How to Build a Wedding in Six Weeks – Roxy and Dan, 9/21/08

Roxy called me on Tuesday. She and Dan hired me on Thursday to help plan their wedding. Which will be on September 21st.

Okay, so planning a wedding in six weeks? Is like crack to me. This is going to be so.much.FUN. I’m serious!

When anything – such as planning a wedding – seems overwhelming – all you have to do is make a checklist, starting with the stuff that’s will be hardest to book and the most time-sensitive. So, that means we start with finding a location for the wedding, order invitations, and find a photographer.
First checkbox: LOCATION
After our meeting on Thursday, she and Dan went to Hartley Botanica outside of Camarillo, fell in love with it, and reserved the date. They’re going for an “Enchanted Wedding” theme, and this site is PERFECT for it. Roxy and I are going there next week to sign the contract and start finalizing the details.

Second Checkbox: Invitations
I called Elsa at VIP Invitations (vipinvitations@aol.com) who I’ve referred to other brides many times before, and we all met today. What Dan and Roxy really wanted was a invitation on a scroll, and Elsa had several samples to show them. They picked the one they wanted – I’ll put up a better picture when they come in – and truthfully, it was fairly pricey. For 50 invitations, it’s going to run around $750 sans shipping, without my 10% discount with Elsa.

Because the invites won’t be in until the 28th, I’m also going to put together a website on www.theknot.com for R &D this weekend, so they can send their guests to it in the meantime. They’re also going to put the website address on a separate card with the scroll, along with the response card. So, that’s my job this weekend, and Roxy and Dan are going to work on the invitation wording so they can get that into Elsa tomorrow morning.

They’re also going to make labels next week with their guests addresses on them, which I’m also going to enter into a google doc so we can all keep track of the RSVPs, which will be coming directly to me.

Third Checkbox: Photography

Monday, we’re meeting with Jen and Nate of B & G Photography, who are miraculously and thankfully available on 9/21. I’ll let you know how it goes.