All posts tagged wedding planning advice

Don’t Forget a Thing: Your Essential Wedding Day Checklist

wedding day checklist

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Planning your big day is one of the most magical times in your life. Unfortunately, it can also be one of the most stressful too. That’s why we’ve compiled this essential wedding day checklist to ensure you don’t miss a thing. Whether you’ve just got engaged, or are soon to tie the knot, these top tips can help you stay on top of everything so you can enjoy your dream day:

wedding day planning tips

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9-12 months before:

  1. Set a realist budget, and determine how costs will be divided. It is traditional for the bride’s family to pay for the wedding, but many couples and families nowadays choose to split the costs and some couples even choose to pay for the whole day themselves.
  2. Choose venues and set a date. Be sure to look at plenty of options, and be flexible with your dates.
  3. Write a first draft of the guest list. This will help you estimate costs, and may even have an impact on your choice of venue.
  4. Find an officiant. Do you want a traditional religious wedding, or an outdoor civil ceremony? Find out if your venue will help you out, their fees may include their own wedding planner who can help you finalise all the details.
  5. File for your marriage license.
  6. Start choosing who you want in your bridal party.

wedding planning advice

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6-9 months before:

  1. Select your caterer. Visit multiple caterers to find the best food at the best price. Keep your budget in mind the whole time.
  2. Book your flowers, wedding photographer/videographer, transport and entertainment.
  3. Go dress shopping if you haven’t already! Choose and order your wedding gown, as well as the dresses for your bridesmaids and flower girls. It is important to give enough time for alterations and fittings.
  4. Finalise your guest list.
  5. Send out your save the date cards. For anyone living abroad you need to give as much notice as possible so they can book flights.
  6. Set up your gift register or honeymoon register.
  7. Begin planning your honeymoon. If your Groom wants this to be his surprise, maybe just gently enquire if things have been sorted or get a family member or friend to give him a nudge.

wedding planning tips

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4-6 months before:

  1. Go shopping for your wedding invitations or craft supplies if you intend to custom-make them.
  2. Finalise hotel room bookings for any guests that need accommodation. This is ideal for out-of-town guests and ensures that as many people as possible can attend.
  3. Make a start to think about the wording for the ceremony, especially if writing your own vows.
  4. Choose any readings you want included in the ceremony and who you want to read them.

wedding ceremony planning

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2-4 months before:

  1. Pick up your marriage license if you haven’t already and order your wedding cake
  2. Post your invitations. This gives you enough time to cut back on catering etc if not enough people reply.
  3. Shop for your wedding rings, favours and gifts for the wedding party.
  4. If you’re having a make-up artist and hairstylist, book these now and schedule in trial runs.
  5. Reserve tuxedos for the groomsmen
  6. Finalise details with all your vendors

wedding timeline

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 2-6 weeks before:

  1. Create a seating plan, and design your seating cards.
  2. Have your final dress fitting.
  3. Finalise a plan for the day itself
  4. Leave yourself time for any last minute slip-ups!
  5. Sneak in a spa day for some much deserved pampering.

Day before

  1. Ensure everything that needs to be at the venue the day before has been dropped off and check in with your wedding planner (if you have one) to ensure your own peace of mind.
  2.  Provide wedding professionals with emergency phone numbers i.e. a bridesmaid or family member.
  3. Get a good night’s sleep!

wedding planning tips

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Before you know it, you’ll be walking down the aisle and wondering how the day came around so quickly. With good planning, patience, and help from your friends and family, you can ensure that your big day will go off without a hitch.

After all, your wedding day is the biggest day of your life. You want to cherish every moment, not worry about any last minute details.

Author Bio:

Clare Evans is an online copywriter for Wedding Favours Delight, an ecommerce store selling a great range of edible, personalised, and do-it-yourself favours. To see their great range, visit their website www.weddingfavoursdelight.com. 

The First Ten Steps of Wedding Planning: The Things You Need to Do After Getting Engaged

marry me

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If you are planning on getting married within a year or so, you will want to get on to the wedding planning ASAP to limit your stress level. As you have probably heard, planning a wedding can be a bit stressful so to help you prevent as much stress as possible, we have come up with 10 things you should start checking off your list.

Announce your engagement tactfully

Let all of your friends & family members in on the exciting news and let them see that pretty ring on your finger but don’t over do it.  There’s nothing worse then a scary bride-to-be that won’t stop telling you how much the ring on her finger costs while dangling it in your face every chance she gets. Be tactful and let people be happy for you.

engagement destination ideas

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Pick your wedding party

This will be one the first things you want to do, to ensure that the people you would like to be in your wedding party can be.  People have very busy schedules and it is only right for you to give them an ample amount of time to plan accordingly.

wedding planning

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Buy a Wedding Binder

Keep all of your important wedding stuff together in one place. Being organized is one of the best ways to keep on track while remaining somewhat sane! Being organized means that nothing gets forgotten or left until the last minute.

wedding ceremony planning

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Set a date and a budget

The sooner you set a date, the better you will feel and the more real it all becomes. Once you set a date, you can really dig in and start the planning process.  Keep costs in mind if you are planning a wedding in a resort destination. Off season will be a lot less pricey!

DIY save the date ideas

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Schedule Engagement Pictures

Pick a location and hire yourselves someone to take your engagement photographs.  These pictures will be around for awhile, so be sure to take them seriously.  Many people use their engagement picture as part of their save the date notice.

Engagement photo shoot

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Diet & Exercise

Don’t wait until a month before your wedding to start panicking about your diet and your workout routine. If you are worried about your weight, tummy bulge or lack of muscle tone, as soon as you get engaged start doing everything in your capability to secure that dream dress and look fabulous! Find a workout buddy to keep you motivated.

sheath style wedding dress

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Keep it Real

We all saw what happened in Sex & the City when Carrie got carried away with the wedding planning and lost Big by the time the big day rolled around. Don’t let the wedding planning take over your entire life and consume you. Make sure your fiancé is on the same page as you are, and you are taking his feelings into consideration. Just because you are getting married doesn’t mean you should put spending quality time with each other (without talking about the wedding) on the back burner.

Rings

Make sure that the rings are insured and have been sized correctly.  Nothing worse then spending all of that money on a ring to have it not fit over your knuckle on the day. Better safe then sorry!

wedding rings

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Guest List

Pick a day or night to sit down with your fiancé and start writing names down of who you each are planning on inviting to the wedding. If your parents all have people they want to invite to the wedding, maybe have them over or have them send you a list.  Set a maximum number of people you want to have, and stick to it.

wedding ceremony

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Book a Venue

This is also one of the most important things to cross off of your to do list.  Venues get booked up easily, so get on it! As soon as you decide on something, book it! If you don’t do it fast enough, chances are someone else will.

wedding venue ideas
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Weddzilla Team

Involve Your Groom in Wedding Planning? Yes You Should and Here Is Why!

Bride and Groom in Church - Julie Kim Photography

Weddings are about two people and their commitment to each other. The whole day is about telling the world that you are in love and that you are a partnership, great friends, confidantes and support for each other! That should start right at the beginning of your married life. That means the wedding planning too!

Do I hear you disagree? Surely it’s the Bride’s job? Not anymore it’s not. Grooms are involved in weddings from day one! I can speak from experience. Over the last three years I have been planning weddings and I can categorically tell you that my Grooms have a big say in the whole process.

Helping each other plan your wedding will pay off big time. Not only will you have a day that you both want but the journey there will be much more enjoyable. Marriage is all about sharing and compromise so this is a great place to start to lay your foundations for the future.

If you want your Groom to help but you or he are not sure where to start read on.

 Image courtesy of Julie Dawson

Finance and The Voice of Reason

Nowadays many couples pay for their own weddings. They set the budgets and then produce the readies! This tends to focus men’s attention a lot. They are far better at staying on budget. When us girls become completely taken over by the “wedding pretties” and spending another £50 here and £100 there can very soon add up to £1,000’s. I kid you not! Men are great at making us look more objectively and helping give us focus. At the time you won’t like not being able to spend and buy everything you want, but I can guarantee the day after the wedding when your credit card bill is not delivered by a huge articulated lorry you will be pleased your lovely Groom helped you see the light.

Men are also better at talking money with suppliers. They are less emotionally involved when it comes to finance and can often get a better deal or more value for money. I find that with many of my couples I work with, it is the men generally who deal with the finance.

You may not believe this but three of my grooms also suggested using a wedding planner. They realised how hard it can be and expensive so use someone who can help make your money go further and get you better deals.

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Exploit hobbies, interests and logistic ability

Men are fabulous at working out details for travelling. Booking your honeymoon is so exciting but the logistics of when, what and where can be very time consuming and complicated, especially if you are marrying abroad. Let your groom do this, he will make a superb job of it and you can do the things that don’t generally interest him like flowers and décor. You may make joint decisions on these other things but you probably take the lead on organising them.

If your groom has a skill or interest then exploit it. One of my weddings this summer had the most gorgeous table names that were carved out of wood and then painted white. They are going to be used throughout the house after the wedding. The lovely groom, Dave, who did them spent ages making them perfect and the guests really noticed and he loved being so involved. I have another Groom who is quite an expert on sound and music. He has been choosing the DJ and what is to be played in the evening to make sure the dance floor is full. Another groom plays in a tribute band that are playing at the wedding.  Another chose the band and reception entertainment. I can tell you from hours of research that it is hard to find just the right band or DJ that suits. Let them help!

What about getting the men to sort out the gifts for the best man and ushers? That is always tricky. Also choose their own clothes and find out where to hire the groomsmen’s suits.

Food, Drink and Venue

These are the other areas that men are really interested in. Staggered did a survey recently and found out that 61.3 % of grooms are doing half of the work involved in wedding planning. Their favourite areas are choosing their own clothes, the menu and venue. The decision where to have your venue impacts on your whole wedding day and certainly what to eat to please everyone is another big decision.

Planning your wedding is a major time consumer I can’t tell you how fabulous it is to have help and support. Often the Bride can feel quite alone during the planning and feel that the groom has nothing to do but just turn up. Well now you know! They want to help.

So be smart and involve your man in the wedding as much as you can. You won’t be sorry and when you look back at your journey your memories will be joint ones and your wedding will have the meaning for both of you that it’s meant to have.

Have a fabulous Christmas and congratulations if you are getting engaged over the festive period.

 

Author Bio: Wedding Planner –  Julie Dawson – The Wedding Genie

Wedding Vendor — Inexperienced and Cheap

This is the headline that I see all too often.  Oh, the headline may not be verbatim, but in essence, this is what it means when you cut to the chase. 

 This week alone, I have heard two wedding stories of disasters because the bride elected to go without a planner and/or use a service provided by someone they knew who was cheap. 

 

First Story:  One of our photographers met with a bride around February or so, who contracted their services.  They encouraged the bride to contact us for coordinating and other services we offer.  The bride’s response was that they were paying for their own wedding and could not afford to do so.  They went ahead, on their own, to plan their wedding.  They chose a venue that was over-priced, did not provide anything other than tables and chairs, and was an outside venue for the ceremony.  They did not look into what the alternatives might be if there was inclement weather or whether those alternatives were acceptable to them before signing the contract.  Hence, here comes Hurricane Irene.  The venue is being unreasonable, even in view of the weather predictions about the pending storm.  They will not give the bride a definitive answer on bringing her ceremony inside.  My photographer calls me and asks if I can help out by maybe calling the venue which I agree to do.  After a conversation with the venue, they agree to pull the ceremony inside.  However, because the inside area at the venue has no lights by the wedding day due to the storm, they move everything to another venue down the road.  This venue is pretty much a dump compared to the venue she paid $3,500 for and eventually the lights went out there as well.  Well, the bride ended up just accepting the situation and making the best of it.  However, it was stressful for her, inconvenient for her guests and not at all how her day was envisioned I am sure.  Now, certainly, the venue had no control over the storm or the power going out.  However, they could have come up with a better plan and not on the day of the wedding.  Also, in the interest of customer service, it should not have taken a phone call from me to get them to take better care of their client.  She was not even my client and I was concerned about her situation.

 Second Story:  Bride needs invitations for her wedding and goes with someone who does it as a hobby.  The final version of the invitations has all the names spelled incorrectly, directions are incorrect, as well as inappropriate information – this even after the bride asked for corrections.  These were mailed to the guests by the person who made the invitations.  Needless to say, the bride was beyond embarrassed when she discovered what had been done and did not know what to do.  My suggestion was to get her money back and have us do something inexpensive but nice and resend the invitations with a note to ignore what was sent previously in error. 

We never print invitations unless the bride has reviewed them fully and until we have proofed them at least 3 to 4 times ourselves.  Every correction/edit requires another review from the bride.  We would certainly not mail them without the bride seeing them and approving them before mailing. 

Just food for thought, be careful about the decisions you make for your wedding.  Seek professional vendors and expert advice for your wedding planning services and products.  Don’t accept a favor on something because it will save you money.  You may be very sorry and/or embarrassed and by the time you realize you have a mess, it could be too late!

6 Cost Saving Ideas to Planning Your Dream Wedding on a Budget

Think small. Think small when it comes to the guest list. It will allow you to have a more intimate experience with the people you care about and love the most. It also allows you to spend more money where it matters most to you, whether it is in décor or an elaborate dinner menu or even the honeymoon!

Restrict open bar. Let’s face it, people drink more when they know it’s free. Limit the open bar to the pre-reception cocktail hour and serve only beer and wine during the actual reception. Expert Tip: Add a signature cocktail in the main color of your wedding scheme to add flair and ambiance to the reception. This way it looks planned and not cheap.

Splurge on Hors D’oeuvres. I know the word splurge doesn’t really go with “cost saving”. But you don’t need an elaborate dinner menu to impress guests. Small details will wow your guests and make the moment memorable. Expert tip: Have wait staff carry hand passed hor d’oeuvres like shrimp shooters and scallop crostinis around to your guest during the cocktail hour. Tell the wait staff to pass out a few at a time so it gives the illusion of plenty. For the dinner reception, keep it simple with a protein, starch and vegetable. You give the appearance of elegance on a budget!

Celebrate on “Off-Peak” Days. Wedding venues are much cheaper to rent on Fridays and Sundays. If your wedding must be on a weekend, consider a Friday night or Sunday early afternoon. You can save anywhere from $500 to a few thousands just by changing the date one day before or after.

Get Carried Away – Have a Destination Wedding. It may seem like an oxy-moron to save money by planning a wedding away from home. But think about it, not everyone will be able to afford it or attend due to work schedules etc. That limits your guest list cost. Many island hotels offer wedding packages that allow you to have a beautiful and memorable wedding on the beach and most will include everything from wedding dress, to officiant, flowers, photographer, food, drinks, etc. It takes the pressure off of you to source all of these things yourself. Plus, your destination can also serve double duty by being a honeymoon location too! Expert Tip: If you can plan your wedding to take place Sunday – Thursday, which are considered off peak days, you might benefit from discounted wedding rates.

Keep your wedding colors simple. I LOVE color but you don’t have to use the rainbow in order to add color and ambiance to your wedding. Use common colors that are easy to match. It will be much harder to find that perfect shade of chartreuse (and much more expensive) then to find purple, fuschia or blue. Expert Tip: You can use black and white with a pop of another color. Black and/or white linens usually either come with the space, or will be cheaper to rent/buy then linens with color. You can always add a pop of color with your centerpiece, floral arrangements, lighting, napkins, signature cocktails and the list goes on.

Don’t spend money on things you don’t care about. Save money where it counts. No one will know the difference but you. You can plan a well thought out budget wedding without looking cheap.

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