Your Own 15 Minutes of Fame!

So who doesn't love a personalized wedding website? ... It's your one chance to have your own personalized website, all about you and your wedding!

Better yet, it contains everything your guests could ever want to know ... all about your engagement, your Wedding Party, your ceremony & reception, After-parties, registries, directions, etc., etc.

However, there is that one touchy subject when you're talking personalized wedding websites ... those darn RSVP's. Do you dare use your website to capture your RSVP's?? Lots of brides do, but etiquette says no way. So what's the right answer?

Are you ready for my answer? ... because, dare I say, it flies in the face of all of that etiquette you've read. Here's the deal ... if your wedding is a formal affair, then by all means use the traditional snail-mail RSVP cards. It truly would not be right or proper to use anything else. If, however, your wedding is not a formal affair, feel free to throw those etiquette rules right out the window! I'm all about breaking rules when it comes to weddings. OK, not all rules, just some rules. Select rules. I'm just sayin' ...

The truth is, we're a technological society. We communicate online, we pay our bills online, we share pictures online ... we're tied to the internet. So, when being formal is not a concern, it only makes sense to allow your guests to use the most convenient way available to them to send their response to your invitation. And it will likely increase the percentage of your guests who RSVP at all (since that seems to be an issue in today's society). It will also take your guests to the one place where they're likely to get all of their questions about your wedding answered for them. It's a win-win.

So what did I do? ... While our wedding is going to have an elegant (yet rustic) look, the feel is going to be casual and fun. So for us the online RSVP made total sense.

There are many good options out there for personalized wedding websites; however, the one I loved most, the one we ended up using for our own wedding, is http://www.ewedding.com/. Love that site!! It is user-friendly (both for us and for our guests), it had absolutely everything we needed, and it allowed us to have our own domain name. How fun is that?

Cake-sultation!

In the last two weeks there have been a whirlwind of decisions made in our wedding-planning process. Venues? ... Check! Guest list? ... Check! (And that, my friends, is not an easy one!) Invitations? ... Check! Wedding website? Although still a work in progress, Check!


But by far one of the most fun decisions in the past week has been the cake. Truthfully, I had no idea what I wanted. The flavors were the easy part for Michael & I ... after all, we're working with Renae of Custom Cakes and all of her flavors are SO GOOD! How can they not be when every single thing she makes is made from scratch? Want a blackberry mousse filling? You'll find Renae down in her own blackberry thicket picking the berries. Want a hazelnut filling? You'll see her picking the hazelnuts, shelling them, and going to town with her tried and true recipes.

Want a flavor she's never tried before? No problem! In the past she's customized a Green Tea cake for one of my brides, and for our wedding she's customizing the one flavor Michael has always wanted for one of our tiers.

No, my friends, my dilemma was not the flavors; it was the design. I have been so busy with everyone else's weddings that I haven't had time to give thought to the details of my own.

Until I saw a picture of "the one" ... and fell in love!

I can already see it in my mind, standing tall and gorgeous on the ornate, tarnished silver cake stand Renae is letting me use.

While the cake pictured here isn't "the one", it is one of Renae's cakes.

I think you should call her and let her help you find "the one" for you!

I Got the Gown!

Yesterday I took one of my sisters & my sister-in-law with me to go gown-shopping. (And just to clear up any confusion, this is not a picture of me, nor is this a picture of my dress ... my dress remains a secret until "the big reveal" on my wedding day!)

There was no hesitation in my mind where I would go to find a dress ... my one and only stop for a dress was The Bridal Gallery in Salem. Angie, owner of The Bridal Gallery, is absolutely FAN-TABULOUS! I love referring my clients to her, so it was a no-brainer to schedule an appointment with her myself for my own gown.

Angie is very patient, very knowledgeable and very honest ... and that honest part is a definite "must" for anyone helping you find that perfect dress. I walked in there knowing 100%, hands-down for sure that I didn't want a strapless dress ... and yet the one I fell head-over-heels in love with ... was strapless. Go figure!

I deferred many times to Angie's expertise in knowing which dresses fit not only my body type, but also my personality and my vision for my wedding. Funny thing is that my bridesmaids (minus one sister in Idaho!) and I had agreed on a dress that was very beautiful, one that I really liked after trying on several others. But Angie insisted on having me do one final walk-through in the store because, as she said, my smile didn't "light up" when I had that dress on. So one final walk-through, one final dress I hadn't noticed the first time through, and voila! My smile lit up in that dress!

When you're shopping for your perfect gown, don't leave the store with one unless your smile comes alive ...

And give Angie a call. You'll be so glad you did!

And for those of you who love the idea of a Trash the Dress photo shoot but don't love the idea of trashing your own dress, Angie now rents dresses just for that purpose!

I Feel Your Pain!

So, I'm on a fast learning curve, realizing how very good it is for me to be on this side of things ... as the Bride rather than simply the Planner! I thought I remembered much of what it was like to be a bride, but the truth is that I had forgotten some of the emotions and stress that come as a natural part of the planning process. Wow! I'm embarrassed to say that, a couple of weeks into it, I've already shed some tears.... the stress of planning a wedding while working full-time is challenging, isn't it? Not to mention trying to find that perfect venue and realizing what a "challenging" budget you have to work with. Creativity and thinking outside of the box become the name of the game.



Still working on finding just the right venue. We saw a beautiful, rustic barn, but are unsure since the size of the barn would mean a ceremony in a different location. Other barn possibilities have come and gone. Still more ideas are coming in.

In the meantime, another possibility emerged ... an amazing venue (with an owner I love!) that is nothing even close to resembling a barn. The idea of trumpeters emerging from turreted balconies flanking either side of the gorgeous fireplace as I enter the ceremony is ... well, rather tantalizing, to say the least!

Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

In the meantime I have two of your weddings to help make magical this weekend ... I so love what I do!!

Boy oh boy am I wishing I had a Wedding Planner for myself...