www.myrockstarwedding.com

I love my wedding website. Sorry, "our" website :)

I looked at all the free wedding weDsites (yes, "weDsites"):

Wedding Announcer

My Wedding

Although these would do the job, there are way too many pages to choose from that we don't need.

Then there's wedding weDsites that charge a fee:

Wed Quarters charges $29.95 a year.

Again, too many pages to choose from and for a fee, I'd rather have a personal website than www.wedquarters/alisonandjer.com

So what did we do?

So, I went with a website that did cost a small fee, allowed be to customize as much/as little as I want, AND I could choose my own web address.

I present to you from Go Daddy ...

www.myrockstarwedding.com

I love our website. I spent hours on this and had many eyes look through this to tweak it here and there.

Our website has all the info our wedding guests need without indulging into the nitty gritty. It has the basics. The date, start time, venue info, hotel info, who's who (ie our "rockstars"), links to our vendors, RSVP and a guest book. As my dad would say "Bingo, Bangom Bongo" (aka done and done).

Best part, is after the wedding, I can rework this website to whatever I want. Maybe talk about how great of a wife I am? To be determined :)

Go check it out! You'll only get to the home page (unless you know the secret password) but at least you'll water your tastebuds craving more!!

For you boys ... "Stag Perfection"

Let's talk stags. One upon a time this was known as the "last day of freedom" for the groom. It was the last time to get inebriated upon recognition with "the boys".

I've heard of friend's being whisked away to Vegas, New York, Halifax, St John's. All awesome, but WAY expensive and limits the number of boys who can attend due to taking time off work and/or finances. Then I've heard stags that consisted of 6 men, and a LAME time. I blame that to lack of prep work by the Bestman.

I introduce you to what I call "Stag Perfection"



It has a little something for everyone: food, video game, bowling, pool, booze, and ending the night with the traditional visit to the nuddie bar.

BOYS, did you notice that each venue had an associated time attached to it? This is called planning! This is what you do so those who cannot attend for the entire day know where you will be and at what time. Crazy concept hey?

I heard back from Jane on this event (Jane is the groom's bride). She told me he had a blast and almost every guy that went, went for the entire day. That's what I call a successful, well planned out Stag.

Top 6 things to do while planning a stag (if done by a woman):

1 - Pick a date 2 months in advance and let the grooom and attendees know that date so they can keep it open.

2 - Plan the day or night's schedule. That doesn't mean pick something the day of. CALL the venues and see what they have to offer. Perhaps they have specials? or maybe they're even associated with another venue? Try not to limit just one place (ie nuddie bar) cause you will find not everyone who can come, will come.

3 - Communicate the times you will be at each venue to the attendees so they know where you will be when. This will also let those know where you will be going in case Grampa Joe doesn't want to go to the nuddie bar. This upfront honestly can also be seen as "no surprises" and you're boys will appreciate this. TRUST ME!!

4 - Make sure that there is LOTS of food to counter the booze in-take. This will ensure everyone can enjoy the entire night.

5 - Ask each guy to chip in a set amount of cash to cover the costs for the groom. Nothing sucks more then being out $200 at the end of the night while others chipped in $0. This ensures the groom has a good time and everyone contributed to his happiness.

6 - Don't drink and drive. Have a DD, take the TTC, rent a limo. Whatever you do, don't be an idiot when there are options, options, options.

At the end of the day, the day is about the groom. Don't plan a stag you'd want if it doesn't interest the attendees or the groom. You will have a disappointing turnout.

DIY: Map .. update!!

You may recall my post a while back talking about attempting my DIY wedding map. Well, after talking about my frustrations with this task with one of my frugal bride friends, I started from scratch this morning based on tips from her.

I took the general idea from Wedding Mapper and the stunning maps created by Snappymap and here's what I came up with.



The key: I used MS Visio which was WAY better than MS word or powerpoint. Since visio is used for technical drawings etc, they have a feature for creating maps. This was a tip from my friend.

Chances are this isn't the final product (as the boy was suppose to make this) but I think it rocks.

Productive weekend! I RULE!

A home for the cards and the words of our guests

Every card needs a home. My parent's friend Betty loaned us this white card box that her daughter used at her 2007 wedding. This was only one of many items I picked up at "Betty's Boutique". All I did was pick up some brown ribbon and tack it on. It's simple, and perfect for what I envisioned.



Jeremy and I have also had many chats about a guest book. Some ideas included:



A polaroid guest book where each guest takes a picture of themself (and their HOT date), attaches it to the book and signs next to it. Our friends Kelly and Brian did just this and they love it to this day. Kelly even loaned me the camera!! The problem, polariod film is:

1) Expensive.
2) Only available online and I don't trust spending quite a bit of cash on "Joe Schmoe Cameras" to get expired film.

Jer really wants to do this to ensure we have a picture of each guest. So, I compromised with Jer. We have our photographer take a picture of each guest as they migrate from the cocktail area to the main floor. SOLD!



I love this wish tree. Problem:

1) Expensive for all the materials.
2) Too much work and I would still need to buy a guest book to insert each wish into.

So, although Jer was cool with this idea, I decide to nix it.



I then saw this amazing idea where one couple had a friend outline a paint-by-grid on a canvas and each guest painted a square at the reception. LOVE this!! However ...

1) We lack the artistic abilities to outline the grid (despite what Jer says about his drawing abilities).
2) It would either be a huge HIT or a huge MISS.

We decided that regardless of how cool this idea is, it's too much work for it to be a huge miss. I'll tuck that away for another time. This will happen one day :)



Next up, having each guest sign a guitar. PERFECT!!! Well, I thought so. Jer was keen not sold to this idea. He didn't say why, but I think he feels it's too tacky. But, I love it. LOVE IT!! Look how cool that Les Paul looks!! But, boy wanted a book that we can put pictures of our guests next too (or something like that).

So, I decided to pick my battle. I got him his book and personalised it.



This just means my genius idea to replace Kalen's ring pillow will happen. Or, I will just get a guitar anyways .. ya, I think I will do that. (shhhh .. don't tell Jer)

97 days to DA WEDDING YO!