Q & A - #5 - Amanda Douglas Events

Hello! And welcome to our fifth Q & A with Amanda Douglas Events post!

Firstly, thank you to everyone who submitted a question! It’s been a while since we’ve done a post, so we’ve got a lot of really great questions to answer.

We look forward to many posts where we can answer them all for you. We’ll try and answer them as they come in but we’ll be keeping each post to four questions (something to look forward to for the next post!)

So let’s get right into it (Answers from Amanda herself):

How can I create a unique and personal wedding with all the things I see, and love, from blogs and Pinterest? I still want my wedding to be timeless.

That’s a great question, and it’s definitely a tricky thing to do, but achievable. The first thing we would do or suggest, is to consider the things that you love about classic weddings. Make a list of the things that you really enjoy and things that you consider timeless. Things like the style of bouquet, design of the reception space, room layout, black tie or wedding fashions.

Start with the foundation of classic timeless elements and add in your more trendy, fashion forward details. Don’t go too far with the trends or go to detailed with what’s in now. Rather infuse little bits of what is in and popular with the touches of your classic and timeless theme.

What area should I invest the most money in for my wedding?

50% of your wedding budget will go toward your reception (venue, food, liquor), so that something to consider when you’re putting together your budget. We think the most important things are really dependent on you as a couple, and what you like and don’t like.

Some people put the highest importance on food and drink; those real foodies that love to have high-quality food. So in that case put your money there and do less for the decor and other details.

If that’s not you, then consider going with a buffet or a different style of plated dinner, or even a cocktail reception, and go heavy on the decor and florals. The biggest thing when planning your wedding, and thinking about the cost, is starting from the beginning with the proper budget that includes everything. It’s the worst when you start spending and don’t have a clear vision from the beginning of how much things really cost.

It’s also a really great idea to make a list of those must-have items. Those items that when you think of your wedding are the first things that you think of, other then of course marrying the love of your life. Start with that list, and work your way down. As you plan you might discover that some things aren’t actually as important as you thought they were, in that case then reduce them in your budget and as an item with that large of an impact at your wedding.

What does a wedding stylist do?

Wedding stylist is quite different than a wedding planner. I wedding planner, or most wedding planners, deal with all of the logistic details of your wedding, including budget, vendor selection, guest list management, and then of course the day of coordination of your wedding. A lot of wedding planners also include a design element in the planning, which would be things like inspiration boards, diagrams, and helping you picking the right theme, flowers, linens, and general decor for your wedding venue and ceremony space.

A wedding stylist on the other hand, deals more with how things are set up in the smaller more intricate ways. These would be things like decor vignettes, the head table, the dessert table, cake table, guest book signing table, and other little decor details along the way. Often wedding stylist will pose and set different areas for the photographer to get styled pictures. You’ll see things like this, and a great example of this, are pictures from inspiration shoots that different planners and stylist put together.

I love your site, who designed it?

First of all thank you so much! We love our website too! We did the storyboarding, designing of the different elements, and then had a few different amazing people help us bring it altogether. The House of Hearts did all the actual coding and visual design, with all branding and initial design storyboards done by us. Then when it came to our logo we did the initial design work and determine what we wanted, and then also brought back to The House of Hearts for that font portion, and had the lovely Julie Doan do the calligraphy portion of the logo.