Where to Start?

courtesy of Photography by Jacquelynn Buck

It's amazing how overwhelming planning a wedding can be, especially if this is the first time that you have ever been exposed to "Wedding World". No friends or sisters have set the template for you...you are suddenly the wedding pioneer with no place to start. Once engaged the typical reaction is to run and buy every wedding magazine and book on the shelf. While laden with great articles and a wealth of ideas, they can also blur your vision. My advice to all brides is to pick three to four things that are the most important to you and center everything in your wedding around those. Those might be the cake, location, and transportation for you or music, dress, and photography for someone else.



Their are a few reasons behind this method. For one, if you try to incorporate every cute thing you see in the magazine...you will end up flat broke with a wedding that has no true sense of style, just a winding road with no destination. Two, it will reduce indecisiveness leading to less stress. Three, you are able to alter your budget and still get the things you want if you budget those first. Four, it will give your wedding a sense of direction, which will ultimately lead to a well thought out execution of your style.



I was an easy going bride. The alter-ego of Bridezilla. I had four things that were important to me...my bridesmaids, food, music, and photography. I was so open to color, no structured plan here. I decided on the color scheme and theme for my wedding, based on the bridesmaid's dresses. I planned a bridesmaid's outing to a local bridal salon. Everyone picked out dresses in colors and styles that they were most likely to wear. { I hadn't even picked out my dress yet!} And of course everyone picked different styles and colors that flattered them the most, however their was one style that looked good on everyone's body. The great empire waist dress. We ended up going with a long cream chiffon empire waist dress with braided waist and strap adornments in bronze. Everyone looked like a goddess, so my theme was roman-inspired.



See how easy that was!