Emily Schuman's Top Tips for Planning a Dream Wedding

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We could never discuss the business of blogging without mentioning Emily Schuman. Within the last few years, the 28-year-old Angeleno behind Cupcakes and Cashmere has gone from local blogstar to partnership powerhouse, which earned her a snazzy Estée Lauder gig earlier this year. She also has a style and home entertaining book coming out in August, which just may position her as the next Martha Stewart.

On top of all this, she recently got married. As expected, the wedding was picture-perfect, thanks to her keen eye for creativity coupled with a dream team that included a few star vendors from The Cream event. Here, Schuman shares with us her top five tips for creating a wedding as sweet as, well, cupcakes.

1. Prioritize. When it comes to your budget, there are tons of things to take into account (venue, music, flowers, food, etc.), so we narrowed it down to the top three things that were most important to us: 1. Food/drinks (Delicious Catering/Russell Davis) 2. Photography (Max Wanger) and 3. Venue (Ralston White Retreat). Once you figure out where you want to allocate the majority of your budget, everything else kind of falls in place.

2. Don't adhere to rules. Throughout the planning process, a lot of people told us things we "should" do, but really it's just about what works best for you, not what's expected. We decided not to have bridesmaids/groomsmen and I think our friends really appreciated it. In fact, several of them mentioned how they felt more connected than they had in any other (even the ones in which they had been part of the wedding). Our friends were still very much involved in every aspect of the wedding, but they simply didn't have to be in matching outfits.

3. Don't sweat the small things. The weeks leading up to the wedding were intense. Not only was I trying to write two weeks' worth of posts while we'd be away on our honeymoon, but there were all kinds of last minute decisions that had to be made. Luckily we had the best wedding planners ever (Bash, Please), so they helped execute everything perfectly, but it was a good lesson in learning how to let things slide. I could have easily gotten hung up on the fact that this relative didn't end up making it to the wedding or that the strung lights over the cocktail reception were way more than I had budgeted...but I let it go, and I'm so glad I did. I ended up feeling stress-free on our wedding day, which really helped set the pace for the entire event.

4. Make it personal. Our main goal for our wedding was that it felt like us - which meant an awesome cocktail bar (for my husband), a sparkler send-off (for me), and three (smaller) wedding cakes (for both of us). Since we paid attention to the things we really wanted, the wedding took on a really personal vibe that made it feel like a really fun, intimate party.

5. Enjoy the process. Some of the best advice I received while in the midst of wedding planning was to enjoy the process. You're only engaged once, so it should all be about planning an awesome party to celebrate your lives together with your closest friends and family. That being said, there are some tough decisions to be made, so if you find that you can't agree on something or you aren't seeing eye to eye - take a step back. It's perfectly acceptable to take a few days off so that when you jump back into the planning, you feel invigorated and excited once again. It sounds corny, but we didn't fight once while we were engaged (at least about the wedding!), and I think this was a big reason why.
· Cupcakes and Cashmere [Official Site]
· Big Money Deals [Racked]
· Blogger Emily Schuman at Today's IFB Conference [Racked]
· Plan Your Wedding in One Swoop at The Cream Tonight [Racked]