Invitations and Save the Dates

So it is getting closer to the time of sending save the dates out and invitations are right down the road. How does time go by so fast? It seems like just yesterday it was over a year away from my wedding and now I am only 8 months away! When thinking about save the dates, what is the right time to send them out? I have read from a couple sources that 3-6 months is a good amount of time. I think I am going to send mine out 6 months in advance. I feel like the earlier the better. I have decided to go with the save the date magnets. I think that is the best way to help people remember your special day. I remember the first time I saw a save the date magnet. I was at a friend’s house and there it was stuck to their refrigerator and I thought to myself what a great idea! My fiancé and I have decided to have our picture on our magnet so whenever people to their fridge they will see are smiling faces.

As for the invitations how do you even decide? I am having a hard time choosing my invitations! I feel like the invitations set the mood for the wedding. Once we decide on the invitations we will be choosing all of the place settings, menu cards and thank you cards all around the same theme. For us I think the best way to go is a formal invitation. We are having a summer evening wedding but we still would like people to think of it as a black tie affair.

I will keep you posted on my progress! To all the other brides out there good luck!

The Bridal Show

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!

Staying on Top

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.

Wedding Details

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….