 A statement no bride wants to hear or say... WEDDING POSTPONED! Being the bride is suppose to be exciting, magical, and a once in a lifetime feeling. To suddenly shift gears and postpone your big day is the complete opposite of magical. With everything going on in the wedding industry, learning how to navigate through this MESS can be a bit overwhelming! After brainstorming and speaking with my wedding planner, I've come up with a few steps you can take once you've decided to postpone your big day. 1. Hire a wedding planner! If you didn't already have one, NOW would be the time to hire one. I can not tell you how THANKFUL I am to have a wedding planner. They are the ones reaching out to all our vendors finding out their availability for our newly anticipated wedding date (thanks coronavirus). If this situation wasn't stressful enough, reaching out to 10+ vendors seems like an endless nightmare! Wedding planners are party professionals, this is what they do! They know the ins and outs of the business and they're only going to point you in the right direction. My wedding planner is the best in the business. Not only has her team planned weddings all over the country, but they've planned and executed weddings all over the WORLD. If you're looking for a wedding planner that you can trust on the most important day of your life, hire Sapphire Events! 2. Stay informed! Your big day is super special and important to you and your significant other. Make sure you're staying up to date with all laws and CDC regulations. 3. While your wedding planner is reaching out to all of your vendors, it's important to update your wedding party and guests. I would say that's it's perfectly acceptable to send text updates to let your wedding party know whats going on. Some of them might be able to help if you don't have the budget for a wedding planner (your wedding party is also your safety net)! Allow them to help out with tasks if needed. 4. It's time to inform your guests! Either by email or snail mail, announce your new news. Send out an un save the date or a card stating that your wedding has been postponed. In my opinion, the sooner the better! A lot of guests have spent money on flights, hotels, and so many other things. You want to make sure they have the opportunity to cancel any reservations so they can be refunded. 5. I'm sure if you've postponed your big day, you and your significant other have already had a serious conversation. I think it would also be beneficial for the two of you to discuss what expectations you both have about what's to come. Now that things have shifted, so do our expectations. 6. Marriage license. If you already applied for your marriage license, don't forget that it has a 30 day window. If you've postponed your wedding months later, you'll have to reapply. 7. Don't forget to thank everyone who ends up helping you through this hardship. It takes a village and you want to let your village know how much you appreciate them. Recommend all of the vendors who helped you by sending all the brides to be their way! All selections and opinions in this post are my own.
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When I originally planned this post, I thought I wanted to go into detail about my venue selection, what tips I learned from Valerie, and how we finalized the guest list... but I decided to dive deeper into my wedding planning and tell you guys how and who we hired as our photographer, videographer, band, and DJ. The very first thing I suggest doing is hiring a wedding planner! They CAN and WILL help you with everything, give advice from 1st hand experience, and set you up on a timeline for success! Sapphire Events was the best decision I made (besides saying yes to marrying G!)  My wedding planner, Valerie, has amazing YouTube videos that go into detail about budget, guest list, and your venue selection. So, once we made a deposit on our selected venue, we then dove straight into photo, video, and entertainment. Drumroll please... Wedding Day Photographer: Lainey Reed Photography Rehearsal Dinner Photographer: Rachel Madelyn Photo iPhone Photographer: Katelyn Ehrhardt Videographer: Our Story Creative Band: Nola Dukes Band DJ: Kurt Valvis So I’m sure by now you know that being an influencer/blogger can lead to sponsorships and collaborations. I have been lucky to collaborate with so many great wedding vendors! However, I had my heart set on certain photographers, videographers, bands, and a DJ. I decided that these were the things I wanted to hand select without having to collaborate, because I knew exactly who I wanted. The photographers, videographer, band, and DJ were not things I wanted to skimp on... I knew they would take up a large part of the budget so I planned accordingly. It’s all about balance, right?!  As soon as I picked my band and DJ, I met up with my bridesmaids to pick out songs! I’m not afraid to admit I can be an OCD bride... so we went to a coffee shop and looked through the band’s suggested song list and also put together a playlist for the DJ. I have been to so many weddings with great music that really got people on the dance floor and others where the music was kind of generic, so I made sure we picked a killer playlist! The band was something my mom wanted more than anything else! She wanted a large 10 piece band. (I didn’t even know that was a thing... according to her it is.) Because the band is so large, we actually got to hand select a few of the instruments. That was pretty cool! For video, I wanted a highlight video a few days after my wedding, so my planners negotiated that into our contract (another great perk of having a planner)! I also wanted my videographers at my rehearsal dinner. In the south, it is very common for guests to give speeches at the rehearsal instead of during the actual wedding (wedding day dinner is usually buffet style) and I wanted to make sure those sweet + special words were documented for us to have forever. And now that we have our photographer, videographer, band, and DJ we can shift gears to focusing on picking out our cakes, invitations, and of course florals! Make sure you keep an eye out for more videos that showcase the wedding planning process on my IGTV channel. All selections and opinions in this post are my own.
Hi friends! Thanksgiving is officially over and with Christmas right around the corner, I was inspired to add a little Christmas cheer to the blog! I decided to photograph bridesmaids’ dresses that remind me of all things HOLIDAY. I'm going to show you a few of my favorite dresses from Weddings Belles + link a few for those of you who are not local.  I came up with 3 tips for choosing bridesmaids dresses, especially if you are keeping their pocket books in mind. And if you pick a dress that isn’t a “bargain” that's OK to. After all, it is YOUR big day!  1. Try to look for dresses that have sleeves, even if the sleeves fall off the shoulders. They can be transformed into a different dress easily! Take Erin's dress for example, she could easily have the sleeves removed, making it an uncomplicated re-wear. Also, the slit in her dress makes it sophisticated enough for balls, galas, and other “dressy” events! Easy alterations are such a good way to reuse a bridesmaid dress! 2. Selecting a dress with a high waistline, like my sister's dress, is a another good idea. They can easily be altered into a sassy middy length dress! These dresses are so in right now. It would be perfect for any holiday soirée or cocktail party. The dress I'm wearing could also be cut to a short midi for NYE festivities! While picking a dress, you can try to envision how it would look at a different length, so your bridesmaids could repurpose the dress easily! 3. I quickly realized that the quality and material of the dress is EVERYTHING. I picked a dress that was double lined and made of thick + giving material. It was almost like the dress had custom spanks built in which all of my bridesmaids were thankful for! Sheer/thin, flowy, or skin tight dresses are not necessarily the most flattering materials for everyone. I think it is important to keep in mind that everyone’s body shape is different, and the type and quality of material can definitely help make the dress more “wearable” for everyone! Especially if you are hoping they will be able to rewear the dress.  I'm also really excited to introduce another brand I'm working with during my engagement, Lover's Tempo! Here's an official sneak peek of the earrings my bridesmaids will be wearing on my wedding day. I'm particularly found of this brand because they offer trendy, simple, and classic pieces all at an affordable price!
Here are other bridesmaids dresses I think anyone would enjoy rewearing!
All selections and opinions in this post are my own. Special thanks to Lover's Tempo for sponsoring this post.
Hi friends! Thanksgiving is finally here, and I'm super excited to hangout with family + eat all the things. My favorite Thanksgiving dish is my aunt’s sweet macaroni and cheese. BUT I’m also a huge fan of Thanksgiving desserts.....pecan pie, Mississippi mud pie, brownies, pumpkin pie, fudge.... Thanksgiving sweets are just better than any other holiday treats. Speaking of sweets, I wanted to share how I asked my friends to be bridesmaids! Of course sweet treats were involved!  Weddings can be overwhelming and very expensive, so I wanted to make a conscious effort to ask them in a meaningful way that didn’t cost a fortune. My bridesmaids are super important to me, and I wanted to create a meaningful experience instead of giving them “bridesmaid” knick knacks. I also know they will receive AMAZING gifts throughout the year. I'm very lucky to be working with top notch vendors who are generous enough to give awesome gifts that I can share with my bridesmaids. Some of you may be surprised that I didn't gift them anything but an actual DONUT when asking them to be apart of our big day! Traditionally, you see brides gifting gifts which is such a special and sweet gesture. For me I wanted to focus on the experience and have special photos that we could share for a lifetime! Here are some photos of the set up when they arrived at Shipley's!     Before I dive into decor details, I wanted to first point out a few things I already had. The clear water dispensers are my moms. I have no idea where she purchased them from, but I was able to link some inexpensive ones here! We have both used them multiple times since they are great for parties! Another item I was able to save on was the balloon garland. My MOH is quite the balloon artist! She already had the balloons and accessories required to make the garland! Here is the one accessory she uses for every garland linked here! The glass jar that held the metallic straws came from the dollar store. I purchased it for a previous blog shoot. Another one of my bridesmaids is a calligraphy artist and was able to hand write on the donut boxes!   I knew a fun donut + milk bar would be cost efficient + who doesn't love donuts?! I purchased six dozen donuts and four gallons of white non-fat milk. I ordered strawberry syrup for one of the milk bar dispensers to help create “pink milk” that was super cute and yummy.   The blush velvet tablecloth came from Jefferson Variety! I got the milk glasses, straws, white boxes, box stuffing, and acyrlic donut holders from Amazon (I've linked each item). The grey velvet ribbon came from Joann Fabrics. All together I spent $79 dollars on decor. I think you could ask any of my bridesmaids and they would tell you how much they loved the experience. Especially since a few of them have been in a ton of weddings and this was so special and unique!    All selections and opinions in this post are my own.
Hi friends! I hope you guys are just as excited for Thanksgiving as I am. Thinking about Thanksgiving next week really made me realize my wedding date is less than five months away! I can not believe it. It's true what they say....it'll be here before you know it! Thank goodness I have the best wedding planners a bride could hope for, Sapphire Events. Since my wedding is quickly approaching, my bachelorette trip, bridal shower, and couple’s shower are right around the corner. Speaking of wedding festivities, I wanted to introduce you to a super fun wedding vendor, Bounce World!  That's right! New Orleans' 1st inflatable company that offers an all-white bounce house. If you know me, then you know how much I love this. What could be more fun and my style than an all-white bounce house. As of now, I'm not sure if we'll have this at our wedding just because I'm not sure where we would put it....but you'll definitely see it at one of the parties leading up to our wedding day!  The inflatable is so pretty on it’s own, but for wedding purposes, I wanted to add a touch of greenery to make it pop in photos! I rented the greenery from Something Borrowed Blooms. They’re a rent and return company that specializes in silk florals. I’ll share more details regarding SBB later on but just know that their return process was a piece a cake (pun intended)!  The great thing about this all-white bounce house is that it can be rented for various occasions - birthday parties, New Orleans bachelorette trips, and of course any and all wedding festivities. The neutral color goes with most party themes and shows up so well in photos. Not to mention Garrett and I had such a fun time while shooting this content. Wedding Gown | Wedding Belles Tuxedo | John's Tuxedos  All selections and opinions in this post are my own.
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