Tag Archives: cape cod

Wedding Fun Update

I have to say, once I completed our wedding weekend packet, each and every packet after that came so easily. But I figured I would post them anyway because I honestly never even thought of half of the things I ended up doing until I did an extensive multiple weeks long search via google and pinterest to find the perfect wedding tools! I hope this could provide some help to some brides out there 🙂

Now, for those of you who are planning on giving all your guests a Wedding Weekend Welcome Bag or just a Wedding Weekend Welcome Packet, I have something that will save you! I have created a 5-page welcome packet for all of our guests. In addition to the welcome packet we created a welcome bag that was actually a reusable grocery bag with our wedding theme on it! I became OBSESSED with pairs of white Adirondack chairs so it quickly turned into our theme 🙂 Our welcome bags included the weekend welcome packet, some chocolate shells, Cape Cod Potato Chips, bottled water, & some very necessary aspirin 😉 { Notice our so so so adorable new bucket 🙂 Thank you very much to the very talented ladies at M. Smith & Company {One of Cape Cod’s very finest stationary boutiques} for the gift!!

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We began with a cover letter welcoming our friends and family to Cape Cod and expressing our love & appreciation for them, as we couldn’t have gotten to this amazing point in our lives without each and every one of them!

weekend_welcome_1

The contents were as follows:

  • Map & Key Locations
  • Weekend Schedule
  • Cape Cod Attractions
  • Weekend Contacts

Map & Key Locations is pretty self explanatory. This was just a one page section with a map and the name and address of each event location for the weekend.  :)

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Weekend Schedule was just one page that listed information about each event that went on over the weekend. Each included the date and time of event, event location, and the point of contact. We also included little blurbs at the end of each showing our excitement to have them all in Cape Cod with us 🙂

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Cape Cod Attractions is a one page section that has a detailed description of all the attractions the Cape has to offer! We also included specific spots with addresses that we personally know and love 🙂

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Weekend Contacts is pretty self-explanatory. It is a one page section that includes a list of key wedding day contacts { aka the ones to call who actually know what the F is going on }, their specific role titles for the weekend, and each of their phone numbers in case one of our guests needed to contact one of them.

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A Word file of our wedding weekend packet template is available for all of you beautiful bitchin’ bride-to-be’s if you go to our “Wedding Fun” page!

 

xx<3oo

“Wedding Fun” Page

I decided to make a new page about weddings! I thought I would try and help those bride-to-be’s out there with some of those bumps in the road they will most likely come across when planning their weddings. I will try and update and often as I can with examples from my 15 months of planning and some helpful templates :) My first post is my wedding weekend packet! I hope this {or something similar} will come in handy on your wedding day too! xx<3oo

“Wedding Fun”

When my hubby popped the question I was 22-years-old and in the process of moving to Chicago with him. Due to my love for New England, specifically Cape Cod, it was only natural that “we” { I } planned to have our wedding there! Now…that means planning a wedding, at age 22, 1,055 miles away from our venue site and most importantly, my mom. {I literally could not have done ANY of this without her. We were on the phone at least 10 times a day, sometimes more, planning this thing.} UM at this point in my life the only weddings I had ever attended were family weddings all under the age of 16. I didn’t know the first thing about planning a wedding!! All I gotta say is, thank-fucking-god for Pinterest!! Twenty-four hours a day seven days a week I was glued to my computer screen, and if it weren’t my computer I was pinning through my phone. In the first six or so months I think I had over 800 pins on my wedding board, not including the hundreds more on additional wedding-related boards. I was OBSESSED! But then again who wasn’t when they first discovered this genius site?

In addition to Pinterest, I was constantly googling different templates and self-helps for making sure I kept organized! That brings us to STEP ONE of the wedding planning process:

Get fucking organized!

After hours and hours of searching for the perfect wedding weekend organizational packet template I FINALLY came across “Mrs. Daffodil’s” wedding weekend organizational packet template. It became a bit of a running joke among all involved in helping out on our wedding day. I completely acknowledge that this was a little excessive, but it was as much for my own sanity as it was for helping everyone know exactly where to be and when. So…I took this amazing template and turned it into my very own 15-page “Wedding Weekend Packet” for all involved! It probably took me a straight 36 hours to complete, but I had all the time in the world as I was in the process of looking for a job at the time! In the end though I was constantly updating it up until our wedding weekend to really get everything right, but I survived it and sent it out about a week before the wedding! As I was making it “my own” I couldn’t believe how many necessary details were in it that I didn’t even think of!

Now prepare yourself for this lifesaver. What could possibly take up 15 pages? ENJOY!

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We began with a cover letter introducing the packet to our friends and family. The contents were as follows:

  • Logistics overview
  • Overview of weekend events
  • Detailed wedding day schedule
  • Maps, directions, and travel
  • Ceremony order
  • Contact list
  • Description of roles

The Logistics Overview consisted of a list of key wedding day contacts (aka the ones to call who actually know what the F is going on), key locations and their addresses, and a list of they key events taking place over the course of the week.

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Overview of Weekend Events consisted of a three pages of all the key events taking place over the next couple of days, including our rehearsal, our rehearsal dinner, a pre-wedding celebratory BBQ dinner for all the guests, and more, all the way through to our afterparty.

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Detailed Wedding Day Schedule was probably the most overwhelming for some at first, but it’s actually so necessary and I swear is the reason the day went so smoothly! We chose to take our photos before the ceremony and a half hour before the ceremony, mid-way through our photos it started to rain! I was LIVID! But that wasn’t anything a little glass of champagne couldn’t fix ;) This is a two-page schedule listing the main activities with sub-activities in 10-15 minute increments. They list each activity

Wedding_Packet_6  Wedding_Packet_7

Map, Directions, and Travel is pretty self-explanatory. This was just a one page section with driving directions just from Boston to the venue because our wedding party were all staying together. We also made little mini-packets for each one of our guests, mainly for our out-of-town guests, with more detailed directions for them :)

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Contact List is a full contact list of about 50 people, including their names, phone numbers, emails, and role of each person involved in helping out with the wedding. I also included pictures of each member of our wedding party in order of who’s walking with who because everyone was scattered all over the country so they didn’t know each other! I felt it was a nice little touch so they see who each other are before the weekend :)

Description of Roles. This section was five pages long, the longest section by far. It was for a good reason though, as we detailed out the specific responsibilities of different people involved, preventing any last minute wedding day confusion. We included what activities they needed to be present for, what times to arrive, and what they were on point for. This may sound super intense, but really, each person only had about a paragraph to read, maybe two. All they needed to do was go straight to their section (i.e. bridesmaids, ceremony readers, junior ushers, etc.). Again, another key reason why our wedding day ran so smoothly { despite the rain } ! Even with the help of this template, it still took me for-fucking-ever. But I would definitely be lost without it.

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That about sums up “The Packet”! After starting this blog I figured since I was all by myself with my planning {with the help of my mother of course} I felt I should help other bride-to-be’s out there with their planning!  Sooo yeah! This is what we sent out to our friends and families {vendors and guests got something different, which I will be sharing soon!}. You won’t believe how much shit I got from some people! Whenever I would bring it up all I saw were eyes rolling and mouths smirking. But they all will be thanking me when their day comes!!

In the end though I hope everyone appreciated it! But even if they didn’t, the process of putting all this together was SO MUCH FUN for me! It was like my own little freakishly over-organized wedding experience that I would not have changed for the world. It really gave me peach of mind, allowing me to relax and enjoy my own wedding day :)

A Word file of our wedding weekend packet template is available if you go to the page!

xx<3oo

We Do!!

My high-school sweetheart and I married each other on October 7, 2012 in Cape Cod! I cannot believe how so unbelievably lucky I am to have found him. My twin sister and I {there she is to the left, my beautiful M.O.H} were adopted into this wonderful, warm, huge, loving New England family who gave us everything we could have ever wanted and more. When I decided I wanted to attend boarding school for high school, everything changed for the better, again! {This is where my handsome hubby comes into play 😉 } Even though Devin grew up in Seattle, he somehow made his way to this tiny little town in Andover, New Hampshire, to play hockey at Proctor Academy {my school!}. During the Fall of my junior year and his senior year, we finally started recognizing each other after a night of battling quotes from the movie, Anchorman {I totally won}.

Devin’s roommate, Nick, noticed our interest in one another so one night in our school’s student center, Nick expertly maneuvered everyone on the couch just so Devin and I could sit next to each other { SO high school, right?! } Long story short, seven years, two high-school & college graduations, and hundreds of “kiss and make-ups” later, Devin proposed!