About

That's me, Susanna Miles - aka The K.i.s.s Expert and simple wedding goddess

I love weddings! Today, I know more about weddings that I ever could have imagined!

But, I wasn’t always a wedding “goddess” (chuckling as I write that!). In fact, when I started planning my own wedding I had a lot of un-goddess’like questions that went kind of like this

Huh?….

If you’re wondering… Yes, we had a few “moments”. And at the start I didn’t do everything the simple way.

Even though I had organized several events in my life (I was a Corporate Event Planner) there was something different about wedding planning.

Besides, I think it’s normal for every bride and groom to feel a little overwhelmed at times.
In fact, it seems that everyone from power brokers to fashionistas get bogged down by the “rules”, unsuspecting emotions, and sheer enormity of the tasks required to plan a wedding.

When Did I Start to K.i.s.s?

It was shortly after my own “mini” bridezilla moment that the lightbulb went off (will never admit it was anything more than a “mini” moment – haha!).

It was on the streetcar ride home one night when it clicked! I should be applying  everything I know about project management and event planning experience to wedding planning!

Duh, right!

Before that,  I was confused and I was mad. I was getting all this advice online, following this stupid planner, filling out budget calculators, blah blah blah. And all that did was make me feel MORE depressed about my budget…and MORE overwhelmed about everything I needed to do.  I was like, “how is it possible that this is so complicated when I’ve organized way bigger events on way less money?”.

Aren’t organizers and planners supposed to make you LESS stressed out?  And seriously – we should be able to plan a dinner party on $8000 or even $5000…. or even $2000, right!

What I realized then is that most wedding planners don’t follow simple event management rules. When you do, your brain will immediately start to de-scramble. Planning will become fun and you won’t have to worry about what you might be forgetting!

Everything kind of clicked – the idea of K.i.s.s…which btw is one of my life mantras…..and everything related to our wedding – during that ride home on that sunny July day.

What Makes Me the Simple Wedding Goddess

After responding to a question from a stressed-out bride-to-be she sent a thank you message that included “Thank you so much. You are the SIMPLE WEDDING GODDESS”. At the time, it kind of made me laugh – but, it stuck. I think it’s a fun and since I’m all about being fun AND planning simple weddings, heck, why not right – it makes sense!

Besides, Simplicity and I go way back….

I live by the K.i.s.s motto (yep, I probably call myself stupid way to often!). I really think that it’s good rule to live by – especially as things seem to getting more complicated.  Seriously, having to check email, Facebook, twitter, text messages, home phone messages, and cell phones messages, call display on your phone AND your cell phone… not simple!

And not too long ago the average wedding consisted of parents and siblings and would often take place in the couples house. A beautiful bridal dress and feast was always a given, but the ridiculous $150 centerpieces were hardly the norm!

We seem to have it in our heads that a wedding needs to fit this image that we see in hollywood movies. I’m not saying we should all get married in our living rooms with only a few people in attendance, I’m just saying that things CAN be simple, affordable and every bit as special and stunning as we want.

I think that taking a step back, looking at what really matters to us, and designing our weddings around that is a really great way to simplify! Forget about the “should’s” and focus on what resonates with you and your partner!

Our K.i.s.s Wedding

Adrian and I had a super simple wedding. We were married in the Grotto of one our favorite bistros. Since Adrian is a composer he wrote our wedding march songs. A good friend played the pin whistle during the signing, and we had two photographers – both good friends, one a photographer and the other a videographer! These were there wedding gifts to us!

We later partied the night away in the top floor of the bistro – it’s a special party room. Adrian and his friends played a few songs to entertain us well – it was super special!

We had 80 people in attendance, we served h’ors d’oeuvres, had an open (but slightly limited bar) and we both looked fantastic We spent about $8000.

Visit my Facebook fan page to check out pictures from my wedding and honeymoons.