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wedding budget

How Much Does a Wedding Really Cost?

A challenge that virtually every couple faces as they start planning a wedding is answering the question that almost every potential vendor asks: “What is your budget?”

It’s frustrating for engaged couples, who have never planned a wedding before and therefore don’t have any idea how much things should cost. It’s frustrating for wedding pros who get inquiries with numbers that are far too low for our products and services.

So I thought I’d give it to you straight.

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5 Steps to Hiring a Wedding Planner

5 Steps to Hiring a Wedding Planner | Learn how to evaluate and choose your wedding planner plus what happens after you decide who to hire.

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Q. How Can I Find an Affordable Wedding Planner?

Q. How Can I Find an Affordable Wedding Planner? A. Since “affordable” means something different to everyone, you will first need to decide what you can budget for wedding planning.

Aisle Less Traveled weddings

2010-2019 Decade in Review

I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling reflective as the decade comes to a close. It’s been 10 years of learning, art, failure, success, and love. Here are some of the highlights and favorite weddings.

thoughts and musings

Why Are Wedding Planners So F*cking Expensive? (Part 1)

Update: I wrote a part two that talks more about the cost of full-service planning and design. Read it here. You should also know that

You'll have time to eat with a professional wedding planner managing your day.

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5 Reasons You Should Skip the Affordable “Wedding Coordinator” Your Venue Offers

Lately, I’ve seen a trend of venues and other vendors who are not wedding planners offering “day-of-coordination” as an inexpensive add-on to their packages or even including it at no charge. This seems like a big bonus to engaged couples, but is it really all it’s cracked up to be?

Here are five reasons why you should think twice before working with a coordinator from any wedding vendor other than a wedding planner.

Bride and Groom with Cupcake Tower and Wedding Guests

feminist

Women, Weddings, and Emotional Labor

Weddings Are No Exception to the Gendered Division of Emotional and Meta Labor
It should come as no surprise that emotional labor is part of every wedding. Weddings are centered around living up to social expectations, managing people’s feelings, and making people comfortable. I’m sure you’ve already reached the not-at-all-shocking conclusion that women are doing the majority of the emotional labor for weddings, just as in everyday work and home life.

Pam, left, in a navy blue top and khaki trousers stands with Mary, right, in a navy blue wrap dress during their Chicago elopement. Pam wears a wrist corsage; Mary holds a colorful bouquet. Chicago Elopement Mary Pam Wedding 109 Evanston Ceremony

Aisle Less Traveled weddings

Mary & Pam’s Chicago Elopement After 17 Years Together

One afternoon last summer, I was scrolling emails on my phone when a new inquiry popped up. “I think you might understand our unique situation,” it said, “Can you help us come up with a cool wedding that we will love to remember? And save my sanity???”

You see, after 17 years together, with marriage equality becoming law nationwide, Mary and Pam could finally be legally married. And like many LGBTQ+ couples, they’d believed they would never be able to get married, so they hadn’t spent any time dreaming up the perfect wedding in their heads.