Fail to plan, plan to fail. Sure, it may be a motto for many things but it’s something that should be chanted as we enter the holidays. Especially Thanksgiving. Lists are key, math does play a part in what you serve and careful pre-planning will make your day so much easier.
MAGIC GRAVY STORY
One year, my mom was hosting Thanksgiving dinner for our immediate family, their family and guests of those who were single. With about 25 people in the house, several of us were running around the kitchen with purpose. The pressure to serve an incredible meal was on. A couple of the guests were the type of women who tend to do everything right in the kitchen. You know those type? They can just “whip up” something and it looks like a magazine feature. Why didn’t we ask them to cook? Hindsight is 20/20.
The final stages of meal prep were coming to a close and my aunt was making gravy… from scratch. She was stirring and stirring, adding more ingredients and then stirring again. The freaking gravy would NOT thicken up. So, as one of the perfect cooks went to her car to grab something (I was praying it was a meal), my aunt tossed the runny gravy down the drain, grabbed a can of pre-made gravy, dumped it into the bowl and started stirring by the time the woman made it back into the kitchen.
Flawless.
We planned ahead.
The gravy was excellent.
YOUR THANKSGIVING
- How many guests are you expecting?
- Who is bringing what?
- Do you have the meal planned out?
- How does your grocery list look?
We’ve created thirteen pages of list-type organization for Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, we said THIRTEEN pages to keep you on track and always one step ahead.
[ddownload id=12000]
It’s all free and it’s ready for download. Go for it!
Wedding people, we’ve transferred this blog over from our Wedding Preview Event site (which will soon live here, too). We thought this was pretty awesome to share.
Infographic: Visual representations of information, data or knowledge.
I LOVE infographics! They are so simple, take little time and are pleasing to the eye. Aren’t they great? All of your info is in one cute little package. We went searching through Pinterest to find the best boards containing wedding infographics. There weren’t any. Well, it’s time to make it happen. We have created a ‘Wedding Infographics‘ board on Pinterest. If you have any to add, let us know. After searching, this is what we found:
Cost for Wedding Vendors
click for full infographic
Cost to be a Bridesmaid
click for full infographic
Cake Serving Sizes
click for full infographic
Wedding Photography
click for full infographic
Source: Digby Rose
Gay Marriage
What to Gift at a Wedding
Look in your phone right now. How many physical addresses do you have? Me = 7. I have no idea how those addresses go into my phone, either, because I NEVER ask anyone for their address. If I need to get to their house, I’ll plug it into my maps and off I go.
This poses a problem when you’re sending out wedding invitations. While the world seems to be moving in fast-forward utilizing technology for just about everything, parts of wedding planning and traditions still remain the same. This may be a bit of insanity on our part or the sweetness and almost only opportunity to actually send something in the mail that is beautiful and holds such a happy meaning. It’s: The Wedding Invitation. Coming soon to a mailbox near you.
Don’t waste time doing it the “old fashioned” way.
So…how do you get the addresses quickly and keep them all in one place?
click to see postable.com
We’re pretty impressed with what Postable offers. You create an account, are given a link and then you email the link to friends and family. They will click on the link, enter their contact information (as in, those elusive addresses) and all of the data will be saved in your account. Just head on into your Postable account and you’ll see all of your new contact information. Download or export the list and BOOM, you’ve got yourself a full guest list for invitations. How easy is that?
Next step: How do you address these suckers? If you are having invitations created, you can ask them about etiquette. If you’d like to take a peek on your own and figure out your wording, see the below image.
sample format
