Thank You Unabridged Bride!

Just a quick post and shout out to Liza Hippler of Maiden to Married and Marie McKinney-Oates of Nashville Marriage Studio for a great workshop! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them both - and their husbands! - as well as meeting the Nashville brides who attended the workshop.

Three of the four of us blog, so please do check out Miss Cassandra's blog and Miss Krista's blog. They are both awesome gals!

If you are a Nashville area bride and you have not met these lovely ladies or attended an Unabridged Bride workshop, you are really missing out! Visit the Unabridged Bride website to stay abreast of new events. Each session was informative and fun, with local vendors and presenters making every installment interesting.

I definitely took some good information away from this workshop, as well as some great prizes from generous local vendors! Big Spoon and I are really looking forward to using our 12-Point Signworks gift certificate to make our wedding "savvy"!

Planning Tools via the Unabridged Bride Workshop

At last night's Unabridged Bride workshop, I really enjoyed hearing from CJ Dickinson of CJ's Off the Square. She spoke to us about how to build a realistic budget, manage our funds, keep our expectations in check, and work productively with potential vendors. Although we are a bit ahead in the planning process, all of this information was still helpful.

CJ suggested a "weekly wedding meeting" with one's fiancé so that a wedding doesn't take over one's regular day-to-day life. The meeting would consist of a regularly assigned time to talk about any issues, ideas, and especially a budget.

You can't talk about the budget without talking about the guest list, right?

Taking our number into consideration and dividing by our budget, I started thinking about our real "price per guest" and what that means to me. More on that later.

There are a couple of things I wish that I had started in the beginning:

• Set up a separate email account for all bridal related correspondence.
• Set up a separate bank account for the wedding funds.
• Set up a weekly "date" with Big Spoon to talk about the wedding.

Now that I am more informed, I intend to discuss this "weekly meeting" with Big Spoon. I think it's a great idea!

Yay for bridal events!

I'm always happy when Little Spoon gets to go to a bridal event. Tonight, this means I get to watch the opening game of the NFL, and it also means she gets to make new friends in the bridal community. They give her a chance to air her thoughts about all kinds of things and let her have a community with whom to share her bridal glee. I hope she finds new friends in this community and gets to indulge her inspirations!

Okay, So Forget the Break ... This Is Important

I know I said I was "taking a break" ... I know, hardy har har. Yeah right. I've realized that when you are planning a wedding (especially as far in advance as we are), there is no such thing.

Must.Look.At.Wedding.Porn ......

Here's what's new in our world:

• Big Spoon turned 31 yesterday! Happy Birthday, Big Spoon!

• Today marks the 10th month of togetherness for us!

• I'm signed up with the Unabridged Bride workshop in September and I'm so looking forward to it!

• Lastly, I attended the Elegance Bridal gala on Aug. 13 with my dear friend, flower lady and coordinator JT. We had a blast, won some prizes and I found THE DRESS. Yes, at the show!

Now read my next post for why I have been bawling this afternoon over said dress ...

Tonight!

I'm going to the Elegance Bridal Gala as one of Ashley's (of Ashley's Bride Guide) Fab Five VIP guests. Should be a blast!

Engaged Nashville

While browsing a few blogs that have left comments on ours, Big Spoon found a local "bridal" event and insisted that I attend. Sponsored by Ashley's Bride Guide and Nashville Bride Sarah Elizabeth, "Engaged Nashville: A Bride's Night Out" took place at the Aloft Hotel in Franklin this past Thursday night.

I had such a wonderful time meeting so many Nashville brides, sharing ideas, learning new things and talking about our weddings! I met several "blogger brides" and Ms. Ashley herself! The event was catered by Down South Delights (super yummy) and featured other key vendors (Simply Stunning Events, Brocade and Donald Yeager Photography.)

It was a refreshing environment: the hotel was chic, the vendors were informative and I especially enjoyed hearing Jessica from Budget Savvy Bride talk about her wedding and tips.

You can find links to all the lovely Nashville bride bloggers in the right hand column.