WEDDING!!!

I've been wanting to do a wedding post, just to share some of the resources that have been really useful to me in my wedding planning journey. I really wanted to have a wedding that I thought fit me and my fiance. I wanted it to be a little bit vintage, a little bit kitschy and cutesy and a lot simple and friendly. I also wanted to be able to include the things that I love like crafts and greens and blues and indie music and some level of eco-consciousness. So, I'm definitely still working on all this and things have changed through the process, but there are definitely some resources and places that have made trying to mix the traditional and the personal a whole lot easier.

As for books, the two that I like the best are Esther K. Smith's The Paper Bride and Sharon Naylor's Your Wedding Your Way.

The Paper Bride comes from the minds of the folks at Purgatory Pie Press where they create incredibly awesome, but unfortunately not in my budget, letterpress invitations and greeting cards. The book is itself a work of art and it's authors really capture the aesthetic that I want to capture for my own wedding.

Naylor's book helped me feel better about breaking with tradition in places that were important to me, such as addressing the invitations using the first names and including children on the invite. So many books out there increase my stress and make me feel like I am doing something very wrong by not following customs that feel outdated, and this book helped put me at ease.

Websites and Magazines:

Martha Stewart magazine and marthastewartweddings.com are my go to places for Do-It-Yourself projects. In combination with The Paper Bride, the original queen of DIY inspired me to create my postcard save-the-dates with a customized stamp. I recommend signing up for the tips of the day. Even though they clog up the inbox, Martha's suggestions are definitely on my most likely to use list.

I use theknot.com to manage my guest list, my budget, my seating charts and my wedding website.

We used travelersjoy.com as our honeymoon registry.

DIY Bride has a lot of great ideas. I particularly enjoy the video save-the-dates on the blog and I am taking a educational technologies class this semester and think it might give me the skills to make my own little video.

The DJ NYC Event blog gave me lots of great ideas for nontraditional and indie rock songs for my reception and for the first dance. It also links to lots of great IMix playlists on I-tunes.

Finally, etsy.com is a great resources for gifts for bridesmaids and groomsman, ceremony jewelry, paper products, favors and all sort of things handmade. I figure, if I can't make it myself, the next best thing I can do is support someone else's art.