Now We're Set

Lately I’ve been wanting to think about the detail elements of the wedding- paper, card boxes, flowers- but I’ve found myself with piles of inspiration and no cohesive theme. Cream, gold, lace, pearls, baby blue, and sapphire blurred together in my head, crippling me from getting started.

Enter Jenny Orsini, wedding planner and owner of Pampered Bride Weddings (and wedding planning superstar to me).

We didn’t have the budget for a full-on wedding planner, but my mom suggested we meet with her for her theme and décor consultation service. It was affordable, and my mom reasoned it was worth it to spend a little and solidify things now, to avoid making pricey mistakes later on. 

And I am SO glad we went. I showed up with a collection of inspiration pictures, and Jenny got my style immediately. She was super nice and came up with many ideas that I loved. She was upfront about money and honest about what would be in our decor/floral budget. She helped me to realize the design elements I really wanted were lace and pearls, and that the baby blue I was trying to make happen was just not going to work. We came up with the look for the tables, flowers, and paper products, which I’ll be posting about as I do them, but here’s a sneak preview for now:

I'm honestly still swooning

We got some good pieces of advice, which were all things I've stupidly never thought of, so I’ll share below:

• Put some effort into the placecard table since it’s the first  thing guests see when they walk in, before the cocktail hour, and before the ceremony.  (Guess who did not once even think about this? Oh hi me).
• Table settings are how you bring your theme to life. I had assumed linens, chargers, etc were out of our budget. She showed us how to make it work, and I am SO much more excited about things now.
• She was able to give honest (if a little scary!) feedback on our vendors, since they were all people she was very familiar with. We may be looking for a new florist now, but we appreciated the nobullshit talk.  
• Bridesmaids: they should never be as elegant as you (that sounds terrible in writing, I'm sorry!), and don't worry if they don't match your room decor exactly. They'll be photographed next to you, not next to your table setting. 

I’m extremely grateful to my mom for the idea to do this. We had a ton of fun planning, and now I feel so much more like I’m back in the swing of things and ready to make things happen.  

Any of you out there using a wedding planner at all?