Category: Wedding Planning

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The Ultimate Wedding Planning Timeline

Wedding planning can be overwhelming. There are so many decisions and purchases to be made to get ready for the big day. Not all couples have a long engagement for planning a wedding. Whether you have six months or two years, the ultimate wedding planning timeline can assist you by providing a checklist and general times to set up the essential elements for your wedding.
A wedding planning timeline can act as a To-Do list for the happy couple. This helps to ensure that details are not forgotten until the last minute. When looking at the ultimate wedding planning timeline, you may need to make adjustments according to how much time remains before the wedding day. Destination weddings may require additional preparations and travel to secure the venue and documentation.

Up to One Year Before:
Set a date for the wedding.
Discuss the budget and decide on a spending limit.
Announce engagement to family and friends.
Hire a wedding planner if one is being used.
Book a venue.
Choose the members of the wedding party.
Begin the guest list.

8 Months Before:
Hire the necessary professionals such as the officiant, florist, caterer, photographer, and the band or DJ.
Plan the honeymoon.
Register for gifts.
Find the perfect wedding dress, veil, and shoes.
Select the bridesmaids’ dresses and shoes.

6 Months Before:
Order wedding invitations.
Choose the traditions and rituals to be included in the ceremony such as the unity candle and selected readings.
Obtain passports if necessary for the honeymoon.
Purchase wedding night lingerie and any additional clothing and personal care items needed for the honeymoon.
Arrange the music for the ceremony and hire an organist.

4 Months Before:
Finalize the guest list and send out wedding invitations.
Shop for wedding cakes and place the order.
Purchase the cake knife, topper, and stand.
Buy the wedding rings and any additional wedding jewelry.
Create or purchase the centerpieces.
Arrange for parking if extra parking is necessary.
Buy a guest book.

2 Months Before:
Get the marriage license.
Purchase gifts for the bridal party.
Find makeup artist and stylist or do the necessary planning and purchasing to do your own.
Reserve tuxedos for the groom and groomsmen.
Finalize the menu with the caterer and the flowers with the florist.

1 Month Before:
Create a seating chart.
Print seating cards and programs.
Final dress fitting for bride and bridesmaids.
Finalize vows and details for the ceremony.

Days Before:
Have rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
Get a manicure and pedicure.
Confirm arrival times for the professionals involved with the wedding.

Wedding Day:
Clean engagement ring.
Confirm that the professionals have arrived and are setting up.

This wedding planning timeline can be helpful for any time frame. Though your wedding planning may be rushed, you can still use the list as a basic checklist. Add additional items to this list as needed. Weddings are not one size fits all. Therefore, some weddings may require adjustments to the order of events. For example, a couple who is having a destination wedding would want to give guests extra notice about the wedding date and location. A destination wedding can be a beautiful choice for a memorable wedding, but the process of planning this kind of wedding is more demanding. For tips on planning a destination wedding, please visit this article about destination wedding tips.

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Planning A Non Traditional Wedding

There are so many good reasons why you may be planning a non – traditional wedding. If you are in a same-sex relationship or you just don’t want/need all the girl stuff traditions usually bring with them a non-traditional wedding will make you the happiest.

It’s time to let go of the notion that you are not a real bride unless you wear a shiny new (and no doubt expensive) white dress or even a dress at all. Nowadays you can walk down the aisle in any outfit that makes you feel like the beautiful goddess you should feel like on your wedding day. So don’t feel like you have to choose a white dress or else. Anyone that tells you that you do, you can feel free to ignore. After all, it’s your special day, not theirs.

Depending on how far from tradition you are going in the planning of your wedding you may not even feel the need to have bridesmaids. If you do, there is no wedding law that says they all have to have matching dresses. There is nothing wrong with each bridesmaid choosing her own dress and there is no reason why all of their dresses have to look the same. As long as everyone is considered dressed appropriately for a wedding at the end of the day, which is probably all that matters to you.

Traditionally weddings take months, if not even a full year, to plan. If you don’t want to drag the process out you can plan a non-traditional wedding in a matter of weeks if you choose to. Wedding vendors take forever to book so if you have a talented friend, family member or co-worker ask them to photograph your wedding, cater it or even serve as your wedding DJ for the reception.

As we all know, a traditional wedding usually calls for a bridal shower prior to the big day. If pestering your friends and family to buy gifts that you may or may not like and may or may not use is not your cup of tea you can scrap the bridal shower altogether. If you have a well-meaning friend or relative that insists on throwing you a bridal shower and the thought of opening gifts in front of people makes you want to run screaming into the night there is a unique way around it. Ask your guests to bring their gifts unwrapped and simply display them on a gift table. If you need a justification for this just to shut up opinionated friends and family or to ease any unwarranted guilt you might feel make it all about saving the environment. After all, how much paper gets wasted creating wrapping paper that you’re ultimately just going to rip up and throw away anyway?

These are just a few of the things you can do to plan a non-traditional wedding. For more ideas visit Best For Bride online today.

 

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Simple Tricks To Reduce The Stress Of Wedding Planning

It’s not easy, being a bride.

Planning a wedding is a job in and of itself, and when you have a mountain of wedding-related tasks piling up on top of your everyday errands, stress from work, and maintaining healthy relationships with your soon-to-be husband, bridal party, and others, things can get very. . .meltdown-ish. I’m currently assisting my best friend with the planning of her wedding next fall, and even though she’s the one making the decisions and we have a whole year to get these things planned and done, sometimes I just want to lock myself in my bedroom with a tube of cookie dough. Don’t worry, dears. This, too, shall pass, and it can pass by much more smoothly just by implementing some no-brainer tips and methods of leveling out the stress.

Exercise Regularly

With all that’s going on, it’s so easy to skip on the gym and rely on comfort foods to get you along. Heck, I’m not even the bride, and I’m tempted to drown my sorrows in cookie dough at times. Wanting to veg out with some TV or keep on working until you’re too tired to think are both completely understandable for women planning a wedding, but it’s important to take time to get your workouts in. Exercise has been proven to help reduce stress and releases those feel-good hormones that give us a sense of peace. It’ll also help you stay in great shape for all of your photo engagements and ensure that you look fabulous on your Big Day.

Spend Time With Your Fiancé

Yes, he, too, can be a source of all your wedding-related stress, especially if he’s not as into planning and prefers to let you have your way with it. However, it’s absolutely critical that the two of your spend time together that’s completely unrelated to this major upcoming event. Stay focused on the important things. Go on dates. Have spontaneous dance parties at your apartment. Laugh together. Never let the process of planning your wedding make you lose sight of the strength and depth of your love.

Put Yourself First

Wedding planning is important, yes, but you know what else is important? Oh, just the little things like eating properly, getting good rest, taking a drink of water every now and then (hey — put down that glass of wine!), and just doing things for you. You can’t possibly take on these huge tasks without having taken care of yourself both physically and mentally. You’ll get sick or fall asleep at work or run away to Costa Rica without telling anyone. Ahem.

This is where you want to wind up, NOT hiding away in a different country. Remember that.

 

So, when you feel like you’re about to reach your breaking point, just stop. Stop whatever you’re doing and go for a leisurely walk with your dog. Take your future husband with you and reminisce your happiest moments, rather than unload everything onto him. Vent to your best friend (we love you even if you do want to run away to Costa Rica, it’s fine). Pop in your earbuds and sing Florence + The Machine at the top of your lungs. Just don’t let it get you down. Everything is going to be fine.

 

For more advice regarding wedding planning, check out the Wedding Tips section at Best for Bride, the best place for brides-to-be.

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The Secrets of an Event Planner: Planning your Wedding like a Professional

I’m an event planner.  That is precisely why I wanted to hire someone else to plan my wedding.  Planning a party, event, wedding, shower- each of these things has its own stresses right up until it’s over, and planning all of these things within the space of six months is an overwhelming nightmare.  I have long sympathized with ‘bridezillas’ knowing that under their scales they are generally lovely girls who are simply experiencing the stresses of event planning; stresses which I have learned to take on board (without anyone else seeing the external effects) over the course of a lengthy professional career.  Much as an emergency ward nurse, I imagine, I see people crazed by the pain of a trying ordeal who immediately return to being sympathetic, friendly personalities as soon as the pain is alleviated- in this case meaning the event [wedding] is over.  Is this how a person wants to feel on their wedding day?  I certainly did not.

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Why Hire a Wedding Planner?

Hiring an event planner is not about outdoing your friends’ or relatives’ weddings, or even about getting a better end result.  Hiring an event planner is about alleviating as much stress from the shoulders of the couple as possible so they are able to fully enjoy their own big day.  It’s about hiring a data entry specialist to get all the contact details, spellings and phone numbers of your friends and family into the event software quickly and correctly; it’s about having someone else taking twenty calls a day ringing up to RSVP, to ask what will be served on the menu (when the wedding is a year away), and to change their minds about attending over and over again; hiring someone to plan a wedding is an investment in always being shown the three best options on flowers, food, cakes, venues, etc. with all the proper research done and dusted, and you simply pointing and saying ‘that one.’

Why, then, doesn’t everyone hire an event planner?  Why didn’t I?  The problem with hiring an event planner is that it takes away from the actual wedding budget, and in the face of dropping all those zeros, a seasoned event planner must roll up her sleeves and say “I’ll do it myself.”

If like me you are planning to go it alone, I have a bit of solid advice for you to help arrive at the altar feeling fresh, prepared, and with only a few slight bumps where the scales are sticking out under your perfectly tailored satin gown.

  • Lock in everything possible– right now.  Sit down with only one other person, your soon-to-be spouse, and decide when and where you will have the bridal shower, the hens and bucks nights, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding and the honeymoon.  Do not leave the room until this is done.  Call and make bookings for everything.  If you need to book catering, book the tasting now.  Pick the three best options for each venue or option, and only explore those.  Do not waste time hemming and hawing, or you will end up with choice #42 on the list instead of choice #3.
  • Plan slightly under all across the board (except for booze and food).  If you can fit 150 people in your reception hall, plan for 120.  Plan to spend only 70% of your ‘full’ budget.  Plan under, because as all event planners know at the last minute there will be expenses, you will have to take in extra guests, and you will have unforeseen battles to tackle.  This wiggle room saves your skin over and over again.  That being said, and for obvious reasons, over-plan for drinks and catering.  A trick of the trade?  Assume each adult will have 6 adult beverages, and 1 Bottle of Wine = 5 Beverages, 1 Bottle of Beer = 1 Beverage.
  • Make technology your friend.  There is fantastic, free, software out there which can help you keep track of everyone invited, their details, what events they are coming to leading up to the wedding, help you create table plans, remind you to call the caterers, remind you of the day to order the flowers, keep track of dietary requirements, and the list goes on and on.  You will reach a point where you literally cannot remember everything and this will make you feel like you are losing your mind and the world is spinning out of control.  Have one resource to go to where all the information has been recorded.  Also remember that a paper wedding invitation is romantic, but that following up with emails, in this day and age, is a luxury that you should afford yourself without hesitation.
  • Delegate.  Ask a family member to take all the RSVP calls.  Ask each bridesmaid and groomsman to take one task on board that you won’t be able to do on your own.  Get the bridesmaids to pick their own dresses.  Get the groomsmen to pick a few wedding bands for you to audition.  Everyone is willing to do one task.  TRUST YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!
  • Be where the buck stops.  Let’s be honest, as the bride it’s your day that you graciously ask opinions about from one other person and one other person only- your partner.  At the end of the day you are where the buck stops.  There has to be one person sitting at the top of the pyramid that settles debates, makes final decisions, and throws out bad ideas- even the ones that come from your soon-to-be mother-in-law.  Stand firm, stand tall, and put your foot down.  Everyone else will get over it.  Trust me.  I’m a professional.

Author Bio:

Jessica Josh has spent the past 5 years writing and blogging online.  She has worked with a number of different companies in the wedding entertainment and corporate entertainment niche such as http://weddingbandsmelbourne.net.au/