Another One

Have you heard of this new site yet?

If you read the fine print, it looks like the designer pieces are made specifically for this site... worse quality, but better prices? I know I'm going to check it out next week.

I know that Christmas is over.

Blogger Me: Listen, I know that Christmas is over, but I can't help but feel an urge to share my DIY ornament on the blog. I wish I finished it before Christmas Eve so that I would have had time to make some sort of cute holiday wishes post, but I didn't :(.

Normal Me: You're right, Christmas IS over and this is a WEDDING blog. Ornaments don't belong here!

Blogger Me: ...but it has an engagement theme- the date we were engaged, a ring, and the word "love" to represent the bench where he proposed.

Normal Me: Fine, but just don't post a picture of those stupid his and her gingerbread houses. That would be overkill.

Blogger Me: Oops...

You're (Pre-)Fired!

I've been a little quiet lately about the actual wedding planning because, well, not much has happened. Before planning the smaller details, I'm trying to get the big three money pits taken care of : 1. the venue (check!) 2. the food 3. the photographer. I felt like I had a good feel for the caterer that I wanted to go with so I started on my photographer hunt. Unfortunately, that hunt had to come to a halt when I realized the caterer just wasn't going to work out.

(actual caterer not pictured)

I still can't believe that they blew it. I mean, I practically told them that I wanted to hire them to cater my wedding! Here's what happened:

Several months ago, when I was speaking with the venue manager, he mentioned a caterer that I just had to call. He said that he had always been amazed by the affordable brunch buffets that she had put together at the venue in the past. Solid recommendation: check!  Experience at my venue doing my type of food: check! I had really high hopes that she would be the one.

Fast forward to late October- I filled out her online contact form and waited to hear back from her. I was happy to receive a phone call within a week and spoke with her about my needs/ wants for the day. She was so nice, had a million great ideas, and promised to get back to me with a proposal the next week. She also knew that I was looking at her as my top candidate (perhaps it was a mistake to tell her that?).

The next week came and went and there I was without a phone call or an email. Like a teenage girl with a crush on a popular upperclassman, I gave her the benefit of the doubt (maybe she was busy with holiday clients? maybe she lost my email?) then waited another couple of weeks before calling to follow up. This time I spoke with an associate who, again, wrote down my information and promised that I would receive a call the next business day. Well, that call never came. Sadly, the caterer broke one of my rules for hiring vendors and is now pre-fired from my wedding.

Do I really have rules for everything? Yep.

My rules for hiring a wedding vendor:

1. Must not hide any unreasonable fees within the fine print. I get that there will be fees for additional labor and upgraded services, but there's no reason to charge an arm and a leg for setting up a guest table or cutting a cake  (I'm looking at you, wedding venue by the lake).

2. Must follow through on all promises. It's fine if you're in a busy season, but just don't promise to call me if you can't.

3. Must show interest in my business. If I call or email them asking for more information on their services, I'd expect some form of a response eventually. It's not my job to harass a business into wanting to take money from me.

4. Must act like a professional. I was amazed by the number of perfect five-star reviews that the photographers in my area have received on some major wedding sites... until I found out that many vendors will protest a negative review with the sites until they are taken down or worse, they'll call the customer a liar for writing certain things. "Professionals" with these types of sneaky business practices are o-u-t!

5. And of course, must "fit..."  within budget, vision, etc.

Pathetically, I'm still half hoping that the caterer will call back with some great excuse, but realistically, I know that she broke both rules #2 and #3 so it's time to move on.

Do you have any rules for hiring vendors?

Save the Date

The first round* of my "Save the Dates" went out this past weekend. Although I've spoken with friends and family about the wedding for the past several months, it was weird sending out the first official announcement. There's no turning back now, I'm really getting married!
*I've only sent it out to out-of-town relatives for now, I'll do another round in January.

To make the entire process easier, we (I) went the Paperless Post route. I've received party invitations through the company before and I really like their graphics. Although the card is sent through an email, when the recipient clicks on the envelope, it opens like it would coming out of a mailbox:

I did a little privacy Photoshopping, but the concept is that we're wearing race bibs with the wedding date and "racing down the aisle." You know, because we're into that type of thing.

I realized (at the last minute) that this would be the time to debut our wedding website to our guests so that they can get additional information on timeframe and location

...so, of course, I had to whip up one of those as well:

After looking into all of the free wedding website services with RSVP options, I decided to go with mywedding.com (over #2 weddingwire) for its simple design options.  

Because I was short on time, I stuck with a simple page of information for my guests to make their travel plans with. I also added a link to our address-collecting Google Doc form as well. So far I've collected at least a few bites although I can tell that most people didn't read too far into the details.

If I were to do it all again, I'd definitely go the e-card route. The fees for adding the pictures and sending the cards added up to about $0.23 (slightly less than a post card stamp), but being able to coordinate the entire thing from my computer was worth twice that to me! Plus, unlike their paper counterparts, these cards let me know when people open them and which ones were lost in the mail.

Frivolous question of the day: Do you think people will care/ notice if this card and the website have different colors and themes than the actual wedding?

Relationship Rules

Before becoming engaged or ever even meeting Nate, I came up with certain rules to guide my relationship choices by. These rules may or may not have been made up when I was a crazy teenage girl and I might or might not have followed them anyways...

1. Must not marry before age 25. I suppose I knew that I was too immature to settle down at a young age. I'm thanking myself now for that rule; marrying my college boyfriend  would have been a baaaad thing!

2. Must date for six months before moving in. I've seen some couples become "stuck" because of moving in too quickly I didn't want to become another.

3. Must be in love for a year before getting engaged. This was the hardest rule for me to follow! I fall for people quickly, but that feeling usually fades just as fast. This rule helped keep my emotions from taking over my decision making.

4. Must live together for a year before marrying. Yeah, so I'm not traditional.

5. Must see marriage potential within a year of living together. Cow, milk, etc... he didn't have to propose within that year, but he needed to get serious by the end of it.

6. Must be together for two years before marrying. This leaves wiggle room for an engagement period. No quickie Vegas weddings/ annulments for me (no offense, Britney).

July #1

July #2

The thing is, I've realized that my rules aren't for everyone. July #1 picture above was taken in 2009 and July #2 was taken in 2010... our wedding will actually take place during our third July together. As Christmas #2 comes, I'm realizing more and more how little time we've been together compared to many 2, 3, 4, and 5-year couples that haven't yet decided to tie the knot.

I'm completely comfortable with my rules, but I'm curious what sorts of rules you all might have set for yourselves. As a single person, did you set up any relationship rules for yourself?

PS I did follow all of my rules with Nate; here's how they worked out:

1. Must not marry before age 25. We'll be 26.

2. Must date for six months before moving in. He moved in at 11 months.

3. Must be in love for a year before getting engaged.  We were together for 1 year, 7 months before he proposed and in love for more than a year of that.

4. Must live together for a year before marrying.  It will be 1 year, 7 months of living together.

5. Must see marriage potential within a year of living together. He proposed before that year mark.

6. Must be together for two years before marrying. It will be 2 years, 6 months.