Meet The Wedding Planner!

If you remember this post, Eiffel and I were excited to have made probably the smartest decision about the wedding.  It took a lot of pressure off of us, our schedule and gave both of us sanity with regards to planning the wedding.

If that last statement wasn't enough of a hint, I'll put it out in the open:  We got a wedding planner!  To briefly explain things, Eiffel's co-worker is married to a wedding planner, so after hearing about this Eiffel and I decided that it wouldn't hurt to speak and learn more about what they do.  We met up with Tammy no too long after and we knew it was a match that was meant to be.

Since making the decision to work with Tammy, we have have gotten more sleep, less stress and the bags under my eyes have entirely disappeared!

Meeting with Tammy, she gave the impression of knowledge and wisdom with regards to planning events, and she was just a pleasure to meet and work with.  Having her act as an advocate and planner for us, she told us that from the beginning of the day to the end of the day we would need to do NOTHING but relax while she took care of all the details.

For guys in general, I would have to say that I'm an exception with regard to knowing how a wedding works since I'm a wedding photographer by trade, but being on the other side and planning out every detail of the big day was something that I didn't fully appreciate until I got to this side of the equation.  Knowing that Tammy will be there to work with us has been reassuring and will definitely allow us to focus on other things for the wedding day.  Something Eiffel and I are so incredibly thankful for.

Ok so that was the first revelation, here's the 2nd one.

Part of what Tammy asked of us was to gather entire wedding party together to meet with her, get to know her and for her to get to know them.  Let me tell you, setting up a meeting for 17+ people and trying to coordinate so many schedules is quite trying.  I was just happy to be able to have everyone meet for one hour.  I don't know how Tammy does it for a living!


Now here's something that I want to recommend for everyone if they need to coordinate a meeting with people that are not in town....

Use Google Plus Hangouts

Coordinating the meeting wasn't just about getting everyone within the area to meet at one location and one time.  We had to deal with people that were out of state as well.  My sister lives in California, one of Eiffel's cousins lives in Colorado, Another lives in California also, and two people lived over an hour away from the meeting location.

With hangouts from Google Plus we were able to set up a mass meeting online for everyone so that they could see and hear and interact with Tammy while she was giving the same presentation to us.  It worked seamlessly and some of the people from out of town were able to ask and have their questions answered from Tammy at the same time we were asking questions!


The meeting went incredibly well!  People that came to the meeting not knowing exactly what to do were able to walk out confident that anything that they had questions on or needed would be taken care of by Tammy.  I personally remember that I had little idea of what I was supposed to do when I was a best man for my best friend's wedding.  Tammy was reassuring, confident, and on top of everything during the meeting and it helped to calm everyone's nerves.

With the first major meeting of the year down and in the books, everyone felt relieved and Tammy will coordinate with eveyrone via email about what's to come in the next few months.

It's only 8 months away from our wedding.  I can hardly believe that!  And with time flying so quickly I look forward to standing in the aisle and seeing Eiffel walk down it this September 2nd.

=)

Finally... OUR WEDDING YEAR!

As soon as 2012 came at midnight of January 1st, that's when Marc and I realized that we're getting married SOON and things are going to be happening FAST.  As of this month, we are officially halfway through our engagement. Freakin' insane! We're nervous because we are well aware of how hectic things will get soon, but we are incredibly thrilled to just. be. married.

With the new year also comes the improved Eiffel of 2012 =)  Every day, I learn more and more about Marc and the intricacies of how he reacts to certain circumstances whether positive or negative.  And I'm slowly but surely making adjustments to make sure he is getting what he needs as my partner rather than being selfish and expecting him to always cater to my needs and forgetting about his.  I've shared with Marc that I'm working on this, and he has been 110% supportive.  Whenever he notices that I bite my tongue, lend an ear rather than attempt to fix his problems, take a deep breath instead of allowing my emotions to take over, giving him the time he needs to think things over, refraining from being a backseat driver, etc... Marc is so great about recognizing it and applauding me for making positive changes. You would think that this stuff would be easy for me since I'm trained in counseling, but a client vs. a fiance is so different. But I will do my best to transfer the counseling/listening skills I learned from school into my relationship.  We'll see how that goes ;)  

Back to wedding stuff... thanks to the help of Marc's sister, I have finalized the bridesmaid dresses!  The best thing about the dress is that it's affordable and comfortable! That only means that my bridesmaids have no excuses to not be on the dance floor the entire wedding night!! And I'm so serious about that statement =P  Then we'll be moving onto finding the shoes for me and the bridesmaids and a dress for my flower girls. We're still searching for our videographer and DJ.  Those are the only vendors we haven't hired yet.  Then I'll be asking some aunts and uncles to be sponsors/ninongs/ninangs for me and Marc by this weekend.  That just sounded like one jumbled paragraph.  Eh. Anyways....

CHEERS to 2012... a year to GET MARRIED!!!

Our first picture of 2012 :) Happy New Year everyone!