possible weekends. We could't officially set the date until we determined where the ceremony would take place. We had to make sure our weekends didn't interfere with anything already scheduled at the church.
Another reason we decided to go with a fall wedding so we could have enough time to fund the wedding. Since we both were strapped for cash, we really needed the 9 months to save and budget for the overall cost of the wedding. We decided the date would be October 23rd, 2010. :) perfect..
tips/suggestions:
I have discovered that setting a date outside of bridal season (March-August) saves you a lot of money if you decide to rent a place out for the ceremony/reception. The dates are more flexible because they wont have every weekend booked up. Reception halls generally have the cheapest rates during the fall/winter.
The best thing i discovered about using a date outside of bridal season is you get to take advantage of all the bridal sales during the summer and you don't want to pull your hair out when you are trying to rent things, or order in large quanities, and you have 50,000,000 other brides wanting the same things as you on the same day as you. HOW DARE THEY CHOOSE YOUR WEDDING DAY TO GET MARRIED! OF ALL THE TERRIBLE THINGS TO DO TO YOU! :) You will find you have much more patience when you discover products on back-order or the waiting period to rent items is 4 months. etc. etc. etc.
the key to wedding planning is to start EARLY. did you hear me procrastinators!!! DID YOU!! DID YOU!?!?! Waiting until the last minute to do anything only causes added stress to you and to the people you are working with. I have found that i am much more willing to help a bride that is calmer and not 'pushing' me around because they decided to ask about renting ceremony equipment two weeks before their wedding. Brides get flustered when their dates have already been booked. and in the business and retail world it's first come first serve. There are usually added fees to brides to request services to close to their wedding dates or change their minds. so keep that in mind when you are planning a wedding. It's never to early to get quotes or estimates on catering, decorators, etc.
The traditional 'engagement period' is usually between 4-6 months depending on the couple. Of course every situation is different. Setting the date during an 'off month' will generally save you some money for those couples on a tight budget.
After the engagement. sit down with your fiance and determine when you generally want the wedding. spring? Summer? Fall? Winter? Make sure to take into consideration family. Are there better times of the year for different family members. such as.. If you have accountants in your family... tax season would not be ideal time to get married. You cannot accommodate everyone but try your best to be mindful of people's situations.
Future Mrs. Crowson
The first thing we had to do was set an approximate date. This seemed like an easiest enough thing to do, right?? well... no.
There were so many things we had to consider. I really wanted an outdoor wedding. My best friend got married a couple of years ago and her wedding was outdoors in may, and we were miserable because it was sooooo hot. So i knew that if i wanted to have a wedding outdoors it would be best to have it during a cooler part of the year. I didn't have to worry about my guests having a heat stroke or make-up running. The only problem with having a wedding in the fall was my fiance is a huge college football fan. An Ole Miss fan to be exact. As well as the rest of his friends and family. We had to schedule our wedding around the Ole Miss football schedule. (you think I am kidding, but i most certainly am not) If we had dared scheduled our wedding during an Ole Miss Home game.. our guests be minimal. Yes... people would choose to go to the game instead of our wedding. Believe me when i tell you this was an issue. So... after looking at the football schedule and the general tendency of the weather.. we narrowed it down to three possible weekends. We could't officially set the date until we determined where the ceremony would take place. We had to make sure our weekends didn't interfere with anything already scheduled at the church.
Another reason we decided to go with a fall wedding so we could have enough time to fund the wedding. Since we both were strapped for cash, we really needed the 9 months to save and budget for the overall cost of the wedding. We decided the date would be October 23rd, 2010. :) perfect..
tips/suggestions:
I have discovered that setting a date outside of bridal season (March-August) saves you a lot of money if you decide to rent a place out for the ceremony/reception. The dates are more flexible because they wont have every weekend booked up. Reception halls generally have the cheapest rates during the fall/winter.
The best thing i discovered about using a date outside of bridal season is you get to take advantage of all the bridal sales during the summer and you don't want to pull your hair out when you are trying to rent things, or order in large quanities, and you have 50,000,000 other brides wanting the same things as you on the same day as you. HOW DARE THEY CHOOSE YOUR WEDDING DAY TO GET MARRIED! OF ALL THE TERRIBLE THINGS TO DO TO YOU! :) You will find you have much more patience when you discover products on back-order or the waiting period to rent items is 4 months. etc. etc. etc.
the key to wedding planning is to start EARLY. did you hear me procrastinators!!! DID YOU!! DID YOU!?!?! Waiting until the last minute to do anything only causes added stress to you and to the people you are working with. I have found that i am much more willing to help a bride that is calmer and not 'pushing' me around because they decided to ask about renting ceremony equipment two weeks before their wedding. Brides get flustered when their dates have already been booked. and in the business and retail world it's first come first serve. There are usually added fees to brides to request services to close to their wedding dates or change their minds. so keep that in mind when you are planning a wedding. It's never to early to get quotes or estimates on catering, decorators, etc.
The traditional 'engagement period' is usually between 4-6 months depending on the couple. Of course every situation is different. Setting the date during an 'off month' will generally save you some money for those couples on a tight budget.
After the engagement. sit down with your fiance and determine when you generally want the wedding. spring? Summer? Fall? Winter? Make sure to take into consideration family. Are there better times of the year for different family members. such as.. If you have accountants in your family... tax season would not be ideal time to get married. You cannot accommodate everyone but try your best to be mindful of people's situations.
Future Mrs. Crowson
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