Tuesday, September 30, 2008

A place for everything and everything in its place.

When I was planning my wedding I relied almost entirely on my "ideabank", my delicous, and my binder.



My "ideabanks" are various folders on my desktop, mostly for design inspiration but then to wedding inspiration and home inspiration. Whenever I came across an image on a blog or a website (even if it wasn't specifically "wedding"), I control-clicked (I'm on a mac) and "saved image as..." into the correct folder. Then when I had a decision to make I opened all my pictures and looked for little lightbulb to go off over my head.



If there was a whole website that I liked then it went in my delicious feed. I had a catch-all "wedding" tag but also a "flowers" tag, "bridesmaid" tag, "gifts" tag, "centerpieces" tag, "guestbook" tag, and even a mysterious "penmanship" tag. Again, when there were decisions I felt comforted by having my resources at hand. I remember why it's so important when a friend of mine who is planning her wedding asked me about birdcage veils (which I didn't have in my wedding) and I only have vague recollections of seeing beautiful pictures in blogs I've read but couldn't remember a name or a website if I tried.*

{My wedding binder is currently hiding but I'll look for it more tomorrow}

And the last of my planning trifecta was my binder. I'm a magazine junkie and once I got engaged it was open season. Then I found Martha Stewart Weddings. [insert Homer Simpson donut drool]. Over a year after my wedding and I'm proud everytime I'm able to leave the check out line at the grocery store and I don't succumb to its gorgeous layouts. Has anyone seen the rannuculus spread from last year? AHHHH!! AMAZING! The problem was despite grabbing all my flags from my domino magazines and then reinforcing with post it flags-- it was too much to search through. Thus was born the binders. I have 1/2 inch binders with clear inserts for everything. In this case it started with wedding then lead to "WOW that box is heavy. I need to go through all these magazines before I move" :) I wish it was more discipline than that but have you ever tried to lift a box full of magazines!!??

But after all of this my question is this: brides, bridesmaids, planners- what do you do to keep you information overflow from taking over? And is there anyway The Future Mrs Darcy can help?

Let me know! Also I was running through some custom ideas for a lovely local bride and I stumbled on something I looooooooooves. But this is one of those cases where I've got a design and now I need a couple. What's a blogger to do? Do I smell ... contest?!



*Check out Brooklyn Bride for bird cage veils as well as http://myrakim.etsy.com. Or if you're feeling reeeeallly crafty- I ... um... made some extravagant hair pieces with feathers and fake pearls and veils for my friend's 30th on a whim last week. :) Cone party hats were totes overrated for her fabulessness.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Good find!

Hey everyone I stumbled upon these great planning sheets from Russell + Hazel:
(image from Russell+Hazel)

They have 57 (!) FREE templates that can help you lay out budgets, vendors, contacts, and a ton more. And as not to add to an ever growing pile of "wedding related" papers, keep all your free templates organized in their stylish wedding binder too. It costs $75 and includes:
- Signature Binder
- 12 Section tabs with pockets
- Planning notebook
- Organized adhesive note set
- Sheet protectors
- 2 business card pages
- 10 8-1/2 x 11" pages
- 5 Multi Format pages (holds 11 x 17" or 8-1/2 x 11")

Oh and peace of mind. :)

And what I like the most is that it doesn't SCREAM wedding. You can take it to work or leave it on your coffee table and no one will know that you're consumed day and night by how to get peonies for your October wedding!