The power of planning

Calm down already! Five survival tips for the modern bride

Our wedding planner virtually paid for herself.
Thank you notes are still a must.
Mark your bathrooms for the sake of your guests.
Best wishes!
Photo by Toby Maurer

Wedding planning has the power to transform the nicest of girls into a certifiable form of psycho. But there’s no need to lose yourself to the bridal beast. Here are a few lessons I learned from my own recent experience.

1) Hire a wedding planner.
Too expensive? Our wedding planner virtually paid for herself. She had more than 900 weddings under her belt — to my 0. Plus, she knew every vendor, every flower, every idea, every song. We got the “Angela discount” almost everywhere, and she went through every line item to catch discrepancies. In the end, she not only smoothed every part of the process, she saved us major coin.

2) Write nice thank you notes.
People want to give you things, and they want to know that those things arrived safely in your care. Yes, thank you notes are old fashioned and time consuming, but they’re also essential. Don’t pout, put ‘em off, or half-ass them. Just open a bottle of wine and write. It’s a few minutes and a postage stamp in exchange for a lasting good impression.

3) Find yourself in the details.
The nicest compliment I received after the wedding was that it was so “us.” We used Blue Bell containers to hold flowers. Part of the dinner was a macaroni-and-cheese bar. Our centerpieces were studded with asparagus and cauliflower. Do these things work for everyone? No, but they were perfect for us. Find a few things that are uniquely you, and figure out how to incorporate them.

4) Make sure your bathrooms are well marked.
Picture it: A 1920’s house complete with balcony and ballroom. Humble, picturesque, very Audrey Hepburn… The perfect location for a wedding. But what we didn’t realize was that stately 1920’s homes don’t have well-marked water closets. Which, I suppose, is why one of our guests peed on the floor in the ladies dressing room. Uh-huh.

5) Calm the eff down. Seriously.
People do want to hear about your wedding, but they don’t want to know every petal, pillow, and place setting. We often lose sight of the fact that the real excitement is not the wedding, but rather the marriage. Bring things into perspective, and it’s easy to laugh off mishaps like #4 above. Everything will work out fine, and if you trip down the aisle? At least you’ll be able to relive your big day when it goes viral on YouTube.

Best wishes!

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”