Congratulations, Lauren!

Lauren is one of my co-workers who started around the same time as I did. As co-workers who started together on the same track, Type A girls and movers to the city at the same time, we were quick friends. Last Christmas, Lauren’s fiancé Lee proposed and voile, they scheduled a November 30 wedding (their 5^th anniversary of dating).

Although I’ve been to other weddings and seen plenty of people get married, Lauren and Lee’s wedding was close to me both sentimentally and physically. Lauren and I sit two rows apart at work, and I really had the chance to experience wedding planning with her. Whether it was browsing Etsy links throughout the day, watching the invitations arrive at her desk, evaluating the bridesmaid gifts and watching her DIY create the bouquets, Lauren and Lee’s wedding showed me just how much work a wedding is.

Top lessons:

• Every little detail matters. Whether it’s the centerpiece, the table number, place card or weight of the paper, these are all decisions that you consciously have to make (as unappealing as some might be!).
• Every bride needs a hot glue gun.
• The rehearsal dinner and wedding guest list grow quickly, especially once you calculate your friends that need to bring +1s to both events. :). 

Lauren and I at Salvatore's

Starcom crew!

Lexi & Chris's wedding

Apologies for the monthlong delay here!

We celebrated Lexi's bachelorette party back in August, but two months flew by and the weekend of October 4, it was time for her and Chris to get married. Chris and Lexi met at Mizzou, and their relationship took off through Mojo Ad, our senior capstone class where we work for a full-service ad agency. I met Lexi in our 'tryout' class for Mojo, and Chris and I were on the same team.

I had the honor of being one of Lexi's bridesmaids, along with her sisters, two sorority sisters and two other Mojo Ad friends - Gwen and Natasha. Despite being the beginning of October, there were 38-degree record lows on their wedding day- but we conquered the cold and had an absolute blast.

The ceremony was beautiful and everyone danced the night away at the reception. They even had a reception after the reception, with food for everyone and a few extra hours of hanging out after dancing. It was a great time to catch up with Mizzou friends, and is always a pleasure to get to know the friends and family of your own friends!

Here's the wedding video if you'd like to check it out, and the shorter version here!

Lexi and the bridesmaids!

Chris and Lexi with Mojo Ad's Maven team from spring 2012
Me, Hannah, Chris, Lexi, Alex and Stacy

The cost of your friends getting married

It's been a privilege and a pleasure to observe many friends and family friends get married over the past two years. Attending nine weddings from mid-2013 to the end of 2014, I'm starting to understand the drill. The biggest lesson I've learned so far is to budget accordingly, because weddings come with expenses.

You start with a gift and outfit for an engagement party (if someone hosts one). Then the bridal shower comes, where you buy your first gift off the registry and sometimes travel to attend that.

Next is the bachelorette party, what most 20-something women look forward to and plan for months on hand. These appear to be getting more and more extravagant, but at the bare minimum, you're paying to host the party (i.e. split a hotel), eat dinner and drinks for a weekend, and buying another "mini-shower" gift.

Then, wedding weekend arrives. You'll need a cute outfit for the rehearsal dinner. To look ready yourself, a manicure & pedicure are necessary, and makeup and hair the day of the wedding. By wedding day, you've paid for your bridesmaid's dress or other outfit for the night, a hotel for the evening (and possibly a flight or gas if you travel), a card and another gift off the registry.

Make sure you're aware of all this and budget beforehand, or else it's easy to go overboard when you're celebrating your friends in love!

A weekend in Lake Geneva

At the beginning of August, we went to Lake Geneva for Lexi's bachelorette party. Her family has a lake house up there, right downtown, so it was a peaceful weekend on a pontoon and outside of the city. I hadn't seen the lake since Fanari back in high school, so it was nice to see what a large, beautiful lake is just miles north of Chicago!

The group 

Some of the Mizzou girls

Lexi with a champagne sparkler toast at Carvetti's