Inspiration: Floral Centerpieces

For our wedding, my fiance and I have chosen and black and white color scheme with a hint of glitz and glamour via rhinestone details.  I have an idea in mind of what I'd like my centerpieces to look like - I'd love tall black vases filled with white flowers and hardly any greenery (or none at all).  Below are a few photos I've come across that serve as floral centerpiece inspiration for me :)

Photos via Bing Images

Bride to Bride Tip #2: Remember, It's Your Dress

One of the most important aspects of the wedding to any bride is the dress... let's face it ladies, we've been dreaming of our perfect dress since we were little girls!  When going shopping, it's nice to take a select few with you for encouragement... I did and it was very helpful, but the one thing you need to remember is it is your dress - not anyone else's.

For example, when I was dress shopping, I brought my mother, grandmother, and sister with me.  They are all very opinionated which was both helpful and distressing at the same time.  I tried on nearly 15 dresses my first time out and only loved 2... one of which my family members hated - as in hated with a capital H!  I, on the other hand, absolutely loved it!  It was a princess dress with a structured bodice and full skirt with lots of drama!  As soon as I walked out, with a huge smile on my face, all of them - especially my grandmother - had this look on their faces that screamed nope!  So back in I went and tried on a couple more until I found one I loved and they agreed with me :)

The moral of the story is, no matter how opinionated your group is, always remember to select the dress that appeals the most to you.  Your opinion is the most important when it comes to selecting the dress you will wear on your big day (I can't stress you enough)!!

Place Cards... Yes, You Can Skimp Here

Many brides consume themselves with creating the perfect day that they feel there are absolutely no areas they can skimp on (I know several people who are like this!).  Well there are a few areas that I see you can definitely pay a little bit less attention to (and less money!). 

One of those gray areas is placecards.  Yes, I know as brides we want everything to look beautiful and creative, but these little babies mainly end up either on the floor or tossed aside as soon as your guests sit down.  While I've seen so many gorgeous placecard and placecard table ideas, this is the one aspect of my wedding that I will make less of a fuss about.  Our venue happens to give them to couples for free so if your venue does the same thing, take advantage of it!  Your placecards can still be beautiful even if they didn't cost you lots of money.  Maybe there's someone in your family or a friend with fabulous handwriting, or maybe your calligrapher who is doing your invitations can add these in for you... or, gasp, maybe you can print labels from your home computer and attach them to the placecards.  There's so many possibilities here!

Unless your choosing your placecards as part of your favors (ie. framed placecards), I'd definitely skimp a little here... I mean your planning so much already - don't be afraid to let this one slide :)

Bride to Bride Tip #1: The Internet is Your Best Friend!

After some much needed time off, I'm back and prepared to fill this blog up as quickly as possible :)  I've been very busy with my own wedding, my brand new niece, and our new home that life has been a bit of a blur lately, but it's time to get back to business!

First things first... I've decided to add a new feature called "Bride to Bride Tips" which I will post frequently.  These tips will be my personal advice to feature brides to be like myself :)

TIP #1:  Typically when people get engaged, the first thing a future bride will do is go run to the store and stock up on bridal magazines.  While they help with ideas tremendously, don't forget about the trusty computer.  I can't even begin to tell you how helpful the Internet (Google specifically) has been to me!  Whether it's researching the perfect venue, browsing bridal styles, or finding favor ideas, the Internet places everything wedding at your fingertips!

The Bible for Brides!

Ok let me just tell you that I was given this wedding organizer by famed celebrity event planner Mindy Weiss from my aunt for Christmas and it is hands down the best thing EVER! If you want to keep all of your planning neat, organized, and altogether this is THE book for you!

It is filled with tabs for each and every aspect of wedding planning - just to name a few: contacts, budget, wedding dress, photography, florist, venue, seating, invitations... and the list goes on and on!

Another great thing about this book is it's filled with Mindy's tips and you can bring it along to each of your appointments as it can pretty much double as a purse!

It's $99 and worth every single penny! Mine is filling up fast :)

Grab one now here!

Our Venue!!

After what seems like a year of searching, we finally booked our wedding venue in October and set our date for November 10, 2013! I can now officially say that my fiance and I have chosen the stunning Addison Park to both wed and celebrate our special day in! We will be getting married at the venue - they have stunning outdoor grounds and a perfect place inside in case the weather is a let down - and I will be getting ready there as well.

Out of all of the places we looked, this is (shockingly) the most affordable spot. We will be spending $155 per person which includes all taxes, gratuities, and ceremony fees as well as the 5 hour sit down dinner with a premium open bar. Ladies, if your in the NJ area, take a look there! $155 may sound like a lot, but trust me, it's stunning and the majority of places we looked at were $200++!

May I present our beautiful place!


Photos via - www.theaddisonpark.com

All of the Venues We Looked At

When deciding on your wedding venue, lots of information has to be clearly thought over. Does it fit your budget? How many people do you plan on having? What are all of the policies (there's always sooo many)? Will this fit my theme? And the list goes on and on.

Now originally, I had been planning on a beach themed wedding and only looked at venues that were by the water. Luckily, the Jersey shore has some of the most beautiful waterside venues to choose from... but most of them come with extremely high price tags!

There was only one venue (the Addison Park) that I looked at that wasn't near the water and I fell madly in love with it and ultimately that is the one that my fiance and I booked this past October. Below is a list of all of the venues I looked in chronological order and some notes regarding them...
Most people look anywhere from 5-10 sometimes even more places. We fully toured the six gorgeous places above with appointments where we discussed prices, menus, and all of the polices.

1. Avenue - Long Branch: This is actually where we got engaged on Valentine's Day 2010. It sits directly on the beach and has a chic vibe inside. This was the first venue we toured and what I really disliked was that during the summer season, you had to host your wedding upstairs in the nightclub portion of the restaurant and it was only a four hour cocktail affair. This wasn't right for the type of sit down dinner I had in mind.


2. Addison Park - Aberdeen: This spot we popped into on a whim because it's very close to my aunt's home. It's newly renovated and when I walked in my mouth literally dropped wide open! It's stunning inside with a black and white colored motif and lots of elegant sparkle. Ultimately, I personally viewed this venue four times (just goes to show how much I loved it) with four different groups of people. Ultimately, the lovely Addison Park fit our budget and we book it in October!


3. Bonnet Island Estate - Long Beach Island: Talk about breath taking! This is my absolute dream wedding location! It's a beach mansion in lovely LBI and it has it's own ballroom and chapel. You rent the venue at over $20,000 and it's yours for the night - it actually has several rooms inside to sleep your most loved guests. The only downside to this venue is it's extreme cost. Now it a budget was not an option than this would've been the place hands down. But it costs over $20,000 just to rent the spot, then you must use their caterer which rounds out to $120+ per person - this doesn't even include the alcohol which also has to be brought in. So roughly this stunning spot would've cost us over $500 per person!


4. Mallard Island Estate - Long Beach Island: This venue is the sister site to the Bonnet Island Estate. We viewed this place on the same day during the LBI Wedding Weekend and it's beyond beautiful. Like Bonnet, the only downside is the cost... it would be the same, if not a little more, than the sister site.


5. Clarks Landing Yacht Club - Point Pleasant: If we stuck to our beach theme, this was going to be our place. My fiance and I viewed this stunning spot twice... once by alone and once with my family. It's break taking and completely redone. For the money, you get an obscene amount of food and centerpieces included. It's definitely one to view if you plan on having a wedding by the water here in Jersey!


6. Crystal Point Yacht Club - Point Pleasant: This venue was also waterside and it had a hotel nearby which was a nice feature. What I disliked was that it was a bit in need of an upgrade (my parents have friends who married there and it looked the same as it did over 20 years ago) and there could be three weddings going on at once.