Things to consider..

There are so many things that a bride must consider in the planning of her wedding, it is easy to get "lost!" Throughout the planning process I made list after list to keep me on task.  I made my daily list, weekly list and overall list.  My overall list was the general wedding check list.  It covered the major topics of DJ, Venue/Reception site, ceremony site, photographer, dress, bridesmaid dresses etc.  My list looked a lot like the one that came in my wedding planner binder (courtesy of my best-friend & Bridesmaid JennC)!

Each week I would sit down with Mike and would make a list of things we had to get done and when they had to get done by!  This was a little more detailed than the overall list.  And on my days dedicated to wedding planning and activities I would make a list of things I wanted to get done that day.  Now, you might be thinking that I had a lot of lists going and that the list making alone might get overwhelming, and I suppose it could have.  But instead, it helped me stay on task. 

I had just about 5 months to the day to plan my wedding once we booked the venue, so we had to stay on task.  Add to this working on my Master's degree, babysitting 3 girls (my adorable flower girls, ages 2, 4, 7), and working part time, I needed my lists so I didn't lose my mind!

So here is my list of things I will try to cover throughout my blog entries:

• Flowers
• Venue
• Dress
• DJ
• Photographer
• Invitations
• Limo
• Wedding Party
• misc.

If you have any other ideas, feel free to leave a comment and I will get to that too!

From a recent bride, for the bride-to-be.

In the weeks following my wedding I got to thinking.  I thought about the things I wish I did or the things that I wish I had even thought about.  So, that is how the idea came about for this blog.

Let's start with the basics.  My name is Meaghan.  I recently married one of the greatest guys ever, Michael, on November 4, 2011. We got engaged on April 8, 2011, after dating for almost seven years, and began to plan a wedding for this year.   I was entering the final semesters of my Master's program, and we had to decide if we wanted to wait over a year for me to complete the program, or get things moving for a wedding to happen by the end of the year.  Since we really didn't want to wait a year, and I didn't want to worry about planning while writing my Seminar/Thesis paper, we thought this would be best.  And I can say now, it most definitely was! (And I still managed to get A's in the 5 classes I completed throughout the wedding process!!)

So back to the idea for this blog.  I had been looking through wedding magazines for years, I mean what girl doesn't dream about her wedding? Especially after dating a guy for over 6 years! Ok, so we had thoughts about our ideal wedding, or at least we thought.  As things started to progress one thing we noticed was that we had fate or something on our side.  What we thought was our "ideal" ended up not being so ideal at all.  And what we looked at next, and honestly should've looked at first, ended up being the BEST decision we ever made!

In the days and weeks after the wedding at times we found ourselves saying, "we should've..." or "I didn't think of that.." While it didn't effect the overall success of our wedding, having done those things would've added to the greatness! Which brings me to why we're here.  The idea of "from the recent bride to the bride to be" came from me thinking of these things and wanting to pass them on to someone who can use the advice before its too late!!

Over the time of the blog, I will share various aspects of my planning, valuable resources and of course the "I didn't think of ..." I hope that at least one person can benefit from this!!

Please feel free to share your stories or resources for others!!

Picture (c) Metroland Photography - Michael Gallitelli 2011