In about one month, there will only be 1 year left until our wedding. My fiancé and I are so excited but at the same time we are sort of anxious. We keep asking ourselves:

Are we getting everything done that needs to get done at this stage of planning?

Have we booked the right vendors?

What is next in our planning?

Even though we are having these thoughts, I’m happy to say that we are on the right path. We have picked our ceremony and reception venue, booked our photographer, booked our videographer, booked our officiant and bought my wedding dress with some accessories. We also have found our florist, DJ and ceremony musicians but we just haven’t signed the contracts yet. Luckily though, we are almost finished with the major parts of the planning. Being at the right stage in our planning feels great, if I do say so myself… lol.

I don’t know about you girls, but I cannot believe how much everything costs! I’m literally shocked. Our budget is pretty low, and every time we book a vendor I want to scream because our money supply is dwindling. I’m like, “How are we ever going to pay for all of this?” Based on our budget, we can but it will be tight. Sometimes I wish we could just elope! But that would upset everyone of course and I know we would regret our decision later. I want the beautiful memories that come with the type of wedding we are going to have. At times I feel like I’m the only one who feels this way but I’ve heard so many girls who agree. But we all know what we really want, and if we could we would make it happen with an unlimited budget. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

According to Oprah.com:

40 % Reception {including catering, bar, wedding cake, linens and valet}

10 % Flowers

10 % DJ/Band

10 % Photography

10 % Attire {Bride & Groom}

  5 % Wedding Planner

  5 % Stationery {Invitations & All Day-of}

  5 % Transportation

  5 % Misc {Favors, rings, gifts , marriage license}

Having an unlimited budget would be awesome, but I don’t think you need boat loads of money to have the type of wedding that you want. You just have be smart with your choices.

I’ve always been obsessed with invitations…I absolutely love the paper, different style fonts, pocket invitations and the envelopes (love kraft envelopes, how odd is it that I love envelopes, lol). I recently picked up invitations from one of our favorite vendors, RSVP to me for a June bride and I cannot stop looking at them, lol. While chatting with the bride we were discussing different stamp options. Obviously one of the most popular stamp options is Zazzle where you can pick from hundreds of different wedding stamps and you can even chose your denomination.

I’ve recently fell in love with multiple stamps on the envelopes.  With this I truly believe it’s a love/hate relationship. You’ll either love the look with the beautiful different stamps all lined up at the top right corner OR you’ll hate the “clutter”.  Either way, I simply love this look and plan on using different stamps for my next family event. Let us know what your thoughts are on the grouping of the stamps and if you plan on using this on your wedding invitations. We would love to see some of your pics.

Photo courtesy of My Lovely Life Blog

Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Anne Designs

Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Anne Designs