Happy Valentine’s Day!! All about wedding planning today!! As we start getting closer to the big day and with planning in full swing, we have a lot going on. We will definitely be sharing EVERYTHING after we get married, but I will be able to share a little bit before. I do not want to give anything away to our guests, so secrets are a must! 🙂 Check out previous wedding posts here!
Below are the five tips I have learned so far about wedding planning.. but more importantly, stress free wedding planning. Don’t let me fool you though, there have been many moments of stress throughout this process but we just take those in strides and let it ride on by!
1. Attend a Bridal Fair
Jack and I got engaged in December 2017, and my mom, future MIL, and I attended a bridal fair in January 2018. At that bridal fair, we booked our DJ, set-up a meeting with our future photographer, looked at dresses, tasted a lot of yummy cake, and just soaked in all of the wedding goodness! For my Omaha gals, the next upcoming bridal fair, or bridal salon, is at Omaha Fashion Week on Monday, February 25th from 6pm – 9pm to kick off fashion week! It is definitely a must attend event for all of you future brides.
Plan your big day the fashionable way! Grab a glass of bubbly and enjoy an evening of inspiration during our glamorous bridal themed showcase. From our high-end runway show packed with bridal trends from local designers and boutiques, to our vendor market showcasing hors d’oeuvres, tablescapes, and floral arrangements, check everything off your wedding to-do list!
– Omaha Fashion Week
2. Use Basic Invite
Friends.. invitations can be SO overwhelming. And plus you have to get those save the dates out too! We sent out our save the dates for our July wedding in September, so about the 10 month mark. I think technically you are “supposed” to send them out about 8 – 12 months ahead. However, here is the thing about wedding planning… YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT. Yes, there are suggestions, but that is exactly what they are.. suggestions. You will still get your marriage license if you decide to send out your invitations at month 3-4 instead of 6-8 weeks! Promise.
As for basic invite, I found this wonderful site when I was looking for our save the dates. We wanted to get a save the date that people would actually keep. I asked my friends what makes them keep save the dates, and my best friend said that she has kept every magnet save the date.. so that is what we went with! And I LOVE THEM. We are inviting 200 people and I ordered 100 so we could have extras, just in case. It is so much fun going into our family and friends homes and seeing our magnet on their fridge! It just warms my heart!
I went back and fourth on our wedding invites… a lot… just ask my mom! I was thinking about making them all myself, but I just wasn’t happy with them and it was a lot of work. We ordered some samples from Basic Invite and we fell in loooove. I love how they are still customizable to us, but half of the cost. I will be sharing a detailed post about our invitations.. but we have to send them out first! 🙂
Basic Invite offers every invitation you need for your events… from wedding to bridal shower to your baby shower and announcement and Christmas cards, they got you covered!
3. Speak Up
When planning your wedding, everyone and their mother is going to want to help out {see tip 5}.. well mostly everyone. To create a stress free environment for your wedding, you must speak up on what you want. Everyone will have ideas, and those can be helpful or hurtful. Keep in perceptive that others just want to help you create the best day ever. However, it is your wedding, not theirs. Your word is pretty much final, so make sure to speak up on how you are feeling. If you don’t like something or feeling uncomfortable, take a step back and speak your truth. Trust me, you don’t want to get to your wedding day and it be nothing that you imagined.
And don’t worry, you will feel anxiety during planning and this is normal. Just keep focus on what really matters, you and your future hubby.
4. Erin Condren Wedding Planner
At the beginning of our wedding planning, I just used a cute notebook. However, once I heard about the Erin Condren Wedding Planner, I was hooked. A few years ago, before I found my Simplified Planner, I actually used Erin Condren. Since we have been hitting the wedding planning hard, I found that I really wanted a notebook that would be easy to carry around town and to our meetings with vendors. Let me just tell ya.. the Erin Condren planner is the bomb shizzzz. Holy smokes you guys.. it is perfection.
You can chose between 12 months or 24 months, which I love because I could of easily used this for our entire engagement. You receive little number dots to place on each month, so it is not set for a certain year. After just transferring all of the information I had so far, I cannot decide what my favorite feature is! It is SO well organized, gives you great tips for your wedding and even has a spot in the back for all of your memories! The perfect place for photos, color samples, anything your little heart desires!
Want $10 off your Erin Condren Purchase?! Click here for my refer a friend link! You get $10, and so do I!
5. Get yourself an awesome Mom {and support system!}
This one is self-explanatory, but I literally would still be looking at venues if it wasn’t for my mom! Wedding planning is supposed to be enjoyable, even when sometimes you end up crying at 8pm because your fiancé decides that he doesn’t like the purple we are using anymore…. not saying that actually happened or anything…
My mom has been a supporting system this whole time and is truly helping me create the vision that I have had in my head for years. She will tell you that I always turn down her ideas {not true!} but our wedding wouldn’t be the best day ever without her.. and my dad.. and my sister.. and our entire wedding party. Find yourself a great support system and enjoy the journey to your happily ever after.
xoxo,
nikki