Chaircovers - you laugh - but these may become the. single. most. important. part of your day.

There are a million little decisions involved in wedding planning. It’s best to keep a pad of paper on you at all times because you never know when your mom will call to remind you of the million and first decision you need to make.

The series so far has covered some of the bigger, obvious decisions: where, wear, who, etc. What about the other stuff like hair, make-up, chair covers, invitations, registries, and so on? They can drive you mad and there’s even less information available on these items than on the big stuff. Here are some parting pieces of advice:

Invitations: Costco, baby. For realz - Costco is not just for more TP than you’ll use in the next 6 months. Use their website and search for “wedding invitations” and you’ll find a good collection of quality options. Originally, I had found some Papyrus pretties, but when I did the math and thought about how I am part of the minority of paper-savers in the world, spending more than $300 of our budget on something 90% of our guests would literally throw away seemed stupid. You create the cards online and they arrive very quickly. Bonus points for quality customer service who called twice to confirm details before processing the order. I like a company that takes the trouble of getting it right the first time. Can’t beat it.

Chair covers: Ah, chair covers. When I first became engaged, I swore I would never waste hundreds of dollars on damn chair covers. Two sets of chair covers later, at least I have a good recommendation for you: El Dorado Bridal - with a downtown storefront with limited hours as well as a full store on Northgate - had seemingly endless selection at prices that beat a lot of in-house venues or other googled-up options. You can pay slightly less and worry about your own set up, or pay slightly more and have them magically appear and disappear. Go for the latter. They did make a big impact since the chairs themselves were pretty ugly and in some cases, damaged and tired. El Dorado also provides linen rentals.

Hair & Make-up: I found this research more nerve-wracking than most other aspects of the wedding. I don’t do make up generally, so I feared coming away like a clown or a kid in the school play with pancake troweled on my face. Like bakers and DJs, hair and make-up can book up quickly. Half by luck and half by reputation, I ended up at Lush Salon with Kari winning me over after a trial run. Hair and make-up ain’t cheap, but from my research, Lush is on-par with the market for these services. I was able to book up several Lush professionals to handle services for me, my mom, and bridal party. Everyone looked great. There were a few tweaks I’d have done differently with my hair, but I’ll chalk the outcome to wind, rather than my stylist. I’d also go back to her for regular haircuts. Make sure you nail them down as to rates, though, because there’s a slightly overbroad scale that seems, go fig, to land people at the higher ends. Keep on them about that one.

Table decor: Mostly discussed here. But to review, if you need to shave some money off the budget, your tablescape is a great place to cut corners without sacrificing style. Like I said, Ikea is a GREAT resource for cheap, plentiful vases, candle holders, tea lights, and other assorted decor. Go zen with some glass vases, pebbles, and bamboo. There, you’re done. We bought our orchids at Trader Joe’s for about $12 each - far less than you’ll pay at a florist. And since they are relatively hearty (if you avoid a few pitfalls like over-watering), you can start collecting your preferred color or style over a month before the big day.

Booze: Between Costco and BevMo, we covered our wedding for less than I’d anticipated - and we over-purchased (though the post-wedding surplus was do, in part, to a disagreement with our venue about what, exactly, we had agreed to regarding alcohol service). Somehow, we ended up without the table wine service we thought we’d purchased, and with an open bar that was open and staffed far longer than the hour we contracted for. Go fig. No one went home thirsty. I had briefly worried that the more wine-knowledgeable among my guests would wrinkle their noses at under-90-point selections. Then I got over it and figured the majority wouldn’t care and the minority could confine themselves to Martinis if the wine selection offended their palates. If you’re stocking your own bar at the event, make sure you talk to either the professional bartender you’ll be using or just A professional bar tender to know how much to buy. We probably have bought even MORE than the too much we had if not for those consultations.

Registry: The most popular seem to be Macys (’cause there really aren’t any other Department stores left, are there?), Crate & Barrel, and Williams-Sonoma.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All three of these places, and most other popular registry stores like Target, Pottery Barn, etc, will attempt to give you little cards you can include in your wedding invitations to tell people where you are registered. Don’t Do It. That’s tacky. Oh, so very tacky. As tacky as writing “no gifts please” on the invite. As tacky as writing “no children” or “Adults Only.” Only you can prevent the further degradation of etiquette in this country. Don’t let it go down without a fight!

Those cards may be acceptable for shower invitations - because you, dear bride and groom, aren’t the ones mailing out the invites for those events (you shouldn’t be, anyway!). Guests will find out where you are registered. They are resourceful like that. Open a website on The Knot or Wedding Channel.com or use a pay website like WeddingWindow.com - letting people know that was is totally fine. The distinction: if guests come to you and ask, it is proper to tell them. It is NOT proper to inform them before they ask because it implies you expect a gift or that the wedding is in anyway tied to gift giving.

You should, in fact, inform any registry consultant who attempts to give you these cards that what they are doing is wrong.

So tacky.

/rant.

Anyway - nearly all stores give brides and grooms nifty pricing guns with which they can run through stores tagging their desired items. Makes things very simple. Macy’s and Williams-Sonoma get HUGE marks for their thank-you card managers that show you the names of everyone next to the items they have purchased for you - great for when you misplace that handwritten list you’ve been keeping. Williams-Sonoma even prints the senders address next to the name and item.

Crate & Barrel, not so much. Which is a damn shame.

Pay attention when choosing your registry stores to their completion programs. Macy’s wins handily over the competition here. They offer bonuses and discounts galore on completion items (and in fact, any item in the store when you are shopping in person, rather than online) for a set period after the wedding. Usually with extra bonuses on top of those for a time period immediately after the wedding.

Williams-Sonoma comes in second with a two-use discount card that arrives slightly before the wedding.

Crate & Barrel loses again with a single use, 10% card that arrives over a month after the wedding (or later). That’s weak.

So, that about covers it. Any questions? Did I forget anything?

Best of luck holding on to your sanity and your budget - but give thanks that you are planning your wedding in this market and not a larger city.

For more:
Day One: The Series
Day Two: The Dress
Day Three: The Photographer
Day Four: The Music
Day Five: The Cake
Day Six: The Flowers
Day Seven: The Legal Stuff
Day Eight: Random Other Stuff

Related posts:

1. How To Plan A Wedding In Sacramento: The Music
2. How To Plan A Wedding In Sacramento: A Series
3. How To Plan A Wedding In Sacramento: The Flowers
4. How To Plan A Wedding In Sacramento: The Photographer
5. How To Plan A Wedding In Sacramento: The Cake