By Gail Vince, executive summarized by Andromeda

wedding-planning

At long last he has said those magic words ‘will you marry me’. You are now engaged. The wedding date has been set. What now?

Here are a few tips to help you organize and plan your wedding to ensure nothing is forgotten or left behind.

You have been to the local newsagent and bought the latest bridal magazine. There are pages and pages of photos of beautiful wedding dresses, rings, shoes and accessories and it is full of ads on what to buy and where to buy it. There is some information on what the requirements are at a wedding but not enough for you to really get started.

Start planning your special day now, get organized instead of rushing, and have the wedding of your dreams.

Careful planning will enable you to truly enjoy every moment of your Wedding Day. Arrangements for a large conventional wedding should ideally commence between 8 – 12 months prior to the wedding date. In saying this, weddings have been planned in as little as 6 weeks and have been very successful. By using a wedding timetable (this is a list of to do’s) you can follow a list of time frames to complete tasks, 12, 6, 3 and 2 months before, 6 weeks before, 2 weeks before and 1 week before the big day.

Don’t forget delegation! Family and friends love to help for special occasions so use them. Bounce ideas off them, get their opinion, you don’t have to act on their advice however more ideas are better than none to be able to make an informed decision.

wedding-research

Research and systems

When doing your research you will collect large amounts of; information, photos, samples, receipts and business cards, therefore you will need to create a system to keep all your wedding details in the one place.

It may be a ring binder with tabs for each category, or an expansion file where you are able to quickly locate information. Some of the categories may include; Wedding Dress, Men’s Attire, Bridesmaid Dresses, Catering, Reception, Photography, Florist, Wedding Vehicles, Music, etc.

You could also create a scrapbook and cut images from magazines, print them off websites, insert photo’s you may have taken or photo’s from other peoples weddings. With a scrapbook you will be able to see how items work together to help you coordinate the theme of your wedding. Hints and tips can be noted, for example, place a disposable camera on each table (these are the shots you wouldn’t normally get) and place your guests name on both sides of their name card so other guests know who is sitting at the table.

Keep a list of the most important aspects of your wedding; the venue, the entertainment and your wedding dress. When you feel you are getting bogged down with all irrelevant details, refer back to what are the most important aspects of your special day.
Budget

Set a budget and stick to it! Weddings can be beautiful and fashionable without costing a fortune. By carefully budgeting, prioritizing and the assistance from family and friends you can have a wedding that is as good as any of the celebrity weddings at a third of the cost.

You may wish to open a bank account specifically for wedding expenses. This way you can keep track of all your expenses. Choose an account which offers a high interest rate on balances to get the best from your account and you may then be able to include those items that you thought you couldn’t afford from the interest.

Guest List

Start by writing down all the people you know. Then start a separate list from the people on the first list who are important to you, the people who you really want to share your special day. Then continue to fine tune your list until you are at a number which is within your budget. Remember, for every name you add to your list the more money you will have to spend or you will have to do without in other areas of your planning.

The Latest Wedding Trends

color-wedding-dress

Color! Color! Color! White is out, color is in!

Champagne, ivory, platinum or pink are some of the color replacing the traditional white wedding dress. By using color for the wedding dress this creates endless exciting possibilities as far as the rest of the decor goes. Colorful linen, napkins, tablecloths and chair covers, can be used to enhance the overall theme of your wedding.

Checkout my other guide on Wedding Reception.

By Amy Nutt, executive summarized Andromeda.

Wedding planner

It is true that planning a wedding can be very stressful. Especially for the unforgettable event, the wedding reception. However, with careful planning you can have a perfect wedding, no matter how big or how small. The magic word is ‘planning’.  There are number of factors to consider when planning for the perfect wedding.

1.      Setting the Date

Planning starts from the very beginning.  There is no wedding without a wedding date.    There are many factors consider when selecting a date.  Of course the date you choose needs to be convenient for you and your fiancé.  Unless you are planning to elope, the date also needs to be convenient for your friends and family as well.  It is recommended to select a date that is at least three months away, in order to allow your relatives and friends to make them selves available for the special event.

Additionally, make sure that the date selected does not clash with any holidays or important working days that might affect attendance at the ceremony.  As soon as you have a date, you can determine the time table for announcing your engagement and sending out invitations so that guests have sufficient advance notice to prepare.

2.      Choosing a Type of Ceremony

The type of ceremony you select plays an important role in how enjoyable your wedding will be to you.  Will you have a large and formal wedding, or will it be a small informal ceremony and only family and close friends wedding?  Maybe you want a large wedding, but you would prefer a semi-formal event.

You need to know what type of ceremony you want as soon as you start planning.  All of your plans are going to center around the type of ceremony, since the arrangements are going to differ greatly for each style.

3.      Budget

Weddings can be very costly.  Make sure that you know how much money you can afford to spend on your wedding and stick to your budget.  Each expense must be considered systematically.  There are many expenses associated with planning a wedding.  Just a few of the expenses to consider include:  wedding attire, food, decorations, wedding favors, honeymoon expenses, music, accommodations, location, and many more things.

4.      Shopping Around

There are a number of vendors who specialize in providing wedding-related products and services.  When you plan ahead of time, do some windows shopping before you start singing contract. It is in your best interest to do some research regarding what is available and to compare prices.

5.      Booking Facilities

Advance book any facilities you will need to have your perfect wedding.  It is a bad idea to wait until the last minute to make facility reservations.  If you put off this task, you will likely find that   banquet hall, park, chapel that you want to reserve is unavailable when you need it.  The same is true for photographers, florists, DJs, caterers, wedding cake artist, seamstress, and anyone else you may need to make your wedding perfect.

In addition, you might actually save some money for booking early.  Many wedding industry vendors offer discounts to brides and grooms who make their reservations far ahead of time.

6.      Delegating Chores and Errands

As soon as you start telling your friends and family members that you are getting married, they will likely ask what they can do to help.  Take them up on their offers!  Planning a wedding is a huge project.  Don’t do it all by yourself if you have peoples who want to help you.  By delegating some of the wedding planning tasks, you can reduce some of the pre-planning stress.

As you can see, with the right planning you can have the perfect wedding you always dreamed about.  Your wedding day is special day that you will cherish for life.  Careful planning helps make sure that the day you end up remembering is just the way you always dreamed it would be.

Check out my other guide on Wedding Cake.

By John Border, executive summarized by Andromeda.

wedding plan

Wedding is the most important milestone of your life and you should feel excited and upbeat about it. But, when it comes to planning and the effort needed to reach that specific date there is enormous amount of work that needs to be done for the same.

That said, there are ways out of this if you are running short of time and manpower. The solution lies on the fact that you can hire agencies to do the work for you. In effect you can hire agencies or people to do each type of work for you for the event. Like hire house decorators for the wedding, then hire wedding photographers, then hire caterers for the event and also hire event planners for the event.

If you do hire each on of these then you will need to make sure that you plan and coordinate effectively between each on of those. That can be definitely a challenge. The next best bet is to hire a wedding planner who in turn will do all this and much more.

Wedding planners effectively charge either a flat fee or a percentage of the budget and then they have clauses for each extra effort they put in for you. Wedding planners work well for those who are not constrained by the budget by the time.

Wedding planners are good in but in a lot of cases it is better to do it yourself. One is that satisfaction that you have done things yourself in your marriage. That means that you can then reflect back in the past after several years of marriage and proudly say that you did plan an elaborate event yourself.

The reason is that such outsourced help can always be at best help and cannot replace what you have in mind of the marriage. That means that you need to put your vision of a wedding and your wedding ideas into a practical reality. For that you need of control of all the parts in your hands as opposed to that wedding planner. Wedding planners at bets can create a run of the mill kind of arrangement for you but it is you who can think more creatively and in line with the theme with which you want the wedding to happen.

So think hard before you hire a wedding planner as this wedding is a very important and joyous moment in your life and with it comes all the attendant labor that you put in for the wedding day.

Checkout my other guide on Wedding Cakes.