After attending 12+ weddings, and eventually planning our own, we vowed (ha) to make the communication process smoother between the couple and their guests! Now looking for feedback! weddingplanning

Hi /r/weddingplanning!

Because the community of this subreddit was so amazing during our own wedding planning, we're back! And humbly requesting your feedback for a wedding communication platform we’re building - Guestboard.co. We think it will allow guests to be more engaged and informed of details leading up to (and during) the wedding day, AND prevents repeat questions to the engaged couple, saving everyone time and headache!

The problem


Currently, wedding guests get their information from the printed invitation and the wedding website, both of which vary from couple to couple, and generally live under a magnet on the refrigerator. Any information like things to do, hotels to stay at, and who else is going is up to the bride/groom to research and make known to guests. 

I know that during OUR wedding, we thought we had done enough to keep everyone entertained/informed, but there was apparently a lot of uncertainty. We also had lots of circles of friends/family that had no way of interacting/meeting, aside from the few hours at the reception.

Last minute changes or announcements from the bride/groom can be posted on the website, but there's no way to confirm everyone has seen it.

And as a guest, if you’re lucky enough to be in the wedding party, planning for events like bachelorette/bachelor parties, showers, etc. all take place in a mash of chain emails and texts threads. 



Our solution


Guestboard’s mission is to take the guesswork out of being a guest. It’s a centralized platform that addresses all of these pain points - a group message board for guests to interact, hidden channels for bridesmaids & groomsmen to plan/chat, and a clear itinerary thats editable on the fly. And if you are often a guest, all of the weddings you’re a part of are easily accessible within the dashboard.



We’re excited to be moving into development soon, but we’d love to hear any feedback from this amazing community, since weddings are fresh on your minds! :) 





Would you use this? What do you love? What do you hate? Thank you all, and happy halloween! :)

Screenshot 1 - schedule view | Screenshot 2 - message board

Submitted October 31, 2017 at 11:52PM by guestboard http://ift.tt/2iNtmVl weddingplanning

Bride is mad I left the reception weddingplanning

I was a bridesmaid in my sister in law's wedding and she and her family are saying I ruined her wedding by putting her in a bad mood. The wedding was a 2 hour drive so I had to stay in a hotel. I made arrangements several months ago with my neighbors to watch my dogs for the wedding. They had to cancel at the last minute because a family member passed away. We couldn’t find another sitter with availability on such short notice so I switched to a pet friendly hotel. I had to drop something off at the bride’s house and she saw the dogs in my car and got mad that I brought them.

I had to leave at around 8 at her reception to go back to the hotel to take my medication (it needs to be refrigerated). Since I was already going back to the hotel, I took my dogs out so a family member wouldn’t have to leave the reception. I waited until the first dance, cake cutting, and all that was done before leaving. When I left, people were dancing and nothing else was going on. When I got back, her dad grabbed my arm and yelled at me for leaving to take the dogs out. He said I missed the bouquet toss and garter and how could I do this to her. I told him I had to take my medicine and he didn't care. I asked my mom and she said the bride had the DJ call my name out because she couldn’t find me for the bouquet toss and looked visibly angry when a bridesmaid ran up to tell her I left. She ignored me for the rest of the evening. I asked my brother if he was mad and he said no he didn’t care. It’s not like I left early and didn’t come back… I stayed until the very end because I was asked to take people back to the hotel that were drinking. I was gone for 30 minutes because the drive to the hotel and I did call the reception hall asking if I could put the medication in a refrigerator there early in the day and they said no.

The bride and her family are very angry with me and I feel bad for my brother for having to deal with her attitude at the wedding because of it. Family members took the dogs out before the ceremony and in between the ceremony and reception so I didn’t miss anything related to the ceremony or pictures. I asked my brother at the reception if he was mad and he said no he didn’t care. Was I in the wrong here?

Submitted September 25, 2017 at 02:05AM by kittenforever78 http://ift.tt/2xyAkTc weddingplanning

Destination Wedding without all-inclusive resort...advice please! weddingplanning

So I've posted here a handful of times about my destination wedding on a small island, there's no all-inclusive resort, and there will be about 25 guests coming for 3-4 days. I need some advice about the logistics of the whole trip, not just the wedding part of it.

We have a hotel that all guests will be staying in, and there are a dozen-ish dining options between restaurants and food trucks.

-Rehearsal dinner: should all guests be invited? My FH wants to have a smaller, fancier dinner for family, which will be about 1/2 of the guests. I'm not sure about this approach...we asked our friends to shell out $$$ to come spend time with us too, and I want to hang out with everyone!! Is it rude to ask 1/2 of our guests to be on their own for dinner? I've only been to a few wedding and the rehearsal dinner is always open to the out of town guests...we are going to host a Welcome Dinner for everyone on the first night, rehearsal dinner will be on second night, wedding is the third night. Rounding out the story for the rehearsal dinner night, there is a restaurant right next to the hotel with good food and drinks that we would recommend to our not-rehearsal-dinner guests, if we went that route.

I don't know. I feel weird asking literally 1/2 of our guests to go hang out without me and FH!!! Am I justified in that!? Realistically, the rehearsal dinner wouldn't be an all night long thing, so we would be able to join back up as a main group after? That just feels weird.

-Would you expect that a majority of the food costs are covered by the couple? I.e. should the refrigerators in the communal kitchens in the hotel (of which we have 10 of the 11 available rooms) be stocked to make breakfast and lunch?

-We are going to cover alcohol for the whole trip. How the hell do I estimate how much to get??? 25 guests for 3 days and 15 guests for another day....

I just had my first wedding freak out yesterday, so I know this is a ramble/rant-y post. Your advice will help calm me down!!! Not to mention both Hurricane Irma and Maria passed/are passing within 15-30 miles of the island....this is turning into a major stress fest fast.

Send help.

Submitted September 19, 2017 at 11:03PM by sassyclimbergirl http://ift.tt/2xOdjgi weddingplanning

[vent] feeling pretty sad/violated and i just need to get this off my chest weddingplanning

My FH and I have been staying with his parents while we save for our wedding and I finish my last year of undergrad. I work as a server at a microbrewery and FH works full time. We've both been dumping cash into a jar in our bedroom until we had time to go to the bank to open a joint savings account. Our schedules conflict pretty often so we hadn't had a chance in a couple of weeks and had saved about $1500. Foolish to keep that much cash around, I know, but as they say - hindsight is 20/20. FH's stepdad's (let's call him SD) daughter (M) is a known addict and a notorious thief. M has even been as brazen to go shopping for groceries in our refrigerator directly in front of us (until I called her out) and to steal clothes from myself and my FSIL and show up to events wearing said clothes.

SD loves M because she is his only daughter and tries to see the best in her despite past offenses going as far as "lending" her thousands of dollars over the past year alone as well as hiring lawyers to represent her after she was caught shoplifting from several local drugstores. The rest of us think that he's pretty ignorant to not see her for what she is but I can understand why he loves her anyways. So when she called last week needing parts for the car he bought for her, he gladly obliged.

Last week, SD told us that M would be coming by on Sunday to have her car worked on. On Saturday everybody was out of the house at their jobs or other weekend responsibilities and M asked if she could come to pick up her parts. SD responded that nobody was home but that he'd leave the door open so she could drop in for them. The next day, he casually mentioned that M had come by yesterday instead and FMIL went wide eyed and told us to check our savings jar.

My poor FH ran up to look and when he came back down, he was pale. He said that there was only $500 in there and neither of us had touched it. We chalked it up to being misplaced or miscalculated as we weren't really keeping detailed logs on what we threw in. Last night, I was chatting with FMIL when she got a call from her CC company informing her of suspicious activity. She checked her wallet and found that several of her credit cards had been stolen as well and attempted to charge for $150 transactions at several stores. She's threatening to press charges against M but likely won't follow through out of respect for SD.

We know now that there's no doubt that M dipped her grubby fingers into our wedding savings and I'm so crushed. It's our fault for leaving so much lying around but the doors are generally locked and my in laws are trustworthy. We'll definitely be sure to open a savings account, but let this story serve as a warning to anyone else in a similar situation. If you've made it this far, thanks for listening <3

TL;DR: My FFIL's daughter stole a large chunk of our wedding savings and there's nothing we can do.

Submitted July 18, 2017 at 08:57PM by slothiesz http://ift.tt/2uyZC2y weddingplanning

Any beer people here? weddingplanning

We're trying to do all NC craft beers for the wedding, and I'm trying to figure out how far ahead we can buy the beer (we have plenty of refrigerator space), but I'm not finding consistent results via google.

For reference, the beers would be a milk stout, strawberry cream ale, and a coffee stout, maybe also an IPA. (This is a brunch wedding).

The reason I'm not just buying them within three months of bottling range to be on the safe side is because a couple of these are seasonal, and it would just be a lot easier if I could buy them in the winter and spring and just store them.

So, beer folks, help me out? Can I just buy them six to nine months ahead?

Submitted July 17, 2017 at 08:47PM by spokeshaves http://ift.tt/2vuBFGW weddingplanning

Help with std ideas! weddingplanning

So, I have the basics of what I want, but I can't imagine how to format it. My idea is to do business card sized stds that have a little wooden stick and backed with a magnet sheet. They will look like little protest signs on people's refrigerators. (Back story is fh and I were protesters during occupy in our town when we first started dating and the park where we lived for a couple of months during demonstrations has been revamped and we're getting married there! -full circle, yall) I'm just not sure how to do the text to look like a protest sign without it looking like a 4th grader made it lol please throw ideas at me! <3

Edit: Idea example http://ift.tt/2rwf0MV

Submitted June 16, 2017 at 04:49AM by manny_bee http://ift.tt/2sgkDvG weddingplanning

prosecco problems weddingplanning

Does anyone know anything about storing prosecco/champagne? I managed to get 5 magnums of Lamarca prosecco for $17/bottle through a connection with a connection. Planning to use them for the bridal shower/bachelorette party coming up in March.

But now I have 5 magnums of champagne that I need to store. Google is not helpful at all - one article says store them horizontally, the next says to store them vertically. Ditto for chilled vs unchilled. My primary issue is that I don't have a big enough refrigerator, or a basement for that matter.

Adding to my anxiety is the fact that these were so cheap in part because Lamarca has discontinued bottling the 1.5L size, so these were the last five in the inventory. How can I tell if it's corked? If it doesn't stay chilled will I be the reason it goes bad? The glue on the dcog tag has lost it's stickiness - does that mean they've been stored incorrectly and I've just spent $85 on garbage? (The foil over the cap is completely intact on all the bottles, if that's helpful. They're a little dusty so I'm assuming they were stored upright but they were boxed up for me when I got them so I can't tell if they were stored in a cooler or not. There's no date that I can find and I have yet to try running the serial number printed on the dcog tag)

edit: I realize this is only tangentially-related to wedding planning, but this is really the only subreddit I frequent. Maybe I'll serve as a good lesson for those of you sourcing your own alcohol for your wedding events!

Submitted February 18, 2017 at 01:21AM by 52717 http://ift.tt/2l2KFR9 weddingplanning

Can you ladies give me some opinions on a garden venue I found today? weddingplanning

I stumbled upon an adorable garden venue about 30 minutes from my home. It can hold both ceremonies and reception and I was wondering if any of you lovely ladies could give me an opinion on it, thank you! http://ift.tt/2hPB6U8

For anyone who does not want to click the link:

Garden Wedding and Reception - Up to 70 guests.

Sunday thru Friday: $3500

Saturday: $4000

Additional guests: $35 per person, up to 100 maximum.

Length of your event - 5 hours.

Garden will be open and available 3 hours prior to event (8 hours total)

Includes use of:

Garden, Bridal Cottage, Grooms Room, and Courtyard Seating.

Amenities:

available for party or reception use, at no additional charge.

• 100 black folding chairs.

• 16 - 44" round black wrought iron tables w/chairs.

• 4 - 48" round black wrought iron tables w/fans and chairs.

• 7 - 36" black wrought iron bistro tables with bistro chairs.

• 1 - 20' banquet table for food

• 1 - 6' table for drinks.

• 1 - 6' table for gifts with waterfall.

• 1 - 6' table for cake with trellis.

• 25 black lanterns for centerpieces.

• 2 large coolers on stands.

• Drink dispensers.

• Kitchen area with refrigerator and sink.

• Guest book podium.

• PA System, Cordless Microphone, and IPod or MP3 connection.

• Existing floral decorations in the garden may be used and/or augmented.

*note: table cloths are not included with any table.

So basically all we would need to potentially need purchase would be the food, attire, alcohol, photographer, and DJ right? Am I missing anything? What do you ladies think about the venue? Our GL is right at 69 people total. We're trying to have a simple wedding with a cute boho theme. We don't want a DJ, but everyone says we need one -_-

EDIT: Here is a blog post with more photos, LOOK AT THAT FLOATING PLATFORM OMG. http://ift.tt/2iAPj5Y

Submitted January 04, 2017 at 02:07AM by c0smicturtle http://ift.tt/2hPtDUK weddingplanning

My wife and I were married in a hotel's presidential suite and I highly recommend it! weddingplanning

If you have less than fifty in your wedding party, and you want a memorable experience on a budget, consider what we did.... We had our wedding, reception and first two nights of our honeymoon in the presidential suite at a local resort in Phoenix (where my wife lived at the time). The entire hotel bill when we checked out was right at $2,600. Here's how we did it....

We were inspired by a ten year wedding anniversary party we had attended in an elaborate presidential suite in Texas shortly before we were engaged. The couple who hosted the Friday night party had booked the suite off-season at a reduced rate for the entire weekend, hosted the event for about thirty people, and then had stayed as a couple in the suite until Sunday afternoon. As it was off-season, they got an incredible discount on the suite. It was a fabulous event, and we made a mental note that we'd love to do likewise someday. After our engagement, the idea immediately came to the forefront and we decided to use the concept for our wedding.

As my fiance lived in Phoenix, we decided to get married there. We knew we were going to have a small wedding, with about forty invitees. I was still living in Texas, so she set about with her mother, calling the concierge desks at all the major hotels and resorts in Phoenix, driving around on weekends and available weeknights checking them out for possible venue sites.

Her and her mother had a blast visiting probably a dozen hotel sites, touring the top suites in the area. They saw places where former presidents, celebrities and rock stars had stayed, hearing stories about famous visits in the various rooms. The staff always treated her like a wealthy client with VIP treatment during the short visits as they were showing off their best for her. Note - she didn't get heavily involved with the hotel's on-site planning staff. Instead she basically just worked with the front desk and the concierge when she could, as we knew the planning staff would want to go deeper, showing her ballrooms and catering options for a normal wedding scenario. We didn't want that. We just wanted the presidential suite space.

What she was looking for: 1) a suite big enough to host a party for 50, with a kitchen area to hold and serve food from. 2) a high ceiling that would lend a non-hotel room feel to the space, as opposed to a normal low ceiling that usually comes with any hotel space, even suites. 3) an exterior courtyard where the actual wedding could occur, with seating space for all the guests and 4) a master bedroom area that was tastefully off the main area of the suite, so that there would be no embarrassment/uncomfortable feeling from the guests about the wedding night.

She found everything at the Doubletree resort in Paradise Valley, Arizona and on top of everything,v the suite had a private pool, hot tub and sauna! Here's the link to the room... it's the middle suite on that page.

We checked in on Saturday around noon. We spent the early afternoon setting up, bringing in finger food,v stocking the refrigerator, getting all the chairs set up, flowers, decorations. The site had a door to an adjacent regular hotel room next door, and we booked that room as well, turning it into a bride's prep area and make-up/hair prep area for my fiance and her maids of honor.

Guests arrived around six, jaws dropping by the suite with its own private pool (it also had a pool table/billiard room). Most of the guests had never been in such a nice hotel suite. We partied and enjoyed the suite as a group for a couple hours, and then we were married on the patio at sunset. After, the entire set of guests walked to the hotel's main restaurant, where we had a dinner and cake cutting. The guests then left the event from the restaurant, and we returned to the suite for our wedding night. We had the hotel housekeeping staff clean the suite and put away the wedding decorations and finger food while we were at the restaurant. We stayed there our wedding night, plus one additional night, checking out and leaving for a traditional honeymoon on the third day.

At peak season, the room went for approximately $1,200 a night. As we were married in the summer, Phoenix's low season, we got it right at half price, $600 a night. The dinner was another $1,000 and we had various other hotel bills of $400 (room service and the like). $2,600 total for an amazing wedding venue, reception, dinner, and two night honeymoon. Everyone RAVED about the event for its uniqueness and elegance. Further, the hotel treated us like royalty the entire time, as we were in their top suite.

Consider this option if you have a small wedding party and want a top experience on a budget. PM me out ask me further questions here. Thanks and good luck!

Submitted January 03, 2017 at 02:00AM by CeilingUnlimited http://ift.tt/2hLcrjb weddingplanning

CC on the STD's I just created on Vistaprint! weddingplanning

Okay so, Vistaprint is having a huge sale at the moment--50% off. YES. WOW. HOW CAN I NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE? Sale ends on Sunday (boo) so I've been getting very irritated and picky about the save the dates. Going back and fourth from layouts to designs that I liked but never really loved. I originally didn't want to put a picture of us on the STD's because I didn't want it to look cheesy on people's refrigerators (the STD's are magnetic). It was hard to find one that I loved but I think I finally found what I was looking for. So please, before I send the order in, give me any feedback on maybe something that needs to be fixed and adjusted. Don't be shy! HERE IT IS A PREVIEW

NOTE: On the STD I temporarily changed our names for privacy reasons of course. So don't worry. I won't send Bridezilla out. heh.

Submitted October 26, 2016 at 04:37AM by ms-whatever http://ift.tt/2ePWCVn weddingplanning

Guest Perspective Post (Long, Sorry!) weddingplanning

I went to a wedding this weekend and thought I'd share some things that worked, and some that didn't. Disclaimer: Obviously, this is just my opinion. I had a great time at this wedding, but we all know brides-to-be are the ones who notice all of the details. Hopefully someone finds this helpful! :-)

Ceremony

• Programs are not a necessity, but they're helpful. The couple had a simple 1-page program that matched their invitations. It was great to follow along with the ceremony. It was especially helpful because their officiant didn't "announce" the kiss. I had my camera on them because I was expecting it right after the blessing, but he must have said it too quietly or not at all because they were just suddenly kissing. I managed to catch it because I knew it was coming!

• Make sure your ceremony musician(s) fade out each song as the processional ends. The couple had separate songs for the family, wedding party, and bride processionals, and each time, the musician played the entire song while everyone awkwardly waited for it to end.

• Communicate the exit strategy. Everyone waited in front of the church for the couple, who just sort of walked out and took photos alone. Have ushers let people know there is no reason for them to stay, so they can head to the reception if you only plan to take photos.

• Temperature is important. The church was so hot with no air conditioning. My 87 year old grandfather was very uncomfortable, as were many of the other guests. We were all impatient for the ceremony to end just to get some fresh air. Make sure the thermostat is set to a comfortable temperature if you want people to fully enjoy your ceremony.

• It's possible to have a quick church ceremony. The priest did all of the readings back-to-back. I only missed the personal touch of individual readers a bit, but it was worth it to keep the whole ceremony (Christian) to a half hour (especially in the hot church)!

Reception

• Nonfloral centerpieces can awesome. The bride and groom are huge movie buffs so they had photos of a scene from their favorite movie in a frame facing one side of the table, and a framed photo of them recreating that scene on the other side, with movie film wrapped throughout. They were adorable. It made everyone want to walk around to see all of them (though we couldn't because it was too crowded).

• Ability to comfortably accommodate your guests should be top priority in the venue decision. The venue had an awesome shabby chic vibe with exposed brick in a town center, but that was all we liked about the venue. Ask to see a room laid out for the number of guests you have. The room was supposed to hold 200, but the couple's guest list of ~180 was actually far too many for the room. Our tables were squished (3 people had to get up for me to get out of my chair because I couldn't even back up my chair without immediately hitting the back of someone else's chair). The air conditioning was not enough to cool the room, especially with all of those people, so everyone was sweating. TMI, I've never smelled so much BO, and I'm pretty sure people were wearing deodorant. It was THAT hot in there. The dance floor was way too small, and the crowd was a dancing crowd. The table behind us stood up on their chairs and danced on them because there was nowhere else to go. The tables were over-packed. Our table had 13 people and our chairs couldn't even push in all the way when people weren't sitting in them; they touched edge to edge. The room layout was also terrible for keeping traffic moving. It was an L shape with all of the tables and dance floor crammed into the top half of the L, with the two bars, a photobooth, a popcorn bar, etc. at the bottom. The bars always had huge lines that ran into each other because they were practically on top of one another. Some people never saw the photobooth or popcorn bar because they couldn't leave their chairs, get past the dance floor, or wade through the bar lines to see them. It was especially a nightmare for the guests who are less mobile like our elderly relatives and the two aunts who have arthritis and walk with canes.

• Photobooths are always a hit. The couple had the type where you stand against a backdrop instead of the actual booth, and it was a blast posing with all of the fun props. They gave out magnet holders for people to put their photos in, but they didn't get much use. The thought was cute, but so many people have stainless steel refrigerators with very little magnetic surface that this is a good place to save money.

• Mark your cardbox or put some cards in to start it off. The couple had a cute shoebox-like box that said "popcorn" to go with their theme. It was adorable, but we didn't know what it was until we asked the couple if they had a card box.

• An upbeat parent dance song can be very cute. The groom was worried his mom would cry so he instead picked a fun song to which they did a funky little dance. It fit their personalities very well.

• If you're having a sit down dinner, make sure there's enough wait staff. We could have gone through a buffet line twice by the time the whole room had their entrees. The first few tables were done 20+ minutes before the last few tables had their entrees, and there were only 17 tables. Our water pitchers were never refilled. Make sure there's enough staff to take care of the tables you have.

• Let guests know if you close the bar during dinner. It would have saved them the trouble of turning away people for an hour, who were just so excited to see the line finally went down (or so they thought).

Other

• Bustier girls can't go wrong with straps or a little double sided tape to keep things secure. The bride had a full exposure incident on the dance floor during a special event that is probably going to need to be cut out of the video.
  

Submitted September 26, 2016 at 10:22PM by WaitForIttttt http://ift.tt/2d47fnj weddingplanning

The caterer is making us rent the oven? weddingplanning

Hello Everyone,

I'm just trying to figure out if this is common...

Our wedding is set for September 4th. We booked our caterer / rental company months ago. However, last week we received and updated invoice from the rental company. The caterer had been in touch with them...

They added a "Holding Cabinet" (a kind of refrigerator) and a convection oven.

These rentals added up to $500.

This amount was not included on the catering quote.

I assumed what we were paying for the catering also included COOKING and HEATING the food.

Or am I crazy?

Thanks, all.

Submitted August 09, 2016 at 12:28AM by leonides02 http://ift.tt/2aV3akP weddingplanning

Help: How many paid assistants for 90 guests? weddingplanning

Hi everyone!

I'm a little unsure about the number of paid assistants you need for a wedding. We will have a DIY semi-cold buffet made by our closest friends and family and a "bar"-place where you go to pick up your drinks yourself. Our plan is to have two paid assistants over the course of 12 hours.

One will be sitting in front of the refrigerator trailer and giving out drinks to the guests. The majority of the drinks will be in bottles (including beer) The other one will be busy with food related stuff over the course of the day. Preparing buffet table, collecting dirty dishes, converting buffet table for cake and cookies, collecting empty bottles and keep things clean generally.

(The tables for the guests will be in the courtyard of the venue and the buffet on the inside of a near located coach house. The "bar" will be a refridgerator trailer with a table in front of it, also in the courtyard.)

Any advice or experiance reports are highly appreciated.

Submitted June 17, 2016 at 06:59AM by Pit-Spawn http://ift.tt/1UZ3I5S weddingplanning

Could I get some feedback on my somewhat weird save the dates? weddingplanning

Hi everyone,

So my mom wanted a traditional save the data (a la Vistaprint) and I wanted something a little more unique (anime fiance and I!) so I tried to bridge that divide by making one side her way and the other my way so that people can decide which side to put up on their refrigerators or whatever.

Is it too weird having the two together though?

http://ift.tt/1U1Tplc

Submitted February 15, 2016 at 04:54AM by leilalikk http://ift.tt/1PLuhKr weddingplanning

Venue fell through with two months to go! weddingplanning

This was our plan: we were going to have an intimate, immediate family only ceremony at an Air BnB in Las Vegas. We were then going to have a recption for our extended close friends and family at a restaurant for dinner. Its weird and unorthodox, but we were happy with it and so excited.

Over the new year holiday, I decided to clarify some things with the owner of the air bnb. Turns out that even though we paid extra in order to host our ceremony (in addition to staying for a week) at this house, the owners would 1. Be present for the entire party. 2. Would not allow us to put up any decorations. 3. Not allow us to keep food in the refrigerator.

I felt that I was very up front with what my plan was for the "party" that I paid to host. I feel a bit stupid as well as more than a bit let down that these stipulations never came up in my previous questioning.

We are very confident that we can put soomething even better together in the time left until our wedding. However, the owners of the air bnb have a "strict" cancellation policy that may only allow us to get a 50% refund. At $350 it is not the end od the world. More that I dont want to waste money on a place im not using. We have considered just keeping our reservation and staying during our trip. But we have a feind who works at a local resort that has offered a suite to us for our stay.

I really just need to vent, and you folks are always so sweet on here. So thank you for reading my little sob story. Similar experiences, kind words, and advice are welcome.

Submitted January 02, 2016 at 09:55PM by burntryce http://ift.tt/1kApCkZ weddingplanning

Tips for keeping your bouquet fresh? weddingplanning

Hi all,

What is the best way to keep a bouquet fresh for two days? I have to pick up my bouquet a little early (a day and a half before the ceremony), and I was hoping that there's a way to make it last. I could theoretically get it one day early instead of a day and a half, but it wouldn't be ideal for the pre-wedding schedule.

Should I keep it in the refrigerator in water? Or should I keep it at room temperature? Should I keep the flowers themselves covered with plastic so they don't dry out?

How long have you guys kept your bouquets looking fresh?

Any tips would be appreciated!

Submitted September 30, 2015 at 09:10PM by solinaceae http://ift.tt/1QL7rUm weddingplanning

Should I leave a bad review? weddingplanning

I'm getting married in September 2016, so I'm assembling vendors.

The majority of them, in my opinion, have been pretty unprofessional. Most of the problem is that they don't seem to answer emails...like...at all...but there have been other issues. I hate to leave bad reviews, especially when I never got to experience how they would behave on my wedding day, but as a bride who does a fair amount of research with online reviews in my careful search, I would've liked a heads-up about these vendors who I feel have wasted more time than the vendors who simply don't reply:

1. A photographer whom I emailed back and forth with 3 or 4 times. Very responsive, but annoyingly didn't seem to want to ballpark his prices. He did say his packages start at $2,500, but this was after asking in his website contact form how much we are looking to spend (I was slightly miffed by that, but got over it). The serious issue with him was that we scheduled an appointment to discuss pricing, and it required that I leave work two hours early to travel 45 minutes to his offices. When we arrived (15 minutes early), he wasn't home. I called him, and he quickly returned my call to tell me that his refrigerator had gone out over the weekend, and getting a new one was taking longer than he thought, but that he would be home within half an hour. My fiance said no way are we waiting. Photographer sent several apologetic emails, although they were a little guilt-trippy for my taste ("I regret being 15 minutes late, as my food was falling out of my fridge. Please let me make this up to you.") I feel particularly bad leaving a negative review, as he doesn't have many and a 2-star review would kill his ratings. Also, photographers being self-employed and all...its going to hurt them more than your average review for a David's Bridal dress. Should I leave one anyway?

2. A caterer we wanted to speak with very kindly offered to meet us at our venue-probably an hour drive for her. Bonus points for her! I again have to take off early from work, but that isn't a humongous issue for me if I don't do it too often. She spends an hour with us, and we go over a ton of ideas. She says she'll get a quote together. One week later she sends me an email to update me that she doesn't have a quote yet, but will get it to me by the end of the week. Cool beans. The weeks ends, no quote. So two weeks after our initial meeting, I email her to make sure she hadn't sent it to the wrong address. She apologizes and says she will have it to me by week's end "I promise". That week ends with no contact as well, but the following week (3 weeks after the meeting) she sends me a quote. A lot of the ideas we discussed are not there, making me think its been so long that she forgot what we talked about. She apologizes for being late, and says she had 'an accident' at a wedding over the weekend, which made her unable to get the quote to me. By now I've decided not to use her anyway, so I don't point out that she had 'promised' us the quote before the weekend anyway.

So, Weddit, do either of these vendors deserve a bad review, or am I unnecessarily hurting someone's livelihood over non-important details?

Submitted July 13, 2015 at 01:24AM by shuhray http://ift.tt/1URFf6a weddingplanning

Combo invitations/STDs- does this make any sense? weddingplanning

FW and I are kicking around invitation/save the date ideas today, since my sister agreed to design them for us but wants to do it this month because she's got some staycation time (she's a very busy tattoo artist and doesn't have a lot of spare time to draw stuff that's not work-related, so we need to pounce on her spare time while we can).

So, I always think of STDs as being a little thing you send out many months in advance, and then you send out a more detailed invitation closer to the date. FW brought up that really the only thing she ever uses STDs for is as a quick reminder on her refrigerator about when a wedding is.

So she has the idea that we send a formal invitation with all the details along with a little business card-sized refrigerator magnet that just has the date of the wedding (and maybe the website). That way it's not so much a real save the date as just a little helpful reminder tool, plus cute decoration (my sister's artwork is amazing, so I bet some people will really enjoy a pretty and colorful magnet keepsake). We'd send both those things out together maybe 6 months in advance. Of course we'd tell people who would be coming from far out of town the date well before that (through email or phone).

This idea is really only saving us money on postage, but that's not exactly trivial. I feel like I've been getting invites to a lot of weddings lately that don't do separate STDs. Personally, I think that's totally fine, but I like that we'd also be providing cute little reminder magnets.

What do you think about this idea? Does it sound reasonable? Are there things I'm not considering?

Also, I'd love to hear opinions/experiences with doing online-only RSVPs. We were thinking of doing that, but maybe sending some paper RSVP cards out with invitations for our older and less internet-savvy guests (of which there really aren't many).

TL;DR Send out only 1 set of invitations which would include a formal invitation with details plus a small STD-like refrigerator magnet that just serves as a visual reminder. Ok idea?

Thanks!

Submitted July 02, 2015 at 11:13PM by marmosetohmarmoset http://ift.tt/1KwNrUr weddingplanning

Brazil's wedding traditions weddingplanning

So, on the German wedding post some people requested a few others like that and I can talk about Brazilian traditions, since they are very different than US. Wall of text warning!!! I'll try to keep everything neat. Also, sorry if anything I've said offends anyone, not my intention.

I'm going to divide the topic in traditions and wedding planning stuff.

Wedding planning stuff:

• 
  

  Weddings here are a big industry, much like everywhere else, and very expensive. However, most brides do not DIY a lot of stuff. It's just not part of the culture, specially because we usually don't have a lot of things like signs, and table numbers. This is changing however, with the influence of Pinterest and a few other websites, more and more brides and doing some stuff by themselves, but never something as big as flowers for example.

  
  


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  The only paper goods we have here are the invitations, without rsvp cards or inner envelops, the menu for the reception and maybe something with the hashtag for the wedding, which is a very recent thing also.

  
  


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  Wedding dresses are almost always rented here. Very few brides buy their dresses. All the bridal stores here rent the dresses, and that can be a first time rent (more expensive), second time and so one, being that as far from the first time rent the dress is, the cheaper it will be. Usually first time renters have the dress made specially for them and after the wedding, the store can rent it. Even so, wedding dresses rents are super expensive here! Many brides that have the means would go to the US to buy one rather than rent one here because depending on what type of dress they want, it could be cheaper. I say would and could because this is not the case anymore with the dollar being 3,50 reais these days.

  
  


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  Churches does not have legal power to declare you married. You have to go to a Cartório (it's not like a courthouse per se, they are privately owned and have legal powers ensured by the government) to get legally married or call a Justice of Peace to your ceremony. Many couples that want to get married in a church do this a few days before the wedding day, say if your wedding is on saturday, they would go to the Cartório on thursday. This requires two witnesses to sign the marriage certificate, usually a couple that are padrinhos.

  
  


• 
  

  We have the "day of the bride" and "day of the groom" here. They are packages that beauty salons and barbers put together so the bride and groom and their madrinhas e padrinhos (will talk more about that later) go spend the whole day at the salon, usually in special suites getting ready. For brides is special because these places usually have hot tubs and massages. Grooms can play video games with their friends and drink beers, while getting shaved professionally. It's not required for the couple to do it, but most do some kind of form of this.

  
  


• 
  

  Coordinators are pretty mush always used. They have levels of service, but at least a day of coordinator is used. They are the ones who handle rsvp. Usually the way we rsvp here is on a form on the coordinators site or by calling the coordinator. They can also track down the non-responders by calling them and asking if they are coming to wedding.

  
  

Wedding traditions:

• 
  

  Madrinhas and Padrinhos: They are the equivalent of the wedding party but with very different duties. Usually the couple get from 4 to 7 couples on each side (7 being a huge amount of people, since it's doubled) to stand with them in the ceremony. These are the most well dresses guests and it's an honor to be a madrinha or a padrinho. They don't have any duties to the party. They don't help with anything, unless the couple asks for something specific, but it's not done very often. What they can help with is to stop a crisis to get to the bride and groom, but that's why we have coordinators. Padrinhos and Madrinhas usually give big ticket items as gifts, such as washing machines, stoves, even refrigerators. Also, they become something like endorsers of the marriage.

  
  


• 
  

  Here you do not mail your invitations! It's a big faux paux to mail your invitation to someone and the person can be very offended! The only way that is okay for an invitation to be mailed is if the guest lives very far away from the bride and groom and they have already talked to him/her on the phone inviting them and letting them know the invitation will be mailed. You have to visit each guest to hand them their invitation. This can also be done by parents and sometimes grandparents, depending on the guest, and the invitations for a whole family can be left with a grandparent of that family to hand out for the sons and daughters, but again, never mailed.

  
  


• 
  

  no garter toss, but we do have the bouquet toss. Since most bouquets these days are a fortune, the florists send a smaller and cheaper version of it to be tossed.

  
  


• 
  

  the bar is always open and the fancier weddings have a caipirinha bar besides beer, sodas, water, sometimes wine and sometimes whisky. There is no such thing as a cash bar or ticket bar. The only weddings that are dry are the ones who are from very strict religions and it is kinda odd here, everyone expects to drink at a wedding.

  
  


• 
  

  The aisle order is: groom + mother of the groom, father of the groom + mother of the bride, madrinhas e padrinhos alternating their sides (bride side or groom side), flower girl, bride + father of the bride.

  
  


• 
  

  most people still get married at churches, but more and more couples are doing it outside of church with a justice of peace, or a friend if they went to the Cartório before hand.

  
  


• 
  

  Bem casados are the traditional favor we give out. They are little cakes with doce de leite inside and wrapped in pretty paper and ribbon and delicious! We can't not have them at a wedding. The name means well married.

  
  


• 
  

  during the reception, the couple is expected to go from table to table to say hello and thank everyone for coming.

  
  


• 
  

  We don't do thank you notes afterwards, but the couple usually invites the closer friends and relatives to their new home for a meal and to look at photos and the video.

  
  


• 
  

  there is a newish tradition that is call "gravata do noivo" which means groom's tie. The padrinhos go around with the groom selling pieces of his tie (it can be a random tie, since the real one is usually rented). They make a lot of noise and go to every male guest asking for money in exchange of a piece of tie. And now the madrinhas are doing that the bride as well with her shoe, but without cutting it. I don't like this and probably am not going to have this at my wedding since it's very money grabbing, specially the bride one, since no one expects it. I don't think any female guest brings money to a wedding.

  
  


• 
  

  If there is going to be a lot of dancing the coordinator distributes little toys, like light up necklaces, glow in the dark sticks, feather boas, funny glasses to the guests to play with. Sometimes they even distribute flip flops for the women get off the high heels and dance the night away.

  
  


• 
  

  I've never heard of a first look here.

  
  


• 
  

  We have 3 types of showers here: the "kitchen" shower, where only women are allowed and they gift the bride kitchen stuff. The bar shower, where both the bride and groom are present and mixed guests are allowed and gift them bar stuff, such as glasses and even drinks. The lingerie shower, again, only women and they give the bride lingerie, this usually double as the bacholorette party. In any of them the guests are people who are also invited to the wedding.

  
  


• 
  

  We don't have a big host thing here as people in the US do. Usually no one knows who's the host because it's not something that we really care about here.

  
  

These are all the I could think off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many more that I'm forgetting, so feel free to ask anything!

Submitted March 27, 2015 at 04:38AM by keep_me_separated http://ift.tt/1Nf1pKG weddingplanning

Real vs fake bouquets help! weddingplanning

Hey! I am having a dilemma deciding if I should make real or fake bouquets for my wedding This September!

I have zero experience, If I went with real id be purchasing flowers few months ahead of time just to practice. I am planning on roses. I am worried though where to store my real flowers. I heard beast to place them In a vase in refrigerator or cold place. I'll be staying in a hotel. So very very limited on storing them in cool place if at all. My bridesmaids said they would store each one of their own The fake flowers, just the fact they are not real. I'd love to have my bouquet for rest of my life as a keep sake. I just don't It is worth it.

Any advice, options, comments, or regrets?!

Submitted February 26, 2015 at 08:52PM by applebees1 http://ift.tt/1FxIqGn weddingplanning