I really, really like planning.

Which has led me to become obsessed with MindMeister.

When I first started following Weddingbee, I was stoked to find Mrs. Pencils, a fellow Maryland bride. I decided to go through most of her old posts to get ideas and information about weddings in the DC/MD area since quite frankly, I was still pretty clueless about a lot of things despite living in the area for over 2 years. During this process, I found a post where she mentioned MindMeister (you can read it here), an incredible map-it-out, list-type website. To which I now have everything related to the wedding mapped out on:

It is amazing because I tend to lose track of what we already decided on and what ideas I have and don't have; in a word, it's fantastic for scatter brains like myself. The best part, though? You can download an app to your phone that allows you to just type a word or idea in, and it will automatically update your map! Super convenient - even though I now have "organized" wedding things spread between MindMeister, my blog, my wedding binder, Pinterest, and my hard drive. Yep.

Do you have weddingy things spread between several different mediums? How do you stay organized?

Change of plans..

Our wedding is definitely on a budget. We were originally thinking of capping it at 10k, but I soon realized that, even though this is a hefty chunk of change, it does not get you very far in the wedding world - especially not in the DC area. I have been trying to squeeze out my creative juices and find alternatives to your "typical" wedding venues and receptions, which Scot and I had hoped to do anyway. We aren't ones for tradition, generally speaking (except for the whole marriage thing of course!), so I figured that having 2 years to plan would be on our side. More on that later.

One thing I was SURE that I was going to do in an effort to save money was make our own invites. Way back in the day, I had a certain level of imagination and artistic ability, and was even considering majoring in graphic design instead of or in addition to dance. Well that never happened, and I stopped doing anything graphic design related for the past 7 or so years. I wasn't going to let this deter me, however, and downloaded a decent program for my Mac (I only had Illustrator and Photoshop for my busted PC and wasn't about to spring a couple grand for those programs just for invites), bought a pack of 10,000 fonts, and went on my way. I basically had the whole thing planned out and designed before we even found a venue. I still wasn't entirely happy with what I had created, and Scot was rather indifferent. Again.. good thing we have 2 years, seeing as I'm a perfectionist to a fault.

And then! I feel like a huge jerk, but I COMPLETELY forgot that my good friend Michelle is a freelance graphic designer. I have seen her work, and this girl is incredible (you can see her stuff here). She sent me a message on Facebook, letting me know that she would love to help out with the invites, with a special friendly discount that was actually a price we could afford. And of course I would pay her that and then some, she is an amazing friend and I want to help her and support her in any way I can. I sent her the invites I had already "made", plus some other inspiration, and I must say that I am so excited that she will be creating something special and unique, just for us.

In the end, I know I would not have been happy with whatever I came up with, since really, it would be amateur. Although I do have my paper cutter at the ready to put those invites in the cardstock I already bought at 4 different Michael's stores!

It's great to be(e) a Bee!

Last night I went to the WeddingBee meet-up in DC, and I could not have had more fun! We went to this wonderful little (big) place called Ping Pong Dim Sum, and I know that I will be going back there in the near future to take advantage of their HH. Delicious drinks (kumquat mojito, anyone?) and dumplings (spicy black pepper chicken FTW) and fantastic company.

I was a bit nervous about going at first since I can be shy in new environments and with new people, but these girls made everything so easy. I loved how open everyone was to sharing their stories and adventures in wedding planning and married life, and it made me so excited to embark on this crazy journey. I mean, where else are gocco, in-laws, blogging, and frustration with the SSO and MVA the main topics of conversation? (Except for the Bee, of course!) It was great to relate with everyone and know that it's totally ok and normal to have a 24 month engagement and not be spending $50,000 on a wedding. The best part? I met such great people and made new friends. You guys are great!

The bees at Ping Pong!

...and the cutest little pins made by Miss (soon to be Mrs) Veggie!

Inspire me

Granted it is still early and this is basically preliminary but... I created my first inspiration board! Dessy.com has a fun site where you can use their images in addition to some of your own, so I had a bit of fun with that yesterday. I'm only starting to really develop an idea of what I want our wedding to look/feel/be like, so I know this board will most likely change dramatically over the next year or so. Also.. I'm waffling between turquoise and red or turquoise and orange. I was set on the former, but the more I see of the latter, the more I love it!

Anyhoo, here's what I have so far!

File-me-pretty

My current obsession is not so much wedding planning (that's a lie, yes it is), but creating and re-creating my wedding planning binder. I am an organization freak, often too much so with so many things filed in so many places that I confuse myself. I initially went to Barnes and Noble and bought myself a nice little wedding binder that claimed to come with everything I needed, was a pretty color, and seemed like a good fit.

So pretty!

Looking back, I may have wanted to wait a bit longer to buy it than a week after getting engaged, with a wedding 2+ years away. I quickly realized a few things:

1. A 9x9" shaped binder, while still being 3-hole punched, does not accommodate most of what I needed to put in it. Like normal sized paper.

2. The directions and advice it had can be nice at times, but I use the internet for that. I needed more space to write things, not read them... and that was what composed much of the book.

3. You don't realize what you need in a planning book until you start actually planning. Go figure.

4. I should have made my own binder.

Not to mention the fact that I needed a whole separate "inspiration book" to put pretty pictures of dresses, centerpieces, etc from magazines. I hated that I couldn't just put everything in one big book!

So I went to CVS during my next lunch break and got me a nice big binder, some dividers, and a ruler. And then I realized, hey, I need more dividers! And colors! And sticky tabs! And pocket sleeves! Woohoo!

I may have seemed to be going a little cray cray with the organization accessories, but I figured that the binder would basically be my bible for the next two years. All my ideas, contracts, lists, etc, would be going in that beautiful piece of organizational heaven. I started out with mostly inspirational pictures, but that baby has surely grown in the past year and a half!

  

And.. I think I need a bigger binder. Yipes.

Do you have a wedding bible-binder of sorts? Did you make it or end up buying one?

Ring-a-ling

I decided to get a little artsy, thanks to some inspiration from the hive. All over the site, I noticed brides-to-bee taking engagement ring "glamour shots", if you will.. pictures of their e-ring with fun, interactive backgrounds: on a flower, on food, on something meaningful to that bride, etc. Since I recently got a brand spanking new camera, I figured should join the crowds and give it a shot, or many shots as the case may be. One thing I learned is that you can't do an e-ring photo shoot on/with your cat. Duly noted.

Here are some that did work!

Sparkle sparkle! I'm totally head over heels in love with this ring, if you couldn't tell. Please tell me you love yours just as much (and possibly have glamour shots of it)!