Wedding Planning

One Month To Go!

I don’t want this blog to turn in to a wedding planning blog… but OMG I have one month to finish planning my wedding… I want to make sure that I keep myself accountable on a few things, and maybe share some things we are doing to save money on our wedding (we aren’t really doing much to save money… just pretty much splurging on everything…) And to be honest, my focus for the next month will probably be all wedding… so… sorry!  Once I’m married, we can return to regular programming…

As you know, if you read my blog, we have a wedding fund that we fully funded back in January.  I also made myself a goal in December to make a to-do list and schedule for all the wedding related tasks… Well, I never really did that… but now it is getting to be crunch time and people are asking me about things, so I am finally making a to do list & schedule to get everything done in the 4 weeks we have left.  Okay, technically it’s just over 4 weeks… but who’s counting…(see countdown on my sidebar – though it has been showing 1 month ever since we hit June… hmmm…)

Budget

Let’s quickly just discuss budget… I’m not going to lay out the costs of everything… but thought I’d let you know that we are trying to have our wedding come in at around $20,000.  For some of the more frugal bloggers out there, this might be a bit much… And we could have done things for much cheaper had be gone with a different option.  As it stands though, it might be tight, since we have chosen an expensive location to have our wedding, but hopefully we can make wise choices and make it work.

Already Done…

So, what have we done already?

• We have booked our location for both the ceremony and the reception.  They have their own catering service, so that is booked too, we just have to decide on the menu…
• We booked our commissioner, so even if nobody shows up, we have someone to marry us…

• We asked our friends to be in our wedding party
• I bought my dress and have just last week had my fitting with the tailor for a couple alterations.

• We made save the dates (& sent them)
• We booked our photographer
• I booked my friend to do hair and make-up for the ladies
• We booked our DJ
• I bought some decorations & Polaroid camera off a coworker that got married in the winter.
• We set up one of those free websites to share info with our guests.
• We sent out our invitations
• We booked our accommodation, and helped a bunch of family and friends book theirs.
• The wedding party clothes have pretty much been sorted out…
• We have ordered our rings.

Okay, I guess we’ve done a lot… I think I’ll stop there… I am feeling better already about the stuff we have done, now to list what we have yet to do…

Rehearsal:

• Confirm rehearsal time with commissioner & wedding party.
• Confirm dinner reservations with restaurant.
• Arrange firewood collection for evening beach fire (provided that there isn’t a fire-ban).
• Purchase some beverages for around the fire.

Morning:

• Arrange lunch delivery for both groomsmen room & bridal room.
• Confirm time for hair & make-up.

Ceremony:

• Select or write vows & give to commissioner. (plus practice them a bit…)
• Buy wedding license.
• Pick-up rings & make sure they fit.
• Confirm flower order & arrange pick-up/delivery.
• Design & print programs.
• Collect or buy some umbrellas (just-in-case).
• Buy sunscreen.
• Pick music & arrange portable stereo (buy spare batteries).

Afternoon:

• Make list of “required” photos for photographers (with names).
• Collect, borrow & make lawn games.
• Buy drinks & arrange for ice & coolers.
• Buy snacks & arrange for making & serving (find some lucky people to help me).
• Arrange for snack table set-up.
• Make afternoon playlist.

Reception:

• Finalize table centers & arrange decorating helpers.
• Decide on final menu for dinner.
• Confirm dessert order.
• Make card box & guest book instructions.
• Decide on room decorations & make them if that’s what we want to do…
• Make seating plan & place cards.
• Pick music for first dance.
• Discuss sequence of events with DJ.
• Write thank you speech.
• Arrange clean-up crew.

For Afterwards:

• Collect supplies to make thank you cards.

I know that’s not a full list… there are lots of small details that are missing, but these are the big items, and now the list is public, so I’ll have to give progress reports… Actually, that’s a good plan… I think I’m going to force myself to post a progress report each week to maintain the accountability… I’m really bad at procrastinating, and my coming weeks are already crazy with stuff to do…

Am I missing anything major that I should get figured out ahead of time?