Featured :: Fresh Squeezed Weddings

Yesterday I had the honor of being featured on Fresh Squeezed Weddings. I am truly honored to be featured and am so happy Sarah + Ben's DC Engagement shoot can be shared with others. Courtney Tibbet is a San Diego Wedding Planner and owner of Fresh Squeezed Weddings. I love her view on taking engagement pictures " If you love your city, instead of heading to some of the more obvious choices (generic beach, meadow,or park), why not try seeking out places that will obviously show where you are upon first glance?" Thank you Two Bright Lights, Courtney and enjoy the other wonderful posts at Fresh Squeezed Weddings!

Featured :: Adore by Chole

Yesterday I had the pleasure of being featured on Adore by Chloe a UK wedding blog. I love Chloe's take on Ashley and Andrews engagement shoot as a fun "date" they went on. I truly believe you have to have fun during your engagement shoot to Ashley and Andrew totally make the "we're on a fun date" look easy. Congratulations to you two, check out Adore by Chloe and enjoy the feature!

Peach + Gray :: Color Inspiration

As the winter weather comes along, spring and summer brides and getting ready to choose colors and get started with all their planning. One of my favorite color combos is peach and gray. It is subtle and elegant to go with any sunny day! There are different shades of both colors, so you can really play around with color combinations. Gray is an easy to work with natural for both guys suits and girls dresses. Peach is a soft accent to any flower arrangement and tablescape or bridesmaid dress. This color combo can go great with a turquoise or dark purple to add some more color to the pallet. Enjoy!

Pictures From:

Project Wedding
sosnweddingdesigns
Forget Me Knot Details
Style Me Pretty
Keen to be Seen
elizabethannedesigns

I DO want to be your bridesmaid, but I DO NOT want to go broke!

Today I have a little story from a friend about her troubles of being a MOH. It is always a hard situation to combine friends, weddings and money issues! Enjoy and thanks "T"!

The feeling of being asked to be a bridesmaid by an old friend, a college sorority sister, or a family member is a feeling of joy, pride, and happiness for the couple, but also for you!  It is an honor to be asked to stand next to your best friend on her wedding day.  She wants you to be there to celebrate in the parties, wants you to be the one to fluff her dress, and most importantly she wants you to stand next to her on the most important day of her entire life. Of course, I did not hesitate to be my life long best friend’s MOH when she asked me.  Although we were currently living in different states, we grew up together as young kids, shared in the joys of our first cell phones, first cars, first loves/first heartbreaks, and family tragedies. 

We always talked about being each other MOHs even since elementary school and it never crossed my mind to not be her MOH.  It was, after all, a huge honor knowing of all her friends she picked me to the one standing next to her at the altar.  However, one thing that did immediately concern me was the financial burden on my bank account this wedding would cost me.  Being the financially responsible, but also broke 24 year old graduate student that I was, I decided to make a list of the costs and gave myself a budget.  My original budget looked a little something like this:

-Flights for the shower & wedding: $1,000

-Bachelorette party: $150

-Bridesmaid dress: $150

-Day of costs (nails, food, makeup etc.): $100

-Extra, unexpected costs: $100

            Total expected cost: $1,500.

In retrospect, that number looks pretty good.  There were so many costs and payments that I was not expecting as a first time MOH.  Not only were there additional events that I did not plan on, but the peer pressure from the other bridesmaids and the groomsmen to make our friends’ wedding “EPIC” was hard to ignore.  I tried being extremely creative with inexpensive ideas for events, but those ideas got me nowhere- except nasty e-mails about expenses.  I am not sure where her bridal party was getting their wedding funds from, but apparently money does grow on trees for some people. 

            My original budget was extremely inaccurate. 

Here is a breakdown of my expenses:

            -Flights back East for the shower and wedding: $1,300 (No, I did not fly first class)

            -Bachelorette party: $175 (limo, t-shirts, etc.)

 -Bridesmaid dress: $200

-Gray shoes: $35 (on sale at the mall)

-Day of costs: $200

                        Total cost of being MOH: $1,910

As you can see, I spent way too much on my friend’s wedding!  I encourage you to not let the excitement get the best of your bank account because guess what- in 3 months your other best friend will get married and you will do have to the same things and pay the same expenses all over again.  As much as I would like to say, “Looking back, it is okay because honestly, I would have paid a million dollars to be her MOH.”  However, that is, unfortunately, not the case!  While love is in the air during weddings, money is most definitely not!  

Although not all circumstances are this extreme many times your friends wedding is not right around the corner and there are travel expenses, even a tank of gas can be around 40$. You can never predict what will come up in your life financially, but it is always worthwhile to talk to your bride about your money issues, they should understand! Just remember that you love your friend and your memories will last longer and mean more to you then worrying about the money. Have a meeting with all the bridesmaids and brides and come up with a budget together so you all know what you are willing to spend and where you can cut some money. But over anything enjoy the time with your bride and have fun!