Before we get to Lauren’s post, there are a couple of things I wanted to mention from my personal experience of getting married every weekend:  ; )

While we’re on the subject of budgeting for your wedding, another thing that is so important when planning your wedding is this: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO INVITE EVERY ONE YOU HAVE MET TO YOUR WEDDING. This is something I find to be SO SO hard for couples to realize. I understand it can be very difficult to cut the guest list and keep it smaller and only invite people are truly special and important to you. But I speak from experience when I say, too many brides spend their money on food, alcohol, and venue space to accommodate people who don’t matter and quite honestly, they usually don’t even get to speak to the day of the wedding. Inviting less people can save you thousands of dollars which you can spend on other more important things such as flowers, the venue location, and photography. To give you a good example: If you have a wedding of 200 guests and the food and alcohol is priced at $50 a head, you will pay $10,000. If you cut that to 150 guests (which by the way, is in my opinion, the perfect number of guests to not be too little or too many), then you save $2500 right there. $2500!!!!! That’s equivalent to a beautiful wedding dress or having some really stunning flowers at your wedding/reception. Think about how much better you could spend that money just cutting 50 people (or 25 couples).

Another great tip to saving money on your wedding day is to provide a beer and wine bar instead of a full bar. This not only helps your budget but keeps your guests from getting too intoxicated which can sometimes create disastrous moments. (Trust me, I’ve seen them happen.) We all like to party and have a good time, but a wedding should still remain timeless and classy. At the end of the night, when it’s time to get that “grand exit” shot, we’ve noticed a big difference from weddings who have a full bar to the ones who only serve wine and beer. The guests are less likely to cooperate when it comes that time. I have actually personally witnessed drunk guests ruining this incredibly special moment of celebration… putting a damper on the whole night. For example: once the intoxicated best man decided it would be funny to throw the entire bowl of rice at the bride while they were running out. It ended up hitting her head and making her cry. It was extremely tragic and completely ruined the night and my exit shot. You can definitely avoid this nonsense by serving only wine and beer.

Now, I will hand the spotlight over to Lauren. You do not want to miss this!! Her post will give you some really great insight.

If you haven’t read about Lauren’s wedding day, please click here to do so and see the rest of her photos. You can see Lauren and Joe’s wedding on Ruffled Blog here.

If you’re wanting to learn how you can create a beautiful, picture-esque and unique wedding, then scroll down to read all about how Lauren planned her beautiful wedding that not even the horrible weather could ruin. At the very end Lauren breaks down in detail all of the costs of her wedding to help you see exactly what she did. I really hope this post will inspire you and help you to create a day you will cherish forever that is YOUR day.

FROM LAUREN:

I was ecstatic when Courtney asked me to write a guest post for her blog about how I planned my dream wedding on my budget of $20,000. So often, couples spend a fortune and end up with a generic wedding. To this day, I’m honestly shocked at how great the response was to my wedding, because the whole time I was planning I was worried it might not be enjoyed by others because it was so tailored to my fiancé’s and my taste. It just goes to show you that people appreciate the uniqueness of an event, sometimes even more so than something extravagant.

Here are 7 tips from my wedding planning experience, including a breakdown of my budget:

#1 Get organized.

One of the first things I did in the planning process, was try to find a wedding planning book to make sure I wouldn’t forget anything important. Wow was it hard to find a good one. My mom ended up finding Bridal Bargains Wedding Planner which had a lot of helpful stuff.

The second thing I did was go to an office supplies store and buy a 3-ring binder notebook and dividers. This was my preferred method of organization because I could hole-punch blank copy paper for writing notes and sketching ideas and floor plans and also hole-punch things I found online or received from vendors.

I divided my notebook into 7 sections:
1. Apparel
2. Ceremony
3. Reception
4. Photography
5. Invitation suite
6. Flowers
7. Other

#2 Stick to decisions that reflect both you and your fiancé, not your family members or guests.

Planning a wedding is tough. Friends and family are so excited and eager to offer up advice on every last detail and there are tons of resources online offering the dos and donts and forcing industry-driven expectations down your throat. Others’ advice and opinions should be greatly appreciated, don’t get me wrong, but they shouldn’t always be followed. Sometimes their advice doesn’t align with other aspects of your wedding (nobody can see the big picture like you can, even if you’ve told them every detail). Other times their opinions are, well, their opinions, not your and your fiancé’s. Just always stay firm on decisions you know mean a lot to you and your fiancé, and try not to second guess yourself. Revel in your individualism and let what makes you different as a couple craft a memorable, honest celebration.

There were so many times throughout my wedding planning that I would stop and think, is it okay for us to do this? Are guests going to have a terrible time? Like our decision to have local musicians play original music at the reception instead of having a cover band or dj. But I held on tightly to our decision because if anyone knew my fiancé and I, he/she knew we weren’t cover band or dj people. Various people I had worried would have a terrible time told me it was the best wedding they’d ever been to. Our guests really loved being a part of our life for a night. It allowed them to feel closer to us.

Our decision on location for the ceremony and reception determined the number of people we could invite, and was quite controversial. We chose to have a smaller, family-only ceremony at my Great Aunt’s home which was 30 miles away from the reception location. It was a tough decision because I didn’t want anyone to be upset that they were only invited to the reception, but the location meant a lot me and there was no other place I could imagine us being married.

Having the ceremony outside my Great Aunt Lee’s home was so important to me, that I didn’t even want to schedule an in-case-of-rain location. I also didn’t want part of my budget to have to go to a venue that we may not even use. We decided to include an in-case-of-rain card telling guests to just go to the reception if it rained, and we’d just be married inside my Great Aunt’s home in front of whoever showed up. Well, of course with my luck, it poured the day before and day of and we were even under a tornado watch. But I’m kind of glad it rained. the ambiance and intimacy couldn’t have been more perfect. Any other day, rain would have ruined my day, but I made a decision when I made the ceremony plans that I would accept whatever weather came our way.

#3 Get inspired.

Create inspiration boards to keep track of things you like so you can share with your vendors. Showing a vendor a range of things you like will allow them to create something new that you will love. So instead of picking out the exact flowers you want, just find various bouquets you like. A good florist will be able to spot the commonalities and create a unique arrangement that captures the essence of your inspiration perfectly, without copying someone else’s work. I used Adobe InDesign to create my inspiration boards, but there are tons of ways you can create it, you could create a tangible collage and scan it in to print copies for vendors, or you could create a digital pinboard with Pinterest.

SOME OF MY INSPIRATION BOARDS

#4 Make a wish list and prioritize it.

As you gather inspiration, ideas will emerge and your vision will begin to take form. Write everything down. Within each binder section, create a wish lists of specific details and prioritize it in case you can’t afford everything you want.

#5 Get creative.

Playing a hands-on role in the planning of your wedding will allow you to stretch your budget. You can do things like: add time between your ceremony and reception to allow your ceremony arrangements to be reused at your reception, pick a venue that will let you set most everything up the day before the wedding so that you don’t have to hire someone to coordinate setup. Let color do some heavy-lifting by developing a color palette and carrying the swatches with you everywhere to help color-coordinate every detail. And incorporate an idea or material into a few elements of your wedding. Small details can really add BIG impact and repetition can add cohesion to your wedding. Be careful not to go overboard though, you don’t want everything to be too matchy-matchy.

Think of your bridal party attire as part of your overall design. You don’t have to choose a dress from a bridal shop. You don’t even have to put your maids in a dress. Styling your bridal party can really tie them into the look of the event. Color palette and bridal party attire were two of the first things I planned. I am obsessed with gray but was worried it might be too drab with the whole wedding party in neutrals. But as I browsed bridesmaids dresses with my maid of honor (yes I did choose a style from a bridesmaids collection, but that’s because J.CREW has an amazing line that is both affordable and high-quality). Another good thing about buying a bridesmaid dress from J.CREW is that they will send you swatches of the dress material and color so that you can incorporate the exact colors throughout your wedding. The dress I fell in love with for my bridesmaids was a cool gray, called Graphite, but since it was on sale, available sizes were limited. The dress also came in a gorgeous purple called Spiced Wine that had all sizes available so I made a game-time decision that my bridesmaids would wear purple and my maid of honor would wear gray. I thought this was a great compromise to my obsession with gray and worry about being too drab. I told all the girls to wear any style of boot in gray, brown or tan.

When the fabric swatches arrived, I found ink colors in a Pantone swatchbook to match J.CREW’s Graphite and Spiced Wine and rounded my palette out with the addition of mustard. These three colors would be the foundation of the entire wedding. For color to play a big role in your wedding, it’s important to develop a color palette that will give you enough range and to carry the exact colors with you. Just knowing a color name is not enough.

Next, I took the swatches to the fabric store and bought 3 fabrics to have my generous aunt make skinny ties for my groomsmen, best man, groom and dad. I found linen that matched the spiced wine swatch exactly to be used for the groomsmen. I found a mustard fabric for my best man and dad. And I found a beautiful plaid tweed in grayish taupe, brown and mustard for my groom. I said the heck with whether or not the fabric made sense together, linen with tweed? who cares! So, if you’re unfamiliar with tie making, you have to get way more fabric than you need because it has to be cut on the bias. This is great, though, because then you can incorporate the fabric into other parts of your wedding.

Since I wanted our bridal party to be such an integral part of the overall style, I decided we’d give part of their attire as our gift to them for being in our wedding. We gave the ties to the guys and got a cardigan and necklace for each of the girls.

BRIDESMAIDS’ CARDIGANS AND NECKLACES

BRIDESMAIDS

GROOMSMEN

INVITATION SUITE (designed and copywritten by my fiancé and me)

#6 Utilize your friends and family to help bring your vision to life.

No seriously. Delegate tasks to friends and family members. You may think they are just being nice when offering to help (like I did), but they genuinely want to help. They’ll enjoy your wedding even more if they’ve been part of making it happen.

TIE FABRIC REUSED AS BUNTING AT RECEPTION (handmade by my step-mother-in-law-to-be)

TIE FABRIC REUSED FOR CAKE “TOPPER” (handmade by my bridesmaid, Margarita Rivera, and maid of honor, Kelsey Duncan and assembled by me)

RECEPTION WELCOME BOARD (hand lettered by my bridesmaid, Erin Murphy)

WEDDING FAVORS (handmade by my bridesmaid, Delaney Smith)

#7 Determine your budget after you’ve done some research to see what things cost.

It’s hard to come up with a budget if you are doing something for the first time. We first set a budget of $12,000 and quickly realized when we began looking into costs that we needed to raise it to $20,000 to accommodate 100 ceremony guests and 250 reception guests. Generally costs are the same across quality vendors, so shopping around isn’t going to be what saves you money (researching vendors is important to find the good ones, though!). Some vendors’ prices are lower, but there’s a reason for that. You have to get creative with the ways you can save, and don’t skimp on the really important areas. For me, great photography was really important because it captures the memories you’ll cherish for the rest of your life. My dad thought it was crazy to spend 1/4 of the budget towards photography, until he saw the end result (especially knowing how bad the weather was the day of wedding).

HERE IS A BREAKDOWN OF WHERE OUR COSTS WENT:

Bridesmaids’ gifts (cardigans and necklaces) – $1,000
Bridesmaids’ brunch – $500
Groomsmen’s tie fabric $190
Reception food and drinks (we had so much food and wine left, we could have halved the numbers)
Wedding cake $700
Dickey’s Barbecue catering and buffet service $1,400
McAlister’s – cookies/brownies $130
Wine/champagne $1,100
Beer $500
Flowers $0 (gift from my Great Aunt Lee)
Hotel rooms for two nights for bridesmaids, bride’s parents, brothers and grandmother $2,050
Hotel guests’ gift bags $400
Design of wedding paper goods $0 (lucky for us, one of us is a professional Graphic Designer)
Letterpress printing of wedding paper goods $1,500
Screw posts to bind programs $40
Postage $130
Ceremony musicians $600
Reception musicians $0 (our friends were so nice to lend us their talent as our wedding gift)
Photography package $5,000
Reception venue $850
Ceremony rentals: chairs $250 (ended up not being used due to rain)
Reception rentals: chairs, tables, tents $2,400
Reception decor purchased $300
Wedding favors $130
Wedding dress – $0 (I wore my mother’s dress from the 70s)
Wedding dress alterations/cleaning $300
Ceremony accessories (boots, headband) $280
Reception attire (dress, cardigan, necklace) $250
Hair and makeup – $0 (my maid of honor/cousin beautified me!)

No matter the budget, I think these my tips will help any couple achieve their perfect wedding. The thing I hope everyone takes away from this is that it’s not about the amount of money you spend; it’s about celebrating your union and allowing everyone to get to know you better as a couple.

Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions (lauren@everydays-a-soiree.com). Happy wedding planning!

I ABSOLUTELY love being in the wedding industry. LOVE IT. Like, OB-sessed. If I wasn’t a wedding photographer, I’d probably be a wedding planner. I enjoy everything about it. I LOVE my clients to PIECES and adore being able to be a part of these beautiful women and men vowing before God and family that they will love each other forever. It’s a magical moment that I am SO incredibly honored and blessed to get to be a part of. I love love stories and happy endings. Do not get me wrong, it’s a very special industry and you HAVE to love it, and be passionate about it, or it’s not for you. It’s a lot of hard work, but if you love details, multi-tasking, staying on your feet for 8-12 hours straight, being able to turn crazy situations into good ones, the challenge of uncontrollable environments, and spending time with two people on their happiest day of their lives, then maybe it’s the right industry for you.

There has been something that has been bothering me a lot lately. It’s time I finally speak up. What infuriates me to no end is… the lack of client royalty service in the wedding industry. Ya know, customer service… making the client feel like a rockstar.. that sort of thing. I have heard story after story after story after story (you get my point) of different vendors just not CARING enough. And I’m referring to all vendors… venues, florists, bands, hair/makeup artists, wedding planners, etc. It truly boggles my mind. To be completely honest, I cannot wrap my brain around it. If you could picture me scratching my head with a big fat question mark above it, that’s what I feel like. The way I see it is… if you decide you’re going to break into the wedding industry, then you HAVE to make a decision that your clients come first in your business. By no means am I saying that your life should revolve around your clients. Because I don’t believe in that for one minute. But there should be structure, schedules, timelines, etc. Now, let me say this before I continue… I by NO MEANS claim to be perfect. But I assure you that I do my DAMNDEST every single day to make sure my clients are taken care of and I promise you they will all attest to that.

One of the BIGGEST things I have a serious issue with, happens to be one of the simplest things in ANY successful business… returning phone calls and emails in a timely manner. GASP. I am FLABBERGASTED at how many vendors either A. take WAY too long to return a client’s call/email or B. don’t return a client’s call/email at all — WHAT IS THE FLIPPIN’ DEAL!? I understand this can be a very time consuming or tedious thing to do but um hello, if I’m not mistaken it’s how you GET BUSINESS and also how you KEEP IT. I tell you what.. my FAVORITE businesses are the ones who return my call or email within 24 hours. Those are the ones who I recommend to people (hello word of mouth!) and those are the ones who I keep going back to to spend more money with. At my business, we (my assistant Deirdre and I) do our absolute best to return emails and phone calls within 24 hours. (Unless it falls on the weekend or holidays or if it is emails from photographers asking questions… those particular emails we don’t always have time to respond to but I do try! : ) This is a HUGE priority at my place of business. It’s the VERY first thing we do every single morning before we begin on any other projects. And it’s one of the reasons our clients love us… because they feel taken care of. And we want them to feel that way. This issue is just one of many I have heard of… the list goes on: not showing up on time (Ugh, ask anyone who knows me, I HAAAATEEEE when people are not punctual! It’s extremely disrespectful.), dressing/acting unprofessionally (for example, wearing jeans to a wedding is NOT okay, make yourself presentable), not fulfilling their end of the deal, not being organized/having a timeline, having a bad attitude, and just not caring in general about what the BRIDE WANTS.

I have heard countless stories of different scenarios with different brides that are truly heartbreaking and infuriating to me. Some of them have been my clients and some of them have not been. For example, one of my clients a couple of years ago booked me within 30 days of her wedding because her booked photographer decided they just didn’t feel like shooting her wedding anymore. WHAT!!!! I just happened to be available for her wedding and I am so glad because her and her husband ended up being not only extremely fabulous, but having a fabulous wedding. I still to this day cannot get over her photographer just vanishing and on top of that not even giving her deposit back. Shocking. Another one of my brides recently discovered her dream venue double booked her wedding date and she was left out in the cold with no venue basically. She booked this particular venue over a year in advance of her date.  Seriously, how does this stuff happen? It should NOT be like this!!

Brides, be SURE you get a contract from every single one of your vendors. If they try and wiggle out of getting you a contract, RUN FAST IN THE OTHER DIRECTION. Be sure the dates are on them and that you have read the details of each one. Be sure to get invoices and receipts for all payments as well. Both bride and vendor should always be on the same page at all times. This can eliminate SO MUCH stress and heartache later on.

Now I will say this… a lot of vendors in the wedding industry are artists. Musicians, florists, photographers, videographers, invitation designers, etc. And if we’re being honest… most artists are not good with the details of running a business. They excel at the right side of their brain for a reason. They rock out the artistry and are not always born with the gift of being able to handle the tedious stuff. If this is you, that is okay.. do not beat yourself up. HOWEVER, recognize your weakness, and hire an assistant who IS talented in the area of customer service, contracts, bookings, emails, ya know… stuff like that. So that you can rock BOTH aspects… the artist side and the business side. This is KEY in running a successful business I assure you and it is what your brides deserve. A vendor can be EXTREMELY talented, but SUCK at running a business. Brides, make sure when you’re hiring your vendors, both aspects are rockin’! This is SOOOOO important.

So I haven’t addressed another SUPER important part of choosing vendors quite yet… but it’s a big one. TALENT. I am going to be VERY blunt for a moment here. There are a LOT of “wannabes” out there. Like, A WHOLE LOT. In fact, I’d be very willing to say there are more “wannabes” then there are the actual ones with talent. This doesn’t just apply to photography, it also applies to all other aspects of this industry… hair/makeup stylists, florists, cake designers, ETC. I know this is something that is discussed on a constant basis all across the world, but without really getting in to it… I am simply here to warn brides of this. Be VERY careful when you hire your vendors. Make sure they are genuinely talented before you rush into a contract with them. I have heard WAY too many traumatizing stories from brides who cried when they saw their photos or flowers or hair/makeup or video etc. Just because you have seen a few good things from them does NOT make them talented. Talent comes from being able to make EVERY SINGLE CLIENT happy with their product. In photography, true talent is when a photographer can make EVERYONE look and feel like a supermodel. Also, true talent is when you know how take beautiful photographs in any type of uncontrollable situation. For example: thunderstorms, bride and groom running down the aisle, unpredictable moments on the dance floor, overcrowded venues (meaning not having any room to shoot), no lighting, etc. My point is that it is NOT easy to be a wedding photographer, don’t be fooled by a few good shots here and there of someone just starting out. Brides, when choosing your wedding photographer… or anyone of your vendors, be SURE they have had valuable experience in this industry and a portfolio as well as testimonials to prove it. An easy way to know this is by getting to know them and finding out more about them and their history in the industry. Talk to them, ask them questions.  It will be very easy to tell who are the talented, confident ones against the fake phonies who are fooling people.

Another really great way of knowing someone is genuinely good at what they do, is by how much they charge. The saying is true, YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU GET. This applies to everything in life. Clothes, computers, food, equipment, vendors, etc. The more you’re generally willing to spend on something, the better the quality will be. I realize that this may not apply 100% of the time with every single business that exists, but in general, this is very very true. I know that most brides have a budget and I completely respect that. However, when planning there are ways to have a better wedding day and better wedding vendors. A huge way of doing this is by cutting your guest list. Most brides feel the need to invite everyone they know and have ever met to their wedding. This ends up making your food, alcohol and venue fees astronomically high and in return you end up suffering on the end of having your dream vendors. Your wedding day is over in a FLASH. If you have a large guest list, you will not have time to even say hi to everyone… and you barely remember who was even there. I believe it’s better to invite only people who truly mean a lot to you… it creates a more intimate wedding and gives you the opportunity to spend your money in other areas like the quality of food, cake, decorations, photographer, venue,  gown, etc. At the end of the day, it’s your wedding day and it should be the VERY BEST it can be for you and your husband.

My final thoughts to brides:
Be very careful who you hire for your wedding. If they aren’t taking care of you from the very moment you contact them, they are most likely not going to take care of you throughout the whole process. This is a once in a lifetime experience for you and the day I know you’ve been dreaming of forever. Hire vendors who you KNOW you can trust completely.. and then sit back and let them take care of you. Because every single wedding vendor SHOULD be taking care of YOU and making you feel like the bride you deserve to be treated like.

My final thoughts to vendors in the wedding industry:
If you are not 100%, madly in love with being in the wedding industry… then it is NOT for you. Every single bride deserves the very best for her wedding day. She has been dreaming about this her whole life, and she should be given the most for her big day. If working one of your weddings is “just another day at the job, blah” and not “Omg! This is almost as exciting as my wedding day was (or is gonna be)!”, then PLEASE, leave the wedding industry immediately. No bride deserves that sort of attitude… and neither do the other vendors you have to work with.

So, what are your thoughts? Did you have an experience you’d like to share? Regrets? Please leave a comment below! I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this. : )

I’ll end this post with one of my favorite photos taken at Amanda and Danny’s wedding. This is how I feel at weddings, do you?

Houmas House — definitely one of my top favorites by far. I honestly feel like this place is a little piece of Heaven on earth. If you want a dreamy, whimsical, garden-esque Southern wedding, Houmas House is the place. Not only is it beautiful but their staff are AMAZING. See the wedding below here.

Dunleith Plantation – This wedding venue is actually located in Mississippi but it is also one of my absolute very favorites. I LOVE IT. Everything about the Dunleith is just incredible. Southern charm at it’s finest. See the wedding below here.

Nottoway Plantation — ahhh, I could definitely go on and on about this breathtaking location. It is truly IN-CREDIBLE. I absolutely love love everything about it. The details are to die for. To see the wedding below go here.

Rip Van Winkle – This super whimsical and story-like location is one dreams are made of. See more of the wedding below here.

Mount Hope Plantation – this place is absolutely PERFECT for a smaller, intimate wedding. I adore it so much. See the wedding below here. And see a reception held there here.

New Orleans Museum of Art – this place is not only stunning visually but very unique with art everywhere. Definitely the perfect place for a glamorous wedding. See more of the wedding below here.

Fleur De Lis Event Center — this place is so cool. It’s newer and designed to have an “outdoor, New Orleans feel” to it. I absolutely LOVE the star lights on the ceiling and all of the street lanterns placed on the inside. See more of the wedding below here.

Oak Alley — another breathtaking Southern location that oozes with history. Shot a wedding here many years ago and loved every bit of it.

Chesterton Square — a new-ish location in the South that I definitely adore. See the wedding below here. And another reception here.

Country Club of LA – beautiful place for a wedding!! See more of the wedding below here.

I look forward to discovering more places in the South that I love but for now I hope you enjoyed my favorites!!! xo

Let’s start with one of my favorite designers, Elie Saab. OMG, this designer is an absolute genius! His talent inspires me to no end. And his gowns… well there are no words. Except one: breathtaking! And his website is soooo romantic and dreamy.
Image Source: The Knotty Bride

Oh Monique Lhuiller… your soft and dreamy gowns make me want to get married just so I can wear something of yours!

Sarah Seven – I love these incredibly romantic short dresses that would just photograph beautifully and is something for the bride who loves simplicity.

Vera Wang — enough said.

Looking for an actual vintage wedding dress? I LOVE this website, MillCrest Vintage. They sell real vintage wedding gowns and the prices are super affordable.

Another favorite: Claire Pettibone. OMG, this designer’s gowns are something an angel in Heaven could wear. I am IN LOVE with her designs. SIIIIIIIIGH.

And last but not least, Romona Keveza. Love all the ruffles!!

If you’ve been a long time follower of my blog, then you have definitely heard me talk about one of my favorite vendors in the industry. Valerie Metrejean Woerner. She is the owner of Southern Fete and specializes in event planning, inspiration and invitations. Her style is super fresh, creative and she, like me, is all about stepping outside the box and making your wedding unique and memorable. I absolutely LOVE how this woman thinks. Anytime we get together we could talk for hours about our ideas to make not only our businesses better, but our client’s weddings as well. She is someone I am proud to say I trust in this industry. Even though she is young like me, she has more talent and experience with how to make your wedding amazing than most.

Valerie has taken the time to write 5 different blog posts with some GREAT advice for your wedding planning. I couldn’t have said any of the things she said better. She talks about how to communicate with your vendors, how to put out fires on the wedding day, the ideal bride, timing and SO much more. I wanted to share these with you because if you are planning a wedding, I am certain this advice will greatly help you. Oh and PS. Hire Val! ; )

Read all 5 posts from Valerie’s blog at the links below:

TIMING

HIRING

COMMUNICATING

PUTTING OUT FIRES

THE IDEAL BRIDE

the lovely valerie. photo taken by MEEEEE : )

Chapter One:
She was a city girl, and he was a country boy, they shared one common belief: that one day they would find True Love. One day they both received an invitation to the Royal Ball. Since he had never been to a ball before, the boy was very excited. But the girl had been to the dances and parties for as long as she could remember, and the thought of going to the Royal Ball all alone made her very sad. She reluctantly went, however, and by the time the boy arrived she was already there, wearing her finest gown. When he walked through the door their eyes met, and at first sight they both knew it was True Love.

Chapter Two:
After the Royal Ball, the boy and girl had to to spend lots of time apart. So that she wouldn’t feel lonely while he was away racing balloons, the boy left his trusty companion, Cupcake the Dog, with her. Cupcake and the girl counted the days until they would be reunited with the boy. One day, the girl couldn’t find Cupcake anywhere. She searched and searched, until finally Cupcake came trotting up with something tied around her neck. It was a ring! The girl turned around, and there was the boy – on one knee – asking for her hand in marriage. The girl said yes so loudly that it was heard by the people in every town for fifty miles.

Chapter Three:
People came from all around to witness the union of the boy and the girl, and when they said “I do! their True Love was so strong that it began to spread! First, the people in the church began to feel it. It rekindled old flames and sparked new fires. Next, the wave of True Love engulfed the whole countryside. The people in the surrounding villages were so overcome that everyone dropped what they were doing to be with the ones they loved. As the boy and girl rode off into the sunset, they locked eyes like they had that first night, and the sky exploded into a kaleidoscope of colors! A year has passed since that blessed day, and now a new chapter begins!!

Story written by Joe & Lauren VanZandt of Everyday’s A Soirée.

While the above story was written in a fantasy storybook like way, it’s actually all true. It describes in a very short version the story of how Deirdre and Duston fell in love and were married. Even Cupcake the dog is real! I absolutely ADORE how Lauren put her magical touch to their story and brought it to life in the most dreamy of ways.

IN HONOR OF DEIRDRE & DUSTON – APRIL TWENTY-FOURTH,  TWO THOUSAND ELEVEN

Today’s post is super special. As many of you know, almost a year ago I hired an assistant to work for me. There is no doubt my life has changed drastically for the better because of an amazing woman called Deirdre. (Pronounced Deer-Dra). I am SO blessed that God sent her into my life as she is truly a Godsend. We celebrated her recent anniversary with a photoshoot. I am going to let Deirdre take over with this one and share with you about this shoot while I will only be here to comment on the photos below. : ) Without further ado, please welcome my amazing assistant Deirdre Doré…

Since I began working with Courtney about a year ago, I have really been able to let my inner artist and creative brain go to work. The opportunity I have been given with Courtney for both the wedding and boudoir brands is one that I am SO thankful for that it  could be a blog post in itself ! However, one of the things that sticks out the most that I love about my job is being inspired on a daily basis in many aspects of my life. As many of you may know, Courtney was my wedding photographer and I was one of her first clients when she started her own business. Therefore, she has been capturing plenty of important moments in my life so far beginning with our engagement pictures in March of 2009 then our wedding in April of 2010. With our one year anniversary just passing (April 24) I thought it would be a PERFECT idea to have her capture this important milestone for us as well.

The inspiration from this shoot started with the concept of our first anniversary being another chapter in Duston and I’s love story. We met in college and have really gotten the opportunity to grow up with one another from college life, starting our first careers, getting engaged, making the commitment of a lifetime together, and now living out our life dreams with one another. I wanted the shoot to capture the chapter of our first anniversary by having a very soft, passionate setting. On your first anniversary, you are supposed to gift paper gifts to one another (a boudoir album was definitely the best paper gift ever to give him!) Therefore, I wanted to try and incorporate paper into the shoot as much as possible. Some of the paper items I created up for the shoot were : paper flowers for the bouquet, boutonniere and vases which were jars wrapped in paper doilies; tissue balls to hang from the ceiling of the barn; paper doilies found under the desserts and place settings; a paper umbrella used for a prop, and awesome paper invitations, menu cards, dessert cards, and banners were made Lauren VanZandt. The set included many items borrowed from my grandmother and mother which made it even more personal as each of the tea pots, plates, platters and some furniture had meaningful history behind it.

I do not think that our love story could be captured any more perfectly then by the one and only Courtney Dellafiora, and I hope that she captures the many chapters that lie ahead in our lives.

Hair/Makeup: Courtney Davis of Kiki’s Consulting
Photography: Courtney Dellafiora
Paper Goods: Lauren VanZandt of Everyday’s a Soirée
Cream Cocktail Dress: Bustle
Couch: The Estate Center
Bouquet, Bout, Decorations, Hairpieces: Deirdre Doré
Bowtie: XOELLE

I absolutely LOVE all of the photos and hope you enjoy them as well. I love you Deirdre and Duston!!!!! Never stop loving each other.

Deirdre had the great idea of doing the shoot in an empty barn she found. I loved the look and feel of this.

I’m sure you all remember my recent bride Lauren who had the amazing vintage wedding. Lauren is an incredibly talented graphic designer. (I will be doing a blog post about her new company soon!) Deirdre invited her to be a part of this shoot to contribute some of her genius. I asked Lauren to describe her concept and how she came up with all of this cuteness!
“When Deirdre asked me to to contribute paper details for her anniversary shoot (to tie into the tradition of giving a gift of paper for the first annivesary), she had two requests… she wanted paper details such as an invitation, menu, dessert cards and some kind of banner and wanted the paper details to somehow convey various chapters in she and Duston’s life. I have to say that, in my experience with invitation/event communication design, this was one of my most challenging feats. At first, I had such a hard time making a connection between the artistic expression of an inspired shoot in honor of an anniversary with paper goods that serve a function. After brainstorming with Joe (my husband and idea guy/copywriter), we found a way to make the connection. We decided that the scene of the shoot would be a romantic surprise anniversary dinner that Duston had thrown for Deirdre. After reading Deirdre’s descriptions of the chapters of she and Duston’s lives, we immediately thought fairy-tale. Joe turned Deirdre’s descriptions into a whimsy-filled fairy-tale, which included both facts and fictional details inspired by facts. I turned the fairy-tale into three invitations… the first two were teaser invites that each told a chapter of the story and ended with a hint that more was to come. The third was the reveal invite which included the event name and details, Once Upon A Year, A Fairy-Tale Feast in honor of Deirdre and Duston, April 24, 2011. Deirdre told us there would be 4 desserts, so I asked Joe to come up with a name for each dessert that tied into the fairy-tale theme. Each dessert name was inspired by Deirdre’s descriptions of the chapters… love at first lookie meringue cookie, cupcake the dog’s well-known lemon scone, wedding chapel apple danish, and honeymoon macaroon.”

Deirdre made the super cute boutonniere and bouquet out of paper! SO CUTE.

Of course this day could not be perfect without the pure talent of Courtney Davis who did Deirdre’s hair and makeup. She looked STUNNING.

Deirdre’s first outfit was this beautiful cream dress from Bustle – my FAVORITE local wedding gown shop. Brides, it’s a MUST to check out their selections before choosing your wedding gown. Tell Sarah I sent you!

Lauren made this adorable banner that said, “Once Upon A Year”.

I end this post with a photo that is a tad blurry from motion, but too cute not to post. It completely captures the relationship Duston and Deirdre share. Laughter, love and pure bliss. I look forward to watching their love continue to grow.

“I’ve been so inspired by Nancy Drew lately. Here in South Louisiana, outdoor receptions are hard to pull off because of the heat so I thought we’d try an indoor setting. For some reason, imagined the dining room table I always saw in my head when I read her stories. Something, grand and anything but boring. I thought of the perfect dining room for a Nancy Drew-inspired wedding and it chose our color palette for us in the form of gold chandelier and pale blue walls. From their we added soft and bold elements. It was soft with white hydrangeas and ruffly dress but bold with Nancy’s head piece and curls and the sunburst centerpiece all at the same time. To add some mystery, we incorporated the mystery wine text, a dessert key instead of labels and keys on the invitation set.”

Along with the help of Heather of Social Bites of Ruston for the beautiful desserts, Courtney Davis for the amazing hair/makeup and my sweet sweet friends Danielle & Jonathan for modeling… I think our photo shoot turned out beautiful. Please enjoy our creations. : )

Photographer: Courtney Dellafiora
Shoot Planner/Concept: Valerie Woerner of Southern Fete
Paper Goods: Valerie Woerner
Desserts: Heather Bailey of Social Bites of Ruston
Hair/Makeup: Courtney Davis of Kiki’s Consulting
Flowers: Bobbi Rice of Bobbi Rice Event Design
Models: Danielle and Jonathan
Assistant: Deirdre Dore’

Activities for your guest at the wedding are a big trend right now. For our Nancy Drew-inspired shoot, we thought adding a little mystery to our activity would be fun! Each guest would grab our mystery wine wheel, try all flavors and write notes under Mystery #1, etc. When they finished, they could detach the top layer to find out what wine they liked best!

Glitter marshmallows: GENIUS!

Heather is truly one of the most amazingly talented cake designers!! She blows me away every time I see one of her creations.

Valerie designed all of the paper goods from the place settings down to the invitations.

I asked Courtney Davis to do gold tones for Danielle’s makeup and to create loose wavy curls for her hair… she AS ALWAYS… did an INCREDIBLE job making my vision come to life. Brides, hiring a TRULY gifted and talented hair/makeup stylist is SO SO SO important for your wedding. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen hair/makeup go wrong on the wedding day. Don’t settle in this area of your big day.

My friends Danielle and Jonathan did an outstanding job being our models. Their love for one another shines bright on and off camera. I am constantly inspired by everything about these two.

Seriously, could they be any cuter!?!

Danielle… one word: STUNNING

Abbbbbsssolutely love this shot Deirdre captured at the end of the shoot:

The End.  : )

I like to call myself a swirly girl. Because I love all things NOT straight. I love anything vintage, wrought iron and swirly. My favorite store is Hobby Lobby because it is a swirly factory. My mind also thinks in swirls and not straight lines. I am a dreamer in every way and have been that way ever since I was a little girl. I can remember imagining beautiful love stories in my head and playing out the entire scenario step by step fantasizing about every little detail. Little did I know, God made my mind to work like that for a reason. I feel so blessed every day that I am a swirly girl and that because of not seeing life in straight lines, I can capture the swirly emotions between two people and portray it in a photograph. I love that God made me swirly. : )

So because of my love for anything vintage, I decided one day that I wanted to style a vintage shoot and came up with a vision for what I was looking for. At the time I had no idea how it was all going to come together but I knew what I saw in my head and I was determined to make it happen. I started off by asking Valerie of Southern Fete, aka event planner extraordinaire, to help me not only come up with some great ideas but to also help me style the entire shoot. Valerie is one of the most talented people in the wedding industry and I am so lucky we found each other last year! She is young like me and her and style is very fresh and modern. (By the way, check out some photos I took of Valerie here.) She is SERIOUSLY gifted and I will continue to brag just how awesome through my photos below. I told her my vision, color schemes and ideas and she truly helped me make them come to life.

I could not be more happy with the way my dream turned out in these photos. They are truly a piece of my heart displayed in print. I could continue babbling about just how much I love them but I will let the photos do the talking. I hope you enjoy them and I also hope you are able to get to know me just a little bit better.

PS. Narrowing the images down for the blog was next to impossible. There are well over 50 images in the post… so get ready for a long one!

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So first up I have to talk about this bouquet. We originally had a different bouquet for the shoot but had a little mishap so Valerie, being the awesome event planner that she is… had brought several fake flowers in the colors that I wanted for backup. I basically looked at her and said, “okay Valerie, I have a major challenge for you. I need you to take all these flowers and make a wedding bouquet in 20 minutes… AND, I want it to look like this, this and this.” We only had about 45 minutes left to set up everything for the shoot because we were on a light time schedule, so that’s why I had to put the pressure on her. Ummm, not only did she make it happen in 20 minutes, but she made the bouquet look better than ever!! When she walked up 20 minutes later my mouth dropped open. This woman never ceases to amaze me and I truly think this is a prime example of just how incredible of a wedding planner she really is. Brides, hire Valerie to plan your wedding… she will make EVERYTHING about your big day one million times better.

Seriously, how beautiful is this bouquet??

Not only is Valerie an event planner, but she also designs and creates invitations, wedding menus, etc. She made the following wedding invitations for our shoot. Again, I never even saw them before the shoot… I just trusted her completely and she completely amazed me. She is a great listener and really is all about portraying her clients vision and does an excellent job as you can see.

One of my ideas was to include a little wedding cake as part of the shoot. I asked her if she knew of any young talent in the area that we could showcase. I wanted someone who also could pick up on my vision of the vintage theme I was going for. She said she had someone in mind and so then I left in completely in Val’s hands. She introduced me to Heather of Social Bites of Ruston –  when Val sent me a  sneak peak of the cake Heather created for me the night before the shoot, I about DIED. I couldn’t have dreamed up a better cake if I tried. I had never even met Heather but somehow through Valerie, she picked up on my vision and created a masterpiece.

Agh! It’s SO perfect! I wanted to keep it forever and WOW it smelled so good. When I saw the teaser the night before the shoot I immediately ran out and bought several buttons in the colors of the shoot. Heather is completely GENIUS for incorporating little buttons on the cake… oh and they are completely edible as well. I told myself, “Buttons!?! Why didn’t I think of that!!” Thus why you will continue to see buttons everywhere through out the shoot. (Even on the invitations above.) And the cute little tulle on the cake?? ADORABLE! Seriously, Heather is SO talented. I cannot even believe how amazing she really is. You MUST let her design your wedding cake and deserts. She is yet another young fresh person in the wedding industry and ultimately — TALENTED.

Heather not only brought the cake but she made several other cute deserts for us to play with.

Katie and David came into my life recently and were a complete Godsend. As soon as I got to know them a little, I knew immediately they were the perfect couple to model for my shoot. These two are truly one of the most beautiful couples I have been able to work with… and not just because they are pretty on the outside… but more so because of their inner beauty. They are both genuinely kind and loving and I just know a match made in Heaven. They are getting married in a couple of years so when I asked them to practice playing husband and wife for my shoot, they were more than excited!

My dear friend Courtney Davis from Kiki’s Consulting came to the shoot and did Katie’s hair and makeup. If you follow my boudoir blog you already know tons about her. She does hair and makeup for all of my boudoir clients and several of my brides. She is by far one of the most gifted hair and makeup stylists on this planet! I am so lucky to have her in my life. She is AMAZING in every way and did an outstanding job of highlighting Katie’s natural beauty.

A toast with banana pudding shots? Oh yes.

The dress is from Bustle in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Sarah is the owner there and is yet ANOTHER young and fresh talent in this area. She is SO FLIPPIN’ gifted at finding the most beautiful and unique wedding gowns. So many of my brides get their gowns from there. You may recognize this particular one as the original owner was one of my very own brides, Angel. See her wedding here.

The boutonniere was hand made by Michael’s aunt who refuses to go into business even though I have told her she so should! She is SO talented and I could not believe it when she made me a bout that was exactly what I was looking for. How gorgeous is that?

Katie you are exquisite! I love your beautiful heart, please never change.

This hairpiece is by Lo from LoBoheme. She is also another talented hairpiece designer in the wedding industry. I could go on and on about her as well but just check out her website here.

The following is definitely one of my favorite parts about this shoot… all the gorgeous vintage details!! Together with Valerie, we both combined several of the things we had brought to the shoot and made this beautiful setting:

And of course notice the beautiful menu card Valerie made.

Details!! Oh and you know I had to throw a vintage chandelier in there somehow!

You may have noticed “Steven and Allie” on the menu and invites, which would explain the SA by their feet. We told Katie and David that for the day they were going to be given the names Allie and Steven… because we said so!

More details. I also had to be certain to incorporate a couple of vintage cameras as well. I mean hello, this is MY shoot after all and it’s supposed to be portraying ME.

Beautiful couple!!!

The end.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit into my heart. Thanks so much to Valerie, Heather, Courtney, Katie, David, Anne (for letting us use her house as a location!), and Michael for all your help in making my dream come true. I couldn’t have done it without any of you. xoxo

I shot this with my point and shoot the first night in Vegas:

One of my favorite peeps, Marin Kristine was my roomie for the trip and when I got there she had this AMAZING gift waiting for me! She had my chandelier and the word “vixen” made into this necklace! How flippin’ cool are my friends!? Ahh, I am such a lucky girl. : ) The other picture we took in the photobooth at the party.

Hanging out with two people I ADORE, Weston and Marissa Boucher of The Boudoir Divas. It was so great seeing old friends!!!

Marin snapped this of me as we headed to see Le Reve.

Le Reve. It was so amazing! Definitely check it out if you’re in Vegas.

Marin and I again. I heart this girl! She is so awesome in every way!!

The morning I left Vegas and went home sweet home. It was an amazing trip and I look forward to next year!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post. A photo shoot in the desert of Vegas!

I was honored to shoot some photos for her website/blog! We had a great time and below are a few of my favorites. She kept warning me that she is so difficult to photograph, but I was all, “PHHSSSHHH whatever girl, you’re gorgeous!” Check out how amazing she looks and seriously, if you’re contemplating a wedding planner: CALL VALERIE. She will make your wedding day and planning go smoothly and wonderfully.

Thanks again Valerie for everything! There are nothing but bright things ahead in your future girl!

My favorite — I love that smile!

Simply fabulous!