I would have never thought that 10 years later I would be married to that boy at the wrestling matches, a wedding planner and a blogger. But here and I am, and I am SO incredibly excited for 2010! I’m making lists, rearranging things, and I feel like my head is going to explode with ideas and all of the things I want to do. I’m never one to make a “New Year Resolution”, I more of a planning and list-making kind of person. So, of course, I have to share some of these plans for 2010!

- Photo shoots for {ELD}…more to come soon, but GET EXCITED!!

- Building the {ELD} blog and making it a source for brides to find inspiration, resources, and insight into wedding planning

- Working a TON of events with MMD Events

- Prepping for the launch of Every Last Detail Events, estimated to be by 2011

- Learning and growing every single day

- Attending at least 1 seminar or conference focused on the wedding industry

- Everything that’s in store for the wedding industry in general!

These are just a FEW of the things that are running through my head right now. I just had to get some of them down on “paper”! How about you guys…what are you planning for 2010? Is there anything that you would like to see on {ELD}? I’ll be back to the regular posting schedule next week, but I’m always open to any suggestions!

And I want opinions…are you saying “twenty ten” or “two thousand and ten”? I’m think “two thousand and ten”, but I have a feeling it’s going to develop into just “twenty ten”….whatever it ends up being, it’s still 2010!!!

In case you haven’t been following the blog since the very beginning, I thought I would share a little bit about what 2009 has meant to me!

In no particular order….

- I graduated college with a totally different degree than I planned for upon entering
- I married my best friend and high school sweetheart, and had probably one of the best weddings my hometown will see in a while, so the guests say (until I start planning the weddings there of course)

- I started The Design Grove in July, and dove head first into the wedding industry
- I attended a wedding planner certification course and started apprenticing with different companies in the Tampa wedding industry, learning SO MUCH along the way
- I lost my job that I was miserable at, which turned out to be an incredibly HUGE blessing
- I was offered another “dead-end” job, had a revelation, turned it down, and decided to pursue my passion of working in the wedding industry
- Less than two weeks after being unemployed I took a job with the company I was apprenticing with, and for the first time ever I LOVE going to “work” and love my bosses and what I do!
- Relaunched my blog as Every Last Detail to coincide more with what I aim to achieve with blogging
- Realized the incredible power of Twitter- the relationships made as well as the social networking amazingness
- Discovered the importance of having quality wedding vendors and doing research

It may not seem like much, but for a girl who wanted to be a dentist two years ago, I would have NEVER thought that I would be working in the wedding industry. If someone had told me a year ago that I would be a wedding planner and have a blog, I would have had a chuckle out of that. I have seriously been so incredibly blessed this year, and although nothing went the way I planned (except for a teeny bit of my wedding), I have learned to follow my heart and the gut feelings I have.

I want to thank EVERYONE who has supported me along the way and helped me realize my true potential (that’s my husband, family, friends, my bosses, and all of my Twitter friends)!

It’s definitely a journey, and I’m just now embarking on it. I can’t wait to see what 2010 and the next decade has in store for me!!

In January (described in more detail here), I was told about Style Me Pretty. From then on, I was forever a member of the blogosphere. There are so many things that I would have done differently if I had been reading blogs earlier on in my wedding planning, as I’ve said several times in my blogging.

Photo from author’s personal collection

I decided that when I returned from the honeymoon, I was going to start a wedding blog. But I didn’t want to start a blog just because I was still in love with weddings. I started this blog because I want to help other brides, bridesmaids, mothers of brides, basically whoever is involved in a wedding! I want to provide tips and tricks to brides so their planning experience is fun and their wedding day goes smoothly.

I realized that I was one of the first in my circle of friends to get married, and therefore I didn’t have anyone to go to for advice. At times, I know I was annoying my friends and mother with discussions of bridesmaid dresses, invitations, monograms, flowers, the list goes on and on. There were times that I felt like I had nowhere to turn for answers to questions about my wedding.

So brides, grooms, bridesmaids, mothers, fathers, whoever is reading: feel free to ask me questions! If you need some ideas, you can’t decide on a monogram, invitations, centerpieces, whatever it may be, two heads are better than one! I would have loved to have someone to collaborate with on some of the decisions I had to make when planning my wedding. Leave me a comment, or send me an email. I will be more than happy to help!

Photo by CvB Photography

In my few months of blogging and connecting with others in the wedding industry, I’ve realized that I truly do want to help others enjoy their wedding day. I’m working to gain more experience in the wedding industry so one day I can physically be there to help brides have the best wedding day that is possible!

So, for my friends, family, blog readers, and anyone else who was wondering, this is why I blog! I absolutely love doing it, and I can’t wait to share more with everyone!

When planning a wedding, time is precious, especially if you have other priorities, such as a job, school, or children. One of the reasons that I started this blog was to help others who don’t have the time to search the internet for inspiration. I spent hours scouring the internet, reading through blogs, and perusing TheKnot to find inspiration for my wedding. I found amazing ideas, and mostly all of them were found on blogs, but the amount of time that I spent to find them was enormous!

Now my passion for weddings has led me to pursue a career in the wedding industry. I want to focus on helping others to maximize their time spent planning their wedding, but also make sure they enjoy it!

Time management and organization are crucial when planning a wedding. Just a few tips when it comes to these things:

• It is wise to have a planner for your appointments, whether it’s on an electronic device or a physical planner. Combine your personal appointments, wedding appointments, and business appointments in one planner so you are able to keep track of everything.
• Try to set aside a specific time of day for certain things if you’re finding yourself overridden with things to do. An example could be doing wedding related things from 7 pm to 8 pm only.
• Have a place to jot down ideas, questions, or things you think of. Keep a mini notebook in your purse, send yourself emails, or have a place on your phone to jot things down.

It’s all about managing your time wisely and keeping your thoughts and ideas organized.

These are some items that will help make your life a bit easier. We can certainly all benefit from organizing our lives!

Wedding Organizer from Russell and Hazel

Laurel Denise 2010 Planner

The WeekDate

Stylish Adhesive Note Set from Russell and Hazel

Big Idea Adhesive Notes from Russell and Hazel

The Pocket Book from Russell and Hazel

{Can you tell I’ve fallen in love with Russell and Hazel?}

If you feel like you’re spending too much time searching for inspiration and ideas for your wedding, I would love to help out! Just drop me a line!

Since I couldn’t pick just one, I decided to make a collage of my favorite photos to send out!

It’s going to be somewhat small, but all the pictures are clearly visible. I can even pick out specific people in the group shot. I wanted everyone to see it since you were all a part of my decision to make it! Thanks again!

• Look at all the different designers and styles.
• Go and try some on, with NO intentions of buying at all.
• Know what style and fabric you like.

Well, I made a huge mistake. I did look at what I liked. I knew what style I liked. I knew I wanted lace. But I didn’t buy it. I bought something different than what I had been looking for. It was the first time trying on dresses, and the first store I went to. I went to another store, didn’t find what I wanted, and went back and got the dress. I was rushed due to other people’s schedule constraints. I wanted my wedding dress.

Don’t get caught up in the moment!

I now tell all of my friends that they are NOT allowed to buy a dress on the first day of looking. So now I’m sharing that advice with all of you.

I should have known, my mom should have known, my sister should have known. Maybe if my best friend had been there, she would have known. When buying a SHIRT, I have to search all of the stores in the mall before buying it. We should have known.
5 months after purchasing the dress and 3 months of the dress sitting in the dress shop, I became very upset. I could not walk down the aisle and be married in the dress I had. It just wasn’t me. I thought about it for months. I tried to convince myself that it was fine, that I did like it. It sounds awful, but it happens all too often to other brides.

So, I went on a covert mission-to a different bridal shop by myself. I tried on dresses in their “Boutique” section of the store (aka cheaper than the $5000 dresses), and found 2 dresses I loved so much better than the one I had.
Then I brought my sister there. She loved it. My wonderful husband (then fiance of course) saw how upset I was and said it was okay to put the dress on our credit card so my parents wouldn’t have to buy another dress. He hadn’t even seen the first dress or the new dress. What a keeper.
So I told my mom. She was NOT happy. She didn’t speak to me for a few days, and I finally convinced her that I really wanted her to see it before I purchased it. So she did. She convinced ME to keep looking, since the dress I had found wasn’t PERFECT.

Well, I didn’t get THAT dress, but a whirlwind of going to stores within a 120 mile radius began. I knew the brand I wanted, and it had to be lace. When I wasn’t completely in love with anything, I went to the designer’s website that I frequented pretty much every day, and wrote down all of the style numbers of the dresses I liked. I then emailed and called stores that were further than a one hour drive, and asked them how many of those styles they had.
Having done my research, my mom drove down to Bonita Springs (2.5 hour drive) with me one Thursday morning. We walked into the small store and dresses just lined the walls. It was amazing how much they fit in a tiny store! I probably tried on 20 dresses, and we were there for 3 hours. The dress I ended up getting wasn’t even on the rack- they had just received it the day before, and it came straight out of the box. Thankfully, for this reason, we were able to take it home with us that day.

I was so blessed that my mom was agreeable with this whole ordeal, and she did admit that my new dress was so much better than the first one. And yes, I’m still absolutely in love with it. I’m planning on wearing it for our 10 year anniversary. That’s the plan anyways.

The moral of this story is: Don’t buy a dress the first day you look!

Since it was raining, we weren’t able to get any extra time for photos at the Country Club of Ocala, where the reception was being held. We also weren’t able to get the “preview” of the ballroom before our Grand Entrance.
Therefore, I was in shock when we were announced and we walked into our Reception. (You can see it in my face in one of the pictures below) It was so much more than I expected it be, and I have Dan from Unforgettable Events to thank for putting everything together so beautifully.

We had 2 desserts! Bananas Foster and wedding cake, which was so pretty I didn’t want to cut into!


My brother was unable to attend due to a deployment to Afghanistan, but he sent a speech to his best friend to read to make up for his absence. It was heart wrenching for my family because we kept thinking he was going to be able to make it, but especially for me, because if it weren’t for him, Schuyler and I would have never met.

All of the guests that I’ve talked to have said that they had a ball at the wedding, which is exactly what we wanted. My only regret is that we don’t have more pictures of the reception, since the photographer left before everything was over (another post for later). However, thanks to Facebook, I do have some candid photos from my friends and family.

More photos of the decor and design elements can be found at the previous post Real Wedding: Lauren & Schuyler Part 1.

I hope you enjoyed reliving my wedding day with me through all of the posts this week! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Vendors:
*Photography: CVB-Photography
*Flowers and Decor: Unforgettable Events
*Cake: Ms Debbie’s Sugar Art
*Venue: Country Club of Ocala
*Event Coordinator: Radiant Events by Jaye
*Paper Design and Printing: The Design Grove

Little did we know that a (then rare) Florida afternoon thunderstorm was brewing, and as we walked out of the church, it was a race to get a few pictures and then make it to Ocala’s Historic Downtown Square.

The picture from the previous post “The Story Behind Lauren & Schuyler” was the necessity, and we were able to fit in a few more before the clouds starting looming above.

We raced to where the rest of the bridal party, and got juuuuust a few pictures with the whole bridal party before the skies opened on us.

Sadly, there were many more photos that I wish we had the chance to get. However, we have no control over nature. They say it’s good luck to have rain on your wedding day though, right?

Up next: Reception Photos!

*All photos by CVB Photography

The ceremony was in a Catholic church, and was scheduled to start at 1 PM, which meant having to begin the getting ready process bright and early. Thankfully, all of the girls were so excited that waking up early was not a problem at all.

The girls kept telling me I was so calm, and honestly, yes I was. I think they were all more nervous than I was. I had waited for the day for a very, very long time. There was nothing at all to be nervous or anxious about.
However, yes, I was VERY excited- for everything to come together, and most of all, to have my best friend become my husband.

Up next: The Ceremony!

*Photos by CVB Photography