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It is now officially only a few weeks away from the wedding. All the details suddenly really need to be finalized. Every time we meet with someone involved with the wedding, we find more things that need to be taken care of. I find myself “working overtime” and staying up until 4am to get all sorts of things ready. It is now, out of the entire 16-month engagement, that my fiance and I truly wish we eloped instead.
With that said, I would not trade the wedding planning experience for anything. We seem to have fallen in love with each other even more, if that’s possible. We deepened our friendships with our wedding party and wedding helpers. And we learned to be the most considerate we have ever been in our lives so far - to think of the comfort of every one of our guests, their allergies, who they would enjoy sitting with, how to keep them entertained, etc. The whole experience has been rewarding in so many ways!
My next post on this blog will most likely be after the wedding. Please stay tuned as I will be sharing with you what our wedding actually looked like, and some wisdom that I gained from looking at and thinking about the wedding in hindsight. I will probably continue posting neat wedding ideas as well because I love weddings! (Is anyone looking for a wedding planner or wedding manager? Give me a shout!)
Alright. I guess that’s it for now. I’ll see you back here in a few weeks :)
Seating Arrangement
To prepare for it, I found a very smart idea on Pinterest to use stickies for each guest. That way I could move guests around as the seating plan changes without erasing and rewriting guests’ names. They used different coloured stickies, but I just used different colour pens for the bride’s family, groom’s family, church friends (and other categories as necessary) instead.
I started out with the family tables because I thought it would be simple. How I wish that were true! As soon as I started putting more guests down, I have to rethink the whole thing. Who would this guest have good conversation with? Does this guest have any conflicts with other guests? These five guests should sit together but who else should join them? Wait, this other guest only knows this other guest so they have to sit together! Wait, now this table is short a few people. Wait, this guest only knows a family member! Wait, this is getting too ma fan!
Flags keep on going up every time I try to assign a guest to a seat. This is hard.
The Bar
A part of our catering contract includes corkage, meaning the caterers will be providing unlimited juice and pop for our guests. For all of you who are our wedding guests, as much as possible, please drink up! You would have to drink about 8 litres’ worth of juice and pop to break even haha. Keep in mind that on top of the juice & pop, there is the entire buffet for you to dig into!
In terms of alcohol, that is a different story. We are providing our own, so there will definitely be a limit. This is one way to control the amount of alcohol consumption in general, and it is also more economic because we have a chance to do some shopping and buy from stores with better prices. Some stores may even take unopened bottles back, and keep a small(ish) restocking fee. Guests, please drink responsibly!
Wedding Menu Designs
Some catering companies may have their own menus that they provide to you, but in most cases, you will not be able to customize them. That is the case with our catering company. While it is definitely easier to just let them print menus for each place setting, the menu design that they have does not go well with our wedding. We will be providing our own menus so that everything will look like they belong.
Our menu is designed by one of the bridesmaids, and it looks awesome :) It will have the colours of our wedding, a font that we like, and our monogram on it!
<2 Months To Go
Today is the fourteenth-month mark since the proposal. What more has been done?
*Feel free to hover over some items as they link to blog entries with more detail!
Little Things
Little things add up. And they seem to all pop up as the wedding day draws closer and closer! As I sat at my desk to think about the little things I still have to do, one thing linked to another, and before I knew it, a list of 15 items was born. (Another 5 items came up as I wrote this entry!!) Taking a closer look at the list, I first wondered why I haven’t already dealt with them, then I realized they were not on any of my checklists.
I love how there are so many checklists out there for brides who decide to plan their own wedding, but no list would ever tell you exactly what you need to do. Every wedding is unique, especially ones involving different cultures. There is no generic list that would be thorough enough to address all the customs you have to adhere to.
It is now about 2 months to the wedding. Some people say there will come a point when you throw your hands up in the air and let whatever happens happen. I think I’m already there. Maybe there is a reason why these “little things” are left out. Maybe some weddings could do without them. It all depends on the type of wedding and the couple. Anyhow. Here are some of the things that came from my mind that are probably not on your checklist. You may want to add them in! They are NOT chronological or in order of importance.
Get a cake topper
Get a cake knife & server set
Get ring pillow
Get a fancy pen for registry signing
Pick your wines/champagne (aka go to a wine/champagne tasting)
Prepare “Reserved” seating signs
Prepare “Thank You” sign at the reception table/exit
Prepare activities for kids at the reception
Decide how you will collect wedding cards AND buy/borrow it
Compile a contact list of all helpers and vendors
Make a “Media Itinerary” for your sound tech/DJ
Purchase wedding/special event insurance
Purchase liquor license
Decide on escort cards AND write/print them out
Clean engagement ring (1-2 days before the wedding)
Steam dresses and suits (day before)
<For Chinese Tea Ceremony>
Buy/Borrow tea sets
Get quality teas to serve
Find helpers to help with bringing trays of tea and washing cups to be reused
Decide on the layout and decorations for the tea ceremony location (usually the bride’s/groom’s homes)
Less Is More
We are going minimalistic with our decorations. When we think back on the weddings we’ve had the honor of attending, neither of us could really remember how the venue looked. That is the main reason there is not going to be a lot of decor at our own wedding - why put so much effort on it when no one will remember it?
This is something that took shape on its own. I have always dreamed of a super fancy wedding with flowers everywhere, decorations on all surfaces, over the top wedding cake, invitations…basically everything in the wedding was to be extremely overloaded with every inch of surface accounted for. Much to my (our) relief, everything that we have chosen for the wedding adds a graceful touch to our beautiful celebration. We were naturally drawn to the more simplistic and subtle kinds of beauty. Not only does this reflect our personalities and our relationship, people can focus more on us and our love story because there are less things around to distract them :)
Wedding Programs
RSVP
I wish the people we really wanted to be at our wedding could all attend. The RSVPs are slowly coming through and we are sad to learn that some people will only be able to celebrate with us from afar :( At the same time, we are so excited to celebrate with those who have accepted our invitation. The biggest party of our lives is coming up in less than 3 months!!!
< 3 Months To Go!!!!!!!!!!
Today is the thirteenth-month mark since the proposal. What more has been done?
