I love you more than...my former last name!

I am officially a married woman!  Can you believe it has come and gone already? To be honest I am just thankful it is over.  Don’t get me wrong, the marrying my best friend was the best part, but really truly if I knew a year ago what I know now, we would have either eloped or had a very, VERY small simple wedding. 

I figured I should make an appearance over here on the ‘ol blog since my friend Kim is putting me to shame.  Granted she hasn’t been consumed with the task of planning and executing the most stressful day of her life (yet) but she is a very busy gal who somehow still finds time to blog!  I envy her. 

I have made a list of blog topics I would like to concur this month since my hubby and I have successfully managed to make it through the past year and still love each other as much as when he proposed!  I would love to pass on some of the wisdom I have obtained on our journey and hopefully save all those naïve DIY brides out here from going through what I went through. 

Though DIY-ing saved us a lot of money in the long run, we still went over budget.  Expect to go over budget just control by how much.  Also, if you are thinking about DIY-ing and you’re not super crafty like me, make sure you have people to help you who are; it really makes a difference.  Lastly, if you are DIY-ing really consider, like really think long and hard if 1) you really need that in your wedding,  2) is having it or doing it yourself worth the time and stress and 3) do you have a contingency plan??

Here is a list of items I DIY’d:

Centre pieces: tree branches dried, painted, set in plaster

Flowers: I made all of the centre piece flower arrangements and all the bouquets

Lanterns for the trees: painted red (multiple coats), rhinestone string handles, crystal chandelier garland attachments

Garter: Ribbon, charms, lace and a sewing machine

Invites: drawn, scanned printed

Flower girl dress: Revamped and made a bit fancier with ribbon and buttons plus crinoline skirt

Table numbers: Designed, printed and added vintage pictures collected from family

Shoes: dyed and added brooch

Guest book: added individualized plaque

Card holder: Bird cage with DIY’d signage

I will gladly write tutorials on how I did all of my DIY’d decorations.  There was a lot of trial and error, trust me!  I will say that some of the things I DIY’d ended up costing just as much as if I had just bought something ie. my shoes; but I had a vision!

The first and most important piece of wisdom I can bestow upon all you future brides out there is to learn from my mistake.  I am a perfectionist and I planned down to every last detail and things still went wrong so in the long run I should have been more relaxed over the past 11 months.  I’m sure I drove my husband up the wall and he still married me.  If that’s not a testament for love concurring all I don’t know what is!  I vowed after the wedding that I would never allow another event or special occasion to consume me the way planning the wedding did.  I was an unrecognizable person.  My bridesmaids tell me they were surprised I didn’t go all bridezilla because I have the kind of personality where I really could have ripped a strip off of someone and I didn’t.  Maybe that’s because I was bridezilla-ing on my poor fiancé the whole year and particularly the week of the wedding.  There was a moment when I was speaking to the groom hands free whilst driving to pick up the flowers and I got so frustrated my MC who was accompanying me, had to commandeer the conversation so I wouldn’t get us into an accident.  All of that for one day!  ONE DAY! Yes it is one of the most important days in a young woman’s life but not so important you cause your FH to question why he chose you.  If he wasn’t questioning it I definitely was.  Thank goodness for true love cause if I were him I would have taken off in the eighth month!

And then I realized time was slipping away

Where does the time go?  I was sure just last month I was agonizing over what venue to book and what date we were going to choose.  The wedding is four and a half months away and what used to feel like a well oiled and efficient machine is beginning to feel like an over worked, seizing nightmare. 

I now know the significance of the engagement ring.  It’s to remind a future bride of all the work there is still left to do.  Just when you forget for a moment about the mile long list of to- dos for the wedding and fall back into the relaxing weekend routine you were once acquainted with, you look down at the beautiful symbol of your love and commitment only to think “Shit!” I haven’t booked the florist yet!  This is where I am. 

I allowed myself to take a break since I was right on schedule with booking all of my vendors.  I started a new job in February so there was no possible way I was going to be able to balance everything and keep my cool.  As organized as I like to think I am, I am also an avoidant personality and if I feel overwhelmed something gets put on the back burner.  So I hit pause on the wedding plans.  Now that I am feeling a bit more comfortable and confident with my work situation (even though it is still chaos working two jobs) I am realizing I am so far behind on my wedding planning. 

I asked Aaron in December to collect his addresses so we could send out the save the dates and invites.  Yesterday he finally got all his addresses and we have decided to scrap the save the date and just send invites.  This was something I was not happy with but he did have a point.  Why are we going to spend over $100 on save the dates only to send the invites two months later?  So we are sending the invites out a little earlier than customary.  This may be the biggest mistake when it comes to ensuring people are going to be able to come, but this was what Aaron though would be the best for our budget and our timeline so I am putting it in his hands.  I was able to talk him out of printing our invites on our home printer so this seems like a pretty good compromise.

I started making a list today of all the things I half started but have not quite executed and the list is quite a bit longer than I had estimated.  Looks like it’s time to hitch up my stalking and get back to business. I have a dreadful suspicion something is going to give though and I’m not really willing to lose anything I have in motion right now.  This is why people hire coordinators.  If anyone would like to be my coordinator for free or gift one to me I would not turn away help!