Who Needs a Wedding Coordinator?

When I got engaged last summer, I remember my mom telling me, "Oh, I'll start taking notes from Martha. She's always got great ideas...you could probably use them for your wedding!"

Yeah, right, sure, mom, I thought. Martha Stewart? The woman is a scam artist and went to jail for corporate fraud. Besides, she makes bird houses. What type of wedding ideas could she possibly have to offer?

Then, of course, came the flood of magazines.

All my friends gave me tons of wedding magazines to look through - my married friends gave me their old magazines about wedding dresses and reception locations, my engaged friends signed me up for different bridal offers, and my single friends bombarded me with magazines that they thought would help.

Seriously, I had every intention on planning a wedding without looking through all this crap. I mean, to me, wedding magazines were unrealistic propaganda - they all had advertisements displaying obscenely large diamond engagement rings that nobody in their right mind would buy unless they had $20,000 to spare, there were similarly obscene ads about ultra-expensive invitations and stationery, and - wait - who on earth would make their bridesmaids WEAR that?!

I'm a little bias with magazines.

But amongst the pile was a Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. It was a summer issue and on the front cover was a bouquet of cute yellow lilies. I shrugged. Hey, mom likes her. Let's see what's in here.

I kid you not - the first issue of Martha Stewart and I was absolutely hooked. It was because of that magazine that I have tons of ideas for my wedding; most of them copied from her, but hey, it works for me. There was a picture in there of a beautiful flower bouquet that I handed to my florist and asked for an exact replica to have on my wedding day (phalaenopsis orchids - squeee!!!!). There's another idea in there about place card holders that I'm going to re-create. There's even recipes and little how-tos about making tiny little favors and knick-knacks for the wedding guests.

In addition, every Martha Stewart Weddings magazine contains two to three pages of a "Wedding Worksheet" that you can tear out and make notes on. It's an organized little workbook that has a checklist of what to do, a timeline so you can prioritize, a budgeter, spots for notes, and little snippets of advice. For example, in the floral section, it lists the flowers that are ideal for each season. The checklist displays the things the bride (and groom) need to do 12 months before the wedding, 9 months before, 6 months before, and so on. I don't use the budgeter, which is simply a list of items and a blank space next to it (so you can fill in the cost and add up the charges), simply because I'd rather keep it in a spreadsheet.

What I love about Martha Stewart Weddings is that for every idea; every type of flower used, food made, stationery, china, gift boxes, etc. etc. There's a description, a link, or a reference to the index where there are more details in the back. Usually when a bouquet is put together, they reference the florist and supply a mailing address with a URL link. Of course, I'm not going to go off and hire so-and-so from L.A. to do my flowers, but it's nice to look at their online portfolio to get ideas. As for gift boxes and crafts, there are step-by-step instructions on how to put those types of things together, which is great for the artistically-inept like me. If there isn't room in the article, there are also how-tos and additional instructions online. Last but not least, they supply a various list of vendors - from flowers to cakes to invitations - that I can look up and research to get ideas from.

Also, each magazine varies with each season - the summer issue obviously has a palette set for summer flowers, summer drinks, summer colors, outdoor wedding themes, etc. I always go nuts with the summer and fall issues because I just love these seasons and the ideas are so wonderful!

Overall: Five stars because a LOT of my wedding planning came directly out of this magazine. I enjoyed reading it so much that I hardly noticed the advertisements (which are excessive but unavoidable, I think, in every magazine nowadays) and the pages are so dog-eared and worn since I've flipped through, marked them, and made notes so many times. I didn't get enough of the first magazine, however, because I wanted a variety of ideas, so I subscribed for a year of Martha Stewart Weddings. A one-year subscription is $16.99 and you only get four magazines (one for each season) but they're pretty thick and packed full of ideas, so I didn't mind the price. I just renewed my subscription a month ago because I still have a while before I get married. Might as well stock up on the ideas! This magazine is ideal if you're newly engaged or if you have a son/daughter getting married because it offers a variety of alternative ways to get creative (and do-it-yourself) without breaking your budget.