Devil in the Details

I have 70-something days until my wedding and last week was about as close to a meltdown as I could possibly get. Having set up the venue for the ceremony and reception almost a year ago, bought a dress, picked a menu, and picked out bridal party attire I figured all I had left were the little things.

Turns out its the little things that nearly drove me off a cliff last week....

1. The first fiasco was that my future mother-in-law called and let me know that the never ending search for the cake continues. This wouldn't have been a problem until she told me that the "back up" baker we had the next town over called and canceled on us since we didn't commit yet. Couldn't blame her though--we were shopping for someone better. But that wasn't a big deal---worse case scenario we get cupcakes.

2. The millionth florist that I have called is still quoting me in the $2000's. I don't know if I want to spend that money on flowers that will be tossed out . I need to either get over the fact that flowers, if I want them, cost a lot of money, or I can just minimize the flowers. I don't know where my heart falls yet.

3. I had a terrible experience with a printer for my invitations. I had been communicating with a printer for almost a month now. The student designing my invites was away studying at Oxford so I had to hold off on getting them done sooner. She came back, the invitation designs looked fantastic, and I was happy. So I contact the printer, he tells me to come by and bring him the files and we would get started, not problem. Plus, he was only charging me less than $150 to print out a total of 400 pcs of paper.

So I show up on the day of my appointment, thumbdrive in hard, files perfectly set with a 1/8 " bleed. I get there and this place is---well, less than professional looking. Then I wait for 45 minutes because he was meeting with a customer who walked in (he even saw me, waved, and resumed meeting with someone as my appointment time ticked by). Once he was done and could finally meet with me, I give him the thumbdrive and he says, "I can't pull your files, my computer doesn't have a USB drive." Not only that, but his computer couldn't support the .pdf files of the invitations. I was ok with that because I could easily convert the files and email them to him in a more compatible format--but what really got to me was that after waiting almost an hour past my appointment time, he looked at me and said, "I can't meet with you today. I just realized I am running late. Can you come back next week?"

No. I couldn't. Invites have to go out soon. I was devastated. I had driven out (way out) to see this vendor just to be told that they were too busy to meet with me on the day that I was scheduled to meet with them. I spent the rest of the day frantically looking for a new printer who would print my invitations and inserts for less than the $350+ I was getting quoted around the area.

Good news is that I did find someone and my invitations are ready to be picked up tomorrow. I will certainly post pics once they are all assembled. They look wonderful and they make the whole wedding really feel like it's coming together.

So lessons learned:

- Don't be so last minute: I should have known that the wedding was going to creep up. I should have anticipated more snags in the planning process. I know that I am a huge procrastinator and planning my wedding was not going to change that.

- Be positive: As awful as my experience was with the printer, I should not have had as big a meltdown as I did. Overreacting definitely did nothing for me and in the end it worked out...it always does, doesn't it?

Now that all of that is solved and taken care of, I do have great news, which is my dress is done and ready. I went to Angie who did a phenomenal job with making me pockets, fixing the neckline, and doing the bustle and hem. She was worth the drive! After a year I still love my dress!

So this week I am checking off invitations and dress of my to do list. Now I just have to wait for those RSVPs to start rolling in so I can start working on escort cards, programs, and the menu. It's all the tiny details now that are starting to pile up. I am pretty sure I have to rework my "to do" list.

Have you hit any snags in planning? What are the little wedding details that you're working on now or what have you decided to just toss out completely?