I went to a Bridal Show on Saturday. It was held at the Convention Center in downtown Portland. It was a very busy show. When you first walk in there are tons of booths to choose from all lined up. From wedding cake tastings to photography everyone that plays a role in weddings is there. I had a really good time and I learned a lot of information about all different vendors. I was one of the first people in to the show and the nice part about that was there were hardly any lines to wait in. I was able to have full conversations with all of the vendors of my choice. I was also able to try many different kinds of cakes, chocolate covered strawberries and even cheesecakes!

The best part about the event is the fashion show. They have all different shapes and sizes of girls modeling all of the latest and greatest wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses and tuxedos. All of the models walk down the catwalk to all different types of music and props. It is really neat to see all of the girls in the dresses and gives all the brides lots of good ideas for when they go to look at dresses. In the show there is different scenes and each scene has its own theme and vendors.

The other thing that I love about the Bridal Show is all of the prizes you can sign up to win as a new bride and all of the free goodies you get to take away from the show. At each booth you either get a business card, a bridal magazine or some form of information about each vendor. This is great information to have when you are planning a wedding!

If you are engaged to get married I reccomend you check out a Bridal Show near you!

Well our wedding is less then 1 year away now! Time goes by so fast. Currently we are on top of all of our wedding details, but now is the time to stay on top. Now that all of the major vendors are locked in it is time to start thinking about the smaller details.

For our wedding this includes looking at different save the date options and invitation options. For the save the date decision my fiancé and I both love the idea of save the date magnets. The reason we like the magnets is because we love the idea of our wedding reminder being on our friends refrigerators. It is brilliant and it will help all of our close friends and family to save the date. We both like the idea of having our picture on the magnet. There is something extra special about our faces being on their refrigerator as a reminder.

For our invitations again we like the idea of having our picture either on the invitation or at least inside of the invitation. We have not picked out the design of our invitations yet but we like the idea of them being the same colors as our wedding colors. We are still on the look out for the perfect invitations but when we find them we will both know.

Well I have less then a year left before the big day! I am happy to report that I am in the process of locking in all of the vendors and so far my fiancé and I have all of our first choice picks! It seems a little stressful right now but as soon as all of the major players are booked the rest are all wedding details. I consider the major players being the date reserved for ceremony/reception site, the catering, the dj, the photographer and the videographer.

It feels good to almost be done with all of the major vendors. My advice to any bride is start planning right away and the sooner the better! If you start planning as soon as you can you too can have all of your first picks. I cannot imagine running around last minute trying to book and organize all of the vendor’s last minute.

If you are less then 1 year away and do not have all of the major details taken care of, take my advice and start booking them right away. I am amazed to see how fast all of the vendors book up! I am moving into more of the smaller wedding details and I will keep you all posted of how that goes…until next time brides to be….

Now that we have our venue in place it is time to start thinking about all the other vendors we are going to need to complete our big day. My fiancé and I have been to a variety of weddings but the wedding that sticks out is my sister’s wedding. We feel like the reason her wedding was one of the best was because of the DJ she hired. Her wedding is where we met again and danced the night away!

He was the first thing that came to both of our minds when we thought of having the best of the best. My sister and husband raved about him and the way he conducted the whole event. Well my fiancé and I went to a wedding last weekend and he was the DJ at that wedding as well! Again we were overly impressed by his work! When we saw him at the wedding we asked him for his business card and talked about setting a meeting that very next week.

We had our meeting with him last night and my fiancé and I were both blown away by all he has to offer! His name is Shawn and he works for Event Team Entertainment. He and his company take the word DJ to a whole other level! If you are looking for the best in the business you will not be disappointed! His services are anything but standard with packages ranging from picture backdrops, customized songs, game show options, even a new feature called dancing in the clouds! All this and more to make your day anything but ordinary!

Well folks you will not believe it but I was able to find the perfect venue for my wedding! I guess you could say it all just fell into place! I was looking at two different locations and because of the process of elimination it was an easy decision.

I am from the Portland area so I have been looking at locations that are close to Portland. My first choice was “The Aerie at Eagle Landing” it was a beautiful venue and it pretty much had everything I was looking for. The only part of the venue I was not impressed with was I felt it was the entire area of where the wedding and reception would have been held was a little small. They venue is set up so that the wedding is held outside and then the reception is outside about 20 feet away from where you have the ceremony and then the reception also has a small inside area. The layout is like a house with a garage style opening.

Like it said it was my first choice because of how immaculate everything was kept on the property. What they forget to mention is that they are going to nickel and dime you all the way down the individual linens and place settings you will be using! They give you a $35-$50 per person figure for the catering but what they forget to mention is with those figures the only thing included is the food! Not the linens, or place settings, or even the staff! They charge you for the individual staff members! If that is not bad enough they also charge you for an extra $600 if you happen to choose a date that is considered “popular” for brides! If you ask them about this charge they will try to make up a reason for this additional fee but that is the true reason for them charging it.

Long story short I did end up finding the perfect venue and they do not nickel and dime you for every last thing! Check back in a few days and I will fill you in!

Well once again it was a weekend filled with wedding venue shopping. I must say that there are some pretty nice options in Oregon and then there are some options I would not touch with a ten-foot pole!

For example I went to a venue called “The Water Oasis” and I was very disappointed! First of all we had an appointment at 9am and when we got there the guy who was supposed to show us the property was not even there. Instead another one of the owners was there and he does not usually do tours. Now mind you we drove 60 minutes to get to this location and we had to get up early because we looked at one other place before going to this appointment.

It turns out the guy we made the appointment with was not going to be able to make it! If that was not bad enough, our new tour guide could not answer any of our questions! On top of that all of the beautiful ponds and fountains they have on there website were under construction and were not even running when we got there! Can you believe that they forgot to mention that before we drove out there?

Well it gets even worse the grass was not kept up, the bark dust was very old and by the time we saw that the ceremony area that only fits 75 people we were already disgusted by the property! I have to say though the worse thing of all of this experience was when you find out they do not have bathrooms outside and that they bring in Honey Pots!

Well you can be the judge of this one folks but I would say by the looks of things I would wonder if they are even a legit business! There is one crossed off the list!

Stay tuned I will be doing more reviews….

It is time to narrow the venue field down and select the wedding and reception area that is going to work the best for you. How do you make a good decision on where to have your special day?

Well I am at that point where I need to act soon because I am a little bit more then a year out and venues can go quick. When thinking about all of the main components you have to look at for a decision like this there are three main things that can make or break your choice…

The first thing to consider is how many people you would like at your ceremony. If you are going to have a larger wedding then you are going to have to choose a venue that accommodates that amount of people. If you are going to have a smaller wedding then your options are completely different from a larger wedding and you have to again find a place that is appropriate for the amount of people you are going to accommodate.

After you figure out how many people you would like to have, you have to keep in mind the ever-famous budget! Now this is when you start looking at the $$$ and you start doing a really specific head count. Each person has a per person cost and you have to make sure that the amount you are coming up with is the amount you want to pay out of your pocket.

Once you have a solid number of how many guests you would like and how much money you can afford the last component is finding a venue that makes you happy and meets all of your needs. My fiancé and I would like an outside wedding and reception we currently have two places we are looking at but I am going to go out again this weekend to have a couple more places to compare to. The rule about finding the perfect venue is you can never do too much research to find the perfect match! Wish me luck…

When you are planning a wedding one of the most important lists is your guest list. When you are thinking of all the people you want to invite there are many things to keep in mind.

I am going to be coming up with my guest list tonight. The first people on list will be all of my immediate family and all of my closest friends. While I am coming up with my list my fiance will be doing the same thing and writing down all of his immediate family and friends. My fiance and I have a lot of friends in common so that is always helpful. We have decided that we would like to invite around 120 people but once we write out our list we will see if it is possible to have that amount of people and not leave anyone out. You should have an idea of how many people you would like to invite so you can keep that in mind while thinking of people.

After you both write down all the close friends and family it is time to ask the family for help. I am lucky enough to have a sister who got married 3 years ago so I am having her send me her list to make sure I do not leave anyone important out. If you do not have that luxury then ask your mom, dad or anyone that knows a lot of the same people you know to help you come up with the people you might have forgot about.

After consulting others for help you should have a pretty good list of everyone you want to invite. If you look at that number and it is way to many people for the budget you are working with then you will have to either cross some people off your list or find a way to reduce your cost per person at the venue you chose.

Good luck I hope this helps you come up with a good list!

My fiancé and I had thought that we had are wedding venue and reception area all picked out….we were wrong! It turns out the place we wanted to have our wedding does not allow weddings where we were planning on getting married! What does that mean, well you guessed the hunt is on! Good thing we started planning so early!

We started out by making a new list of all of the places we would consider getting married. Yesterday, which was Sunday for us we took the day to explore all of are options. My fiancé and I love scenic places are favorite places include the mountains, places with a lot of water, and lots of green trees.

The first place we started out at was The Resort at the Mountain. We were really excited to look at this property because it looked beautiful in the pictures online. Well it turns out the property is being renovated and everything will be complete next year around the time we wanted to get married. We looked at the future plans of the property and it looks amazing. The only problem is that there is the two areas we have to choose from for venues are both located on a golf course! We like to golf but not enough to get married on a golf course!

Well the hunt continues……

After you have chosen your wedding colors you can start looking into flowers. There are so many different types of flowers to choose from you have to know where to start.

A good place to start is incorporating all your colors you have chosen into the flowers you choose. For example my wedding colors are red, black, ivory and silver, so my flowers should include these colors. It is up to you if you want to have more or less of certain colors. I decided that I wanted the majority of my flowers red and ivory. I ruled out the color pink for flowers because I feel with the color scheme we are after pink would clash. The next thing I did was start to research flowers.

There are many way to research flowers you can look online at different flower designs, you can look in magazines and books, or you can even drive to the flower store, just to get an idea of what you like. I did all three of theses activities. First I looked online and made a folder of all my favorite flower looks, making note of the flowers and accessories they had used to create different looks. I found out which flowers came in red and ivory and chose all of my favorite ones. Then I looked in a couple flower magazines and books to get some ideas. After I had an idea of what I liked I went to the flower store to see them in real form.

I have not made any final decisions on flowers yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what I like. I hope this information helps you when you are starting your flower planning adventure!