What's up with that

Recently, my friend Carmel introduced me to my newest vice, www.etsy.com. Her preferred method of persuasion was to tag me on pictures of custom made Swarovski encrusted Christian Loboutin shoes. In other words,  I was attacked from all angles, ambushed, and was finally shot in the forehead...just plain cruel. Anyhow, it was great she introduced me to Etsy because I have been able to find unique and amazing custom made accessories for the wedding. 

Amongst my new findings, I came across a not-so-famous wedding planning website, weddingwire.com. In my opinion, weddingwire.com is less focused on wedding vendor marketing, has better planning tools for brides that can be customized, and overall, it is a better tool than theknot.com. However, I have found that although there are many wedding planning websites, they have different focuses and specialties. 

With the help of our GREAT and patient wedding planner, Janel Ellefsen, we have been able to book our transportation and the band that will play during dinner. 

Today, I spoke with Amy from Windsongs, our ceremony string trio, to begin discussing ceremony music. Once I got home, I was on my mission to research songs for our reception, specially for the important moments such as, music for our entrance, father and daughter dance, garter toss, bouquet toss, cake cutting... you get the point. 

Although the wedding planning process has been stressful, there have been many moments that have made me smile like a little school girl. One of these moments was tonight, when I was picking the song for the garter toss...top secret *grin*.

Special thanks to Carmel who has been helping me with wedding ideas and given me suggestions.

Love,

FN

P.S.: In case you where wondering about the title of this post, it is a song from Kenan Thompson's SNL sketch, which happens to be my fiance's favorite. 

Wow....

Today, I received an e-mail from my lovely MOH about good dates to have the Bachelorette party and the Bridal shower. The subject line of her e-mail read: Getting close to the BIG DAY. I do not know what word would describe the reaction best... perhaps, hyperventilation. Time has gone extremely fast and we have less than 4 months before THE day. I mean, it feels like it was yesterday when we got engaged and began planning our wedding and we have 4 months to plan the perfect day. As I have mentioned before, it has been a fantastic, emotional, and positively life changing time in our lives.

So far, we have accomplished:
Reserving the venue
Found a Catholic church and priest willing to marry us!!!
Have a great planner
Have an awesome photographer
Have the DJ
Have the florist
Have the musicians
Have makeup artist for hair and makeup
Got the wedding dress
Ordered the veil and headpiece
Got THE shoes
Ordered all bridesmaid dresses
Ordered jr. bridesmaid dresses
Got the wedding bands
Purchased bridesmaid gifts
Invitations ordered and received
Mother of the bride dress ordered
Hotel block and bridal suites reserved
Pre-marital counseling
Food tasting
Engagement picture session done
Scheduled hair and make-up trial
Scheduled 1st wedding dress fitting
Lost 17 pounds
Chairs reserved
Music for cocktail hour
Signature drink selected
Honeymoon to Tahiti booked!!!!!!!

To do:
Transportation
Cake tasting, choosing, and ordering
Undergarments
Get another dress for a mom
Choose the flower girl dress
Choose and order jr. bridesmaids and groomsmen gifts
Gather list of music for wedding and meeting with DJ

Schedule and have the decor mock-up

Meet and discuss music with ceremony musicians

Have the make-up and hair trial

Wedding dress fittings

Engrave and solder engagement ring and wedding insert

3 pounds to lose

Resume going to the gym and get toned

Choose and order wedding programs

Choose and order menus and frames

Choose and print escort cards

Choose and reserve linens

Get my passport

Get guestbook

Get outfit for rehearsal
Plan and hold rehearsal
Music for dinner

Go shopping for honeymoon....

I have to thank my dear friends, family, planner, and fiance.

Nonetheless, I am extremely excited about our wedding day, all the intricate detail planning and energy that has and will go into the planning of our most unforgettable day.  Most importantly, I am looking forward to the most special and important moment during our great day when I will marry my wonderful fiance.

Love,

FN

Wedding Movies - The Poll

I have finally chosen the shoes I will be wearing on our big day and I am very excited about the choice. I truly appreciate your input, so thank you for your help.

Since you have been so helpful, I thought it would be fun to poll on what you think is the best wedding movie:

1. The Proposal

2. Wedding Crashers

3. Wedding Date

4. 27 Dresses

5. Made of Honor

6. Sweet Home Alabama

7. The Wedding Singer

8. My Best Friend's Wedding

9. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
10. Bride Wars

I am sure I have missed quite few movies. Please, feel free to pitch in!

Love,

FN

Shoes!!!

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love shoes. Fortunately, one of the items on my to-do list for the wedding is to find THE shoes. I did not think finding shoes for my wedding would be challenging at all. However, so far, I have not been successful. What I am looking for in wedding shoes is height, comfort, and ideally to be able to wear them in the future.

Here are the shoes I have tried on and my opinion about them. I am excited to read what you guys think about these:

Badgley Mischka, Humbie II
Nice, but poor quality for the price

RSVP, Carol
Did not like the flowers

RSVP, Lovely
Nice, but hard and the quality not very high

Jimmy Choo, Crown
Great looking, but $$$. I will need to try them on once again to make sure I am not taller than groom

Enzo Angiolini, Sully
Extremely similar to the Badgley Mischka shoes, more affordable and much higher quality.
However, I am taller than the groom.

Jimmy Choo, Clue

To try on, but $$$

I am excited to read what you guys think about these shoes and any recommendations that you might have. 

Love,

FN

To Hire or Not to Hire a Wedding Planner?

Wedding planning, time for decisions!
When I began planning our wedding, I had zero wedding planning experience and unlike many women, I have not been planning my wedding day since I was 5 years old. My (and my closest family and friends') lack of time and knowledge of planning a wedding, made us determine we needed to hire a wedding coordinator.
Our first task to find a wedding coordinator forced us into entering the world of the wedding industry. For us, it was difficult to narrow down our selection of wedding coordinators with the overwhelming number of people and companies who provide the same service. As an alien to the wedding planning world, how do you know you are hiring the right company and avoid the hassle of having to fire a vendor, like we had to do with our first weeding coordinator?

• Click: See if your personality, style, and vision, clicks with the vendor's. Do not ignore your gut feeling.
• Patience: Do not make rush decisions because you are desperate. Think decisions through.
• Joint effort: When bride and groom meet with the vendor, you get different perspectives of the meeting.

In the process of hiring vendors, I have realized it is crucial to acknowledge and accept the type of person you are. If you are like me, a woman who likes being in control, you might enjoy planning your wedding better if you hire a coordinator for the Day Of instead.

I think that the key to a joyful wedding planning process is to Know Yourself.

Vendors (thus far) helping us make our wedding, a dream come true:

Wedding  Planner - Occasion, LLC. with Janel Ellefsen            

Photographer - Jean Marcus Strole                                   

Florist and Decor - Anna's Flowers        

DJ - Braden Landon                                 

Printed Goods - Silberman Brown                                       

Hair and Make-up - Salon Maison                                             

Bridal Gown and Jr. Bridesmaid's dresses - Princess Bride

Bridesmaid dresses - Moms, Maids, and More

Musicians - Windsong Trio

Love,
FN

Remember...

Until about a month ago, I had been worrying about all the items theknot.com and my wedding planner have been telling me to worry about, i.e. the venue, church, decor, photographer, wedding dress, bridal accessories, honeymoon, etc. To my surprise, I came to the realization that Walt Disney had taught me that one day, I would meet Prince Charming and get married wearing a white long dress. However, W.D. had not prepared me for all the thing that can happen between the "and they fell in love", "they got married", and "they lived happily ever after."
When planning a wedding, it is extremely easy to get caught up in little details, trying to make everyone happy, family drama, and to forget what really matters. During this time, I have found that checklists lack a very important element that is not found on any checklist, and that is, to Remember. It is crucial to remember to ask yourself, what is truly important? And most importantly, why one is planning the wedding.
Thus far, the wedding planning process has been a journey that has taught me life lessons.

What I have learned:

• There is only one person responsible for a person's happiness, one's self.
• Have faith
• To give my fiance more credit. I never thought how many opinions and great ideas he had that have made it easier. The best part is that the final product would be a reflection of both, it will be Our Wedding.
• There will be drama! There are two options: to be mad or to embrace the process. Use the bumps on the road to lean on each other and to learn about each other.
• Choose your battles.
• Remember what the moment is truly about, no matter what.
• Turn the page onto a new chapter in life, a new chapter written by the bride and groom.

Love,
FN

Special thanks to: My fiance, my future in-laws, my grandma, and Chantelle

Why A Bride Like You?

It has been 8 months since I began planning my wedding and still have 5 months to go. Since I began planning my dream wedding, I have found an overwhelming amount of information about "how a wedding should be planned" written by people working in the wedding industry. However, I was not able to find many blogs or sites created from and to brides-to-be. This inspired me to create this blog from a contemporary bride to other contemporary brides and everyone who wants to read it.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog!