Plan and Conquer
When David and I went from “we’re engaged!” to “we’re getting married!!” to realizing, “we’re planning a wedding!!!” it finally sank in how much stuff we had before us to do.
And I can tell you, the best decision we made was to get ourselves a wedding coordinator. Angie Ferguson has been a serious lifesaver and, truly, we’re just getting started. At first, I had the natural bride-on-a-budget reaction to the idea of getting a planner—we can’t afford it and I’m crazy organized so it should be easy to do on my own.
But the first time I sat down with a stack of bridal magazines all excited to flip through the pages and get some ideas, I almost immediately had a meltdown: “What the $#@% is an escort card?!” I said. David had to Google it for me. (It’s that piece of paper that helps your guests figure out where to sit during the reception, in case you didn’t know either.)
That may not have been the exact moment I realized I needed help, but it was a keen indicator that I was in over my head. When I started asking other brides-to-be about their coordinators, I learned that hiring a coordinator won’t necessarily break your budget. Their goal is to help you plan the wedding you want within your stated budget, including paying for themselves. Genius, really.
Angie is the kind of woman who’s super sweet but doesn’t back down. She isn’t afraid to ask, well, any question. She’s not scared to send as many emails and voicemails it takes to get in touch with people for us. She doesn’t miss any details, and she stays on top of things for us when I get sidetracked by work or life in general. I’m so relieved to know she’ll be there to boss me around in her gentle way on our wedding day—I know without a doubt that David and I will only have one task that day…to enjoy ourselves and our marriage.
And then you have Wedding 101. Ladies, if you haven’t made it down to their space in The Factory yet, you should jump in your car and go now. The space itself is gorgeous—not only is it set up to be a cozy, comfortable place for you to do research on potential vendors and do meet and greets, but there are beautiful and helpful displays set up that you can check out at your own leisure.
You also have the resources. All of the vendors represented by Wedding 101 are fully vetted, trusted businesses. The variety is good for weddings of all types, from strict budgets to extravagant affairs, and from quirky to classic. All of the vendors have a bin dedicated to them that includes their information, samples of their work, if applicable, business cards you can take with you, and more. Vast isn’t always better—these amazing women have cut the guesswork out for you.
Think about it—as brides-to-be, we don’t plan this kind of event everyday. They do. Of course that have super secret knowledge we don’t! And their entire goal is to help you achieve the wedding you want. They aren’t selling you anything, shoving ads down your throat, or constantly pitching you on something and pushing for an answer yesterday.
At the risk of going on forever, I should just reiterate the point that if you haven’t been, you should go now. Check out their Events page on their main site and come on down. I might just see you there if you do! 🙂