wedding stuff : the planning

the cree estate

so as i’ve complained a few times now (or more than a few) — you might know that the wedding planning is a lot more stressful than i anticipated. it’s not that it’s even hard work, it’s that i feel like with it coming up so soon – it’s hard to not have something i need to focus on almost at all times. this makes regular life and work and blogging really hard. but i decided to do a personal post on where we are in terms of the planning.

my mom decided we didn’t need a wedding planner and that i could do it and she would help, frankly we couldn’t afford one anyway, but i’ve done all the planning so far with the help of an old friend turned event designer and her partner of mein shatz. they’re helping me with all the design decisions and rentals and they’ll be coordinating on the day of. it helps so much just having someone to talk to and getting opinions on things. the absolute most stressful part of wedding planning is the budget. especially when you have zero experience budgeting a wedding. once i signed a couple contracts for a couple vendors – i realized i had already spent way too much of the budget. which i’ve found out is on the small side for the number of guests we have. my fault for having way too many relatives.

the cree estate pool

we’ve booked our photographer, color me rad and her photos are unique and stylish and she’s really sweet too.

we’ve booked our caterers, which was a hard decision for me to make, but ultimately, i decided i should just make a decision and little nelly was an easy choice. being decisive is not my strong suit, so it’s been a learning exercise for me to just choose.

we’ve booked our dj, smiles davis – which was an easy decision in terms of her, but i decided it was worth rearranging the budget and getting rid of a few things to have an amazing party.

we’ve also arranged our shuttle (a schoolbus!), our rehearsal dinner, sunday brunch and booked bartenders.

the cree estate

things we’ve had to sacrifice so far are : a calligrapher, a makeup artist (my maid of honor will be doing our makeup), a videographer (we’ve hired a coworker of my brothers to shoot), and possibly a photo booth — but i might spend my tax refund towards one.

we’re heading to palm springs in a week to meet with a florist, eat at the restaurants where our weekend events will be, and have our engagement photos taken! lots to do in two days.

we’re now trying to tackle rentals, which is way more expensive than my budgeting had anticipated. gideon and i always pictured using yeah rentals – but we’re just trying to figure out if that’s at all possible for us. we’re having these discussions about flatware that seem so important to me, but then i step back and think jeez. it’s just a wedding and no one will really notice if our flatware is gold or silver. if our budget was way larger, the planning would definitely be easier. not that i think it’s easy for anyone.

but i can’t help but think – all this for one day?

by the way – i sound a little bitter, but i’m not. planning has been fun, but i really am excited to get past the vendor stuff to the design fun stuff. which i should have already started by now. oh shit.

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7 Comments

  1. Okay…longest comment ever…

    Wedding planning can totally suck the life out of you…and like you, I did everything myself (with my Mom too!). Who needs wedding planners anyways am I right?! I will say though – the work is 100% WITHOUT A DOUBT WORTH IT. The day of will be the best day ever….for realz (so real, I had to add a Z).

    Your photographer seems really cool. And I LOVE the idea of a school bus for your shuttle! So rad. As for your budget cuts – I HIGHLY suggest you get a photo booth. Our guests were obsessed, and it was seriously a highlight at our reception (we used PhotoboxLA – their rates seem on par, super customizable, and did a great job the day of).

    You mentioned you sacrificed a calligrapher…was this for your invites or your escort cards? Would love to help you out on that if you dig my more ‘whimsy’ style (links below). Maybe we can just swap services so you don’t have to actually pay me…or just feature em on your blog or something. Whatevs – just wanted to throw it out there in case you’re interested!!
    http://bybun.bigcartel.com/product/envelope-add-on
    http://bybun.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ty_01.jpg

    Keep chugging along w/ the planning…again…it’s WORTH IT!
    xo

  2. I was so glad to read this post! I know exactly how you feel (or seem to feel based on this post). Wedding planning is HARD and I feel like people don’t warn you about it enough. I personally have a very small budget for mine and had similar issues to yours about deciding where to cut corners. I wish I could just really enjoy this process, but honestly it is just so STRESSFUL. My main problem is that I can never relax because I’m always thinking of the million things that still need to be done, and they all swim around in my brain at the same time; it’s very hard for me to focus on one thing at a time because it’s all just so overwhelming. Anyway, there’s my rant. Thanks for opening up about this! I feel like everyone tries to act like planning a wedding is all magical and stuff when in fact it’s about dealing with a budget, trying to please too many people, and spending every free moment contacting vendors and making minor decisions.

  3. This is super interesting to me because I’m always fascinated how much planning a wedding can be like running a business almost. All the decisions to make. If you don’t mind me asking, is open bar more expensive than a beer/wine option?

  4. Wow, none of this sounds appealing to future (assuming I get married) me, but bravo for getting so much handled! Sounds like you have a good grasp on the plans, and hope things remain running smoothly for you!

    I also just saw a Living Social deal for a photobooth (I get the LA-area emails) this morning, in case you are still looking for one.

  5. your wedding is going to be amazing. sounds like a partay and i can’t wait to see everything you design!! the stress pays off, promise.

  6. wedding planning can be quite stressful, just don’t get too caught up in the little details and don’t let anything going wrong ruin your special day

    xo

    Inspirations Have I None

  7. I am looking into renting a school bus and saw that you had mentioned renting one. Do you have any recos or advice?

    Also, I too was looking into Yeah Rentals and was surprised to find how much everything added up to. Do you have any recos for this as well?

    THANK YOU!!!!! and I love your blog 😉