The Wedding Planner

I'm not very good at this blogging thing just yet. My problem has been trying to find something interesting to blog about. Then while talking to my husband last night, we decided that I need to focus on what I really enjoy doing in my spare time. So we came up with the idea that what I really enjoyed most was planning our wedding last year. I've been married almost a year now, our 1st anniversary is coming up on August 12th. I may be in the minority here but I was in serious wedding planning withdrawal! Until my younger sister announced 2 weeks ago that she was (finally) engaged!! I was ecstatic not only for her and her future hubby, but for the fact that I could help plan another wedding!! She hasn't been to a lot of weddings and her future husband isn't all that into the wedding things so she needs a lot of help. As Matron of Honor and self proclaimed wedding planner, I thought it would be fun to chronicle all the planning. She's on tight budget so I'm going to try and focus on all the plans that could help others plan a wedding on a small dime

I'll start with what we've done so far..... aside from looking at a TON of photos online we haven't done much of anything. My husband's family owns a Banquet place, Classics V Banquets in Amherst, NY, she's about 90% sure that's where the reception will be, but since she hasn't finalized a date yet, that hasn't been decided. She's about 95% sure she'll be using the same DJ I used for my wedding, who was incredibly awesome (not someone who tries to run the show, but involved enough to keep the night flowing smoothly). She's pretty open minded about everything, but extremly indecisive, which I can already tell is going to be the hardest part! One thing she wants that I didn't was to get married in a church. My hubby and I got married in the new Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY. We wanted something unique and modern, sister on the other hand is a bit more traditional. We found that you'll want to make sure when picking a church (if your not a member of  it) you ask about ALL the fees. We talked to a specific church in Buffalo who charged a $600 rental fee, which seemed reasonable compared to some of the other rentals rates out there, but once we started asking questions we found that it didn't include a $250 administrative fee, a $50 fee to be let into the church for the rehearsal,  and candles, flowers and music, were all extra. So be sure to ask lots of questions when picking locations so they don't try and sneak extra fees on you. That's about as far as we've gotten so far. She's definitely thinking next year, so we have lots of time!

In honor of starting my wedding section of the blog I thought I'd post some of my favorites photos from my wedding last year! Enjoy!

Photographer: Andy Buscemi - www.Buscemiphotography.com