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It was back in November when I first signed up for an account on a wedding website.  I hoped it would keep us on track while we planned our own wedding this year.  Christmas flew by, New years too.. and suddenly we were in the middle of January. I’d forgotten my original password on the wedding site so I started up a new account with a new website. Thats how organized I was.

We want our wedding completely outdoors!  Well aware of the Edmonton weather, we knew from the start that the 2010 wedding season would be busier than average if we threw ours in the middle. Many of my close friends are already married and I’ve seen how hectic the planning stages of the year can be.

So, I filled out all the categories in our wedding survey, read through the helpful hints, even entered some numbers into a budget guide.   After spending a solid couple of hours creating checklists of things that needed to be accomplished or should have already accomplished, Shaun came down to find me in a severe state of anxiety.  He handed me a beer and told me I wasn’t allowed to use that wedding guide any more.  I was also advised to avoid the wedding section in Chapters. Last time we were there, I was found sitting cross legged in the middle of the ailse with bride-to-be-books scattered around me and a disgruntled look that could give 24‘s Chloe O’brian a run for her money. I couldn’t believe how stressed out I’d become from the tools meant to aid us.

A couple years ago 27 dresses came out in theatres, and even my dad joked that I should have starred in the movie.  I too have a rainbow coloured corner in my closet with bridesmaids dresses.  Plus… Shaun and I work in the industry.  We kind of know the drill, and we absolutely know what we like and dislike. We’re aware of the costs, in most areas… and we knew we’d be spending a large portion of the budget on QUALITY photography. But seriously… even with all of this experience in our holster, when it comes time to make the decisions and actually fork out money, it’s a whole other ball game.

I decided to make a list (well Shaun decided and I agreed) of all the absolutely necessary tasks and I’d avoid all the excess information that was driving me crazy.  It helped.  :)

I’ve learned that the blogs and websites and books and magazines are wonderful to use for INSPIRATION, but for me… that’s where I need to draw the line.  We’re on a limited budget with expensive taste and a lot of people coming to the wedding.  haha. We’re spending money where it needs to be spent (Photography and Dinner/Entertainment) and then cutting back where we see fit.

It wasn’t like we hadn’t accomplished anything. We’d set the date, and finding an outdoor location to fit our LARGE families with copious amounts of friends takes a lot of time and research. We found a golf course out of town that is perfect for us.  Oh, and we had our photographers booked WAAYYY back (I still cant believe we’re having Dana and Alicia shoot the wedding!!!). It’s so perfect, they are incredibly creative and talented photographers who we also get to call our friends.

Anyways I wanted to use this post as a way to show off some of our progress… Things are coming together beautifully now. We found a wonderful marriage commissioner who is willing to work with us in creating a ceremony completely tailored to us. And, back in February we won a contest for a free 2hr consultation with ID Bohemia, they gave us much more than a consult.  Christine and Aaron took us out for dinner.  Found out all about us, and helped us get excited about really bringing our personalities into the wedding.  Both Shaun and I left the dinner feeling like our wedding was going to be the best wedding in the world.  ID bohemia went above and beyond!

They showed up at our house a couple months later with even more inspirations for us. Including a floor plan and idea package to help us visualize everything. I can’t thank them enough. I’m a very visual person. I can relax when I can see everything in front of me.

We’ve booked a band and my dress is almost here!!   I ordered it on Etsy from a designer in Portland, Holly Stalder!  It seems, that as of late I am falling in love with many creative people in Portland. Is it a coinsidence that Amy Seeley is also from there?… i think not .  I found it very early on but decided to first shop around and try on some dresses in town so as not to cheat myself out of one of those once in a life time moments. I went with my mom and two sisters. It was lovely.  I didn’t expect to see me mom get into the dress shopping as much as she did.  It was very sweet.  They all gave me their honest oppinions and I found a few gorgeous dresses.  But none of them compared to what I’d seen on etsy.  So… I tried on dresses with a similar neckline and style got my exact measurements taken and ordered it.  I cant wait to see it.

If you’ve made it this far through my rambling post…thanks for sticking with me. It was not my intention to unload a whole journal entry into this post, but it turned out to be very therapeutic . I’m so impressed with people who let  future brides tag along to learn from their experiences while they plan their weddings and take the time to BLOG about it. It takes time & effort. Its like partaking in extra curricular activities at school. It’s fun and what we love to do, but it definitely takes energy.

Thanks for listening.
Love Steph.