Planning My Wedding

Hello everyone! I want to share with you the wedding binder that I am putting together. :)

First off, I made myself some documents to help the planning.

I made templates for: attire, budget, emergency kits, guest list, music, photographer, rehearsal seating, decorations, flowers, and food & drinks.

I also made some information sheets for: timeline & checklist, what to ask your officiant, must-take photos, splitting the tab, and invitation etiquette.

You can access the wedding planning printables I made for my binder for free.

I bought a binder, dividers, sticky notes, small notebook, zipper pocket, and a clipboard portfolio from Target. All of this cost me around $30.00, using my Target Red Card to save a few bucks.

Binder

 The different sections that I have are:

- Important
- Budget
- Ceremony
- Reception
- Guests
- Attire
- Photographer
- Florist
- Rehearsal
- Miscellaneous

Important: In this section, I have put the Timeline & Checklist, Vendor Contact Information, Wedding Party, Invitation Etiquette Guide, Music, Splitting the Tab, and What to Ask Your Officiant, These are the things that I believe I will reference to the most.

Budget: In this section, I have put our budget worksheet. Pretty easy!

Ceremony : I haven't put anything in this section yet, but once I get more information regarding where our ceremony will be held, I will put that right here.

Reception: Same goes for this section as the ceremony section. Once I have decided where our reception will be held, I will put that information in here. I will also include any ideas for decorations.

Guests: In this section, I have put our guest list.

Attire: In this section, I have put the attire worksheets for everyone that is in the wedding.

Photographer: In this section, I have put the photographer worksheet along with the list of must-take photos.

Florist: In this section, I have put the florist worksheet. I will also include any ideas of what I want the flowers to look like.

Rehearsal: I probably won't use this section, because I don't plan on having any rehearsals, but I included it anyways because you never know, I might change my mind! :)

Miscellaneous: This is my "catch all" I will put any information that I'd like to have available.

Of course, you can organize this anyway you want! This is just how I did it.

Small Notebook

The small notebook is just a spot for me to jot down ideas. I sectioned it out for the different things I thought of, Such as, theme, food & drink, guests, photographer, venue, and so on. Any ideas that I found on Pinterest, I printed off and taped them inside with a small note next to it. It is a perfect place for me to keep ideas that I liked until I can make a final decision. Then, that final decision will go into my binder.



Clipboard Portfolio

The clipboard portfolio wasn't completely necessary, but I figured it'd be a handy thing to take with me when meeting with vendors. Plus, it's so dang cute! :)

There is no right or wrong way to make a wedding planning binder. You can definitely customize it anyway you want. This is just what worked best for me. Hope this helps all those other brides-to-be!!

--Amanda Danielle

New Wedding Plans

When I first started thinking about our wedding, a coworker told me that I would change my mind 50 times before I decided on what I wanted to do. Well, it hasn't changed that many times... yet. :)

It looks like I have decided what we are going to do for a wedding. Our new plans are to go to Colorado and have a small, intimate wedding there with immediate family and a couple friends. I am absolutely in love with this new idea!

I found a wonderful planner that specializes in intimate weddings. Custom Weddings of Colorado has tons of information and experience planning elopements and small weddings. They are fairly priced too! I am so excited to begin working with them to plan our special day. 

Eloping?

In the past few days of wedding planning, I've become inspired to "run away and elope"!! Technically, it wouldn't be running away. I'd still want to have the company of a few loved ones. I'm not sure it would even be classified as eloping! More like, a small destination wedding with only a few people invited.

Brendan and I aren't into big events. I want our wedding to be very meaningful and intimate. I don't feel like I'd get that if we had a big ceremony. I know that I might get some backlash from some of our relatives, but I feel like if they loved us and wanted what we wanted, they'd be accepting of it.

I would truly love to get married in a valley by the mountains or in a beautiful forest. I enjoy the outdoors and beautiful, scenic locations. Just another reason why I would love a small destination wedding.

I do believe that we would hold a reception when we got back. So those who did not get to join us on our big day still have an opportunity to celebrate us.

I want to highlight a couple sites that I found that have really helped inspire me.

The first is Intimate Weddings. I am in love with this site! I looked through a few of the real weddings and I felt totally inspired!

The second is Simply Elope. I got lots of great information from this site. I loved the "Advice" tab. It really helped encourage me to pursue a small destination wedding/elopement.

Wedding Website

I have seen many people creating a website for people to view all of the information on their wedding. I absolutely love this idea! So, I decided to do some research on creating a website for our wedding. I ended up creating our website using the free website creator on theknot.com. They don't have too many choices for the layout of your website, but the choices that they do have are very nice. The way that you input the information is wonderful! I love that it already has the main aspects of your wedding.

Not only is theknot.com good for creating a website, it also has many ideas for venues, vendors, decorations, any many more things! It has definitely been my go-to site!

If you want, take a peek at the website that I started for Brendan and I. Some of the information in it isn't final, but it is a good start.

https://www.theknot.com/us/amanda-erickson-and-brendan-blascyk-oct-2017

Where's My Ring?!?

*sigh* Unfortunately, my ring was too small! So, I had to get it re-sized. They told me it would take about 2 weeks... 2 weeks?! I just got engaged - all I want to do is wear my ring and show it off to the world. Luckily, I had a solution:

Yes, that is a hose clamp! Brendan and I were at the shop working on his trailer when I found one of these guys in his tool box. I adjusted it to fit my finger - it fits perfect.

I am completely joking, I am not wearing a hose clamp as a ring. It was all in good fun. :)

I'm Engaged!!!

My dreams came true! On Wednesday, October 14, 2015, Brendan asked me to marry him. I was so surprised by the whole thing. Here's what happened: Wednesday night after work Brendan decided that he wanted to go on a bike ride. I was thrilled - I love riding the motorcycle! We left our house and went out to Runestone Park where we drove to the top of the park. When we got up there, there was an elderly lady up there and I could tell that she was annoying Brendan. Well, we then left because I was starting to get hungry so I wanted to ride somewhere to eat. We only got a few miles out when Brendan decided to turn back around and go right back to Runestone Park. I was starting to get annoyed because I had no idea why he was so adamant in going there. We got back up to the top and we got off of the bike and just enjoyed the view of the park. That's when he got down on one knee and asked me! I was so excited! The ring is absolutely beautiful - I love it. I am so excited for this next step in our relationship.

Now I get to start the adventure of planning our wedding.