Real Brides, Real Love Stories

How do you make this thing many loving refer to as the WIC - Wedding Industrial Complex - your own? How do you avoid pressuring yourself to be "unique" or "original" when planning your wedding?

I follow the real brides. Real brides give you the backstory on how to pull together a day you'll remember. Most of us don't plan events for a living, design stationery, or work for a restaurant/caterer/winery. etc. Most of us are just regular folk trying to figure out how do I get from here (Omg... I'm engaged!) to there (I do).

Below are stories from the real brides I follow (those with an asterisk are ones I started reading after Bowie Bride's post last week). Whether they're in the midst of planning or enjoying wedded bliss, check out what they've doing (or did) to plan their wedding. And start at the beginning (it really is the best place). For convenience, the links take you to the first post of their blog.

Am I missing any of your favorites? Please share them - I love a good love story.

Real Brides who are in the Midst of Planning

• *A Cupcake Wedding (May 2010); Twitter @CupcakeWedding
• Becca at A Los Angeles Love; Twitter @ALosAngelesLove
• *Anna at Anna and the Ring (December 2010)
• *Lyn at Another Damn Wedding (September 2010); Twitter @AnotherDamn
• Jem at JEM - Aqua Bride (August 2010)
• Sondra Lee at Backyard Bride (May 2010); Twitter @BackyardBride
• *Em at Burning River Bride (May 2010)
• *Lauren at I Love You Much. (June 2010); Twitter @FiftyFootBride
• Sarah at My San Francisco Budget Wedding; Twitter @SFBudgetWedding
• *Souris Marriage (September 2010); Twitter @GoodMouseBad
• Britt at The Bowie Bride (July 2010); Twitter @BowieBride

Real Brides who are Now Married

• Sara at 2000 Dollar Budget Wedding
• *Jenn at A Bride's Brain (May 2010); Twitter @ABridesBrain
• Meg at A Practical Wedding (August 2009); Twitter @PracticalWed
• Ashley at Bride on a Budget (April 2010); Twitter @BrideonBudget (Organized by type of content now. Planning/Organization is the closest to the story of how they planned their wedding.)
• Liz at Chic on the Cheap
• Jenn at 'I Do' It Yourself (March 2010)
• Amy Jean at Relentless Bride (March 2010)
• LauraAnn at The Beginning of Forever
• Dana at The Broke-Ass Bride (May 2009); Twitter @BrokeAssBride
• Kelly at Yes, Please (October 2009)

As I was putting this post together I realized that we started this blog out in the weeds (with color choice). So over the next few Wednesdays, we're going to have a Get to Know Us feature where we go over the basics... How We Met; The Proposals; etc. If you'd like a sneak peek, check out Our Story on our wedsite.