By Now You Should Have Decided . . . So What's It Gonna Be?

There's an old song with a refrain that goes something like "so tell me now what's it gonna be".  That comes to mind as I write this post.

This is a quick post to close out the introduction to the types of weddings and a visual treat.  We will go back and revisit each of these types once I introduce the other aspects of planning a wedding.  We have a few to go.

So tell me now, what kind of wedding are you going to have . . .

possibly a castle (destination wedding). . .

or maybe a church . . .

or have you decided to take it outdoors . . .

or maybe even this . . .

or you've decided to take the easy way with this . . .

or maybe you really want a real fantasy . . .

 

(Many thanks to the following for the pictures:  www.detourguide.com for the castle, www.planetware.com for the courthouse, www.weddings180.com for the backyard wedding and www.fantasyfliers.com for the balloon.)

It doesn't matter which way you choose to go, every one of them can be made special. 

May you have a blessed and wonderful day . . .

The Crucial Piece to All Your Wedding Planning Negotiations

Let me set the stage for you so that you will fully understand why the steps in this post are so incredibly important . . .

You have decided to plan your wedding all on your own.  You’ve talked to many of your friends and they all say “no big deal – you can do it” when it comes to the planning.  Weeks go by, then a month, maybe more and you are still looking at magazines for ideas about your wedding dress – forget about the caterer, photographer, etc.  They can wait until you find the perfect dress.

Happy Easter Everyone

Good morning everyone.  I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very blessed day.  May peace follow you always.

All This Wedding Planning Stuff. Up Next - Venue, Officiant, etc., etc.

Well, up to this point you've worked on your vision and gotten your numbers.  These next pieces are the tedious ones in planning your wedding.  Where will you have your vision?  If it will be at a beach or your home or at the court house, those are fairly easy because (with the exception of the court house) typically the reception will be held at the same place.  If you are having a court house wedding, then a venue for the reception will need to be booked.

Planning a Wedding on a Small Budget

So you’ve decided to get married and also determined your reasonably available budget along with the size and type of wedding you’ve always dreamed of.  There is a very big problem though – you’ve dreamed of your wedding in a castle in a far away land with everyone you’ve ever met attending but your budget might get ten people to the end of the block!  Money shouldn't be too big a problem if you're clever enough to plan a wedding on a small budget.

Another Fabulous Wedding Planning Resource

Just a quick post today to let you know about a new resource I have come across for helping you plan your wedding. 

Scarlet Spencer’s “$10,000 Dream Wedding Planning Book” is probably the one resource that I would recommend above all others.  Even though the title suggests that it might be off in la-la land, trust me that this is the real nuts and bolts stuff and covers all the tiny details some books leave out.  Her web page is terribly long but is packed with information about what the book actually covers.

Wedding Themes – Yikes!

A theme is a theme is a theme as they say . . . well, that’s not quite true.  And when it comes to weddings, a theme plays a fairly important role.  If you have decided on a traditional wedding or a beach wedding, these are both themes.  And in order to have your special event appear and flow smoothly, everything should be pulled together.  Read further to see what I mean.

Planning a Court House Wedding (or Civil Ceremony)

Last but not least is the court house wedding.  It used to be that this was the last resort but it is becoming more fashionable to not spend all of the budget on a large more traditional wedding and plan the ceremony for at the court house.  Today’s economy has brought out a lot of creativity on the wedding scene.  I’ve heard of quite elaborate affairs held in the courthouse - then almost the entire budget can go toward the reception (after the wedding dress, of course).  It really just depends on your priorities and how much of a budget you are planning to use.

Planning a wedding at home

In light of the present economy many people today are planning for their weddings at home.  If your space permits, this truly is the way to have your wedding day be exactly as you would like. There are plenty of benefits  – on top of the list is that you can save a lot of money, right?   Following that, there is no frustration with coordinating bookings for rental of the ceremony or reception sites. Then when it comes to food and beverages you are your own master; you don't have to worry about paying cake-cutting fees or who knows what else.  And the list goes on ...

More on Destination Weddings . . . resources

I've had a chance to go through the books available on planning a destination wedding that I spoke about in the last post and I don't really feel that I can recommend one at this time.

If your destination wedding is a beach wedding, I recommend going back and checking out the posts on beach weddings and also looking at The Ultimate Beach Wedding Planning Guide and Workbook.  This book seems to have a lot of the destination questions covered.

Mmmmm . . . Destination Wedding . . . Sounds Exotic, Doesn’t It?

A destination wedding is simply an affair that is away from your home base.  More and more people these days are opting for really exotic destination wedding locations and they are saving a bit (sometimes a big bit) of money in the process.  Whether it’s a beach wedding in Fiji or Bali or a castle in Europe (pricey end of spectrum), destination weddings are becoming more popular every year.   This also usually takes care of the honeymoon because most people continue their stay.

Extra, Extra . . . More on Planning a Beach Wedding!

Boy, I got so carried away with the last post on beach weddings that after reading it, it sounded a bit disjointed – so let’s go back and fill in a few of the holes.

Unless you live on or near the beach you are planning on using for your wedding most people will need to travel to get there, so typically beach weddings are smaller with fewer people attending.  Many people opt to  have a reception at home once they are back from their honeymoon.

For Your Beach Wedding - Pure Inspiration!

These are just so delicious that I couldn't resist.....Enjoy!  If you have never thought about a beach wedding before, maybe it is time to reconsider.

                    Many thanks to the following for the above pics:

                                www.flickr.com/en.en, www.alohaislandweddings.

                                com, www.coconutgrovefiji.com, www.farfallawedding.

                                wordpress.com, www.inheavenweddings.com, and

                                www.sunriseflagler_09.com

Have You Ever Dreamed of Having a Beach Wedding?

Can’t you just smell the salt air, feel the ocean breeze and hear the lapping of the waves on the beach?  I sure remember when I had that dream but I never went through with it.  Research shows that approximately 35% of all weddings are outdoor weddings – I wonder just how many of those are at the beach?

Beach weddings are popular but they do present "special issues" and planning a beach wedding may be one of the most romantic challenges in a life time; great scenery, natural decorations, originality and non-conformism of the location are among the main features of a beach wedding.   But what are the issues of planning a beach wedding?  You don’t want to be surprised on your wedding day because you didn’t take these issues into consideration beforehand.

Just How Do You Go About Planning for Your Wedding?

Even if you’ve decided to hire a wedding planner/consultant (we look at this possibility in another post), it’s important for you to really understand the process of planning for a wedding.  There are a lot of pieces to this puzzle and unless you have done it a few times before (and even if you have), its time to get some education as to just how this works in order to save yourself a lot of frustration, time and money.  There are many books on the market on just how to do all of this.  The following are a couple of materials that I have researched and recommend depending on your objective.  Read on:

You've Decided That You Will Use a Wedding Planner/Consultant - Now What Do You Do?

You've decided that your budget will support having a wedding planner/consultant in some capacity so what is the next step? 

If the area where you live is large enough to support having wedding planners, there are several places to begin looking. First, start asking everyone you know who is married (or who has been married) whether they used a planner and get names and any references.  Then go to one of the following associations.  These associations are either registrars of wedding planners and/or educational organizations for wedding planners with memberships. 

Are You Thinking About Using a Wedding Planner/Consultant?

Many people consider their wedding one of the biggest events in their lives which totally justifies the great amount of effort taken to get everything ready. Given the complexity of the event, you'll definitely need help in planning your wedding, be it from professionals or from close friends and family. There is a psychological stress reliever that comes with help in planning a wedding. Once you get it, you no longer need to worry about every detail, and the experience becomes a true delight,  not a burden.   Most brides today work full time and have a limited amount of time available for taking care of the millions of things having a perfect wedding day entails, so have you considered hiring a wedding planner/consultant?  

Next Step of your Plan? . . . Set a Date

Ok, now I’m assuming that you have determined how much money you will have available to finance your wedding and have gotten your basic wedding planning supplies together.  There are several things that should happen pretty simultaneously here so I will be making references to all of them even though they may be discussed  individually somewhere else. 

Next up is the date.  A lot of factors need to be addressed – the first one being the schedules of both the bride and the groom.  Weddings are often not ‘convenient’ in fast paced lives of today so when looking at your schedules only deal with the dates that are absolutely not movable.   Then, if parents are included in the wedding, what are their unchangeable dates?  This will give you time frames to look at for planning your wedding.

Now That You Have a Budget, Let’s Get Organized to Begin Planning Your Wedding!

The next step is to get yourself some type of wedding planner/organizer (notebook) – you will be collecting so much information from this point forward that if you don’t write it all down or have a central place to keep everything, you will definitely be lost! Also, it’s a good place to keep all of the estimates, contracts, etc., that you’ll be collecting. Amazon has about the best selection I’ve seen at pretty good prices.

Make sure that the organizer has labeled dividers/sections for every aspect of your wedding plan. Keep extra dividers for any area that is not covered or to break an existing section down into sub-categories. Also make sure that you have pockets in each section for filing all the loose things that you need to keep. You will also need to keep at least one zippered pocket for things like pens/extra pens, markers, paper punch, paper clips, stapler, scotch tape, measuring tape, calculator, etc. Just trust me that you will use all of them and it makes it so much easier to have them with you.

OK, Let's Get Started - First Up is the Budget!

The very first step toward planning your wedding day is for the two of you to sit down with your families to figure out a budget. If you haven’t done so already, go here and download the sample budget. This is really a preliminary category budget to help you determine how much you are going to spend; you can either use that form as is or as a starting point for creating your own. Individual budgets should be made for each category then compiled into a master budget.