The Engagement Edit: Q&A with Lauren of LMents of Style
Get to know our first contributor, Lauren Spann, from LMents of Style!
Photo: Sarah Kelly
Welcome to WeddingWire’s new series, The Engagement Edit, featuring some of our favorite fashion and lifestyle experts across the blogosphere. These stylish savants, who also happen to be planning their wedding, are sharing their own wedding planning stories, tips and other experiences with WeddingWire (and you!). Read on and get to know our first contributor, Lauren Spann, from LMents of Style!
Name: Lauren Spann
Blog: LMents of Style
Location: Rockwall, TX
Wedding Date: October 28, 2016
WW: Congrats on the upcoming wedding! With a month and a half left until the big day, you’re in the home stretch! What do you have left on your wedding checklist?
LS: Ahhh! I know they say to get the big stuff over with first and you’re good…well I did that and I feel like it’s the little things that are the worst! My mom is a huge help, so I don’t have much left at all. The main things I still have to do are taking my bridal portraits, sending out rehearsal dinner invitations, constructing my day of timeline, attending my bridal shower, and scheduling final vendor appointments. Definitely happy to be in the home stretch!
WW: Can you tell us about your #JustSaidYes moment to your fiancé, Nick?
LS: Nick takes most of my blog photos, but I do occasionally work with photographers. Last December (2015), he asked one of my photographers to invite me to a Christmas couples shoot. As Nick likes to say, I planned my own engagement! It started out as a styled shoot. At one point, Nick started dancing with me, sans music, which isn’t weird for us at all, and it was at that point, that he proposed. I’m so glad we have it all on camera! You can read a more in depth story and see photos here!
WW: We know that in addition to blogging, you also have a full-time job as an apparel merchandiser for the Dallas Cowboys. How have you balanced work, blogging, and life as you plan your wedding?
LS: I’d like to say that there’s a magical formula, but there’s not. Some days are great, some aren’t. All in all, Nick helps me out a ton. I’ve learned that sometimes getting my beauty sleep is better than clearing a dirty sink. I usually wake up around 4:30 a.m. (ish) and do a little blog work, then head to the gym at or before 5:30 a.m. I try to get back to my apartment around 6:00 a.m., so I have an hour to get ready and do a little more blog stuff. I work from 7:30 to 4:30, so that helps me avoid a little traffic and save time. Time is my most important asset. I try and be as efficient as possible and sometimes that means I skip my lunch break to finish a post at my desk. It’s definitely another full time job! Don’t get me wrong though—I love blogging and that’s why I’m still doing it!
Photo: Heidi Lockhart Somes
WW: What’s been the most exciting thing about wedding planning thus far? What’s been the most stressful?
LS: I think the most exciting thing was actually getting engaged – it still felt like a dream the next morning. The most fun so far was our engagement shoot. We did it in Seattle and our photographer Heidi Somes was amazing! And the award for most stressful goes to the guest list. It wasn’t hard to get the main people we needed on the list, but you have this idea of who you want to come and you don’t get to invite everyone, for reasons like not enough space or that your just plain out of budget for food for them! Our venue cap was 200, so that’s what we went with. It was stressful at the time, but I feel good about who we asked to stand by us on our big day!
WW: Have any wedding planning tools on WeddingWire been especially useful to you?
LS: I haven’t used it yet, but I will for sure be utilizing the seating chart tool. We just sent our invitations out almost two weeks ago, so I’ll be making the seating chart soon.
WW: Did you find any of your vendors on WeddingWire? If so, which ones?
LS: Yes! Nick thought I was crazy (at the time), because I was looking at venues the day after we got engaged. Proposing in December was the best, because it was perfect timing to still nab a coveted October wedding day, the most popular month in Texas to get married. I really was doing it that soon, just to be able to tell our friends and family a plan, so they could start making arrangements. I was searching for something unique and elegant and I stumbled on The Castle at Rockwall via WeddingWire and was so glad I did. They are a joy to work with and I’m so excited to have my wedding there. It’s definitely Instagram worthy!
Photo: Heidi Lockhart Somes
WW: How would you describe your personal style? And how do you plan on incorporating it into your wedding day?
LS: Nick and I are classic, with a modern twist. We’ve noticed lately that we are a lot more modern in décor style than we realized! Our wedding will be very traditional, but have twists of today’s style, like elements of fur and pops of gold. Both are trending now, but won’t make our wedding photos look like “oh, that was definitely a wedding in 2016." I don’t want to look back and think “I can’t believe I did that."
WW: We'd love to know, any exciting details you can share with us about your wedding? Color palette? Theme?
LS: It kind of ties into the personal style question above, but Nick is very into wine. He’s a co-founder of The Dallas Wine club and is currently studying for his first Master of Wine test. We are Baylor Bears through and through, but are both obsessed with marsala (no it’s not Aggie maroon!). The wine theme will be played out via the bridesmaid dress hue, all the way to the name cards being placed on corks. I’m so excited to see it all come together!
WW: Do you have any tips for our engaged readers about the wedding planning process?
LS: Oh goodness, yes! I’d say overall, do what you want to do and don’t let someone talk you in to something else. Obviously have your trusted advisors (mine are my mom and sister) to bounce things off of and be sure to stay in budget, but don’t let a pushy bridesmaid make you change dresses because she doesn’t like it…I mean mine actually loved the dresses, but hey, you catch my drift;) You do you, girl! People love to go to a wedding that feels like the couple, not just another Pinterest explosion.
