Soo & the City: M+S Wedding Tips

The weather is just beautiful! Days like this get me into the holiday mood. There's just something really romatic about this time of the year. Janice and I went by Liscomb yesterday and they already had holiday candles out! I love the holidays, but I also like to enjoy each month's festivities. We're in October and to me that means, I still have 2 months of wedding planning, yay! Thankfully, my bridesmaids are really helping with a lot, so I have very little stress.

Now back to wedding talk...early on, I realized you can't have everything. I received so many tips from married folks, who are so great at helping and giving really useful tips...but something I just learned on my own is that you really have to prioritize early on what is most important to you. We talked about 3 things we each felt were important to us. Combined they were, we would have a spectacular time, that our guest would have a great time, and that the wedding would be beautiful...ie, the atmosphere.

From the very beginning we had some difficulties staying within our budget so that our guest would have a great time, like increasing the alcohol budget, entertainment budget, etc. Trading off the band for the dj was a big hurdle for me. But, in the end, it was either the band and some other high ticket items, or we get married next year. That just seemed ridiculous, so we made the tradeoff and now, it's not really a big deal anymore. I think once you start letting go a little bit in exchange for what you really want...it makes your decision making a little bit easier.

Something a few married folks said to me was, "it's just one day". That is probably one of the wiset things I've heard. You often think, well this is my wedding day! And that's normal. One time, we were fitting Matt's son for a tux and Ethan said, I don't like that...and Matt put his hands on Ethan's shoulders and said very nicely, "son...this is my day, you will wear what I tell you to wear." I thought to myself...even men think it! Anyways, on getting together with one of my married girlfriends, now with a second child, said that she couldn't remember a lot about her wedding anymore, and that day just seemed so unimportant given the stage of life she was in now and that spoke volumes to me.

Before, I really cared about the details, and I still partly do. But, I'm getting to the point where I'm just like...I don't care if this is a typical wedding or if people are bored to tears, let's get this over and done with! So, what I'm saying is, yes it's your wedding...it's your day...it's finally here...but again, it's just one day and after some time, you won't even care about all those things you swear you thought you were going to include in your wedding.

Oh, one more thing, DIY (do it yourself) projects...unless you're saving a ton of money, I would highly recommend you not consider doing these projects, unless you're a master at crafts. Often times, I am finding you do not save that much money, from the time and effort that goes into putting the pieces of something together, getting all the necessary pieces, paint, etc...it's just not worth it! Just buy it. Unless...you are saving quite a abit of money...whatever that is to you. To me, saving $100 on a card box may be worth it, but saving $30 is not. And sometimes, the work that goes into it, really is just a pain in the butt...to me, definitely not worth it. But, I had to fail at a few projects to realize this.

Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Macy's, Payless Shoes, Nordstroms, Minted, and Etsy have been awesome places to shop at!