Hi, I’m Travis — I’m the one with the spreadsheet.
I write Letter Lily for couples who want the actual range — the real costs, the real timing, the real mistakes — instead of vague inspiration or rigid rules.
How I ended up doing this
In the spring of 2021, my best friend’s wedding coordinator dropped her contract three weeks before the date. No warning, no refund, just an email and a backyard full of rented chairs with nobody to arrange them. I’d never coordinated a wedding in my life, but I had a laptop, a stubborn streak, and a friend who needed help. So I built a spreadsheet, called every vendor myself, and somehow we got her down the aisle on a $6,000 budget with twelve minutes to spare before the ceremony was supposed to start.
What I actually learned from doing it badly first
That first wedding taught me that most of the “rules” people repeat about weddings are guesses dressed up as tradition. So I started doing the unglamorous thing: I timed receptions with a stopwatch. I sat through three more weddings as an unofficial helper, tracking how long dinner actually took versus how long the catering contract promised, and cross-referencing vendor paperwork to find where every single timeline kept quietly falling apart in the same three places.
The wedding that broke my old system
In 2022, I coordinated a reception where dinner service ran forty minutes over because the venue had quoted buffet timing based on a much smaller guest count. The whole night backed up — toasts got rushed, the DJ ran out of slow-dance room, and the couple’s grandparents left before the cake cutting. I rebuilt the entire run-of-show live, sitting on a folding chair in the venue’s back hallway, and that rebuilt timeline became the framework I still use for every wedding I help plan today.
Why I started writing this down for other people
Word got around. Friends of friends started forwarding my spreadsheet to their own engaged friends, then asking me to just explain it over coffee instead. I realized the spreadsheet wasn’t really the useful part — the reasoning behind it was. Letter Lily started as a way to write that reasoning down once, properly, so I’d stop retyping the same explanation in twelve different text threads.
What this site is actually for
Most wedding sites give you one of two things: dreamy inspiration with no numbers attached, or rigid rules that assume your wedding looks like everyone else’s. I write for people stuck in between — the ones who want to know what a wedding band actually costs, how long dinner really takes with a guest list of 150, or which “rule” they’re allowed to ignore. You get the range, the reasoning, and the actual trade-offs, so you can make the call yourself.
— Travis
What guides everything I write
Four things I check before any piece goes up on Letter Lily.
Real Ranges, Not Round Numbers
Costs and timing get reported as the range they actually fall in, with what pushes you toward either end.
Tradition, Explained — Not Enforced
I’ll tell you what’s customary and why, then tell you exactly when it’s fine to skip it.
Built From Actual Timelines
Every timing guide traces back to receptions I’ve personally tracked, not a generic template.
Your Wedding, Your Variables
Guest count, venue, and budget change the answer every time — so I show you how, not just the average.
A bit more about me
- • Based in the Pacific Northwest, where I’ve coordinated more rain-contingency tents than I’d like to admit
- • Split a place with a roommate who has learned far more about reception logistics than she ever asked to
- • Keep a running spreadsheet of every wedding timing benchmark I’ve ever logged — it’s at 14 weddings and counting
- • Genuinely relax by reorganizing systems — spreadsheets are a hobby here, not just a job tool
A quick note on transparency: some links on this site are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through them — at no extra cost to you. I only reference products or resources I’d actually use. It helps keep this site going, and I’m grateful for your support.
Ready to plan with actual numbers?
Browse the blog for cost breakdowns, timing guides, and straight answers to the wedding questions nobody quite explains properly.
