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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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family