This has definitely been the busiest time for me in wedding planning so far. Basically since just after Christmas I have been completely slammed with appointments and planning. It is only just now slowing down enough where I can focus on my life again (and update the wedding blog too).
It all started over Christmas break when my sister and I started seriously looking into bridesmaid dresses. It was fun but stressful. It's difficult to ask five of your best friends to shell out the cash for a dress that they wouldn't necessarily choose on their own. It was important to me to consider cost as well as what the dress looks like. So, basically I shopped around online a TON, chose a bunch of dresses that I thought would work, and sent them all to Holly. I let her narrow them down to about 8 or so and then I shopped around Spokane for best prices and colors. I sent the final choices to all the rest of the girls so that they could have a vote knowing all the details. After that measurements were taken and dresses were ordered. Check it off the list!
The next big planning stage commenced in early January when I attended the Spokane Bridal Festival in the convention center. I prepped a ton before going. I knew what vendors were going to be there and who I needed to stop and see. I was thinking I was just going to breeze through it like a pro. I was so confident that I didn't even invite anyone to go with me. I was totally focused. Unfortunately, I underestimated the entire situation. It was brutal. I had only planned on looking for the four major things I had remaining: tuxes, flowers, cake, and hair/makeup. Even though I limited myself to those vendors I was still there for HOURS! I even missed the first quarter of the Seahawks/Saints playoff game! I did get a lot of good information though. I used what I got there to begin making appointments to narrow my choices down.
Flowers took the longest and I had the most appointments to choose a florist over anything else. It's funny because I didn't even have a specific idea of what I wanted. I was really easy-going about the whole flower process but still had at least 5 separate appointments. I finally signed with A Special Touch florist because she was fun, had great ideas, and was the most reasonably priced out of everyone.
Matt and I also had an interesting cake experience. I had been e-mailing with different bakers for awhile but didn't make any appointments until about a month ago. Matt and I chose to meet with the two best bakers we found that had the best prices. The first appointment went okay except the woman works out of her house and she lives super far away. Plus, she didn't even make any samples for us to try. I thought that was the point! The bonus was that I have a 10% discount with this person because I bought my dress at Celestial Selections and they gave me discounts at a bunch of vendors. The second appointment we made was with Amanda McConnell of Amanda's Cupcakes. Matt and I had tried her cake last summer at Pig Out in the Park and it was a-maz-ing! I was super excited to meet with her and she was even going to come to our house with her samples because she also works out of her house. However, Amanda called me on the morning of the appointment and said that she would like to put off our meeting until spring because there is no fresh fruit in season right now and she couldn't make anything without it. I told her that, of course, I can't put it off that long because other bakers will be booked by then if I choose to go with anyone else. It was the weirdest thing because she then asked me what we should do (because _I'm_ the professional???), she told me that she is in school full time so this wasn't even that important to her, and finally let me know that she thought I should probably just go with the other baker. WHAT?!?! Well, that made my decision for me. I called Marcell's Cakes and booked with her right away.
There are more updates but this has gone on long enough for now. More stories to come about the hell I went through trying to register coming soon.
It all started over Christmas break when my sister and I started seriously looking into bridesmaid dresses. It was fun but stressful. It's difficult to ask five of your best friends to shell out the cash for a dress that they wouldn't necessarily choose on their own. It was important to me to consider cost as well as what the dress looks like. So, basically I shopped around online a TON, chose a bunch of dresses that I thought would work, and sent them all to Holly. I let her narrow them down to about 8 or so and then I shopped around Spokane for best prices and colors. I sent the final choices to all the rest of the girls so that they could have a vote knowing all the details. After that measurements were taken and dresses were ordered. Check it off the list!
The next big planning stage commenced in early January when I attended the Spokane Bridal Festival in the convention center. I prepped a ton before going. I knew what vendors were going to be there and who I needed to stop and see. I was thinking I was just going to breeze through it like a pro. I was so confident that I didn't even invite anyone to go with me. I was totally focused. Unfortunately, I underestimated the entire situation. It was brutal. I had only planned on looking for the four major things I had remaining: tuxes, flowers, cake, and hair/makeup. Even though I limited myself to those vendors I was still there for HOURS! I even missed the first quarter of the Seahawks/Saints playoff game! I did get a lot of good information though. I used what I got there to begin making appointments to narrow my choices down.
Flowers took the longest and I had the most appointments to choose a florist over anything else. It's funny because I didn't even have a specific idea of what I wanted. I was really easy-going about the whole flower process but still had at least 5 separate appointments. I finally signed with A Special Touch florist because she was fun, had great ideas, and was the most reasonably priced out of everyone.
Matt and I also had an interesting cake experience. I had been e-mailing with different bakers for awhile but didn't make any appointments until about a month ago. Matt and I chose to meet with the two best bakers we found that had the best prices. The first appointment went okay except the woman works out of her house and she lives super far away. Plus, she didn't even make any samples for us to try. I thought that was the point! The bonus was that I have a 10% discount with this person because I bought my dress at Celestial Selections and they gave me discounts at a bunch of vendors. The second appointment we made was with Amanda McConnell of Amanda's Cupcakes. Matt and I had tried her cake last summer at Pig Out in the Park and it was a-maz-ing! I was super excited to meet with her and she was even going to come to our house with her samples because she also works out of her house. However, Amanda called me on the morning of the appointment and said that she would like to put off our meeting until spring because there is no fresh fruit in season right now and she couldn't make anything without it. I told her that, of course, I can't put it off that long because other bakers will be booked by then if I choose to go with anyone else. It was the weirdest thing because she then asked me what we should do (because _I'm_ the professional???), she told me that she is in school full time so this wasn't even that important to her, and finally let me know that she thought I should probably just go with the other baker. WHAT?!?! Well, that made my decision for me. I called Marcell's Cakes and booked with her right away.
There are more updates but this has gone on long enough for now. More stories to come about the hell I went through trying to register coming soon.