Balanced Bride

Organization: The Key to Being a “Balanced Bride”

2010-11-29T10:01:00.000-08:00

The best thirty dollars a bride can spend is on her three-ring bible, her wedding binder. While there are many options on the market to buy, I highly suggest making your own. This allows for the binder to be large enough for all of the crucial information you will be accumulating over the next year or so as well as being perfectly tailored for your wedding planning needs. Remember, this can also be a fantastic engagement gift for a new bride to be. She’ll be thanking you every time she opens it up!
Here is a list of helpful items I suggest.
1. A four inch, three ringed binder (It may seem big and bulky now, but it will be stuffed by the end)
2. Binder Tabs with Clear Index Markers with pockets- Avery makes a great product and the pockets help keep brochures or paperwork together until you can file it away properly. Make sure you have extra in case you need additional tabs as your planning process progresses.
3. Portable three-hole punch that will clip into your binder- As you accumulate your papers, quickly punch holes in and file away so that items are not lost or misplaced.
4. Reinforcements for hole punched papers
5. Zipper binder pocket to be filled with pens, pencil, highlighter, whiteout, small calculator, small tape measure, post it flags and notes, a small bottle of Tylenol, mini pair of scissors and stapler, small hand sanitizer bottle and travel sized tissues.
6. Legal pad for notes

Some basic examples of helpful wedding tabs are:
Bridesmaids
Budget
Cake
Caterer
Ceremony
Ceremony Venue
Checklist/Calendar
Coordinator
Dress
Flowers
Gifts
Groomsmen
Guest List/Seating Chart
Hair/Makeup
Honeymoon
Hotel Accommodations
Invitations/Stationary
Lighting
Music
Officiant
Photographer
Reception Venue
Registry
Rehearsal Dinner
Rentals
Transportation
Videographer
Now the most important thing to remember is to label your binder with your name and contact information, just in case your beloved binder gets left behind on accident. ☺
Happy planning!

The Art of Being a Great Hostess

2010-09-14T09:44:00.000-07:00

“The perfect wedding “ is a dream of every bride across the globe spanning generations of women. Achieving the perfect wedding takes quite a bit of effort by brides everywhere and is often accompanied by a slew of wedding vendors and family members behind them in support. We all know the wedding is about the bride but somewhere in all of those tiny details very often the focus of being a great hostess too can slip through the cracks. Below are tips to help to be the best bridal hostess ever and to avoid common pitfalls that can leave messes to clean up after the honeymoon.

1. Starting from the beginning of the wedding planning process it is important to create the friendliest environment at the very start. The guest list. Make your list and check it twice, and three times, and four times till you get it right. The guest list is the epicenter of your entire wedding, it’s important to choose it wisely.

2. Plenty of wedding travel planning time. With the help of personalized wedding websites and “save the dates” giving your guests plenty of time to arrange travel plans and vacations is a great way keep them in your graces.

3. Information on the wedding destination: create a welcome package and itinerary for your guests upon arrival that detail the wedding event. Make sure to include details and directions to all of your key event locations as well as local happy hours to pass time, gather with other friends of the wedding or after hours locations for those who plan to keep the party rolling long after the band has stopped playing

4. There is nothing better then going to a wedding and sitting with a great group of people. When assigning seat arrangements for your reception do your best to keep the ex and new wives apart and the tables filled with like-minded people and laughter.

5. Food options at your wedding. This is very health conscious time for many of your guests. From a vegetarian option to food allergies it is an easy task to reach out to your banquet coordinator to help avoid a potentially dangerous situation if you are aware of some of your guests food limitations.

6. At the wedding, greet every last guest. This sounds like a daunting task depending in your wedding size, but it is one of your most important jobs on your wedding day. Remember these people are making financial and personal sacrifices to be preset at your nuptials. You can also try to cover your bases by getting the parents of the bride and groom in on this task. That way everyone feels well received and welcomed.

7. “Highway to Hell” and “Love Stinks” may be great songs to sing out loud in your car, but it has no place in your reception. Be sure to have a detailed conversation with your band or DJ about playing a wide variety of appropriate wedding music at your reception. This will help keep your two-year-old niece and great grandfather happy.

8. Thank you notes: Please, when the time comes be sure to put a lot of thought, personalization and sincerity in your thank you notes. Also, please make sure they arrive in a timely manner. If for some reason, they are tardy add a quick apology for its lateness. These things go a long way for your relationships.

When all else fails, obey the “Golden Rule” and have a fantastic wedding day filled with all the love and joy you deserve.

Mount Pleasant ~ East of the Cooper

2010-08-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

When researching venues, don't forget to check out Charleston's sister city, Mount Pleasant, just east of the peninsula across the Cooper River. Named one of only ten new All America Cities for 2010, Mount Pleasant has all the southern hospitality of the Lowcountry, with some modern twists.

The Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina has it all. Set along the banks of the Cooper River, your guests can grab a cocktail from The Reel Bar and relax pool side. Looking for more adventure? Stroll over to Patriot's Point and the marina for some sailing lessons, or take the water taxi to downtown Charleston and historic Fort Sumter. The private beach can be a beautiful setting for your ceremony. And with the on-site Indigo Grille and new spa (coming soon!) this resort has all the trimmings for a great, all-inclusive wedding destination!

Shem Creek, home to Charleston's shrimp boat fleet and just a few miles up the road from Patriot's Point, boasts both a jumping nightlife, and a foodie's dream come true. With fresh seafood brought in daily, you will be hard pressed to find better shrimp anywhere else in town. For classic Lowcountry fare, have your rehearsal dinner at Water's Edge Restaurant, recipient of Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence six years in a row, or stop by Vickery's for brunch. If you want to grab a few drinks with your wedding party, head over to Red's Ice House. With three bars to choose from -- an inside bar, the main bar outside overlooking the creek and the upper level deck -- Red's is a fun place to kick back and relax, any time of year. And if the party gets too wild, sleep it off at the cozy Shem Creek Inn, where every room has a private balcony with a view of the marsh.

Some other great locations east of the Cooper include the historic and breathtaking Boone Hall Plantation, one of America's oldest living and working plantations, and the inspiration for some scenes in "Gone With the Wind". Tidewater Chapel & Reception Hall, with its intimate, classy ambiance, was constructed exclusively for weddings, with vaulted, timber frame ceilings, a receiving garden and a main courtyard. The Creek Club at I'On, Alhambra Hall and the Cottages on Charleston Harbor are also very distinctive, very gorgeous sites that offer a variety of pampering and details that are sure to make your Big Day everything you ever dreamed it could be, and more.

What's a DW? Who is my MIL?

2010-08-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

Often times, forums and blogs will use acronyms when discussing the details of a wedding, and everything ~ and everyone! ~ involved with it (such as "DW" for Destination Wedding, or "MIL" for Mother-in-law). Here is a list of common acronyms that you may find while planning out your Big Day...

BCP ~ Birth control pills
BF ~ Boyfriend or Best Friend
BM ~ Bridesmaid or Best Man
BP ~ Bridal Party
B-pics ~ Boudoir Pictures
DH ~ Dear Husband
DOC ~ Day-Of Coordinator
DW ~ Destination Wedding
E-ring ~ Engagement Ring
E-party ~ Engagement Party
E-pics ~ Engagement Pictures
FG ~ Flower Girl
FH ~ Future Husband
FI ~ Fiance/e or "Future Intended"
FIL ~ Father-in-law
FILs ~ Future in-Laws
FBIL ~ Future Brother-in-law
FFIL ~ Future Father-in-law
FMIL ~ Future Mother-in-law
FSIL ~ Future Sister-in-law
GF ~ Girlfriend
GM ~ Groomsman
GTG ~ Get Together
HM ~ Honeymoon
JP / JOP ~ Justice of the Peace
LDR ~ Long-Distance Relationship
MIL ~ Mother-in-law
MOH ~ Maid / Matron of Honor
NWR ~ Not Wedding Related
OOT ~ Out-of-town
RB ~ Ring Bearer
RD ~ Rehearsal Dinner
SO ~ Significant Other
SDR ~ Short-Distance Relationship
STD ~ Save the Date
TTD ~ Trash the dress
VIP(s) ~ Very Important Person, referring to wedding party and immediate family
WIC ~ Wedding Industrial Complex

Pick a date, book your dream site!

2010-08-03T09:37:00.000-07:00

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Such can be said about destination weddings, especially if you don't give yourself enough time for all of the planning! Charleston continues to rank as a hot spot among the top five cities across the country for destination weddings, with Kiawah Island being named Most Romantic Beach by America's Best & Top Ten in 2009.

The city is home to dozens of fabulous restaurants and countless hotels and historic homes, but venues fill up quickly so you'll want to pick a date and make booking your dream wedding site your first priority! As a general rule of thumb, give yourself at least nine months to plan ~ or a full year, if you can swing it! And when you and your FH are discussing dates, be open to some flexibility; May and June tend to be the most popular months for Charleston weddings, followed closely by late August, September and October.

Welcome

2010-07-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

BalancedBride.com went live in January of 2009 for one reason and one reason only....I was ticked. In 2007 I moved to Charleston with a brand new ring on my finger and no idea how to plan a wedding, let alone do it in a brand new city.

I'm a web girl. I do all my research online and haven't used a library or yellow-pages since 1996. Therefore it only made sense to do my entire wedding planning online....but wait...there was no good source. The big sites like theknot.com only showed me the vendors that paid to be listed, not all my options. The smaller sites were unorganized and I found a ton of dead links and vendors no longer in business.

So fine, you want to be like that I'd do my own site! One with ALL the locations you can get married in Charleston, not just the top five. One that lets me sort by criteria that is important to me.

Now i will tell you this, this is site is ever changing. It did get put on the back burner for a few months while I brought a little girl into this world. But we're back on top now and there are some big changes and additions coming to BB. We will be having some guest bloggers and the discussion board is in development. If you know of a vendor we don't have please let me know. If you know of a vendor that we have listed incorrectly let me know that too.

My goal and the goal of BB is to have 100% of the wedding vendors in Charleston listed here. Any and all comments are welcome!