Wedding Blog Truth

My friend recently shared this hilarious Tumblr with me and I literally laughed out loud while reading each post. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm guilty of a few of them including this one lol but hey as long as I can laugh at myself I think I'm OK ;)

  When my friend says she’s going to start a wedding blog about her wedding

(Source: realitytvgifs)

And I just realized I'm also guilty of this one hahaha

When I see someone get proposed to in public

 (Source: realitytvgifs)

Feeling "Famous"

So remember me talking endlessly about engagement photography? And whether or not to have an engagement session with your photographer? Well as you may recall I went a little overboard and had not one but two sessions, and I'm proud of it! Well luckily it paid off and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that our engagement session with the talented Delbarr Moradi was recently featured on Brooklyn Bride, one of my fave wedding blogs. I gotta admit it was pretty cool seeing our photos on the blog and their choice of photos was also interesting. Some of the ones they chose I wouldn't have previously named as a favorite but after seeing it in the post I realized how much I liked them! Check it out:

Images via Brooklyn Bride & Delbarr Moradi

Wedding Planning: Why Blog About It?

I've been a little embarrassed to tell people that I'm blogging about planning my wedding. I mean how cliché and cheesy is that? It seems all the rage nowadays to blog about anything and everything but wedding planning is quite a popular choice. Well I decided to say screw it and throw myself in there among the millions of wedding blogger wannabes. My reasons were this: I'm a writer and I love to write so why not? At the time I decided to embark on this little blogging journey I wasn't working in a writing-heavy atmosphere so I figured what better way to polish up my skills than to write often?

Number two, I was feeling pretty lonely in the wedding planning process. Almost all of my friends and family live in different states so I don't have anyone nearby to do all this wedding stuff with. Plus I also just didn't want to annoy people by constantly talking about the wedding (it's like word vomit I still have to stop myself sometimes) so the virtual world was the most appealing route. I can safely write about my frustrations about venues or excitement over accomplishing things on my to-do list without boring my friends and family to tears. (At least not in person haha)

Number three, I really wanted to have a written record to remember all this by. It's true what everyone said that our engagement would fly by and it has! We have less than three months till our wedding and sometimes I still feel like it all just started yesterday. Luckily, I just have to go back in my archives to remember what I was feeling or how planning was progressing.

And finally, when I started planning a wedding with a cultural emphasis I didn't find a lot of resources or advice from other blogs. Maybe my little blog can be helpful to some other brides out there, or at the very least give them some comfort in knowing they're not alone and have some laughs along the way :)


Image via Pieces of Me

Wedding Porn

Wedding and porn aren't two words you'd normally find together. But alas, it's a sickness. A sickness that mainly bride-to-be's endure.

When I began the planning process, (OK it may have started when my friend got married a few years ago but whatever) one of the first things I did was start checking out blogs and websites dedicated to weddings. And so it began. Now, with less than three months to go till my wedding, I've got a set list of blogs that I check out daily. These blogs can serve as great tools for your wedding planning endeavors. Many provide free printables, templates, not to mention scores of ideas and inspiration. However, brides beware. Sometimes reading these blogs can be a dangerous game.

You start to question every detail about your wedding. "Is this color OK?" "Will our guests like this?" etc, etc. You also start to get insanely jealous of all the pretty weddings you see featured on these blogs and take on more projects than you realistically have time to accomplish because it just look SO DAMN GOOD on the blog. You think "I can do that!" But really though, you can't. So lets knock that "I'm-a-DIY-diva" mindset right out of your head. I say this only because I'm currently suffering through this. I have a list of things a mile long I'd like to craft but deep down I know that not all of these will be realized. As for controlling my wedding porn addiction, that isn't going so well either. Though the blogs I read range in the typical here's the gorgeous wedding of your dreams to sane down-to-earth advice, they still technically count as "wedding porn" since they've all got one thing in common: weddings! I've read that you should stop reading these at least a few weeks before your wedding because you'll literally drive yourself crazy so that may be something I'll have to consider.  In the meantime, here are the blogs I-love- to-hate-on-but-secretely-can't-get-enough-of:

Once Wed

100 Layer Cake

Green Wedding Shoes
Love and Lavender

Brooklyn Bride

Style Me Pretty

Wedding Chicks

Ruffled Blog
Grey Likes Weddings

Snippet and Ink

Engaged and Inspired

Broke Ass Bride

East Side Bride

A Practical Wedding
Elizabeth Anne Designs
Wedding Gawker
Oh Lovely Day

P.S. If you have any more please send it my way and enable my addiction ;)

Photo via tinylibrary.blogspot.com

Wedding World Lingo

Who knew that basically a whole other language exists out there in wedding world? Words like bustle, chapel length, tastings and registries quickly entered my vocabulary. It's amazing how many things you learn while wedding planning. I'd like to share a few words (and my hopefully humorous definitions of them) that I've learned along this journey.

boutineer — remember those things you gave to your date at prom? Well this impossibly hard to remember how to spell thing is the grown-up version of that. This could come in the form of flowers, buttons, twigs, etc.
chapel length — the length of your dress train and/or veil. according to quick internet search it's about three to five feet from the hem (bottom) of your dress. there is also cathedral length (the super long version) as well as elbow and finger tip length veils. 
chivari — a fancy looking chair that will cost you more than the regular ol' chairs.
centerpiece — the decorations for your reception tables.
deposits — the cash money you gotta pay up so said vendors can make the wedding happen.
letterpress — really expensive but pretty way to print your wedding invitations
registry — where you sign up to ask for a variety of gifts from kitchen utensils to home stuff and more. also where you get to play around with that scanner gun at the store ;)
response cards — the small but very important pieces of paper that let you know who is coming to your wedding and who isn't (if of course they send them!) i've heard horror stories of no responses, so keeping my fingers crossed for ours!
tasting — one of the fun parts! when you get to try the yummy food/desserts that you'll serve at your wedding. schedule a lot of these, I mean helloo free food and sweets!
vendor — the people who will make your wedding happen i.e. photographers, caterers, etc.

hmm, so this is all I could think of for now. This is just a small sampling of the lingo you'll hear tossed around when you're planning a wedding. It's a bit daunting at first, but you'll quickly get the hang of it. In fact, it may get to the point when you'll be having a conversation with someone who isn't currently planning a wedding and/or in the industry and they'll look at you like you have two heads when you bring some of this stuff up. But alas, their time will come ;)


Images via www.itmightbelove.com, www.celebrityweddings411.com, weddingchicks.com, stylemepretty.com

Lies, Lies I Tell You!

Ask anybody planning a wedding and most will probably tell you that weddings cost way more than they ever imagined! I sure think so! One of the biggest problems that perpetuate this scenario is the pretty la-la land created by the wedding industry that turns even the most level-headed bride into a pile of mush. 

For this I blame the blogs and magazines that continue to bombard us with images that are really only false advertising! I mean is it that hard to include the couples wedding budget when listing the venue, vendors, etc.? Simply tell us the truth!

I love it when I come across a blog or article that features a wedding and includes the wedding budget (such as this one). It brings authenticity to the event and makes those viewing it better understand the process. Not that there is anything wrong with spending $80K, $100K or whatever amount you feel comfortable with on a wedding. By all means, spend whatever you please! Just kindly let us know you did, so that the rest of us who have less (or more) to spend can have a realistic budget barometer.