Pinterest obsessed? Organize your pins

Are you Pinterest obsessed like me?

I seem to spend at least 30 minutes of my life a day seeing what's popular or what's new on the Wedding feed. Here's my problem:

I have your basic boards. Food, weddings, exercise.. on and on. But, I NEVER go back and look at what I pinned. It's like I pin things and they go away into an abyss. LOL. Ok, not really but you get my point. Truthfully, the only pins I probably ever look at are food ones. Mainly because I'm always looking for something new and tempting to cook. 

So, today.. I am setting out on a really big journey. ORGANIZATION. I'm not a real organized person in general. I'm not messy. I mean I know where EVERYTHING is.. but by far it's not neat and no one else could ever find what I'm looking for. 

I figure, I spend so much on this silly website pinning my life away, I probably should organize it. I mean, I am planning a wedding nearly based on Pinterest. 

So, I'll have a "ceremony" board, "hair do," and so on and so forth. 

I'm doing that tonight.. it will take me days and possibly hours but it's worth a start! You should do the same. I've found a lot of pins that I really forgot about. 

6 months and counting

Wow. Hard to believe that in 6 months I'm going to marry my best friend. 

We've been together 7 years, it doesn't feel a day over 2. I always thought that the wedding wouldn't be as special because we've been together so long. But, as the details start to come together, I realize that's so far from the truth. 

Ok.. so back to the planning. 

Things are going great! I think one of the hardest thing for us has been registering for gifts. We don't really feel like we need anything. But, we have to register for something right? 

Here's my two cents:

Have everything you need? Now is the time to upgrade! Have an older microwave? Pick a new one out! 

Always wanted that espresso machine? Scan it! 

Register multiple places and do a honeyfund. It can help you for the honeymoon and anything else you need. 

Don't register for china if you're not ever going to use it. NO ONE has room for something you're never going to use. 

We thought registering was going to be this huge headache. In actuality, it didn't take us long and it wasn't bad. We actually had fun doing it!! Imagine that :)

Happy scanning!

Cross your t's and dot your i's

Yep, I just went there.

My life is generally an organized mess. I have a million things running through my mind at any given moment and I can probably tell you a little bit about a lot. However, through the hundreds of papers in my desk I can probably tell you exactly where that scratch piece of a paper is I doodled an address. Yes, I know I'm crazy.

But, when it comes to the wedding I've tried really hard to be organized. It's one day that takes months of planning and I don't want it to be messed up. I've found The Knot Wedding Organizer to be my bible. Everything you could ever imagine is written in it and it probably has the best timeline checklist I've ever seen. I have a tendency to work a little bit ahead since I'm planning a wedding from out of town. It also has tons of advice. I wouldn't be surprised if by the time the wedding comes around in October.. that the binder is broken because of how often I'm going through it or putting contracts in it. 

I would be so lost as to when to book vendors without it. I'm not one to remember every little detail. I encourage those who give me story ideas to constantly bug me about it because chances are I'm swamped with 10 other things and forgot. This keeps me in check. And.. frankly, gives me the idea to make one for my life. 

Here's a link so you can see what I'm talking about: Wedding Organizer

This next thing is something I wish I would've found 10 months ago. Google seriously has done it again! 

http://www.google.com/weddings/ Is one of the best resources for weddings. WHY did it take me so long to find this? Everything you need. If you're a gmail user like myself then you're really going to LOVE this. It creates Excel-like spreadsheets in Google Drive for anything and everything for your wedding. I'm LOVING the budget creator right now. I can access everything I need all in one place. It doesn't matter what computer I'm on either. 

Another piece of advice: Hire a day-of coordinator. Emily over at http://www.emilys-eventsllc.com is who I'm using and I couldn't be happier. She's always there when I need her no matter what issue I'm having. She's organized and always checking up on me to make sure things are going well. I haven't even met her and I feel like I know her. It's a great resource to make sure you're on the right track to planning your wedding. AND it will keep you from having to do a whole lot on your special day. 

Happy Wedding Planning :)

What's your advice for staying organized?


 

11 months and counting

I can't believe we've been engaged more than 6 months! Ahhhhh time really does fly by. As much as I would LOVE to rush this process along, I'm enjoying taking my sweet little time.

We're getting vendors booked and things like that as soon as we can. I've noticed some photographers, videographers, etc are already booked and we're still a long ways out. It's crazy. So my biggest advice to all you future brides out there.. BOOK EARLY! Especially things that are most important to you. Pictures probably were our number 1 thing so we booked our photographer well in advance so we'd know we would get the best of the best.

Here's another piece of advice: before you make your budget do some research. This is one thing I'm really starting to regret. Just go through some websites and find out what the average cost of a photographer, videographer, caterer, etc in your area is. It's proving to be difficult to find a videographer within my budget that's exactly what I want. I live in a world of video, yes, I'm going to be picky.

Be realistic about your budget. There's plenty of things to trim and do cheaply. Do you really need those massive centerpieces or can you settle for something else? How important are flowers to you? Food? I will say we're going with a more expensive caterer because we were blown away by the food. We literally talked about it for HOURS!! So, yes we're willing to sacrifice something else for some really good food.

Be mindful! Don't overspend unless it's absolutely worth it and you have the money to do it!

Engagement Pictures!!

Ahh... so we're moving along with the wedding process. We've visited florists and done some catering tastings! YAY! We've even seen the venue in person. We really are just so excited but the process is overwhelming.

So, on a recent trip to Orlando we set out to have some fun. Our amazing wedding photographer came along for the ride and took some engagement pictures.

You can check out more of Robert McClory's photography here: http://www.robertmcclory.com/

This is one of my favorites. It just captivates who we are, I think. Vince always has me laughing about something.

So, before I share some more pictures I wanted to give my tips on getting your Engagement pictures done.

1. Don't fret over what to wear. I wanted us to match.. but not too matchy. I initially wanted us to be casual but I couldn't find an outfit I truly was comfortable with. I found this dress at Forever 21 (I know ladies, shocker) and just fell in love. It was comfortable and affordable.

2. Make sure you decide what kind of pictures you want. Do you want it to be natural or set up? Everyone's personality is different but these pictures should definitely show who the couple is.

3. Have fun and relax. For most people, I bet being in front of a camera is kind of intimidating. I love the camera so this comes naturally. But, I do understand it doesn't for everyone. Pretend it's not there and just be you. Those will be the best pictures anyway.

4. Trust your photographer. Sure, you may not think the location is the best. You may not like this or that. But, he/she has a vision. We loved our locations to begin with and never imagined they would turn out so amazing. They were above and beyond our expectations. But, I've looked at my share of engagement pictures on Pinterest and I'm sure some of these people asked themselves, Are you serious? But, I really haven't seen one I haven't liked. 

5. I'll say it again, HAVE FUN!!!

Ok.. here's some more pictures.