Real Life Bride : Week 4

Grant & I are pro pre-marital counseling and our therapist, Dr. T (for privacy) has told me that the #1 reasons why you fell in love with your spouse will most likely end up being the reasons that drive you mad.  A top reason I fell in love with Grant? He follows the rules.

We drove to Texas for Thanksgiving so Grant could meet the rest of my family.  We also had the chance to sit down with my parents (and my grandmother, “Meme”) to go over the guest list.  Grant had to do a bit of mediating in between it all. We were having a very hard time narrowing down whom to include from my deep Texas roots and came to the conclusion that we are going to have a “Post Wedding Celebration” in Texas so we can just invite everyone!  Is that weird?  I don’t know.

We stayed in Texas for a week and on the way home we hit some very heavy traffic just as we were both at our boiling points.  I suggested a short cut, which would cut us over the median (illegally).  What did Grant do?  He followed the rules.

Of course, Dr. T also says that we choose to marry someone who balances us out; someone who you can count on to pick up the slack for you in areas that are your weaknesses.  I tried remembering this as we sat in traffic for nearly 2 hours, but it all ended up being okay.   It gave us some time to talk about potential rehearsal dinner locations and other details.  I would have probably cut across the median, gotten a ticket resulting in a big fight and rehearsal venue conversations pushed. Good thing Grant “follows the rules” after all.

At the end of our drive we found ourselves singing along deliriously to Beatles tunes and I hope that if you ever take a road trip with your spouse-to-be that it ends just as well.

In Awesome News: We booked our honeymoon flights this week! We’re taking a less traditional trip and hitting up a part of the world neither of us have been to, and may not have the opportunity to return: We’re going to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand and Bali. 

I’m sure you won’t find us nit picking over whether to illegally cross a median on this trip!

Photos: (left) Grant & I opening our first joint bank account. (right) Me having too much fun at William-Sonoma.

Tip for Couples:  Open an airline credit card to rack up points for your honeymoon flights!

Planning Status:
Honeymoon – BOOKED!
Joint Wedding Account: Opened
Registry: Check
Guest List: Finalized

xoxo

Real Life Bride : Week 3

This week was pretty slow in wedding planning news. So, I’m taking this opportunity to really journal about a few wedding feelings I’ve been having lately.

My name is Jacey Lenae Duprie.  I love my name. Maybe it’s a bit narcissistic, but I think it’s more about family pride and loyalty.  Grant and I have discussed this numerous times, although the discussion is usually very short and sweet.  He truly doesn’t care if I change my last name to “Leavitt.”  In fact, he says he loves my name the way it is. I completely understand the desire to take your husbands last name, and I cannot wait to become a part of the Leavitt family.  Grant’s family has welcomed me with open arms.  However, for some reason the idea of changing my name makes me feel sad and like I am losing my identity in a way.  Shannon (my MOH) thinks I’m just being a “hippie” (don’t kill me Shan.) And I’m sure 50% of the readers will agree. It’s a touchy subject I suppose.  But what is this weekly column for other than to help guide me through the process of becoming a “Mrs. “ A Mrs. Jacey Lenae Duprie? Now that isn’t right.  I’ve told Grant that I’m 100% giving our future hopeful children his name.  And he assures me that he is 100% happy with me keeping my name as is.

Everyone has his/her own opinion.  Maybe it’s all just a process and I’ll mature into the idea. We’ll see.  All that matters to me is that Grant is happy and I am happy, and we are.  At the end of the day I guess a name is just a name, or is it something more? Something symbolic? You can look at it either way.

Speaking of “Family” and names – have I mentioned how AWESOME the Leavitt family is?  Grant and his Mom surprised me with an engagement announcement in the newspaper. So sweet!! And don’t even get me started on Mr. Leavitt (err…Chase) and Grant’s siblings.  I would be so lucky as to take on their last name….

Here’s me and the Leavitt clan minus Grant’s Mom – We’re at the USC Football Game – they are HUGE USC fans.

To change or not to change?  That’s still up in the air, but one thing that’s no in question is how lucky I feel to be a part of this family.

Planning Status:


We are mailing our deposits and contracts for several vendors next week!

Starting to address the Save –The-Dates

Real Life Bride : Week 2

 I love this picture, it's the cover of a card.  My best friend and Maid of Honor, Shannon, gave it to me because we both got engaged this year and are simultaneously planning our weddings. I suppose most people would think it’s dangerous planning a wedding in the same year as your best friend (insert “Bride Wars” joke here), but it’s honestly been so nice.  Shannon’s wedding is in June 2011 and ours is in September 2011, so when she checks something off her timeline list, I know that leaves me about a month to do so myself. The most recent box to check off the timeline to do list? Buy your wedding dress.

The hunt started online.  I was certain I had picked out my dress without stepping foot in a store (I was wrong).  Sadly, I’m the girl who has to have a new dress for every special occasion, party, event, holiday… My profession is in the fashion industry and I love to shop, so I figured that dress shopping would be a cakewalk (I was wrong again).

I was really nervous try on my first wedding dress, I’m not going to lie.  The thought of Carrie Bradshaw fainting in that one episode of Sex & The City kept running through my mind over and over.  I took a few deep breaths, walked in to Monique Lhuillier and tried one on… and that is how my newest shopping addiction was born.  I fell in love with trying on wedding dresses. Week after week I would visit and re-visit bridal salons all over Los Angeles; I’m sure the sales associates were thrilled.

After all of that, I ended up finding “the one” in New York. My Mom and I planned a mini-vacation to the big apple for dress shopping, which ended up being a great success.  On our last day, we visited Vera Wang, where we both just knew we’d found it.  I thought I had a “gut feeling” with other dresses but this one just overwhelmed the rest. I. Love. Her.  While I’m sad to put an end to my latest shopping addiction, I’m thrilled that I have my dress!! Below is a picture of my Mom and I just after leaving the store.

I wish I could share pictures of my dress with you, but Grant is keeping in tune with tradition and doesn’t want to see the dress until the big day (which I’m very happy with).

All I can say is she is perfect!  I am happy to report that I have checked off yet another box from the timeline to-do list.  I wonder what Shannon will have in store for me next week.

Planning status:
Wedding Dress: Ordered
Bridesmaids Dresses: Narrowed Down
Bachelorette Party Location: Check
Save-The-Date List? Took it home to Texas Thanksgiving to review with the parents.

xoxo

Real Life Bride : The Save The Date Video

Just to let everyone know, I don't edit my real life brides in ANY way. I want them to share exactly what they believe best represents their wedding planning journey, BUT, to say I was disappointed that Jacey only included a small little link to her save-the-date video would be an understatement. This video lets everyone get to know the couple that much more and I had to share it immediately. I think watching it will make you fall instantly in love with this couple just like Susie and I have!

Brand Spankin' New "Real Life Bride" : Week 1

 

Let the wedding blogging, loving, smiling, stressing and planning begin! The above picture pretty much sums up our lives to date:  Grant and I, hanging on for dear life to each other, as the world around us spins out of control, morphing into something new – but at the end of this journey, and at the end of him twirling me around, we will be left standing with our arms around each other, smiling and laughing about the ride. At least we hope – Ha!

Grant popped the question about 6 months ago and we both agreed that we wanted a nice, long engagement.  We also knew that we wanted a fall wedding in Los Angeles, September particularly, because it is the nicest time of year with ideal weather.  So we’re set to wed: September 24, 2010. T-Minus 322 Days.

We had our engagement party about a month ago at the Soho House in West Hollywood. It was a perfect opportunity for our families to meet and greet everyone. It was also a great warm up to what we can expect for the wedding. A few lessons we learned:
1.    Get everything in writing. We got taken for by the limo company as they charged us $250 one-way to shuttle guests to/from the hotel, not $250 total like we were told.  Now it’s a “he said, she said” battle.
2.    Food is necessary when serving alcohol. Shoes were off by 11pm and our guests could barely walk out of the place. Which actually isn’t too bad, but we felt a little guilty when friends called from their bed at 3pm the next day.
3.    When the party starts, have fun.  Grant and I learned that when the first guest showed up, that meant it was time to let go of any finishing touches and enjoy the party.  

We had a BLAST.  Our friend Andrea Trujillo at A.SweeT made an awesome candy table with custom lolli-pops.  My parents flew us some cotton from my Dad’s farm in Texas, so we had HollyFlora implement it in the floral arrangements. We also had temporary tattoo’s made and put them in the bathroom.  Beth & Susie recommended “StrayTats.com” where you can upload your own images and funny sayings. While it was a lot of fun getting to help our parents throw an awesome engagement party, we are so relieved that we have Beth Helmstetter to help us with our wedding plans! I can’t imagine doing it all on my own.

So right now we are forging ahead with wedding to do’s.  This week we met with a catering company and had a taste-test, which I absolutely love.  For some reason going to meet with caterers makes me feel like we are officially getting married. I think about all of the wedding movies I’ve seen and remember how I’ve always pictured getting to do it one day, and here we are.

Grant and I are also in the process of getting ready to mail out our save-the-dates, which we’ve found to cause a bit of tension.  I was convinced that Grant’s guest list had 50% more people on it than mine.  So, we finally sat down and divided the list in to two: Jacey vs. Grant.  Being an extremely competitive person, I was a sore loser when I found out my list had 45 more people on it than Grant’s.  Needless to say, we are making some adjustments before we start the addressing.

Planning status:
Wedding coordinator - Booked
Venue – SmogShoppe, deposit made
Photographer – Secured. As you can by the above pictures, we love our photog. Friend Lauren Ross
We have a few bands, a videographer and other things in mind but haven’t made deposits.  Stay tuned!

If you would like to get to know us more, you can visit our wedding website: www.grantheartsjacey.com where you can watch our “Save The Date Video,” read the story of us and see more pictures. 

 

xoxo

Shipping for your Destination Weddings

I think we all know how much I love destination weddings. There are definitely a lot of pros such as a more intimate experience overall. They last several days typically than the average wedding and I could go on and on and on. But, there are obviously cons too which we'll cover all of them another day, but today, let's chat about shipping. Shipping for a destination wedding can literally add hundreds if not THOUSANDS of dollars to your budget. Depending on the location, how remote it is and your level of taste, be prepared to leave a little room for shipping many items you need. It might be the perfect vases you want your local florist to use or just something as simple as the items for your welcome bags or even just the personal decor that you spent hours upon hours perfecting. In the end, I, of course, it's all worth it if it means creating a day that's unique to you, but just be sure to pad those numbers a bit so you're not shocked in the end. Also, if you are planning to keep any of the items you shipped to the destination after the wedding, leave a little room in your budget to ship things back. That tends to be an even bigger surprise to many destination couples as it's an easy expense to overlook. Often we actually donate many of the items to the venue, florist or even good will following our events, but on occasion our clients will spend hundreds, if not THOUSANDS to get those same items back to their hometown...

Planning a Destination Wedding Weekend

I'm gearing up for a four day destination wedding celebration next week on the Big Island at the amazing Four Seasons Hualalai (that's it above...literally one of my favorite hotels on earth), which put me in the mood to share some tips for all of you destination brides out there starting to plan your multi-day celebration. If you’re just getting started with the planning, you are already thinking of the obvious: Who will do my hair and makeup? Who is the best photographer? What will my bouquet look like? If you are like most destination brides, it isn’t until a little further in the planning process that you realize you have not only invited guests to your wedding but you have invited them on vacation. You have suddenly taken on the roles of bride, travel agent, concierge and event planner. This can be tons of fun but also a lot of pressure. Here are my top six tips to get you through hosting a destination wedding celebration:

1. Allow guests to enjoy their vacation. While they are there to celebrate your union, there is also a part of each guest that is looking forward to some down time. Because of this, don’t feel obligated to plan every minute for them. Let guests have enough time to relax and plan activities on their own.

2. Use the culture of your destination to shape events. Your guests will want to explore the activities that can only be done at the destination of your choice. Take your guests to a wine tour rather than a traditional rehearsal dinner when in Napa, or introduce them to the Caribbean with a welcome party consisting of Mojitos, steel drums and a sunset sail.

3. Create an itinerary and list of recommended activities. Outline for your guests the events they are invited to, as well as some additional activities that they may enjoy. The itinerary can go out with your invitations or they can be sent separately one month before traveling to allow your guests to plan their down time. Don't forget to put another copy in their welcome bag along with a map of the area.

4. Don't feel obligated to pay for everything. If hoping to extend your wedding celebration throughout the week with a welcome party, morning after brunch, etc. but have a limited budget, do not stress. Discuss with your families who will be hosting each event. Have his parents pay for the welcome party if your parents are hosting the wedding and reception. For other activities that you would like to arrange but can't afford to host, put out an "optional" invite letting them know the expense affiliated should they decide to go. Not everyone will join, but if you arrange an activity that the guests were likely going to do on their own anyway, then you should have a good attendance rate.

5. Have all of your guests stay in the same area if possible. The beauty of a destination wedding is it allows you and your fiancé’s families to come together for an entire week. If everyone is staying all over the island or city you are in, your guests will not have as much opportunity to get to know each other. On the other hand, planning accommodations for all your guests can be a logistical nightmare. Solve this by providing accommodation information in your invitations or save-the-dates. Include information only on hotels and condos that will keep your guests near the party. After the wedding, if you and your fiancé want privacy, consider sneaking off to another city or even just another hotel.

6. Don’t take everything on yourself. Planning a destination wedding and reception alone can take a lot of time and research. Depend on the professionals within your reach like your wedding planner, travel agent or even the concierge at the hotel you will be staying at to organize events and activities for you and your guests.