Meet the Mr.

I feel like I may be getting a little bit ahead of myself. What is a bride without her groom? Let me introduce my husband to be!

I met Justin on a cold December day our freshmen year of college. Looking back on it, it's amazing how normal the day seemed.  I remember eating cereal in my dorm's cafeteria, practically falling asleep in Logic class and stressing about my upcoming Italian final exam.  With the stress of the end of the semester, I almost didn't make it to Kerbey Lane cafe to see my friend, Geoff.  Well had I not, I might not be writing this post.

It wasn't supposed to be a set up. In fact, Geoff messaged Justin later that week insisting that I was "off limits," but we were destined to be.

I don't remember much of the initial encounter with Justin. I do remember we sat in the third booth from the door and that he helped me eat part of my home fries. I remember walking the 7 blocks back to my dorm with him and talking the whole way. I remember thinking he was incredibly nice and that he made me laugh, which as a serious person is hard to do.

Who would have known that such a normal day would be the most important day of my life? What would have been a boring day ended up being the day I met my husband.

By January we were inseparable and have been ever since.

Three years later he asked me to be his wife and I said yes!

A favorite wedding trends

One of my favorite "wedding trends," as I'll call it, is the use of a wedding monogram, or what I'll like to call a wedding logo.

As the first of most of our friends to get married, Justin and I have not been to many weddings in the last few years, so my first experience with a wedding logo was at Brother A's wedding last summer.

He and his wife had  "AJA" printed on many of their paper products. I thought it was a really cute way to really personalize wedding things.

So, what was the first thing I did after we got engaged?

Start making one for our wedding!

I scoured website after website to find wedding logo creators creators. There were plenty of people who wanted to charge me, but I felt like this something that could definitely be DIY.

After a little practice and determining exactly what I wanted (like how I wanted both of our names, not just initials), I finally decided it could be easily made in Microsoft Word. I asked Justin if he would make it and that boy did well.

Now where should you put your logo, or where am I putting mine?
Answer: EVERYWHERE!

As I mentioned, I find that by using the logo, you are really able to personalize your wedding. I think it add just one more well thought out detail.

Purple Wedding Invitations

We used this on our save the dates:

And will be making menus and programs similar to these:

Photo credit- Betsy White Stationary Boutique

Out of town bags, letters, maps, bathroom  baskets and any other object that I can will also include the logo. 

Do you have a logo? What are you putting it on?

Modern Day Wedding Planning

Those who know me well, know that I'm a little bit of a control freak. Okay, maybe more than just a little bit. I am extremely Type A and always have been.

And wedding planning is no different. 

A few weeks after we got engaged, I bought a planner at a Border's that was going out of business. Despite the great price I got on it, I have since determined that the $15 I spent was not worth it. So many of the pages are useless and it does not allow me to control how I organize everything. 

With modern technology virtually everything I need for planning is accessible online and most of it is free! Below are my recommended wedding planning websites and tools. 

Weddingbee- I cant even begin to count the number of hours that I live on this site. A quick search for almost anything wedding related on the boards and you are likely to find your answer. Is your question a new one or pertains just to a particular situation, such as what jewelry goes with my dress? Start your own topic. You are surely to get answers within minutes, sometimes even seconds. You can also buy tons of used and sometimes new wedding items. I purchased my second veil from a bride and got it at a great price!

Googledocs- okay, not exactly a wedding planning website, but necessary none the less. 

Before Justin and I even got engaged we created a doc for people we wanted to invite. As time went on we would add addresses and it was easy to export it to an excel sheet when it came time to print addresses for STDs  We gave access to our parents so that they could add addresses of their friends and check to make sure we hadn't missed someone important. 

I am adding columns like this to this guest list to track RSVPs and thank you notes!

The next incredibly important doc added is entitled "Wedding To Do List." I sat down one day about two months ago and wrote down every possible thing I could think of that I had left to do for the wedding as well as ideal an "due date" for each task. The list, although daunting at first, became my way to check my progress. Anytime I have a few minutes, I'll chose something from the list to work on. It's exhilarating when I can type DONE in the progress column!

Russ and Hazel- I haven't really used them much, but they have every wedding "worksheet" you could think of from bridal contact list to do/do not play list for the DJ. I will likely use them for my seating chart and will keep you updated on that progress
http://www.russellandhazel.com/content/wedding-templates

There are countless other websites and tools out there, like I said these are just my favorites! What is your favorite wedding tool and why?