what i wish i'd known...

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craig and i attended a wedding expo this past weekend. think temporary home depot style one-stop-shop for wedding vendors. very cool. a little overwhelming. needless to say, we got a ton of business cards, brochures and info from a ton of different people. the top of our list at the moment is finding a dj, so that took precedence and gave us focus. we signed up for 5 or 6 free honeymoon giveaways and sampled some caterers’ dishes…even though we have our caterer set since they came with our venue…

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after walking away from the wedding expo with literally a bag full of takeaways, i have a few other general wedding “takeaways” to keep you extra organized…because at the moment, my organization is lacking…

1. create a wedding email account. so, after signing up for info from dozens of different vendors (using my personal email account), i turned to craig and said, in a moment of hindsight brilliance, “why didn’t we create a wedding email account?!”. that way all those emails (and spam) would be filtered into a separate account and not fill up our personal inboxes. smart idea. but too late for me. save yourself.

2. organize articles. the minute you get engaged, you become a magnet for bridal magazines. you treat yourself to them, your mom buys them for you and your future-mother-in-law just can’t help but pick up one or two for you. and you love every minute of it…until you realize you have the leaning tower of pisa on your night stand. you don’t want to throw them, but you don’t want them taking over your life (and desk space) either. solution? once a week or month (whatever is necessary for your case) go through and rip out the tagged or dog-eared pages. if you’re afraid that you’ll lose something vital, go through each one once more to make sure you didn’t miss anything and then recycle. you’ll be left with only the elements of them that will serve as true inspiration for your wedding and you’ll regain your sanity and surfaces in the meantime.

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3. include your man. at the expo almost every vendor reminded craig and it’s all about the girl and commended him on putting up with attending. in reality it was craig’s idea to go and he’s been involved every step of the way. as much as us girls fantasize about our special day – long before we meet mr. right – it’s still so important to remember that there are two of you getting married. be sure to ask his opinion or at least explain why certain choices seem like the right ones to you. also, it’s a great way to balance the responsibilities and capitalize on strengths. craig is an excel pro and loves to work on the budget and keeping track of expenses…i, on the other hand, not so much. believe me, i was perfectly content to hand the reins to him…

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alrighty, so that’s all the sage advice i have at the moment. i’m sure i’ll have a few more “ahha” moments along the way. hopefully they’ll come before it’s too late (…i’m going to get wedding spam from now until forever…)