Welcome back to our series called Sunday School Lessons for Engaged Couples. We hope you enjoyed reading our previous article that is going to help you jumpstart your planning journey. This week, we have a special treat – an interview with Kimberly Washington of paperKuts Studio and Rev. Benita Livingston of Living Ceremonies. They are wedding vendors in the Nashville area but service couples worldwide.

Living Ceremonies, Rev. Benita is a Tennessee and destination wedding officiant . Her passion lies in creating heartfelt and meaningful ceremonies that reflect the unique love story of each couple. Paperkuts Studio’s, Kimberly Washington loves all thing paper. Her store is a full service stationery store that encompasses stationery, invitations, paper goods and unique gifts for any occasion.

I had an opportunity to sit down with these two beautiful ladies to get answers to some of the most burning questions I receive from my clients. Enjoy the video below.

We hope you were able to learn a little about invitations and hiring an officiant. If you have more questions or would like to reach out to the ladies, you can contact them at the information below.

Benita Livingston – Living Ceremonies – Instagram

Kimberly Washington – paperKuts Studio – Instagram

At the end of the video, they also gave additional ways to contact them. If you are in need of a luxury planning company, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

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What’s so special about this time of year? It’s the holidays AND engagement season. We hope you are reading this because you recently got engaged or are about to get engaged. If so, do you want to know what’s next? This blog post gives you the four steps to take after getting engaged. 

Couples often marry throughout the year but engagement season falls between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day. This is the time when most wedding proposals happen. 

For the last eight years, we’ve written articles under our Sunday School Lessons for Engaged Couples series earmarked to jumpstart your wedding planning process. This series is for you, if you are engaged or about to get engaged. We’ve enjoyed writing these articles along with having guests bloggers. This year, we have some fun things in store. 

Once the initial excitement of receiving or giving a ring wears off, we understand the overwhelming feeling that starts to form. We want to help you with a few best practices to jumpstart your planning process.  The first four steps to consider are listed below.

1. Discuss Your Vision
2. Choose a Wedding Date
3. Create Your Budget
4. Hire a Wedding Planner

Discuss Your Vision

• Talk with your partner about your vision, style, size and tone of your wedding. (e.g. guest count, number of wedding party members, local vs. destination, formal vs casual). 

Choose Your Wedding Date

• Choose a date with special meaning to you and your partner.
• Consider seasons, holidays and significant family events.
• Keep in mind some venues and vendors may charge a premium on major holidays.

Create Your Preliminary Budget

• Determine your overall budget amount and then add a dollar amount to each category. It’s helpful to create a “must have” and a “nice to have” list. 
• Determine if there are others contributing to the budget (e.g. parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, god parents, etc).
• Consider your guest count when creating your budget. 
• Your wedding planner can help with your major budget creation based on your local market. 

Hire Your Wedding Planner

• A planner can streamline your process, create your budget and help steer you in the right direction.
• Professional wedding planners have built and continue to build vendor and venue relationships. Because of these relationships planners are able to recommend the best creative partner for your vision and budget. 

You might view hiring a wedding planner and creating your preliminary budget as tasks done in the wrong order. However, you will need to know a preliminary budget prior to reaching out to a wedding planner. Once you have booked your planner, they can further help you solidify your budget based on your market. Budget creation falls under most full service planning for many wedding planning companies. If you hire a wedding coordinator, also known as a month of coordinator, they probably do not include budget creation in their services.

Each planning company has their own set of parameters, pricing and service options. If you would like to know more about the services we offer, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Don’t forget to bookmark this blog post to use as a guide in your planning process. Feel free to reach out to us for more guidance.

The post Four Steps To Take After Getting Engaged – Sunday School appeared first on LeeHenry Events LLC: Nashville Event and Wedding Planner.

The bridesmaids in a wedding will have several roles such as planning the bachelorette party, bridal shower and help the bride make decisions on their attire.

There is one important role that most bridesmaids forget. What’s that role? On the day of the wedding, the bridesmaids should keep the bride laughing so she can calm her nerves, relieve some stress and enjoy her big day!

Flowers: Flourishing Flowers by Mari | Bridal gown: Lux Bridal | Venue: Clementine

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Couples: Have you received alot of solicited and unsolicited advice since planning your wedding? At times, the “noise” can be too much and you don’t know who to listen to except your wedding planner. It’s always great to get advice from others all while deciphering the particular information that works best for you.​​​​​​​​​ I reached out to a few of my previous couples to seek one advice they would like to share with those planning their upcoming wedding.

Per a bride:

“Make sure to choose wisely the people in your bridal party. It’s better to have two good friends versus 10 people who really don’t want to be standing there with you”. Mrs. A.

Per a groom:

“Start the planning process with a budget. The budget may change over the course of the process but you can’t get to where you are going if you don’t know how to get there”. Mr. D.

Venue: Ashton Gardens Atlanta

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Did you get engaged over the holiday? If so, you may be scrambling to figure out what is next. Our “Sunday School Lessons for Engaged Couples” series will help you start your plans. I encourage you to grab your favorite beverage and binge read our past articles. On our actual blog page, type in “Sunday School Lessons for Engaged Couples” in the search bar. You will find several articles specifically for engaged couples that you can use as our blueprint or guide for planning your wedding.

This article is a quick reference on where to start, if you are newly engaged. Before building a home or office building, the architect needs a blueprint for the direction, measurements and ideas for the build. When you plan your wedding, you will need a blueprint which is your budget and your guest list.

To create your budget, make sure you research your local market. Each market segment will differ. For example, Nashville based vendors and venues will most likely cost significantly more than a smaller town in a more rural area of another state.

If you need help with creating your budget, our team here at LeeHenry Events can help.

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