Apr 15, 2011

Wedding Plans: Back to the Basics

I'm going to start of with how I started planning for our wedding.  Starting, in my opinion, is on of the biggest hurdles in the whole process.  Because even though you probably have been saving bits of inspiration and ideas before you were engaged, you never fully realized the full scope of things until you actually had to do it yourself! 

 I started with blogs and bridal magazines, searching high and low for ideas, inspiration.  It started out fine, and then one day it got out of control and so very overwhelming that I had to take a step back and take a breath.  It was then that I decided I needed to have a focus.  so I first tried to narrow down themes for the wedding.  above are two of the inspirations that I've had saved since day one.  With a tentative wedding date in the beginning of October I wanted to include those Fall colors but with a twist.  I also didn't want to stick to 2 or 3 colors, I want to use tones so it was less cookie cutter. 

Once I was pretty settled on a color scheme I then moved onto bigger elements like budget, number of guests and a massive search for vendors.  Just to fill you in, we are getting married in Minnesota and we live in New York.  So it was a bit of a task.  We first made a date to fly home for a long weekend to look at venues.  I then searched for venues in the area and made sure they could hold the number of people we wanted, was in our budget and had an over all look that we might be interested in.  I think we saw 4 venues that weekend and new immediately after leaving the last one which one we wanted. 413 on Wacouta, the Location and space was just what we were looking for, but what really sold us what the venue coordinator.  We talked with her for about an hour and made a great connection.  I knew that I would be able to trust her when planning from NYC.  Which I new right away was worth more in the end then paying less for a space and not knowing if your event will go the way you had been planning.


Okay so there you have it(how did I do?  are you sick of me yet?).  I've been learning over the past year and a half that it is hard work and you really have to be organized to plan a wedding on your own. 
the best advise I can give is to trust your vendors and be happy with every decision you make.

{photo one, two, three, four & five}

5 comments:

ilene @ muchloveilly said...

thanks for the tips - im needing as much as i can get right now ;)

happy friday!

Brandi said...

Really wonderful tips, Kirby. I don't need them quite yet, but I'm sure when my day comes I'll be calling you for help.

Kirby Margaret said...

Brandi - When the day comes for you, I will be ready for ya! armed with folders of inspiration and bursting with details.

Ilene - if you don't already have a 'wedding binder' put one together. it will save your life and keep you sane. to have everything in one place makes things so much easier!

xo

design elements said...

wonderrful tips! hope to see the pics, when the day comes for Brandi :-) Happy Friday!

Unknown said...

Such great tips! Finding a great venue + coordinator is pretty essential. We knew we had found the one the moment we stepped foot on Hans Fahden property. Everyone was so friendly and nature totally blew us away. We wanted an outdoor, summery wedding full of flowers, trees and a stunning view. We got just that!