My Wedding: In Real Time

Since I only have a little bit of time before I leave to visit my fiancee (who's been gone for two weeks now at military training) I figured the easiest post to do real quick would be one on my current wedding planning status.

I think this week has been all about databases!

I have created so many databases to house information, it's crazy. You see, I'm super organized and it's so much easier to look at 8 different options when all of the details about each are written out in a way that you can read/view easily.

My first database was one I had created a while ago, on budgets. I'd taken budgets that different magazines or books had used and then made an Excel spreadsheet where I could enter my budget and then excel would divide it in the different ways they had prescribed--totally easy and recommended! It was neat to see where they differed, and it gave me a general estimate about things, which proved somewhat helpful.

On the second sheet, I created a database, taken out of Mindy Weiss' book, of all of the costs of the wedding, along with how much the estimated cost was, how much the actual cost ends up being, and the deposit amount. I have spent all week playing with the numbers for everything to make it work (in the budget column). Right now I'm only $155 over budget if we don't have to use the tent (we're only reserving it in case of rain....which in August, I hope not!). So for me, that's pretty good. Plus I overbudgeted on some things to help myself, so likely (cross my fingers) I might even come in under budget. Most brides never do, so I'm not betting money on this, lol.

On another database, I created a list of all of my wedding ideas so far. I have so many, and it's hard to remember them all, so I put them all down, with a column for likelihood of actually using them, and a notes section which has proven valuable.

On the second sheet I took those items and separated them out by sections, like food, desserts, favors, activities, and more, to see a general overview of everything I was thinking for the wedding/reception.

Then my next issue is photography. Right now I'm working very hard to be able to afford the photographer I want or be able to find a photographer who can do everything I want, in my price range. It's my one splurge of the wedding, and it has still proven difficult. So the first thing I did was create a general outline of my day, by time. This was used to tell me how much photography (in hours) I think I'll need. Which for me, when including getting ready, big family pics, a Catholic ceremony, pics of everyone, plus reception is about 10 hours!

Finally, I contacted the few photographers I'm interested in using and have created a spreadsheet detailing which photographer, what their package includes, and how much it costs. I'm going to use this to make a determination (and to make it a little easier for G to understand). Right now I'm waiting on hearing back on one quote and then we'll get to start making decisions. Yay!

So ya, all-in-all I'm realizing why people take a year to get married (I think it may really take me that long to get everything prepared for the wedding I want) and I'm finally ok with it. At first I was hating the wait, but especially because I'm also planning my mother's wedding (in Sept 09) and a few others, not to mention all of my events at work, I think it may take that long to squeeze in everything for my own wedding. And the databases are helping so much! I HIGHLY recommend them to reduce stress.

If you have any database questions, or any other questions in general, feel free to email me at triedandtrueweddings@gmail.com. I'd love to help any bride!

~A