Bridal Talk Tuesday: Budget

Linking up with Elizabeth at Life with Elizabeth

for Bridal Talk Tuesday! 

I decided to write this post on the budget.

This has been one of the most difficult things so far

in the wedding planning because we didn't 

realize how out of control it can get without one.

It's was easy for me to pick things that I thought I wanted

but once I learned the price I was quickly not interested.

Here's an idea of the average wedding costs-

I decided to make a different budget for each wedding venue

that we were considering and it was very helpful in breaking

down the price differences in each place.

My favorite budgeting tool I've found so far is the one on 

The Knot. It's user friendly and includes everything that

needs to be included.

This tool helped me to remember to get prices on every different

area involved. And it is also easy to print to be able to show

my parents the progress, etc.

The big ticket items in our budget:

1. Alcohol- so expensive, you don't

even want to know how much our 

open bar is!

2. Food- obviously we want our guests

well fed

3. Photographer- this was THE MOST 

important thing to me. And [KP] & I

both love the photographer we chose.

4. Site fees- beach weddings aren't as inexpensive

as everyone thinks

5. Videographer- we are splurging a little on this

as I read it is the #1 bridal regret

Once we got the budget nailed down I was one happy

girl! We chose our venue based on what we were getting for 

the price and of course, the location.

It didn't hurt that our venue includes the use of these FREE

of charge!
They can be found here for about $7 a chair to rent.

My fiance' thinks I am crazy but I have fallen

in love with these Chiavari chairs. For real. Aren't they

gorgeous?!

Also, it totally makes your day when you get a

quote thats under budget :)

More money to spend on frivolous things such

as these:

Or these:

Any of my other blogger brides make a budget

and actually stick to it?

I hope everyone is having a great week!

I will share some of my Lilly sale finds soon :)

xoxo,

Little Miss Southern Love

Fishing with the Fiance`

As you can tell from our Engagement post [KP] & I love fishing.

Well.. I take that back. [KP] loves fishing WAY more than I do.

I don't necessarily love fishing.. I love catching! :) haha.

But we love spending time together fishing.

A few weeks ago [KP] and I headed out in the morning

and kayaked to a great fishing spot that he has

been fishing for the past few weeks.

I caught redfish after redfish for about an hour 

until I was tired. They weren't the largest redfish

ever but it was sure fun to catch so many of them.

[KP] & I have the same Olympus waterproof

cameras that we love! And he always keeps his

in his fishing tackle bag. (The same

bag that my ring was hidden in on my favorite fishing

trip ever!)

Here's some pictures we took that day..

 Of course Costa's and my Lilly bathing suit were a must-have

on this fishing trip! :)

It was a great day on the water and I love fishing with my fiance'!

Unfortunately.. the same wonderful day was ruined by this:

[KP] & I were rear-ended on the way to dinner with our favorite

newlyweds. You can't even tell here but I was so upset..

[KP] got mad that I was more upset that my car looked

like this. What can I say.. I loved my car! 

My car was in really bad shape as you can tell.. 

We are in the middle of the longest process of my life 

trying to get things situated with the 

other insurance company. 

Needless to say my car is not able to be fixed :( poor baby.

and have I ever mentioned how much I HATE insurance

companies?

They obviously don't realize who they are dealing

with.. long story short but my step-dad is 

a personal injury attorney and we are suing! 

ahhh. so frustrating. I can't wait til it's over and done with.

Hope you girls are having a great week! 

xoxo,

Little Miss Southern Love

Bridal Talk Tuesday: We picked our wedding venue!

Linking up with Elizabeth again today for Bridal Talk Tuesday!

And we have some exciting news to share...

We booked our wedding venue today!

We decided to go with venue #2 listed here!

Which is The Sanctuary Golf Club on Sanibel Island.

 We will be having cocktail hour after the ceremony

on the patio out behind the Country club.. just like in 

this picture.

 Our room will be set up similar to this one.

We will be using the white chiavari chairs that our pictured.

We will also be using white tablecloths, the burlap runners pictured

in last weeks bridal talk tuesday, and navy napkins.

 I love how simple and clean the lines are in this 

room! Especially the chairs :)

 Cocktail hour outside.

 And again.. beautiful views of the 2nd hole from

the cocktail hour. We will also have our photo booth set up

out here.

 LOVE this fireplace.

Thoughts of this picture were

drifting into my head today during our 

meeting.

We will be having a plated dinner so no shrimp on the

dance floor :)

Had to take a picture outside to celebrate :)

We are so excited that our first major step in this whole

process is now complete.

We are also booking our photographer this week

and I'm going to my first bridal show as an 

engaged girl! So exciting, I know :)

Stay tuned next week for a re-cap of that.

xoxo,

Little Miss Southern Love

End of Summer Playlist!

Trust me, I am just sad as you are that summer

 is coming to an end. So I decided to share with you

 my go-to playlist right now. 

Confession: I LOVE creating playlists. I do it all the time. 

And I have one for almost every occasion. haha. 

There has been some seriously good new country music 

being released lately.. and these are some of my favorite

new songs. I hope that y'all haven't heard all of these songs

because I love sharing new music with people and then

finding out they love it.

This playlist is perfect for the last summer Saturday

on the beach or a end of summer roadtrip.

Let me know what you think!

(Click to make it bigger in another window)

Of course, I recommend you preview these songs on Itunes

before purchasing. I love buying new songs 

and creating a new playlist. It's one thing 

I know I can always do to brighten my day!

I hope everyone is enjoying one of the last few weeks of summer!

xoxo,

Little Miss Southern Love

Bridal Talk Tuesday: DIY wedding style.

Today I am linking up with Elizabeth again for Bridal Talk Tuesday!

You probably know from my previous Bridal Talk Tuesday

post that our colors are Navy and Lime green and

we are going with a beachy/nautical theme.

I have been in LOVE with etsy lately because of all the handmade

details they feature on their site.

Even though their stuff is reasonably priced I really want to

DIY it and put a personalized touch to it.

I want to do something like this recovered

ring bearer pillow except with burlap and navy

and green nautical elements added in.

 Also, I really want to have some flip flops in 

our wedding colors available at the beach that

will double function for tired feet also :)

 LOVING this chalkboard. KP and I are also

going to feature our favorite cocktails

as the 'drinks of the night!'

 These baskets would be so cute on the beach to hold

our programs. But they need some navy and green!

 In love with this burlap table runner with lace trim! 

Yes, please!

I really am dying to do this one.

 I thought these would be really cute with some old

fishing maps in the background to add 

to the nautical theme. 

And in navy or white of course.

 Clearly by the next few pictures I can't decide which

seating chart I like better! 

I need your opinions.

This one above would be maybe a nautical 

stripe fabric and maybe the cards would have

anchors instead of birds.

 Or sanddollars with the seat assignment tied on laying

in a tray of sand?

KP is loving these place cards with the flies on the side.

He is already planning on tying flies for all of his groomsmen's

boutonnieres in our wedding colors (of course)! 

I like these table numbers.. except with a little navy,

green, and possibly lace. 

Found this super cute chest on etsy and I thought

I would buy one of these and paint it for our 

wedding card box.

(They are at Michael's for $17.99!) 

Also love these signs to direct our guests..

These would also be so fun to make! 

I love hand-painting things!

This one goes a little more with our colors.. but I 

still want to make my own.

 LOVE this idea also. We will probably do this

as our guest book! Each guest writes a little

note ties it with NAVY ribbon and

tosses it inside the big jug.

I have been having so much fun searching

the internet for the perfect details for our wedding.

Let me know what you ladies think and 

which ideas you like best!

xoxo,

Little Miss Southern Love

Graduation Celebration!

Since graduation is nearing closer by the day (August 28th) 

I decided now would probably be a good time

to blog about our graduation celebration that we had

back in May. We had this celebration a little early

because other classes who were about to graduate were

invited also.

Preppy Wife Preppy Life was there with [MK] as

well as both of their parents and

I brought [KP] along.

It was a fun night right on the river so we took some

fun pictures outside.

We also had dinner and drinks and did a short ceremony

where we walked across the stage.

It was a major tease since we don't graduate for

a few weeks.

 bAs and I :)

 Both wearing of Lilly of course :)

KP & I. 

 bAs, MK & I!

 Inside the room.. not a great picture, but still cute :)

 Some of our nursing ladies!

And me with the random guy

who gave me this leather folder

I will probably never use!

It was a fun night and got us all

really excited to graduate in August. Even

though we really don't finish classes until December

it will be really nice to walk across the stage feeling

accomplished!

xoxo,

Little Miss Southern Love

Also- Don't forget to enter Ashley Brooke's Sweet Tea 

Paperie giveaway here!