We made it to the finish line! I still can’t believe I’m getting married on SATURDAY. The past week has been a whirlwind of nerves and excitement– all completely self-induced of course. For nearly three weeks we’ve had every logistical aspect of our wedding confirmed so it’s really just been a matter of waiting. If you know me then you’re fully aware that patience is a quality I have very little of so it’s taken all of my willpower to stay busy and not get in my head.

OUTFIT DETAILS // Purple Turtleneck Sweater | Skinny Jeans | Over The Knee Boots (these are my fave designer dupe pair!) | Tote Bag (it’s under $100!) | Similar Hat | Sunglasses | David Yurman Bracelets | Michele Watch

Ok so updates! Honestly the list is so long at this point that I truly don’t think there’s a way I can include it all, but all the big things we accomplished in the last month are BOLDED below! So many people warned me that the bulk of the work would happen in the two months before the wedding and boyyyyyy were they right. It’s once you send out the invitations and start getting RSVPs that sh*t gets really nitty gritty. All the little tasks you’ve always known that you’re going to have to do (aka get a marriage license) and those random things you’ve known you’ll have to buy (a guest book and cocktail napkins) can no longer be put on the back burner.

WEDDING PLANNING CHECKLIST

✓ Get GLAM! (book appts for hair, nails, brows, lashes, facial & spray tan)
✓ Finalize our minimoon itinerary
✓ Dance lessons
✓ Write vows
✓ Get marriage license
✓ Finish paying all of our vendors
✓ Get final RSVP count & submit to all our vendors
✓ Final gown fitting
✓ Finalize our wedding bands
✓ Finalize florals, decor & rentals
✓ Order all printed materials & random props (programs, menus, etc.)
✓ Create seating chart for reception
✓ Order any personalized items (welcome sign, etc.)
✓ Pick out jewelry/accessories for bridesmaids
✓ Design, order & send out wedding invitations
✓ Get wedding insurance
✓ Found our officiant
✓ Booked minimoon for after wedding (saving a long honeymoon for 2020)
✓ Did our cake tasting
✓ Had floral design meeting
✓ Booked day-of glam team + did my hair & makeup trial
✓ Had my bachelorette party in Isle of Palms + Charleston
✓ Began planning my bridal shower with my Aunt Jen
✓ Picked out our tabletop rentals + chairs for reception
✓ Found my dress
✓ Picked out & ordered bridesmaid’s dresses + shoes
✓ Sent out save the dates (you see them here)
✓ Created our wedding registry (here are some of the items we registered for)
✓ Shot our engagement photos
✓ Asked all my favorite gals to be my bridesmaids (see how I did it here!)
✓ Confirmed florist + met to go over initial ideas
✓ Met with our caterer for a Q&A + did a tasting
✓ Worked on our wedding moodboard with our planner
✓ Did a venue visit + walk through with planner to map out flow of the day
✓ Created our wedding website on WeddingWire
✓ Got over my fear of trying on wedding dresses
✓ Booked room blocks at local hotels
✓ Confirmed caterer
✓ Confirmed band
✓ Confirmed videographer
✓ Confirmed photographer
✓ Found our wedding planner
✓ Created a budget spreadsheet
✓ Confirmed the date (October 2019!!!)
✓ Decided on a venue

Last week I asked y’all on Instagram what you wanted to me to talk about in my last wedding update and these were the most requested topics!

PRE-WEDDING GLAM. I never thought there’d be a day where I’d find my hair, nail and lash appointments exhausting; but I guess weddings can do that to a gal. Talk about a privileged problem! Since this was the top request of my Instagram poll I decided to write a separate post all about my wedding beauty schedule here.

WEDDING DANCE LESSONS. Back in August we impulsively decided to book ourselves wedding dance lessons at Dance With Me studio and I’m so happy we did! Nick surprisingly took the lead on scheduling our weekly class with our instructor Tyler (he was great!) at the Soho location. At Dance With Me they offer private wedding dance lessons specifically for engaged couples. Once you book a block of lessons (we did 10) you’re assigned a private instructor who can teach you everything from the basics to a full choreographed routine. Over the course of our 10 lessons, Tyler coached us on the fundamentals of dancing with a partner and taught us a fun and easy routine that we’ll debut at our wedding reception. I’ll be honest, I was very skeptical of doing dance lessons and was worried it would be a waste of time and money; but I’m now so grateful we decided to do it. Not only did we both learn a new skill, but it was really fun having a unique date night once a week in the weeks leading up to our wedding. I would highly recommend doing it if you’re engaged!

SEATING CHART + FAMILY DYNAMICS. During an August Q&A on Instagram I was asked what has been the hardest aspect of planning thus far. At the time my answer was family drama. Ay yi yi. It really is true that weddings can bring out the worst negativity in some people– emotions get high and everyone has their opinion. I have to give credit to Nick for creating our reception seating chart. It wasn’t easy y’all! Both our families have some tricky dynamics, but I think we found a way to make everyone happy. Having a couples shower over the summer with Nick’s family and then my bridal shower in September definitely helped break the ice a bit and reunite some of our extended family members who haven’t seen one another in a very long time. We’re nowhere near as worried about potential drama now as we were when we first got engaged. Fingers crossed!

PRINTED MATERIALS. I am obsessed with the custom menus, programs, and cocktail + seating signs we ordered from Minted! I was so impressed with how fast the shipping was too. PS Minted does custom signage now from seating charts to reserved signs– they have it all!

PERSONALIZED DECOR & PROPS. We ended up purchasing most of our non-floral decor and props from a mix of vendors on Amazon Handmade and Etsy. I’m talking things like a custom welcome sign, card box, name cards, vintage baskets, fleece blankets (for guests at our ceremony,) frames and an easel for holding signage, lawn games (corn hole & jenga for rehearsal dinner.) Sure, we probably could’ve rented a lot of these items, but in the end it ended up being cheaper to just buy on our own. Hey our new apartment building has a rooftop lawn so we’ll at least be able to make use of our new giant corn hole boards 😛

BUDGET. So did we go over it? Slightlyyyyy, but not to a degree where we’re going to lose any sleep. Nick and I are both content with where the final numbers have rounded out.

EXPENSES WE DIDN’T ORIGINALLY ANTICIPATE. Unless you have prior experience planning weddings or large scale events, I don’t see how anyone could go into this process fully aware of all the different types of vendors and random expenses that could be needed. Of course everyone’s big day is going to be different and entail different types of costs.

I would say that our wedding probably skews on the more complicated end of the planning spectrum due to our venue. We’re basically paying for use of the space from Friday through Sunday morning and that’s it. They do have reception tables and ceremony benches so that’s a plus, but other than that we have to rent and bring in everything. This includes catering, florals, glassware, dinnerware, linens, chairs, tall tables for cocktail hour– the list goes on. We knew this was going to be the case from the start and specifically chose the location because we wanted to work with vendors of our choice. And since we’d budgeted for a wedding planner, the idea of having such a long list of necessities that we’d need to find and source never felt too daunting. That said, there were a few things that caught us by surprise:

+ Dance Floor & Stage. When you think about renting items for a wedding, physical floors probably aren’t the first thing to come to mind. It wasn’t until we received an updated quote from our rental vendor last month that we remembered we’d need to rent a wood dance floor and raised stage for our band. If you’re envisioning getting married at a venue that doesn’t have a ballroom or large hardwood floor space– make sure you plan for this!

 + Heaters. Another not-so-fun pricey rental that we forgot we’d need. I guess that’s what happens when you tour venues in June, but pick a date in mid-October LOL. We’re anticipating temperatures to be in the low 60s on our wedding day (perfect!) however at night it will definitely get cool. As much as I don’t want to pay for these, the last thing I want is for any of our guests to feel uncomfortable or chilly when they spent so much time and money traveling to celebrate with us.

+ Night-Of Tips. I remember reading an article when we first got engaged about which vendors you should tip and how much you should give, but only remembered it until recently. It’s on our to-do list to hit up an ATM this week and sort all the cash tips for our band, bartenders, etc. into envelopes so our planner Stephanie can easily distribute after our reception ends.

+ Vendor Meals. In our planning process we learned that it’s the norm to feed all of your vendors who will be working at your reception. It totally makes sense– I just honestly had no idea until my planner mentioned how we should be factoring in vendors to the catering headcount. For us this will include our planner, our photographer and videographer + their second shooters and our band. Make sure you talk to your caterer and find out how they price vendor meals and what staff they cover on their end.

+ Vendor Accommodations. If you decide to hire a vendor that’s not based within reasonable driving distance of your venue, be prepared to provide them overnight accommodations. In some cases certain vendors may even require you pay for their flights, rental cars, all meals and incidentals, etc. Check those contracts! Our photographer and videographer are actually both based out of state so we’re responsible for their lodging over the weekend. Hotel options are limited in the area where we’re getting married so we decided it was most cost effective to reserve a big Airbnb nearby that we could have them stay at along with a few friends who procrastinated on booking a hotel 😛

+ Tent Draping & Custom Lighting. I’m going to take responsibility here and admit that I made the decision to add these extra elements to our budget. Our reception is tented and the tent itself is beautiful and has basic lighting, butttt I just felt like it needed a little bit more in terms of decor. When I explained what I wanted to our planner Stephanie, she briefed me that my idea would entail going to New York’s garment district and purchasing rolls of fabric literally as if I was a contestant on Project Runway. Luckily I had her and our florist (who’s doing all of our decor too) to help me. They came to the city one day over the summer and we found the perfect fabric that we’re going to drape in our tent and use as table runners.

For lighting we’re hiring a separate vendor who’s going to be doing a custom installation in our tent. Necessary? Of course not. Is it going to be worth it? ABSOLUTELY.

+ Spark Fountains. Another completely frivolous extra that I decided to add over the summer. I’m blaming Pinterest! PS shoutout to all the helpful girls on Instagram who clued me in that I should be looking into renting ‘cold spark fountains’ from either a DJ or lighting vendor. I’m a ding dong and  totally thought people just used real fireworks!!! News to me that there are so many different types of pyrotechnics that you can rent and use safely without risk of fire.

So I think that’s it!!! Wish me luck that I can make it to Friday without completely going crazy from nerves and excitement. I know everything is going to be wonderful and perfect and ahhhh I just can’t wait to share more with y’all!

MORE WEDDING UPDATES

wedding update #7 | reception seating chart, goodbye breakfast dilemma
wedding update #6 | cake tasting, honeymoon, officiant & more
wedding update #5 | my hair & makeup trial + pre-wedding beauty treatments
wedding update #4 | how i said yes to the dress!
wedding update #3 | engagement photos + bridesmaid proposals
 wedding update #2 | playing dress up with david’s bridal
wedding update #1 | summer tablescape + booking vendors
our proposal story
our engagement photos
our save the date card design
wedding planning q&a
our bed bath & beyond wedding registry
little white dress guide
how to save money on wedding reception rentals

The post Wedding Update #8 | The Final Countdown appeared first on Katie's Bliss.

Let’s talk wedding beauty! When I asked what you girls were most interested in seeing in my final wedding update, overwhelming you requested I share my pre-wedding schedule and how I planned out my appointments. Oye. It took some strategizing, but as the final week before my wedding begins I feel very confident in the way I mapped everything out.

I want to this preface post with a disclaimer: I’m beauty obsessed. I truly enjoy doing #allthethings and nearly all of these appointments are upkeep for services I was regularly having done prior to getting engaged. Throughout my engagement I haven’t gone out of my way to drastically change my routine or spend extra money on beauty or wellness. I’ve really just been doing what I always do to take care of my hair, nails, brows, lashes and skin.

Society puts so much pressure on women already– especially ones that recently have received a ring on their finger. Just because you’re getting married doesn’t mean you suddenly need to start doing all these expensive treatments, lose a ton of weight, follow a restrictive diet, etc. If you do decide to step up your beauty spending or make a change to your eating habits or fitness routine– you should be doing it because YOU want to and not because your mom, a friend, a bridal magazine or some chick on Instagram said so. If you take away anything from this post please please let it be this!

Okay so you just go engaged. What next? I put together an outline of things you might want to consider in the year leading up to your wedding below. Have I done all of this? Absolutely not. Do you need to do it all? Of course not. These are just suggestions to spark your thinking and so you can plan accordingly.

LONG-TERM BEAUTY & WELLNESS (6-12+ MONTHS BEFORE WEDDING)

+ FITNESS ROUTINE

+ NUTRITION / HEALTHIER DIET

+ LASER HAIR REMOVAL

+ SKINCARE TREATMENTS

+ NAIL DOWN YOUR SKINCARE ROUTINE

+ TALK TO YOUR HAIR SYLIST/COLORIST ABOUT ANY MAJOR CHANGES YOU MAY BE CONSIDERING (& start experimenting!)

+ BOOK YOUR DAY-OF WEDDING GLAM TEAM (I found mine 6 months in advance)

1 MONTH BEFORE WEDDING

+ TEETH WHITENING TREATMENT

+ BOOK ALL PRE-WEDDING GLAM APPOINTMENTS

+ STOP USING NEW SKINCARE PRODUCTS

2 WEEKS BEFORE WEDDING

+ FACIAL

+ HAIR COLOR & CUT

WEEK OF WEDDING

+ MANICURE & PEDICURE

+ EYELASH EXTENSIONS

+ EYEBROW THREADING

+ SPRAY TAN

+ WAXING

My #1 Wedding Beauty Tip

If you don’t already have salons and professionals that you love and trust, my best advice would be to progressively work on finding these folks over the course of your engagement. That way when it comes to schedule all your week-of wedding appointments it’s just a matter of booking upkeep and you’re not going blind into a service being done by someone you’ve never worked with before. There are going to be so many things that will require your energy the week of your wedding so your glam appointments should feel like a treat. These are moments when you should take time for yourself and relax. This is much easier to do when you have full confidence in the beauty professionals you’re seeing! Trust me!

My 2 Week Wedding Beauty Timeline

Ok so here’s my personal wedding beauty timeline! My goal in sharing this isn’t to make you think that all these appointments have to be done in this order or that you need to do them in the first place. This is just what worked best for my schedule and when my salons had availability. The only thing I would say is that if you plan to get a spray tan that you 100% schedule that last. Getting your nails and hair done involves getting your skin wet, which could affect your tan.

OUTFIT DETAILS // Similar Fuzzy Jacket | White Blouse | Skinny Jeans | David Yurman Bracelets | Michele Watch

THURSDAY OCTOBER 3

Hair appointment at Fourteenjay salon
Yesterday I visited my hair dream team at Fourtneenjay for my regular 10 week color touchup, trim and extension maintenance. No plans to make any drastic changes (I’m a creature of habit) however for extra fullness and some added length for my wedding day hair look I’m replacing my current extensions with new 20-inch wefts. You check out this post for more info on my salon, the type of extensions I get, pricing, etc.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 4

Facial with Nurse Gigi
I’ve been seeing my esthetician Genevieve for over a year now about once a month for laser treatments and facials. I talked more about what I specifically get done in this post. Honestly though no appointment is ever the same– she typically tailors the treatment to what my skin most needs at that time. PS Genevieve offers all my readers and followers 25% off laser services– just make sure to mention me when booking your appointment!

TUESDAY OCTOBER 8: 

Eyelash Fill at Yoshieeyelash
I’ve been going for lash fills at Yoshieeyelash every 3 weeks for the last few months so this appointment won’t be any different than my norm. It took me forever to find a good lash studio in the city, but I really love the girls here! They work efficiently and the salon is super chic and cozy. My lashes really do last too! I experience very minimal fallout as long as I am careful when washing my face, removing makeup, etc. PS if you make an appointment make sure to mention my Instagram handle (KatiesBliss) for 30% off!

Custom Bridal Gel Manicure at Paintbox
I always get a gel manicure before big trips and events for the 2+ week longevity and so I don’t have to worry about chipping. I have no idea what I’m going to do in terms of design or color, but I’m hoping the gals at Paintbox will have some ideas!

Pedicure
When it comes to pedis I’m really not picky and usually hit up whatever cheap salon is near another appointment, my pilates studio, etc. Most of my city errands are around Union Square so I’ll likely look for a spot there!

Eyebrow Threading
For the last five years I’ve regularly had my eyebrows threaded so this appointment will just be maintenance. I go every 2-3 weeks to a hole-in-the-wall salon on 14th street (I think it’s called Brow Studio.) It’s nothing fancy or special, but the girls there have always done a great job and it’s only $9.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 9:

Spray Tan at Sugar + Bronzed
I typically prefer to do my own self tan at home (you can read about my favorite tanners here) however I’m planning to get a professional spray tan three days before my wedding. The few times I have gotten a spray tan I went to Sugar + Bronzed in the city– I think they have a location in Murray Hill and another in Union Square. I made an appointment for Wednesday so that way I have nearly three days for it to slightly fade, etc. I also plan on showering at least twice after I get the tan too. My goal isn’t to look super bronzed or dark, I just want a natural glow that will flatter my skin.

FITNESS & DIET

I also want to touch on fitness and nutrition as these go hand-in-hand with beauty. An upcoming wedding or big life event can definitely be a motivating factor to get in shape and make positive changes to your body– both good things! That said, I don’t think a wedding should be the only reason behind undertaking an aggressive fitness regimen. If you do decide to set any fitness or weight loss goals for yourself, I would encourage doing it via a realistic routine that 1) you can afford and 2) that you’ll want to continue after your wedding.

OUTFIT DETAILS // Colorblock Leggings | Sports Bra | Sneakers

Weight loss or a desire to change my body has never been a goal of my wedding journey. I don’t own a scale and honestly have no idea how much I weigh. I exercise because I know it’s good for my body and mind, though the visual changes (for me it’s toned legs & stomach definition) are nice bonuses I’ve been working out regularly for nearly three years, however in the last six months I’ve tried my best to take classes 2x per week at Solidcore or SLT + do 1-2x cardio workouts at my gym. I’ll tell you right now that there were multiple weeks where I didn’t stick to this routine and only was able to make it to the gym once or twice, but I tried my best and I’m proud of myself for making an effort to take care of my body and look forward to continue doing so once I’m a married woman

Eating habits! When I decided to make a fitness a part of my life three years ago, my eating habits also changed. It’s been an evolution for sure because until age 25 my diet was 99% processed crappy food. Looking back I can’t believe I ate that way and would never want to return to those habits. I feel SO much better after eating a healthy meal vs when I have something processed and void of nutrients. Experiencing that feeling is what’s motivated me to continue incorporating healthier things into my diet and cut down on the junk. I don’t follow any specific plan, count calories or obsess over ingredient labels; however I try my best to buy dairy-free/gluten-free/organic when there’s a suitable option available. I also try to balance unhealthy meals with healthy ones. If I do eat junk, I will make sure that at a later meal I’m having something that’s packed full of nutrition. I also regularly make my own green juice smoothies in my Vitamix blender.

The post My Wedding Beauty Timeline | How To Schedule Your Appointments appeared first on Katie's Bliss.

I’m so happy to be able to share these photos from my bridal shower with y’all! My aunt Jen, grandma and mom hosted it for me at one of my favorite restaurants in the city and it was truly the sweetest day. It was really the first time that all the women on both sides of my family, Nick’s family, along with all my close girlfriends had ever been together in the same place. That aspect alone made the shower even more special for me!

OUTFIT DETAILS // White Lace Midi Dress | White Ankle Strap Sandals | Saint Laurent Bag | Michele Watch

I am obsessed with the dress that I wore and highly recommend it if you’re in need of one for a wedding event. It was incredibly comfortable, flattering in photos and the material is wrinkle-resistant. I didn’t even have to steam it!

Snapped with my cousin Georgie, Aunt Jen and my Maid of Honor Allie

And here with my mom and sister Brooke!

I swear my Aunt Jen must have been an event planner in a past life. She took the lead on figuring out everything from the menu to the florals with the team at ABC Kitchen. I told my family from the beginning that I didn’t want an over-the-top shower; just something simple and sweet where I’d be able to easily interact with everyone and of course eat some yummy food. I think they did an amazing job! 🙂

Here you can see my mom giving a little congratulations speech. Isn’t she so cute??

My family knows me well because the menu included so many of my favorite things: donuts, avocado, tuna sashimi, calamari, cheese ravioli, chocolate cake, SALTED CARAMEL ICE CREAM SUNDAES… Ugh I’m drooling again just thinking about the food!

All my favorites girls! From left to right: my Maid of Honor Allie, Carly, Kendall and my best gf from college, Amanda

Here are some more party pictures! Shoutout to my girl Carter for capturing these for me 🙂

Nick’s never one to miss out on a party (or donuts and cake…) He made an appearance at the end of my shower and event brought me flowers! I was so happy he was able to come and say hi to everyone. It makes me so excited to think that in just a little under a month we’ll be doing the exact same thing again except with all the other people in our lives that we love!

Snapped with Nick’s mom and sister Isabella

My shower ended with Nick and I giving everyone a sneak peek of our first dance! Here’s hoping our moves are improved when we officially debut it next month 😛

The post All About My Bridal Shower appeared first on Katie's Bliss.

MY OUTFIT DETAILS // Long Sleeve Henley Dress (so comfortable!) | Similar Felt Hat (also love this style too) | Similar Shoes | Michele Watch | David Yurman Bracelets

We are officially in the THICK of wedding planning. Folks aren’t lying when they say that the most work happens in the two months before the big day. Up until three weeks ago the planning process had been so simple (thanks to our planner Stephanie and all our amazing vendors!) and Nick and I would often ask each other: Is it really this easy? LOL.

I wouldn’t say the planning we’re doing now is “difficult” but overall it’s much more time-consuming and nitty gritty. All of the little tasks that we knew we’d eventually have to do are finally on our plate i.e. ordering a welcome sign & other personalized signage, designing + writing text for all the paper materials, finalizing the alcohol order, creating a seating chart, breaking down the cost of rooms for our 30+ guests who are staying in the accommodations at our venue — the list goes on and on.

The stress got to me earlier this month so I asked Stephanie if we could schedule an additional in-person meeting prior to our planned floral & decor presentation last Sunday (more on this below!) to go over everything. I drove up to Connecticut and met with her and our florist for nearly four hours at our venue and we pretty much went through every moment of our wedding weekend from start to finish.

^^ I seriously can’t wait to transform this tented space!! I snapped at our venue earlier this month when they were in the beginning stages of setting up for another wedding. 

I’m really excited that our florist is providing not only our flowers, but nearly all of our decor. It just makes things so much simpler having the aesthetic items coming from one vendor who understands your vision. That meeting was exactly what I needed because I left feeling like I had a much clearer idea of how the weekend would flow and what I needed to do immediately vs what could be saved for next month’s to-do list.

Everything that’s on our immediate to-do list is BOLDED below. If you keep scrolling you can read about a few of the tasks we’ve accomplished and are currently working on now!

WEDDING PLANNING CHECKLIST

✓ Gown fitting
✓ Pick out jewelry/accessories for bridesmaids
✓ Finalize our wedding bands
✓ Finalize florals, decor & rentals
✓ Order all printed materials (programs, menus, etc.)
✓ Create seating chart for reception
✓ Order any personalized items (welcome sign, etc.)
✓ Design, order & send out wedding invitations
✓ Get wedding insurance
✓ Found our officiant
✓ Booked minimoon for after wedding (saving a long honeymoon for 2020)
✓ Did our cake tasting
✓ Had floral design meeting
✓ Booked day-of glam team + did my hair & makeup trial
✓ Had my bachelorette party in Isle of Palms + Charleston
✓ Began planning my bridal shower with my Aunt Jen
✓ Picked out our tabletop rentals + chairs for reception
✓ Found my dress
✓ Picked out & ordered bridesmaid’s dresses + shoes
✓ Sent out save the dates (you see them here)
✓ Created our wedding registry (here are some of the items we registered for)
✓ Shot our engagement photos
✓ Asked all my favorite gals to be my bridesmaids  (see how I did it here!)
✓ Confirmed florist + met to go over initial ideas
✓ Met with our caterer for a Q&A + did a tasting
✓ Worked on our wedding moodboard with our planner
✓ Did a venue visit + walk through with planner to map out flow of the day
✓ Created our wedding website on WeddingWire
✓ Got over my fear of trying on wedding dresses
✓ Booked room blocks at local hotels
✓ Confirmed caterer
✓ Confirmed band
✓ Confirmed videographer
✓ Confirmed photographer
✓ Found our wedding planner
✓ Created a budget spreadsheet
✓ Confirmed the date (October 2019!!!)
✓ Decided on a venue

Seating Chart. The plan is to use the WeddingWire Seating Chart tool to map out seating for our entire reception. We’re using all long wood farm tables that have an 8 person capacity, so we’re likely going to have to spread out our guests using 12-15 tables depending on head count (aiming for 100-120 guests.)

Confession: figuring out seating was a task I’d been dreading since we got engaged #familydrama. However after a few minutes of playing around with the Seating Chart tool last week, I felt SUCH A SENSE OF RELIEF. You can see an example of what it looks like below…

Basically you can create an exact replica of your reception floor. The Seating Chart tool allows you to select your table shape and the guest capacity. You can add as many tables as you need and move them around in the exact positioning as you plan to have them laid out at your own reception.

To make life even easier, the Seating Chart tool automatically imports your guest list from your WeddingWire dashboard so literally all you have to do is drag and drop guest names into place at each table. I’m a visual person so being able to see our list and a view of all our reception tables at once is SO HELPFUL. I feel much more confident now about figuring out the seating for our reception thanks to this tool! Now if only everyone would send back their RSVP card… 😛

We Sent Out Our Invites! We finally sent out our invites! It took us a little bit of time to figure out the design we wanted, but we ended up using one from the same vendor as our Save The Dates. I’ll reveal these in a post after our wedding!

Cake Tasting. We did this yesterday and as you can see Nick had the time of his life 😛 We’re going to do a 3-layer cake decorated with fruit inspired from our signature cocktails… Can’t wait to see (and taste!) it!

Menus & Programs. I found a design that I love on Minted for our printed menus and programs. I’ve already drafted the menu text and plan on finalizing the program with our planner Stephanie. Once we get a better idea of our exact headcount we’ll order these!

Wedding Signs + Personalized Items. I’ve been hitting up Etsy like crazy lately! I ordered a custom wood welcome sign and a few personalized lawn games that we’re going to use at our pizza truck rehearsal dinner. I’ll share details on everything once our wedding weekend is over and I have pictures 🙂

Florals, Decor & Rentals. We had a BIG meeting with our planner Stephanie and our florist over the weekend where they presented to us a mockup of one of our reception tables, along with a few other vignettes we plan to have at our wedding weekend. It just made everything feel so much more real being able to see the flowers styled along with our rentals. I really hope you gals love it all as much as I do! Without giving too much away… Here are some of my inspiration images 🙂

^^ all images found via Pinterest

Goodbye Breakfast. From the beginning of our planning process I was against having a goodbye breakfast, but earlier this month I had a change of heart and decided we should do something very informal (i.e. catered bagel platters + coffee served buffet style.) Stephanie and I began initial discussions, updated our budget accordingly and we alerted our venue that we would indeed be holding an additional event on the property on Sunday morning.

Long story short. My desire to have a goodbye breakfast was short-lived because as of two days ago Nick and I decided to nix it from our wedding weekend itinerary. Why? Every time we would talk about plans for the breakfast, neither of us felt any excitement and the conversation would always end with us both being annoyed at the added expense. We eventually realized the only reason we were doing it was because of outside pressure that we had to keep up with traditional wedding norms– not because we actually wanted it. I have a good feeling after a long night of drinking and dancing at our reception, we are going to be SO happy we made this decision.

Booked Our Minimoon. We officially booked flights for a 6 night minimoon after our wedding tooooooo… Paris! I could not care less if it’s cliché. Nick and I have absolutely loved all three of our trips to France and Paris is by far our favorite city we’ve ever visited. Nick especially! Homeboy is in his ELEMENT in Paris. It’s so funny! We’ll likely spend a few days in the city and then maybe rent a car and go out to the Loire Valley or another area of the countryside for a night or two. We haven’t booked any hotels yet so I am all ears to any recommendations!!!

We had initially hoped to do a minimoon in the Scottish Highlands (aka pretend we’re in an episode of Outlander) but after doing some research we realized late October was just not the best time of year to visit northern Scotland. We also feel like a trip to Scotland deserves more than just the 5-6 days we have allotted for a post-wedding trip. It was a kind of a bummer because we were SO pumped about Scotland, but I definitely think we made the right choice to wait on planning this trip.

MORE WEDDING UPDATES

wedding update #6 | cake tasting, honeymoon, officiant & more
wedding update #5 | my hair & makeup trial + pre-wedding beauty treatments
wedding update #4 | how i said yes to the dress!
wedding update #3 | engagement photos + bridesmaid proposals
 wedding update #2 | playing dress up with david’s bridal
wedding update #1 | summer tablescape + booking vendors
our proposal story
our engagement photos
our save the date card design
wedding planning q&a
our bed bath & beyond wedding registry
little white dress guide
how to save money on wedding reception rentals

The post Wedding Update #7 | Reception Seating Chart, Goodbye Breakfast Dilemma & More appeared first on Katie's Bliss.

I’m honestly in total disbelief that our wedding is just under four months away. The time has flown by ever since we moved! For so long I kept saying to myself, “oh we have over six months to go,” and now suddenly the date is getting SO close. Super exciting, but the pressure to keep checking things off our to-do list is starting to climb!

PLANNING MUST-HAVE // The WeddingWire app! This is what the homepage looks like on our planning dashboard. Here we keep track of our to-do list, hired vendors, budget and guest list.

Speaking of checklists… The WeddingWire app has become my saving grace! I live on my phone (as most of us do) and it’s been incredibly helpful having a handy list of everything I need to accomplish, along with what I should prepare do in upcoming months, readily available in the palm of my hand. I’ve been using it as a guideline every time I chat with our wedding planner Stephanie (who’s usually 5+ steps ahead of me) and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel therapeutic each time I check a box next to a task. My fellow brides: if you haven’t downloaded the this app you need to asap!

You can see my full checklist below… Everything we’re working on this month and next is in BOLD.

WEDDING PLANNING CHECKLIST

✓ Design & order wedding invitations
✓ Get wedding insurance
✓ Pick out jewelry/accessories for bridesmaids
✓ Find an officiant (we’ve really been procrastinating on this one…)
✓ Start booking minimoon for after wedding (saving a long honeymoon for 2020)
✓ Schedule cake tasting (confirmed for August!)
✓ Schedule floral design meeting (confirmed for August!)
✓ Booked day-of glam team + did my hair & makeup trial
✓ Scheduled my bachelorette party (Isle of Palms + Charleston in July!)
✓ Began planning my bridal shower with my Aunt Jen
✓ Picked out our tabletop rentals + chairs for reception
✓ Found my dress
✓ Picked out & ordered bridesmaid’s dresses + shoes
✓ Sent out save the dates (you see them here)
✓ Created our wedding registry (here are some of the items we registered for)
✓ Shot our engagement photos
✓ Asked all my favorite gals to be my bridesmaids  (see how I did it here!)
✓ Confirmed florist + met to go over initial ideas
✓ Met with our caterer for a Q&A + did a tasting
✓ Worked on our wedding moodboard with our planner
✓ Did a venue visit + walk through with planner to map out flow of the day
✓ Created our wedding website on WeddingWire
✓ Got over my fear of trying on wedding dresses
✓ Booked room blocks at local hotels
✓ Confirmed caterer
✓ Confirmed band
✓ Confirmed videographer
✓ Confirmed photographer
✓ Found our wedding planner
✓ Created a budget spreadsheet
✓ Confirmed the date (October 2019!!!)
✓ Decided on a venue

So as you can see from my checklist above, we have a few big things we need to take care of over the next few weeks…

Designing and ordering our invites. We’re planning to use the same vendor for our invites that we used for our save the dates! I really want to complete this task as quickly and easily as possible. We’ll probably just use a pre-made template to keep things simple and cost-efficient. I know some folks feel such a strong attachment to the design of their physical invite, but that’s just not me! Would rather put that money towards our actual wedding events.

Finding an officiant. Nick and I are both Christian, but we don’t particularly want religion to be a big focus in our ceremony. I dunno if that’s weird or not! We’ve only ever been to a handful of weddings so our knowledge of ceremony formats is a bit limited– this is probably the reason we keep procrastinating on finding an officiant! Open to any of y’alls advice…

Wedding rings. Nick is in talks with the jeweler who designed my engagement ring about doing our bands too. We have an appointment with her in July so more to come on this!

Wedding insurance. Shoutout to the WeddingWire app planning checklist for reminding me we have to get event insurance. I would’ve totally forgot if not! Our venue requires we take out a $1,000,000 event policy for our wedding weekend. I spoke with our planner and she told me this is typically done through you  rental insurance company or homeowner policy. Definitely gonna pass this task off to Nick to handle!

Booking a minimoon/honeymoon. So we’ve finally made some progress thinking through our honeymoon plans! I’ve mentioned on my Instagram Story (check my Q&A highlights) how we want to save a big honeymoon trip for after the holidays. Why? A few reasons. 1) Nick’s vacation time resets in January and right now he doesn’t have enough days to take off for as long as we’d prefer for a honeymoon. 2) I love the fall and would hate the take a warm weather beach trip during a time of year when I love being home. 3) We want something to look forward to after the holidays. You guys know how prone I am to the winter blues (legit wish I could fast forward through January/February every year) so we kinda wanna use our honeymoon as a reason to escape when the weather is miserable.

SHOP THIS PHOTO // Strapless Jumpsuit (just $18!) | Sandals | Eyeglasses | Stripe Canvas Bag | Dining Room Furniture + Decor | Wall Shelves

That said, we do want to take a trip right after our wedding. So many people told me that if we skipped doing some sort of post-wedding trip that we’d end up regretting it, so we’re hoping to go somewhere for 5 days or so the week after we get married. Luckily our wedding weekend is over Columbus Day so Nick automatically has a vacation day and won’t need to take a ton of time off. Maybe we’re crazy, but we’re strongly considering Scotland. We love fall weather, there are a ton of direct flights from NYC and the prices don’t look too crazy expensive. We’ll see!

Oye we have our work cut out for us! Hopefully next month I’ll be able to share with y’all that we’ve completed all of these… Wish us luck!

MORE WEDDING UPDATES

wedding update #5 | my hair & makeup trial + pre-wedding beauty treatments
wedding update #4 | how i said yes to the dress!
wedding update #3 | engagement photos + bridesmaid proposals
 wedding update #2 | playing dress up with david’s bridal
wedding update #1 | summer tablescape + booking vendors
our proposal story
our engagement photos
our save the date card design
wedding planning q&a
our bed bath & beyond wedding registry
little white dress guide
how to save money on wedding reception rentals

The post Wedding Update #6 | Cake Tasting, Honeymoon, Officiant & More appeared first on Katie's Bliss.

I’ve been so busy lately with traveling and our new apartment these last few weeks that I feel like wedding planning has taken a backseat– ahh! In my last update I mentioned how I’d done my hair and makeup trial, so today’s post is all about how that went, plus I’ll get into some of the pre-wedding skincare and beauty treatments that I plan to do leading up to my big day.

Thank goodness for the WeddingWire Wedding Checklist tool because if it weren’t for that I’m not sure how I’d be keeping all my to-dos straight. What I love most about this tool is I can pull it up on my iPhone and laptop, which makes it easy to make changes and add tasks even if I’m out and about.

Now for the current status of my checklist… Latest in BOLD.

WEDDING PLANNING CHECKLIST

✓ Booked day-of glam team + did my hair & makeup trial
✓ Scheduled my bachelorette party (Isle of Palms + Charleston in July!)
✓ Began planning my bridal shower with my Aunt Jen
✓ Picked out our tabletop rentals + chairs for reception
✓ Found my dress
✓ Picked out & ordered bridesmaid’s dresses + shoes
✓ Sent out save the dates (you see them here)
✓ Created our wedding registry (here are some of the items we registered for)
✓ Shot our engagement photos
✓ Asked all my favorite gals to be my bridesmaids  (see how I did it here!)
✓ Confirmed florist + met to go over initial ideas
✓ Met with our caterer for a Q&A + did a tasting
✓ Worked on our wedding moodboard with our planner
✓ Did a venue visit + walk through with planner to map out flow of the day
✓ Created our wedding website on WeddingWire
✓ Got over my fear of trying on wedding dresses
✓ Booked room blocks at local hotels
✓ Confirmed caterer
✓ Confirmed band
✓ Confirmed videographer
✓ Confirmed photographer
✓ Found our wedding planner
✓ Created a budget spreadsheet
✓ Confirmed the date (October 2019!!!)
✓ Decided on a venue

DAY-OF HAIR & MAKEUP

For a little while I had contemplated doing my own wedding hair and makeup. You guys know that braids are my thing, plus I also don’t envision wearing my makeup drastically different than how I would if I were doing it myself for a dressy event. I’m sure I’d be perfectly happy with the results if I were to do my own glam, but at the end of the day I want to fully enjoy the experience of getting ready with my bridesmaids and go into my wedding feeling relaxed and pampered, so I decided it was best to book a day-of hair and makeup.

I had no idea where to start in terms of booking the right glam team. My wedding planner Stephanie recommended to me Face Time Beauty, a NYC and Palm Beach-based beauty concierge. Their 28-person team does it all: hair, makeup, spray tans and nails for weddings, commercial projects, editorial shoots and more! The best part is they are willing to travel so even if you aren’t getting married directly in New York City or Palm Beach they can come to your venue. BIG sigh of relief single my wedding in the middle-of-nowhere Connecticut 😛

I did a hair and makeup trial at their Brooklyn studio last month and loved the experience! I was a little nervous going into the trial since I’ve only had my hair and makeup professionally done a small handful of times for formal events, but the girls there made me feel right at ease. They took note of all the inspiration photos I had brought with me (I found a lot of pretty looks for long hair on Pinterest and WeddingWire!) as they did my hair and makeup from start to finish, listening to my feedback and making adjustments accordingly.

It’s really important to me that I look like the best version of myself on my wedding day vs an overly-glammed up bride, so we basically went for a “soft glam” look that focused on fresh, dewy skin (definitely going to be referencing these WeddingWire skincare tips!) and naturally flushed cheeks and lips. I’m really particular about my foundation and actually brought the one I use every day to the trial to see if it would make sense to wear. We ended up doing my face makeup twice testing different foundations and ultimately I liked mine best, so that’s what I’ll be wearing on my big day!

I use the La Mer Luminous Lifting Cushion Foundation (I’m shade Petal) and can honestly say it’s the best foundation I’ve ever tried. It’s medium coverage and just makes the skin look bright, dewy and airbrushed. I normally hate the feeling of face makeup on my skin, but this one goes on weightless and won’t irritate or dry out my skin even after an entire day or wear. Highly recommend!

Figuring out my wedding day hair was pretty easy. I think I’m going to wear it down to one side in soft shiny waves for the ceremony and then quickly throw it into a big chunky braid (maybe with some fun hair pins or a headband?) for the reception. This way I can eat and dance and not have to worry about a hair being out of place or looking wacky in a candid picture.

Looking to hire a glam team for your wedding day and not sure where to start? By using WeddingWire’s vendor search tool you can find all types of beauty services in your area and price range.

PRE-WEDDING BEAUTY & SKINCARE TREATMENTS

I feel like there’s a lot of pressure on brides-to-be to get expensive beauty and skincare treatments, almost as if these are a right of passage to getting married. I’m honestly very happy with the look of my skin and a lot of what I’ve been doing stems more from a place of being a beauty junkie and anti-aging prevention vs feeling like I need to improve my appearance.

If you’re in the midst of planning your wedding too, definitely don’t feel like you need to splurge on expensive treatments. Got the budget for it? Then sure, go ahead! Just remember that your man loves you just the way you are and if you do get something done, it should be for YOU… not for someone else.

So what have I been doing? If you follow my Instagram Story you know that I’ve been getting monthly facials and laser treatments with aesthetician, Genevieve Vielbig. Here’s what I get done!

Silk Peel – This is an advanced form of microdermabrasion that exfoliates the skin, while infusing it with an intense dose of hydration. Silk peels can help diminish hyper-pigmentation, sun spots, acne scars and improve dryness. The skin on my face is very sensitive so I love how gentle this is! The tool used does not hurt at all and there’s no downtime afterwards. You can read more about Silk Peels on Genevieve’s website here.

Laser Genesis – If you’re looking for a good introductory laser treatment that doesn’t require downtime, Laser Genesis is a good one to try. With multiple treatments it can help reduce pretty much every skincare concern– pores, fine lines, wrinkles, sun damage, redness and uneven tone. What’s also nice about it is that your aesthetician can control the intensity of the laser so it can be as gentle or aggressive as you like. You can read more about Laser Genesis on Genevieve’s website here.

Botox – I get 25 units of Botox twice a year in my forehead. I just had this done at my last appointment so will probably wait to it again until a month before my wedding. You can read more about preventative Botox and how much it costs in this post.

I’ve always found that the best way to find great beauty practitioners is through word-of-mouth recommendations. Talk to your friends, family and colleagues to see where they go to get their skincare treatments done! Do your research and read as many reviews as possible. You can also use WeddingWire’s vendor search tool as a starting point– there are spas and facialists listed there too!

The post Wedding Update #5 | My Hair & Makeup Trial + Pre-Wedding Beauty Treatments appeared first on Katie's Bliss.

If there’s one blog post request I’ve received most frequently over the last few months, it’s been for little white dress (lwd) recommendations! I promise I haven’t been ignoring you guys… Just was waiting for the weather to warm up a bit!

Y’all know that white dresses are no stranger to my closet. I’d much rather wear a bright color or a light neutral shade over black any day of the week. I know, that’s not very “New York” of me, but I think it’s obvious I’ve never really fit the typical Manhattan style mold. Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to incorporating more white into my wardrobe, especially now that spring and a few pre-wedding festivities are on the horizon!

I took advantage of the bare leg temperatures we had in New York last week and pulled on two new lwds I found at David’s Bridal. If you’re on the hunt for stylish, yet affordable white cocktail dresses I highly recommend checking out their selection! It can be a struggle finding good white dresses because many stores will only have a small number of styles, plus if you’re shopping online it’s nearly impossible to tell if the fabric is actually opaque.

Well I tested the two dresses you see here and I can fully attest that no one will be seeing your underwear if you decide to wear one of these to your rehearsal dinner, bridal shower or grad ceremony

David’s Bridal Short Sequin V-Neck Dress (wearing size 2)

This short sequin v-neck dress is my favorite out of all the ones I tried on at the store! I didn’t think I’d ever be into a white dress with sequins, but the embellishments on this one are incredibly subtle and would work great even for daytime. I’m also obsessed with the v neck open back and sheer flutter sleeves. Bonus points that the length hits just above the knee too!

David’s Bridal Tiered Lace Short Dress (wearing size 2)

The vintage vibes of this tiered lace dress totally hooked me! I immediately fell in love with the high neckline. How pretty is the back too? It fits like a glove and is not too short, making it perfect to wear for special occasions with family.

A lot of you have been asking me what I plan on wearing to my bridal shower and I definitely think either of these would make great options. My Aunt Jen has already started planning mine for this September (hopefully the weekend before my birthday!) so I still have some time to decide, but I’m already feeling so excited!

If you’re looking to add a new white dress (or two!) to your closet, I rounded up a bunch of additional styles below. I want THEM ALL!

Big thank you to David’s Bridal for sponsoring this post!

The post Little White Dresses For Spring & Summer Events appeared first on Katie's Bliss.

I know I’ve mentioned to y’all how the first few months of our engagement were a breeze in terms of wedding planning. Besides finding a venue and booking all of our vendors, we really hadn’t done a lot of nitty gritty work. I remember thinking to myself… it can’t be this easy, right? LOL. Well that mindset quickly changed after the holidays because now we’re in DEEP planning mode.

The first half of January we spent finalizing our guest list and designing + sending out our save the dates (still so obsessed with how those turned out) and now our focus has switched to RENTALS.

I’M WEARING // BHLDN Mercer Gown

All of these photos are from a recent just-for-fun shoot I did with BHLDN! I’m going to keep our wedding reception and rental plans under wraps until our big day… Don’t want to spoil the surprise

The first meeting I had with our planner Stephanie and a large well-known rental company here in the city was incredibly eye-opening for me. We knew going into the planning process that our venue was only going to have dinner tables and ceremony benches and that everything else was up to us to supply. We made sure to include the budget we needed for rentals for a 100 guest wedding, but for some reason I just never thought it would be as expensive as everyone told me it would me.

Well, rentals are indeed expensive my friends. Until that moment I’d been feeling really positive about our budget and everything finance-wise, but seeing just how much it could potentially cost to rent all the items we’d need for our reception left a big pit in my stomach. $1.80 to rent a single salad fork for 6 hours x multiple it by 100 guests = NOOOOOO THANK YOU.

I’M WEARING // BHLDN Mercer Gown | BHLDN Hair Combs

I’d always assumed we would just rent everything for our big day, but that meeting left me feeling very motivated to seek out ways to save money. Could we just pay to rent everything? Sure. Do I want to spend an arm and leg on rentals? No ma’am.

Turns out there are plenty of ways to significantly bring down the costs of wedding reception rentals. As I always do when I’m stumped on something, I immediately turned to my Instagram fam’ and put out a PSA asking for advice. Right away I was bombarded with message after message from gals telling me their hacks and where they were able to find deals of everything from linens to chargers to consigned flatware. Ugh I LOVE social media. I also found a lot of great tips stalking the WeddingWire discussion boards!

I’M WEARING // BHLDN Effie Skirt | BHDLN Girard Corset Top

Are you engaged and in the same boat as me? Well keep on reading for a roundup of the best tips for how to save money on wedding reception rentals.

How To Save Money On Wedding Reception Rentals

Keep it simple

Rental costs for traditional color palettes (i.e. white tablecloths) and simple dinnerware/glassware tend to be much less expensive. Try not to get caught up in the minutia of rentals and put your budget towards the the things your guests will actually remember like food, florals, your dress and the entertainment– not the $2.50 rented rose gold salad fork. Highly recommend browsing the ‘Real Weddings’ gallery on WeddingWire for inspo from other couples!

Buying can be much cheaper than renting

Overwhelmingly I’ve been told that buying the dinnerware, linens and decor can be much cheaper than renting. When you start breaking down the costs it makes sense. For example… Renting 100 4-piece flatware sets at $7.80 each comes out to a bill of $780. That’s $780 JUST to use silverware for a few hours. All that money spent and you don’t even get to keep it!!!

For contrast, after a quick search for wholesale flatware on Amazon I discovered similar 4-piece sets priced at half the amount it would cost to rent. It’s SO crazy!

Okay so where are the best places to shop for these things in bulk? I compiled a list of all the shops that were recommended to me + a few more that I’ve found doing my own research.

Where To Buy Inexpensive Linens, Dinnerware, Chargers, Decor & More:

PS! After your wedding you can sell everything via Craigslist, eBay or Facebook. I had a bunch of gals even tell me they made a PROFIT selling the plates and napkins they’d purchased!

I’M WEARING // BHLDN Effie Skirt | BHDLN Girard Corset Top | BHLDN Hair Clips | BHLDN Hair Flowers

Find vendors that include rentals

Oftentimes wedding venues and caterers will offer packages that include reception must-haves like tables, chairs, linens, flatware, dinnerware, etc. so ask questions and read the fine print in your contracts! Finding a venue that’s going to supply all these items can make the planning process much easier and significantly cut down on costs since you won’t have to pay for separate rentals+delivery fees. Many caterers also have sets of dinnerware for rent that can be included in your food package. Feeling overwhelmed researching vendors? The WeddingWire Vendor Directory makes it easy and has a ton of parameters you can customize to find the venue and/or caterer of your dreams!

Reserve the fancy rentals for just your head table

If you’re reallyyyy set on a specific vision for your reception tables, considering keeping the pricey rentals to just your head or sweetheart table and then go budget-friendly for the rest of your guests. This way you and your bridal party can experience (and get photos sitting at!) the Pinterest-worthy table, while not having to blow your budget on fancy rentals for all your extended family and plus ones. At the end of the day no one is going to notice they’re eating off of plain white china, while the head table’s plates have a gold rim.

Split expenses with family or another couple

I think this idea is genius! I received a bunch of messages from you gals telling me how you went in on purchasing a set of 100 linens or gold chargers with another engaged couple or family member to save money. Someone else told me how her dad thought it advance to buy one set of linens and tableware that she and her sisters then used at all of their weddings. SO smart.

Do your research & negotiate!

Don’t just go with the first rental company someone recommends to you. Put on your detective cap and make a list of all your options. WeddingWire has an awesome vendor search engine where you can see every single rental company, caterer, planner, venue, etc. in a city or region. Taking the time to reach out to individual companies and getting multiple quotes can you give you a lot of leverage to negotiate.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the planning process so far it’s that there’s alwayssss wiggle room on rates. Don’t feel like you have to agree to the first quote a rental company or vendor throws at you. Speak up for yourself and don’t be afraid to tell a vendor your budget. A lot of times they’ll be willing to work with you and figure out an agreement that’s comfortable for both parties. I found this WeddingWire article on how to effectively and respectively negotiate with vendors incredibly helpful.

If you’re working with a planner, they likely will have a lot of existing relationships with vendor and be able to negotiate discounts and reduced rates on your behalf. Our planner Stephanie has been awesome at doing this for us!

Well I think that’s it for now! If you guys have any other money-saving tips for me I’d love to hear them  

PAST WEDDING UPDATES!

WEDDING PLANNING UPDATE #3
WEDDING PLANNING UPDATE #2
WEDDING PLANNING UPDATE #1 
WEDDING Q&A
OUR ENGAGEMENT PHOTOS
OUR PROPOSAL STORY

The post How To Save Money On Wedding Reception Rentals appeared first on Katie's Bliss.

I have to make a confession. Since getting engaged we’ve procrastinated like crazy on putting together our wedding registry. Over the last few months I’ve felt like such an oddball bride-to-be due to my lack of enthusiasm about registering. It’s not that I don’t want to register– I do!! We definitely have some small appliances that are overdue for an upgrade and there a few formal dining items I know I’d love to have when the days comes to buy a permanent home.

The issue is that every time I sat down at my computer to “register” I just found myself feeling completely overwhelmed. There was one article on a popular bridal website that really freaked me out. It was a checklist of “Wedding Registry Essentials” and included items like a stir fry wok, panini press, waffle maker, hand juicer, cake decorating set– and that was just in the KITCHEN BASICS section! I honestly didn’t even make it through the rest of checklist.

Up until that moment I’d thought it would really easy to keep our registry small and simple. I mean, we’ve been living together for over 5 years and have had so much time to accumulate our things… There really shouldn’t be much that we need to add to a registry, right? Reading that article put me into a spiral of a million questions. Should we have a veggie spiralizer on our registry? Are we going to regret not asking for crystal salt and pepper shakers? How many formal dinner sets will we realistically use on holidays?

Big thank you to Bed Bath & Beyond for sponsoring this post!

Needless to say I needed help and I’m not talking about help via Google search, I mean a real life expert. Did you know there are wedding registry consultants? Yes, actual people who know the ins and outs of registering. We’ve always known that we were going to create an online registry at Bed Bath & Beyond (I mean, BB&B has everything!), but discovering that we could meet with a registry consultant at our local store was beyond exciting. Talk about a sigh of relief!

So Nick and I finally bit the bullet and made an appointment with the registry team at the Bed Bath & Beyond store on 6th Avenue. We went into it knowing that we wanted to register for all the formal dining room essentials (fine china, silverware, serving platters, crystal glasses, etc.) but beyond that we were pretty much lost as to what else to include.

Since we already have accumulated so many belongings together, it was important to us to only register for things we really needed or would be special to have in our future home. My worst fear was going totally crazy and registering for every random kitchen tool or decorative trinket only to end up with a storage unit-sized haul of stuff we didn’t really want after our wedding.

That’s where the folks at Bed Bath & Beyond came in and saved the day. We didn’t know what to expect when we arrived for our registry appointment, but were immediately put to ease once we were greeted by Leo, one of the store’s registry consultants. He started off by asking us all about ourselves– our wants, our needs, how many guests were attending our wedding, etc.

Then from there he took us through everything. He broke down all the essential items we should 100% add to our registry because despite what the Internet tell you, no a panini press is NOT a registry essential. Leo also gave us product recommendations based on everything we’d told him about ourselves. It didn’t even occur to us that we should be including a legitimate vacuum on our registry seeing as all we have now is a $25 hand vacuum… LOL!

PS all my fellow brides! Here is where you can schedule your own registry appointment at a local Bed Bath & Beyond.

As much as I typically prefer shopping online, going into Bed Bath & Beyond to meet with an expert who could help us put together our registry was the best route to go. Leo even escorted us around the store section by section, taking us directly to the items we knew we wanted to included and then pointing out things that could make sense to add. When it comes to items like kitchen knives and toaster ovens– there are a lot of options. Being right there and having the ability to talk with the store associates was incredibly helpful when it came time to make decisions. Oh and getting to scan items with the registry gun thingys was a lot of fun too!

So what did we end up including on our registry? No surprise, lots of fine china and formal dining room essentials. Living in a small apartment, we’ve never had the space to really invest in nice dinnerware (literally we still use what we had in our college apartments) so this was really important to us. I love the entertain and while I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to do so in our current apartment, the hope is to starting getting on my hostess grind once we move this spring

ITEMS PICTURED // Waterford Wine Carafe | Vera Wang Crystal Vase | Reed & Barton Crystal Candlesticks | Vera Wang Wedgwood® Grosgrain Dinnerware Collection

Nick and I both fell in love with the Vera Wang Wedgwood® Grosgrain Collection. I had actually seen it previously online and didn’t think it looked that special, but in-person my mind completely changed. I never thought I’d describe plates as gorgeous, but these really are! See! Another prime example of why going into a store to register is so important, especially when you’re choosing items you’re likely going to have for the rest of your life like fine china.

ITEMS PICTURED // Waterford Placemat | Waterford Napkins | Antler Napkin Rings | Vera Wang 5-Piece Place Setting | Vera Wang 5-Piece Flatware Setting | Vera Wang Water Glasses | Vera Wang Wine Glasses | Open Vegetable Bowl | Gravy Boat & Stand | Oval Platter | 3-Piece Serving Set | Coffee Pot | Covered Sugar Bowl | Creamer

I’ve been wanting to step up our barware game for a while now so we took advantage of our Bed Bath & Beyond appointment to check out stemware. Immediately we were drawn to the contemporary look of the Vera Wang Wedgwood® Metropolitan collection and couldn’t resist adding these wine glasses and tumblers to our registry. Nick also picked out this gorgeous Reed & Barton crystal decanter, an ice bucket, glass cocktail shaker and Top Shelf 6-Piece Bar Tool Set.

ITEMS PICTURED // Table Lamp | Metal Planter | Bar Cart | Glass Shaker | Top Shelf 6-Piece Bar Tool Set | Ice Bucket | Tumblers

We didn’t originally plan to register for a vacuum, but I’m so glad we did! I’d heard that the Dyson vacuums were amazing so of course I took up the offer to test one myself when were in Bed Bath & Beyond. Immediately I was blown away by the power and couldn’t understand how the vacuums were all so lightweight. We ended up going for the Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute vacuum and it’s the bomb. It’s compact and so easy to use, plus it comes with every attachment you could think of for hardwood floors, carpets, skinny couch cracks and underneath low furniture. Who knew I could be this excited about a vacuum? Does this mean I’m a real adult?

ITEM PICTURED // Dyson Cyclone V10 Absolute Vacuum 

Another item we were really excited about were these Vera Wang Wedgwood® Grosgrain frames. I’ve been wanting to print a few of our engagement photos and didn’t have any suitable frames, but the second I saw this set I knew it would be perfect for displaying two of our favorites! The frames even match our dinnerware!

ITEM PICTURED // Vera Wang Wedgwood® Grosgrain Frames

Things are getting real now, huh? Looking back I don’t know why I was so stressed about registering. If I’m being honest our Bed Bath & Beyond store appointment was some of the most fun I’ve had in the planning process so far! The team really helped us narrow down what things mattered most to us and we’re SO happy with all the items we’ve added to our registry thus far. I can’t wait to use everything once we move into our new place later this spring!!! Who knows… Maybe we’ll even get to host a holiday dinner for our family next year! #growingup

The post Our Bed Bath & Beyond Wedding Registry Picks appeared first on Katie's Bliss.

Ahhh things are getting real! Our printed save the dates arrived from Zola a few days ago and I’m obsessed with how the design turned out! Our original plan was to send out save the dates in December in place of a traditional holiday card, buttttt clearly that didn’t happen. I always get really ambitious with taking on a lot of work around the holidays and I should’ve known better than to think we’d have time to design and send out our save the dates… So goes life!

We started working on our cards using Zola almost immediately once we got back to the city after the holidays. Zola has a really lovely selection of beautiful, yet understated card designs that are incredibly easy to customize. I really liked the idea of incorporating gold foil text and was pumped to see a number of designs with this included. We also wanted a minimal card design where a photo of us would be the primary focus.

Zola must’ve read my mind when they created the Heaven Type design because once I saw it, I knew it was the perfect fit for what we were looking for in our save the date. It honestly took us less than five minutes to create our card design. All we had to do was adjust the text with our wedding details and upload the photos we wanted to use and that was it! So easy!

If you’re more of a take-your-time kind of person, the draft feature will be a lifesaver. When creating your save the dates or invitations on Zola, you can save drafts for any design to go back and work on at a later time. You can even create and save multiple design projects at once. It’s great for comparing different options and really finding the one that you love most!

PS! Don’t forget to use code PAPER30 for 30% OFF your Zola paper order!

Designing was the easy part, but to be quite honest, the most tedious part of the process was gathering all of our guests’ mailing addresses. Between elderly family members, distant relatives we don’t often see and friends who live abroad, it took almost two weeks to get everyone’s information. If you’re newly engaged or anticipating you will be soon, I highly recommend getting ahead of the game and keeping an updated address book so you can avoid a majorrrrr headache. But don’t worry if pen and paper isn’t your thing. With Zola you can text or email a link to your guests where they can fill in their information that goes directly into your guest list.

Aside from that task, the rest of the card design and ordering process was smooth sailing. We organized all of our guests’ information in a handy excel spreadsheet template (downloaded in advance from Zola) that we then uploaded directly to the site to be printed on the card envelopes (for free!). I had anticipated having to write and format individual addresses on each envelope, but using the excel sheet did all that work for us– total game changer!

Once we finalized our design and imported all of our guests information, it was time to place the order! I was so paranoid we’d made a typo or the date was wrong so I probably proofread the card at least 10 times! Ahh! After finally clicking ORDER it was about a week long wait until the printed cards and envelopes arrived at our door.

I was so nervous opening up the box! What if something had been cut off? Or I had indeed made a typo? Luckily I had nothing to fear and our save the dates turned out better than I imagined! The cards are printed on a thick quality card stock and I loooove the shiny gold foil text. It looks sooo pretty paired with the amber and orange hues in our engagement pictures! Perfect for the fall wedding vibe we’re going for

So what’s next on our wedding planning checklist? Some BIG things. 1) I still need to find a dress AND pick out bridesmaids dresses. 2) RENTALS. I really want to try and save budget in this area, so I’m working with my planner to see how we can be scrappy. I got a lot of great advice from you gals on Instagram, so I’m hoping to put a post together on just wedding rentals soon! More to come! xo

Big thank you to Zola for sponsoring this post!

The post Our Zola Save The Date Card Design appeared first on Katie's Bliss.