Wedding Planning

I'm getting married in 21 days to the man of my dreams!  I thought I'd share some of the ups and downs of my wedding planning experience.  But lets start at the beginning....
          He proposed on December 22nd, 2012.  When we started dating I told him to please not buy me jewelry.   I told him I had a very specific style that was hard to explain.  once we had been dating for about 2 1/2 years we started ring shopping.  We went to three different diamond stores before I finally found a ring that I absolutely loved.  Don't be afraid to shop around.  It's also important to talk about a budget before you go.  The jeweler has to ask you ' So what are you thinking you want to spend on a ring?' so be prepared to answer the question. We got my ring from a store that let him make payments on the ring until it was paid off, and then he could pick it up.  Other stores will let you take the ring home while you are still making payments.  One of our main goals we wanted to accomplish in all this wedding planning was to not go into any debt!  By the time we picked up our rings they were completely paid for. About 6 months had passed between when we went ring shopping and when he actually proposed.

We decided that night we wanted to get married at the beginning of September.  It seems like 10 months was a good amount of time to plan a wedding.  Not too short, and not too long.  Keep in mind the more specific details you want included in your wedding the longer it is going to take to plan.  After we got engaged I spent so much time on Pinterest looking at wedding boards.  I got a lot of wedding ideas from there..probably too many!  I would recommend looking at the Pinterest for wedding ideas but maybe just once a week instead of everyday like I did.  After we decided time of year, and what kind of wedding we wanted it was time to find a venue.  We looked at 4 venues total.  We wanted an outside enchanted garden themed wedding.
-1st venue: beautiful outside garden area, it was perfect except for the inside back up plan.  If it rained we'd have the wedding inside and the inside looked so cheap and dirty.
-2nd venue:  Was a golf course.  It was way too expensive, and wouldn't let us take pictures out on the golf course. That is apparently not uncommon.  If you decided to have your wedding at a private golf course, and you are not members there make sure to ask if you are allowed on the green after the ceremony to take pictures.  
-3rd venue: Another golf course.  The wedding cordinator kept telling me no during our meeting to my ideas of how I wanted the ceremony to look.
-4th venue:  Another golf course.  This is the venue we went with.

And boy was that a mistake! 

To make a very long story short we got stuck with a wedding coordinator that was just awful at her job.  We got told so many wrong answers, and she would take anywhere from 2-3 WEEKS to respond to an email, if she ever even responded.  It was so frustrating!  Thankfully after we had had enough we finally were able to get another contact person at the facility and get things straightened out but there were about 4 big things the previous coordinator had promised we could do or have at no charge that the new coordinator told us we'd have to pay for.  These weren't little expenses either.  2 of these unplanned for expenses were about $700 a piece.  Needless to say I started having a breakdown.  You will all be happy to know in the end the venue kept their promises that the first coordinator had made.  If you are a newly engaged and trying to decide on a venue email the wedding coordinator at the location and see how long it takes them to respond.  This might seem like a small detail but it's not.  It makes a big difference in wedding planning if you have wait weeks for a simple response.  After you visit a venue and you get home you'll think of more questions to ask..  Don't send them all in one email.  Email them a couple times through out that week just to test their response time.  

After we chose a venue it was time to go dress shopping!  Finding the dress wasn't the hard part.  It was the coordinating of everyone's schedule to find a time that they could be there to see my try on dresses.  Three of my bridesmaids ended up getting left out of that experience so that both the moms could be there.  If it's important to you try really hard to find a time that works for everybody. It still bums me out that some of my bridesmaids couldn't make it to this because of work or school.  I just don't ever want anyone to feel left out.  When I went it was an entire day of dress shopping we went to three different stores.   I went with the dress I felt most beautiful in.  I ended up going back to the first store and getting the very first dress I tried on, but I'm glad I went to the other stores because now I am 100% sure I have the right dress.   I have no regrets about that at all!  I can't wait to post a picture of it!  I'll do that after the wedding!.

By the way we are getting married in the Kansas City Area for any of you who are wondering.  Later I'll blog all about our Engagement Pictures/ and the crazy wedding craft ideas I got off Pinterest!