Westside Wedding iPhone Apps: Brides Iphone App FREE

The Brides iphone app is sweet and free too bad it was not around last year when I was spending countless hours looking for my wedding dress and the bridesmaid dresses. Check it out ladies, it is awesome!

Westside Wedding loves iphone Apps: iShoes

As you know I love my iphone and it has been my own personal assistant with this whole wedding planning, allowing me to email vendors right away, approving drafts for wedding related items with time constraints and especially with trying to find the right shoes, jewelry, dress etc. The free iphone app iShoes helped me find my shoes & my moms!

1. iShoes

I love that you can email your fav items! This is great if you need to email them to your bridesmaids!

I had initially wanted colored shoes but fell in love with these babies:

and here are my moma's shoes Nine West Women's Janika Sandals,in purple Satin

Westside Wedding and Google RSVP wedding form!

My dearest readers,
I am so sorry for being MIA the past few months, once the 3 month mark hit all of a sudden work was extremely busy and wedding planning took over all my free time. I got so busy that I did not even have time to respond to personal emails which for me is crazy because I have an iphone! So I am so sorry about being MIA but I promise to blog about everything as soon as the wedding is over which is in 17 days! AH! But until then I will try to post about some more resources that have helped me along the way, most relate to my precious iPhone andGoogle.  Without further adeu I present you google form for RSVP!  If I could have only done online RSVP I would have but I was not sure that some of our guests would be down with it. These are some of the reasons that I liked about creating an RSVP form through google:

1. Linking the form to any website & therefor not being limited to any certain wedding website.
2. Choosing exactly what I want the RSVP form to say.
3. Being able to change the form at any time. In my case my parents had first said it was up to us what we wanted for the food so we chose stations & buffet, one month before the wedding they tell us they want sit down dinner, this was a problem considering we did not ask our guests what they wanted because we were doing buffet but for guests who went online we were able to update the form and ask them what their food choice was.
4. Making questions mandatory like leaving a comment he he!
5. The items in the form get automatically put into a google document that you can share with your significant other, you can get notified as soon as someone submits the form and you can use the information on the excel for placecards, thank you cards etc.

Screen shots:

How to make your own google form: Directions are here.

The link from our website:

The first page of the form, it asks for the person's name & email address. I created the form to take the person to a certain page depending on their answer. If they delightfully accept it then goes to the next page2, if they regretfully decline then it takes them to the last page and asks them to leave a comment.

If the delightfully accept then it takes them to Page 2 .

 Page 2: Asks what is their guest name, the type of meal they would like and if they are staying at the hotel. If they are staying at a hotel it takes them to a page that asks what hotel, if they answer no then it takes them straight to the last page to leave a comment.

If they answered yes to "Will you be staying at Hotel", they are taken to another page that asks them for their hotel info. We wanted this so we know where to take the OOT boxes.

No matter what they answer in any question, the last page is always the same - leave us a comment :-) This is my FAV! I love getting the comments :-)

Once the form is submitted it gives them a message from us thanking them for their RSVP

All the info is in a nice google doc!

Wedding iPhone APP

 In addition to my bridesman/Bff & groomsmen who have tried to keep me sane & help out as much as they can, I also have another life saver - my assistant aka & right hand man, my iphone!!!  It's been a while since I told you about some of my iphone apps that have helped me with wedding planning,  and with only 71 days till the wedding, these 2 apps help me know exactly how many days till each wedding related event.

First up is the free Days Till app, I like this app because it allows me to add a picture (see pic below), choose the font/color for the words that appear on the pic & even lets me move around the words - in this case I moved them so you can see the Hollywood sign, pay no attention to the sign that says caution & no trespassing ;-) the second picture shows a list of all the events I added, as you can see it's crunch time!

The second app I have to keep me on track with the dates is the .99 Countdown  app, I had this app first & like it as well, it also lets you upload a pic, I keep this app too because it tells me how many months, weeks & days until an event. 

As you see I have 2 months, 1 week and 4 days till the wedding. I'm ready to get married but not ready for the wedding ...still lots to do! I don't know how 10 months past by so fast, I think I spent too much time researching and not enough time doing things. I hear so many brides say that they didn't want to keep everything till the last minute but then somehow did..I am know understanding how this occurs. Work has been extremely busy & the wedding to do list has taken over all my free time. Once again I have over 1K unread posts in my google reader, I think I am going to unsubscribe from all wedding blogs that do not belong to a "real bride blogger" because I rather spend the little time I have reading all your wonderful blogs & hearing about your experience. 

I'm sorry for the lack of posts, I am going to try harder to post at least 3 times a week, I wanted to make sure and post something, so even though it's 11:16 pm on a friday night & I am soooo tired from the week, I had to log on & write to you :-)

miss you much!

Westside Wedding Venues and google canned responses

I researched about 82 different venues - feel free to look at my google doc *here* - it's compiled from information from herecomestheguide.com, and also from me contacting countless venues. It's crazy to think how many options there are out there, yet depending on the budget, time of year, area, etc etc there really are not that many options for "you". There are some on that list that I would have loved to check out, but just be doing a rough estimate of the cost, they got ixnay , others closed too early or didn't allow hard alcohol which for us were deal breakers. Some had the reception 100% outside and mi amor was worried about rain in April, I wasn't worried about it considering we live in L.A & yesterday on Nov 1 the temperture was 75 degrees but you never know. Some were only inside in banquet halls and this was also a deal breaker for us because we wanted to be able to give people the freedom to go outside for fresh air. I found myself writing the same question to venues, so I finally created a "canned response" in my google mail, it makes sending these emails a lot easier!

Here is the canned response I used:
Hello,
My fiancee and I are getting married on (Month, date, year) and have a guest list of (# of people), we would appreciate if you can provide us with a price listing and information for having a wedding at (venue you are contacting)
Thank you,
(Your name)

Directions on how to make a canned response:

First go to your google settings, go to the tab "labs" from there look for "canned response" and click enable.

After you have enabled the canned response feature in your settings, go to create a new email and copy and make your own response, or use the one I shared above. Then click on "canned response, save new and title your response. Once you have saved it, when ever you create a new email, you can just click "canned response" and choose the canned response you want to use and bam there it is! I use this feature a lot, even in my own personal emails- I have one titled "address" that has my address & easy to follow directions, that I use any time I have friends coming over that have never been to my place before, I also use when for when I sell things on ebay - thanks for your payment blah blah. I hope you find this as useful as I did :-)

Dress Shopping Part 1- One Day Shopping

{ Maggie Sottero- Lara & Paloma Blanca - 3966}

I thought I would share with all you So Cal ladies info on dress stores that I have gone to. Keep in mind, what I am going to share with you has already happened, day 1 was back in late September. Since every one's taste are different the reasons I may not like a place maybe the exact reason you do like it, so overall I would say go to as many places as you can, especially if you are like me and never opened a bridal magazine or looked at bridal site in your life, until 1 week after you were engaged. The things I wanted from a dress were, strapless, little or no beading, buttons on the back and trumpet or mermaid. Apparently, this style is not that easy to find. The two above dresses were the only ones I kind of liked from Day 1 of shopping, but the Maggie was A line so that didn't work and the Paloma had ruching so that didn't work either.
This was Day 1 :

Brides of California: Small store, we walked in without an appt right when they had just opened the store, I did not look at any of the bridal dresses but MOH did try on a few dresses here & the girls that work here were able to find bm dresses really fast, just based on a few things I told them. 1445 Marcelina Ave Torrance,CA - 90501 310-783-6523

Bridal Elegance: I had an appt, the lady who helped me was awesome, she listened to what I had to say and kept me at my budget. They had a great selection of dresses under 1500, only thing is that many of the dresses had ruching and beading which I did not want in a dress. I don't think I can get my groove on the dance floor with a dress that weighs the same as a toddler. That being said, I saw some brides looking very happy & beautiful in their ruching & beaded dresses - it's just not me. Torrance,CA - 90505 310-406-3917

La Soie: Come here only if your budget is over 2K. Lucky for me I did not like anything they had & could not have exited the premises sooner. 19800 Hawthorne Blvd. Suite 212 Torrance, CA 90503

David's Bridal: I wrote about my experience already, I think people either hate this store or love it. Although I did not find anything & I did not feel that the sales person was listening to what I wanted, I still think everyone who is on a budget should check it out for themselves because you never know & this way you don't have to wonder about it. 20140 Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance, CA

iPhone App: blog Press

It's been quite a while since my last wedding related iphone app post, thankfully MOH posted a more recent one about wedding apps! Today's iphone app is technically not wedding related but in certain ways it is if you have a blog about wedding :-) Without further adieu I present Blogpress! Over a month ago I was looking for an iphone app that would allow me to blog through my iphone because I needed a way to blog on the go, after much research I found that blogpress was the best one, & at 2.99 it's a pretty good deal. I have tested it's features & so far it seems to do what I want it to - allows me to blog on the go, post pictures, edit drafts, write post and save them as drafts etc. If you want to read a professional review on it check out The Blog Herald review *here*

Speaking of Bridal Magazines..

Style Bridal Magazine has some great FREE templates for invites, placecards, table numbers etc etc. Check out the preppy invites, "have a ball invites" , garden party & modern invites.

How to set the table

Toast & Tables by Sarah Dennis has a great tutorial on how to set the table from formal dinner to casual lunch check it out *here* , one day I will learn but until them I prefer eating in the living room in front of the tv ;-)

DIY STD

At last my first DIY! what what!

We were fortunate enough to win 50 STD in a contest but since we needed about 20 more, I decided to make postcards. I bought Avery 3380 Personal Creations Textured Postcards , only $10.95 (120 postcards). The postcards come 4 in a sheet, and are easy to take apart, I was very happy with the texture of the postcard but they were not as thick as I hoped they would be, but hey at .08 per postcard I ain't complaining! I then downloaded the Avery word template, saved the first file as "STD front" and pasted the beautiful monograms that Jeff Williams created for me. For the back of the postcard, I once again began with the Avery word template saved the file as "STD back", then downloaded a Martha Stewart postcard template, but since the postcard template is a pdf, and would only print 1 to a page, I copied just the text "postcard" and "stamp" and made it into a clip art. I then added two text boxes; 1 that had the std info and 2 for the guest's address, this took more time then it should of because I am not as profeciaent in word then I am in excel. As usual, I spent too much time deciding what fonts to use, I even combined some; the florish you see at the end of the "e" on word Date is actually the letter "f" with font "Ornament Scrolls And Florishes" and the two swirls you see next to the actual date are the letters "a" and "b" with font Nymphette by the ever talented Nymphont. I would be more than happy to share the postcard template, so if you want it feel free to email me at westsidewedding@gmail.com

These pictures were taken with my iphone, so you can't really see the detail, but the first picture in this post has a close up of the texture.

I plan on mailing out the STD this week, so about 6 months in advance, did you do STD and if so how early did you mail them out?

DIY Wedding Water Labels all over the web!

{Source Inspire The Bride }

I have found so many diy water labels online that were so generously shared by other brides that I wanted to put them on in one post. I wish I was as talented & creative as these ladies!Please remember to give them credit for their work, if you re post this or use the templates. In total there are 20 labels from 7 wonderful brides who were so sweet to share their templates.

1. knottie krhagen has graciously shared 9 water bottle templates! *here*
2. Lauren Egkan, Wedding Planner of The Royal Engagement is the creater of the blog Inspire The Bride and has shared a damask, polka dot & black & white pattern water label
3. Here are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 templates from DIY Bride.
4. Mrs. Lemon shared 3 templates on weddingbee
5. Mrs. Firefly also has a water bottle template *here*
6. Kari aka Knottie macdidlyicious, shared her pretty pink lables on Vintage Glam Blog *here*
7. Abbie from A Glimpse of the girl next door has a tutorial on water bottle lables.

{Source Vintage Glam Blog }

Make your own online RSVP for your wedding website

After looking at all the free wedding website, I thought that weddingwire.com had the best tools but I liked the themes that projectwedding.com had, so I went with theme! After looking at the budget, mi amor decides that we can save some money by having people rsvp online, since projectwedding.com does not have an rsvp option, I decided to make my own rsvp link, by making a google form. It was easy to make, the thing that took the longest was to find the right wording, to prevent people from bringing more guests than were invited, but at the same time to make sure we know exactly who is coming. Although the form seems to have an option to embed on a website, it did not work for me and when I checked the help section in google a lot of people have problems embedding the form, so instead I just put a section in our wedding website titled RSVP and instructed people to click *here* to rsvp.
Also make sure to list on your website when you want them to respond by.
Here are some pics of the form, sorry they don't look that good, I have no idea how to get screen prints onto blogger.
Creating the form: You can add text, paragraph text, multiple choice & choose from list. I used text for everything except for the actual rsvp question, I put the check box option, we are having buffet, but for those of you that are having a sit down dinner you may want to use the check box option for the entree.

This is how the form looks but to get a better picture click *here*Once people use the form, google sends you an email notification and the RSVPs are in a spreadsheet!
They have different themes to choose from go *here* to learn more about google forms.

Wedding Cost

I don't know about you guys but mi amor & I had this imaginary # in both of our heads of what our wedding would cost, after all, all we wanted was a nice place, a buffet dinner and be able to provide our guest with an open bar. We soon found out we were way off base, just the cost of the food and drinks was barely in budget. If we would have checked out costofwedding.com we would have realized that the average wedding in our area (West L.A) is $18,511 and $30,852 -This does not include cost for a honeymoon or engagement ring. Every time I think about the budget it really stresses me out, to the point I now understand why some brides just say they are ready to elope!

After we realized we were way off base with the over all budget, we started wondering what was the average cost of items such as cake, centerpieces etc. I found costhelper.com it's a great resource to find out how much anything cost, not only wedding stuff but pretty much anything. In their wedding section they have the info on how much typical wedding related items cost such as wedding dance classes, They tell you what the typical costs are and what they may include and even mention discounts you can get. I found it really helpful, it educated me about what wedding items may cost instead of what I think an item may cost.
What resources do you use to determine how much you are willing to spend on a wedding related item?

My Craft Coupons

Where the heck are my Michaels coupons? That's what I have been asking for the last few weeks, I get emails from them but when I click on get coupon it showed me a measly 20% off coupon! But all is well now that I found mycraftcoupons.com they have links to weekly craft coupons like Michaels, Joann's, Aaron Bros and Hobby Lobby (not in CA), how awesome is that! Ok, now time to go shopping or the way I like to see it, time to go save some money!

Getting Married? There's an app for that.

To add to WestsideWeddings growing list of iPhone apps... Here's a list of some pretty interesting iPhone wedding applications I've come across recently:

iWedding - wedding event planner (comes with counter, budgets, lots of lists).

iBridalGown - need to find a wedding dress? There's an app for that! (Sorry that line is pretty catchy.)

Wedding List - Wedding guest list app by the folks from iWedding.

Wedding Day - Countdown app till the big event (I know I have one on my iGoogle!)

Personally, I'd like to take over the whiteboard at Westside Wedding's place and start making some flowcharts!

Wedding Hairstyles

I'm going to wear my hair 1/2 up because I don't trust it to stay nice completely down and don't trust it to look nice all up - due to a terrible up do my junior year in high school that left me with a horrendous looking bee hive on top of my hair. Plus the up do is so my "work style hair" i.e I never do my hair for work and a hair bun always looks great with a suit ;-)

I used these resources to try to get an idea for how I want my hair styled:

1. haircomesthebride.com: This site has a lot of pictures of celebrity hair styles. Like everyone on theknot that wants their hair 1/2 up, I am inspired by Carrie Underwood's hair.
2. brides.com: Refine your search by the type of hair you have, the length and the look.
3. Theknot.com: They have wedding 101, you can search by the same above criteria and you can even take a quiz on how you should wear your hair. One of the questions was "You can't leave the house without…" but all the options had to do with beauty, I needed an option for iPhone!
4. Oncewed.com: They have intersting wedding styles from "Mariah Carey", "Wild and Crazy" and "Spanish Up Do", I had serious doubts that they would be able to show me pictures of hairs that could be described in such titles but let me tell you that wild and crazy did look wild and crazy and the spanish up do is how 90% of girls wear their hair at the quincinera!

How are you wearing your hair?

The Bridal Bar with the Bridal Party

I heard about The Bridal Bar on The Wedding Planning audiocast with Ralph Mucci - when they mention they give you cocktails, as you look at a bunch of resources I was IN. I thought it would be a great thing to go to with MOH/Cousin, bridesman/BFF, and BM/FSIL so we can all hang out & do some wedding planning. It would be the first time all 3 of us would get to spend some quality time together. I wish my BM/GBFF (girl bff) & BM/SIL could go too but they both have kids and it would be a hassle to get to West Hollywood for them on a Monday by 6:30, so I will have to set up another event during the weekend so they can all meet. Before I tell you what went wrong with this event I'd like to preface it by saying that I'm a planner, I would not say I love to plan, I would say I *have* to plan, I have to research the heck out of everything so it comes as a surprise to everyone including me that I decide to check the hours of the bridal bar at 5 p.m on the day we are suppose to meet there at 6:30. Well they close at 6! gasp! It's called a BAR and people that have reviewed it talk about drinking, ergo I did not even fathom they would close early oh ya and it's in WEST HOLLYWOOD (We Ho)! So really you can't blame me for thinking they would close late. So at 5:05 I sent a text to MOH/Cousin, brides man/BBFF (boy bff), and BM/FSIL, letting them know it closes at 6 - MOH/Cousin texts back "ditching yoga, on my way now", BM/FSIL texts "will get there but maybe at 6", brides man/BFF texts "no way!" and I in my hysteria think he means no way cant make it, but really he just meant no way! so unfortunately he did not get to meet up with us due to text miscommunication on my part.
So MOH & I check out The Bridal Bar & it was cool, they were VERY helpful, gave me lots of magazines, good tips on some venues & said they could even help me more once I have my venue. These were the first wedding magazine that I had EVER looked at and now I know why lots of ladies like the wedding magazines, so many great things to look at right at your finger tips. If you live in L.A, Atlanta or San Diego then you should definitely go with your girls and check it out! Only thing that bummed us out was they did not have any cocktails but they did say that we could make a private appointment to go over stuff and drink champagne. Luckily Bridal Bar is in We Ho, so MOH and I skedaddle over to the Fiesta Cantina for 2 for 1 & FSIL ends up meeting us there. It was so great to hang out with them and discuss the wedding and just every day life, it was the firs time ever I got to hang out with FSIL without mi amor being there and I must say she rocks! We decided that we must make a point of all hanging out every few weeks until the wedding. (next time the other ladies and gentleman will join us)
It's very important to me for my bridesmaids to get to know each other, so by the time the bachelorette party & wedding roll around we will all have bonded by then :-)
Just for background sakes-
Brides man & MOH know everyone but have not spent bonding time with everyone.
BM/GBBF (girl bff), BM/SIL & FSIL/BM only knows Brides man & MOH and do not know each other. Wowzers I was hoping to clarify things but I think I may have confused you more!

anyways...do all your BM know each other? Do you have any plans for events so they can get to know each other?

Top 5 things I wish someone told me about The Knot

The number one website that people who were recently married told me to look at once they found out I was engaged was theknot.com, So I checked it out, but the only feature that I really look are the boards, where other brides help each other out with advice. They have different forums, DIY, the dress, honeymoon, etc etc.

Tip #1: Write a post introducing yourself.
As soon as I joined, I jumped right in and started giving people feedback and advice, I only found out later that you are suppose to introduce yourself, but how the heck would I know this? well if I had been what is called a "lurker" I would have known that you are suppose to write a post introducing yourselves. Thank goodness I did not post a question asking for help, because then I would have really been screwed.

Tip #2 Do NOT write a post asking for help finding a venue and saying you are on a budget. This is a total no no.
Alot of girls actually make this mistake (thank goodness I did not) - Knotties are more than willing to help a fellow knottie out but they need as much info as you can provide them. If you need help finding a venue you MUST also include the following info: guest count, exactly what your budget is (to some low budget is 5K to others it's 20K) and what area you would like the venue to be.

Tip#3 AW is not Awe (like awe so sweet) it's Attention Whore. Knotties speak a different language.
When I would see AW: Engagement Photos, I thought aw how cute! it was not until much later I learned it was attention whore. I learned quickly that FI meant Fiancee, but other things did not come so quickly, like TIA at the end of a post, I thought their name was TIA which is odd to me because I call all my aunts Tia. I finally found a link that explains all the lingo *here*

Tip#4 How to add a wedding tickler or picture to your signature.
Most people have their wedding tickler as their signature, that way you know how long till they are getting married and some who choose not to remain anonymous post a picture of them and their FI. Find out how to do it *here*

Tip#5 Join your local board for help with venues, vendors etc. Look at the other boards and decide which one you think maybe more helpful for you.
I only looked on the L.A. Board but recently found the April 2010 boards and I love it because everyone is on a similar schedule. On the L.A board I was getting depressed and feeling so behind with everyone talking about how many things that they have accomplished, when one day one of the L.A knotties told me about the month board. I felt so much better when I joined that board, although the feeling of not being behind lasted a week, because since then many of the April Brides already had their dresses! and I on the other hand need to lose 10 pounds so there is not way I'm stepping into some wedding dress and the only thing I have really accomplished is buying one candy jar for the candy buffet.

Are you guys on theknot? What do you find most helpful about it?

Photoshop Shortcuts You Should Know

I just discovered an awesome blog called I ♥ Faces which was founded by two women, Angie & Amy, who met through blogging, how cool is that?! Amy wrote some great Photoshop shortcuts, that I will be using frequently in my quest to finally learn how to use Photoshop.

Google Tool for wedding guest list

I had already created a google excel sheet for mi amor and me to enter our guest list, but I never even thought of creating a form in google docs for guests to input their own address! Thanks to Mrs. Fondue & Miss Cowboy Boot they showed me the power of the google form. It hardly took any time at all to do it & I had my cousin (aka maid of honor aka partner in crime) test it for me & she thought it was great. The google form allows you to add as many sections as you want & even lets you put a little help text below the section, so for example under "Guest Name" I put "your lovie dovie or partner in crime" and under "Name" I put "First and Last". After my cousin tested it for me and put her info I noticed she forgot the area code, so then I edited the form and put a help text for that saying "please include area code". I really like this idea, especially the comment section because it was nice when my cousin tested it and under comment she put "wub woo" and under guest she put bachelor #346, she always cracks me up. They also have different themes you can have for the background, I chose the old school looking lined paper. Check out the instuctions *here*