Real Weddings Planning Tips Monday Part 1: Creating the Budget

This starts a weekly series of wedding planning tips from the views of a professional as a bride to be.

When James (my fiance) and I first started planning our wedding, we knew that we wouldn't have a lot of money for the budget because I was going to be working on my Master's degree and James is working on his bachelor's degree. We knew my parents would contribute some, but it would not be a lot. The first thing we did was sit and talk about what kind of wedding we dreamed about and what we could realistically afford. We choose a modest budget, but one we knew would provide us with the wedding of our dreams.
Create a chart of the things about your wedding that are most important to you and your fiance. For our wedding, our list looked something like this:

1. Photographer
2. Flowers
3. Decorations
4. Catering
5. Venue
6. Attire
7. Videography
8. Transportation
9. Rentals

So I divided up a portion of our budget to go towards each category and if I did my calculations right it should come out on budget! :)
Another way to be creative and still maintain a sense of budget, is making the wedding your own! Who says your brides maids have to carry flowers or that you have to have cake! It's your day so make it your own!

A modest budget doesn't mean that you can't have a fabulous wedding! One thing that really is hot right now is DIYing a great deal of your wedding things!

(source: The knot.com)

From invitations to favors, there are numerous things that can be DIYed for a wedding. Let your creative juices flow and most importantly have fun with your wedding!

Be Creative!

New Wedding Inventory :)

To better serve our clients, Your Day of Fairy Tales has come up with a new way of getting to know our brides better! Call today to schedule your meeting and we can help plan your "Fairy Tale" Day

Why You Should Hire a Wedding Planner!

I found this on Youtube tonight and could not resist sharing! ENJOY!

NEW NEW NEW!

Be on the look out for an all new Your Day of Fairy Tales Website! It should be up and running around the 30th of this month!

Keep on Planning,

Hillary

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone of you that stumble upon this blog had a blessed and Merry Christmas and that you will have an even better 2009!

This is going to be a great year for the wedding industry no matter what the economy says! Couples are not letting the state of the economy come between their love and that is an amazing thing!

For those of you who don't know, or haven't visited the myspace site, I am now engaged as of December 12. James is a wonderful man and I can't wait until I can say he is my husband!

With that being said, I have done a lot of searching for items that are unique that we can include to make our day our own! One thing I saw while watching WE last night was very unique table numbers! For every table number, you use a picture of you and your fiance at that age!
This is a thrown together example, but you get the idea! These would be a great way to incorporate pictures of you and deceased family members too and that can pay tribute to them as well!
I think several of the same trends are going to stay popular this year! The photo booth is a favorite of mine that will continue to grow more popularity, as well as specialty drinks for each wedding instead of a full bar!
Well That's it for this Blog! Tomorrow starts my last "full" semester of college! It is going to be a busy one with wedding planning, working, and classes, but it will all be worth it in the end! As always, contact me if you or anyone you know needs help with their wedding!! :)

Shana and Daniel Nolan

I had the privilege today of coordinating the wedding for this beautiful couple. The wedding was gorgeous and showcased the love that these two have. Patricia Capes did an absolute gorgeous job on the flowers for the ceremony and reception, and Mary Davidson Photography took what will be some gorgeous photos. Everyone loved all the extra touches that tied everything together. As soon as the pictures are finished, I will upload some! :) As always, feel free to call or e-mail if you need assistance with your wedding!

Kroger Bridal Fair

Today was the 1st annual Kroger Bridal Fair in Independence Square in Franklin. I have to say I was a little skeptical about participating in a grocery store. It was a very intimate show with only a few "non" store vendors. I met Beth Anne from Beautiful Weddings by Beth Anne and she gave me a lot of great ideas on how to reach brides in other markets. I am going to be reaching out to college students who are getting married before they graduate simply because that is where I am located 5 days of the week right now! A special THANK YOU!! to Classic Party Rental out of LaVergne for loaning me pretty much everything I needed to set up my table. Also Thanks to my parents for putting up with my OMG we only have 10 mins to set up attitude and to mom for doing the flower arrangement for today!
If you came to the blog first before visiting the site, I want to say you really need to go look! I have spent about 5 hours today after the show trying to get quite a few images from the weddings I have done on here. It is still a work in progress and in between school, internship, job and having a wedding with Mom this weekend, I will try and finish sometime. FYI for anyone who doesn't know, I have 10 months til graduation! I can smell freedom!


I made a great contact with a vendor this week. Angie Gambill (www.gambillphotography.com) does some amazing work. I have an internship this semester in the entertainment production field , and Angie's sister Nina is a lady in the office with me and Nina helps Angie shoot some weddings from time to time. Angie's work is absolutely amazing and I can't wait to work on a wedding with her!