Honestly!! Elope!! Have your honeymoon and wedding together. Video tape and share with family when you get home. Unless you really have your heart set on a big wedding of course. Just be brave, hold your ground and make sure everyone knows it is your day and you are going to do it the way you want. Shop around for dresses, check online and get a little bigger and have it altered when you get it. So many beautiful wedding dresses on line for far far far less then what some pay. Remember you are only wearing just one day. Check out bargainweddingdresses.com. Have fun and don't stress over the small details. Something is bound to not go the way you planned. Remember that you are marrying the one you love the most in this whole world and that is the most important part of it.What is the best advice you can give someone planning a wedding?
Well, you have a good answer with the 3 ring binder - but my suggestion would be to first talk to your fiance and both of you decide what it is you want - as in - a ceremony in a church, not in a church, big wedding, small w/ only family..then, of course you have to start with a budget (I've listed a website that was great for planning at the beginning). We decided on a wedding/honeymoon combo - with just family in Cabo San Lucas. It was easy to plan because you have a wedding planner there taking care of everything. So imagine 13 people on the beach, plus the the judge, and the wedding planner and 1 bouquet of flowers for me. Then we all went to a pre-planned dinner and that was it. I couldn't have asked for a better wedding because I didn't get caught up in picking out a ton of things (invitations, favors, colors...), I was able to just enjoy my wedding (I also joined a blog on Yahoo for weddings in Cabo San Lucas, so if you plan it in another country just look on Yahoo for a group doing the same thing and you can get great advice) and after talking to friends and acquaintences, I kept hearing over and over how they didn't even get to eat on their wedding day or enjoy it. So there is my two cents for you! Good luck with your plans and Congratulations!!!What is the best advice you can give someone planning a wedding?
Plan Early I Cant Tell You How Really Important It Is Go To Your local book store get a planner contact your family and plan like that take about A year for good planning i am planning my renewal of vows and reception for jan 2009 we will have a winter theme
massage ur body..
buy sony handycams...
drink and party wth ur old boyfrnds..capture videos..upload in youtube......**** whomever u want,..
Get as much done as possible before the date. Beacause the closer the date moves the more stressed you get. Try to have everthing set at least a month before the wedding.
My best advice would be that you dont need any of those fancy organizers, get yourself a 3 ring binder, some dividers and those top slide plastic pages. Set your binder up with all the different sections you will need
Church
Reception
Photographer
Florist
Hair
Make-up
DJ
Dress
etc
if you page through a magazine and see something you can just slide it into the plastic pages, as well as keep all your contracts and receipts, you will have everything in one place and it will all be organized. And you will want to be overly (almost anally) organized.
Good luck!
Keep your eye on the big ones (food %26amp; drink, music, photography) and dont stress the little ones (favors, centrepieces).
DON'T DO IT!!! LOL :-D
Stay within budget, only invite people you truly love, realize the wedding is for one day the marriage is for the rest of your life, focus more on planning your marriage and talk about your future so there is honesty and truthfulness on what you will be facing.
Don't go into debt over a wedding it is not worth it. You cant please everyone so don't bother trying and lastly the wedding is a symbol of your love for each other. Focus more on your marriage.
Avoid the guidance of any sources related to or sponsored by The Wedding Industry, such as Modern Bride Magazine, www.theknot.com, etc. Be guided by Miss Manners or Emily Post, who aren't interested in getting you to buy stuff.
Don't send out ';and guest'; or ';and family'; invitations. You'd think that at $50 a head or so that this would be a no-brainer, but The Wedding Industry has strongly promoted the idea that ones guests MUST be allowed to bring a guest of their own (to entertain at ones expence). This is absolutely incorrect. If you'd LIKE to allow a guest to bring a friend, you ask that guest ';Is there someone special you'd like me to invite for you?'; and send that special someone an individual invitation with his/her name on it. People who can't manage a simple social function like a wedding without dragging along someone to hold their hand are people who don't deserve to have a social life.
If you can manage to cut and serve a birthday cake without a set of special untinsils engraved with names and dates, you can manage your wedding cake without as well. Ditto for Wedding Industry promoted fripperies like favors, programs, guest books, engraved toasting glasses, and so on. Remember that a wedding reception is just a party, like a birthday or holiday party. Direct your budget toward food %26amp; drink, entertainment, location %26amp; time, and your guests' general comfort -- not on buying silly stuff.
Do your RSVPing the old fashioned way, by phone. The recent invention of RSVP cards has helped printers and the US Postal service rake in the dough, but eliminating the RSVP telephone conversation between guests and hosts (or the hosts' friends and family) has also created problems:
1. How to cram driving directions, hints on appropriate dress, clarification of who is or is not invited, what food will be served, and so on into a format that was never intended to be so inclusive.
2. How to deal with those clever invitees who cross out the RSVP card's ';One, Two, or Zero?'; part and write in ';Seven.';
3. How to maneuver guests into asking ';What sort of gift would you like?';, since this is the ONLY circumstance in which you can even HINT about the subject.
Hi.
I think my best advice would be to first sit down the two of you and decide what you want. Meaning....are you dreaming of a big huge church wedding...but he wants 10 people at a park? So, the first thing is to see if you are both on the same page and/or to compromise. Once you have decided: church/no church....big/small....lots of guests/family and friends only....then you are set to begin.
The second big element is to decide on a budget. If you both do want the huge wedding with all the trimmings, but can only afford $6,000.....well, you won't get it. So my second piece of advice would be to work on what you CAN have within your budget.
Once you have established where and when and the budget....go on from there and DON'T let anyone tell you otherwise!
You do NOT have to get caught up in the bridal industry telling you that you HAVE to have this and you HAVE to have that. You can have a beautiful wedding without many of the things the bridal industry says that you need to have.
Good luck!
all you really need is the bride and groom, the preacher, and a couple of rings. everything else is icing on the cake.
don't obsess over everything, remember this is only one day, there will be mini disasters for sure, but they add a touch of humour to a day you will always remember.
this day is the beginning of your lives together and the best way to handle it is with grace and dignity. all that really matters is the man you love is by your side, sliding your ring on your finger and telling the world he loves you.
stay calm and stay within a reasonable budget and you will do fine.
good luck and happy wedding!
Don't forget to laugh.
Keep it simple.
Keep Parent involved but, at a distance.
try not to stress... have fun cuz its gonna be the best night of your life.
don't forget to plan for the marriage at the same time.. communicate well and get premarital counseling to discuss how you see your partnership working...
Start as early as possible
Set a budget (leave a buffer though)
Don't be afraid to ask for help
Get his opinion
Get magazines from the library and bring your ideas to every meeting you have
HAVE FUN!!
plan and develop good understanding because without that all your plans are of no use
really think, with your fiance, about what kind of wedding you want.
do you want to do what my fiance and i are doing, which is get married in a nice, private wedding in Vegas and then have a reception in town?
do you want a wedding in town with bridesmaids, groomsmen, and all sorts of guests?
the later will require lots more planning. my fiance and i took a week to plan our wedding, honeymoon, and reception. we got lucky because we have a wedding coordinator in vegas who is taking care of those details, and it comes in the wedding package. then i used travelocity.com for easy flight, hotel, and show bookings. we went to a nice local restaurant, and told them what we want, and they gave us the price and we forked over the money. they're taking care of everything, including our cake, DJ booking, and belly dancer booking (yes, we're having a belly dancer at our lebanese-themed reception!).
basically, we found the services of professionals that were built into our packages and took advantage of their services.
it made the most sense for us, considering that we only had a month to plan.
we're getting married in vegas, in a private wedding, on dec 27th.
congrats on your upcoming wedding!
Take your time. I think it's best to have a year long engagement/preparation time. If you are trying to plan a wedding in 6 months (regardless of the size), you'll go crazy.
Just do one thing at a time. The more time you have to plan, the easier it will be to get things done. This does not mean procrastinate!! It does mean select reasonable and timely goals. Make yourself a timeline of what needs to be done for every month leading up to the wedding. Set one task to be done before another. Don't try getting 50 things done in one weekend. But, maybe break up certain tasks over a longer period of time.
First: set your budget (include your honeymoon in this budget)
Second: Decide if its casual, semi-formal or formal?
Third: How many guests?
Fourth: Location. Time of year, Date?
Fifth: ALL ways get your grooms/brides opinion about what they want and go from there. IF they say ';I don't care';.. Then youve got free reign to do whatever you want
Sixth: ONLY invite close family and close friends. Leave shirt tale friends and family off of the list...
Seventh: Don't let others opinions influence your decsions. It's your money, your time, and YOUR wedding.
Good Luck.
Try to remember that unless the marriage lasts longer than the engagement, the whole thing looks pretty pitiful.
Relax, have fun with it and make it about the two of you. Remember this is just one day in the rest of your lives together. Best of luck!
Chill out and have fun with it. You wont notice the tiny details you put into it on the big day, so don't stress over them. Just be concerned with the big things. If you really trust a few people to do things the way you want them then delegate them some responsibility.
