My fiance and I have decided to get married in November. We decided this a few days ago and I have no idea where to start with the wedding planning. I know it takes a lot of planning but, no one wants to help me. I dont expect my fiance to help with certain things. And I'm looking for some good pointers on how to start my planning!
2006-07-31 17:34:49 · 17 answers · asked by ashley65@sbcglobal.net 2 in Family & Relationships ➔ Weddings
I hear you!!! My husband & I got engaged on the 4th of July last year and did an October 16 wedding.
Girl, get your dress, veil & shoes first!!! Don't worry about the bridesmaids, groom or flower girls. Your dress will set the scale of the wedding. If you go to David's Bridal you can still get your dress ordered and have it arrive in late September. Tell the salesperson you want a dress that will flatter your body shape. Start getting addresses for your guest list - this is the most brutal thing....
After you get your dress, decide where the wedding & reception will be. Get it booked now. Most of your first choices will be gone. Talk to at least 3 photographers. Book your band now. Book a pianist, singer and any other music you want for the ceremony.
Once you know where the wedding is, pick the wedding party attire. (Make sure to take in account the color of the ceremony location).
Pick your invitations to convey the theme of the attire for the wedding. Pick out programs if you're having them done by the same company. Pick napkins for the reception in your colors and have them printed with your invitations. Send out save the date postcards. (you should have your colors and theme when you are done here)
Find your cake style (this will help with the reception planning). Meet with the baker and your florist. Decide ceremony basic decorating with your florist. (take your inviation, cake design and a picture of yours & bridesmaids dresses when you go)
Decide on guestbook, ring pillow, pew decorations (if the florist isn't doing them) and any window decorations for ceremony. Think about the entrance to the ceremony location. Decide on ceremony favors if you're doing them. Enlist someone to make pretty signs for the day (ceremony & reception).
Focus on the reception. Decide on food. Think about tables, chairs, tablecloths, centerpieces, plates, silverware, cups and favors if you're doing them at the reception. Design your cake table, gift table and head table. Think about entrance to the reception. Confirm people to help set-up, serve & clean-up if where you're having it requires that it be left clean. Get someone to be "in-charge" of the reception. They should be treated much like your MOH. Pick out music for the reception.
Do it one step at a time. Send me a personal email if you'd like some free one-on-one help. I'm helping a friend plan hers right now and doing a lot of the internet research for her. I know what she wants and when I find things I send a link. I'll be happy to do that for you as well. If you're planning on printing your own programs and such and want some free help designing, let me know. I've done several. I can design, email them to you and you can print. Any other help, just let me know.
Congratulations!!! Your life will be a whirlwind until this is over.... Good luck, sweetie! *k*
2006-07-31 23:33:14 · answer #1 · answered by Kristi C 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Decide if u want a religious ceremony and visit the clergyman immediately if you do. They often have a class you must take first and they get nooked up way ahead.
Then decide how many people and your budget. Get a place for the reception. You are not giving it much lead time and may have to settle on a place theat is not first choice.
Then the dress, you dont have much time for alteration, Pick something that can be done in the store and also order a dress for the attendents and your Mother. Decide what the groom will wear and have him arrange to buy or rent it.
Hire a limo service, florist, photographer, dj or band.
Order the cake.
Plan a menu with a catereer.
The two of you need to shop for the rings.
Have a great day
2006-07-31 17:44:39 · answer #2 · answered by nora7142@verizon.net 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have been in your situation. I got engaged at the end of September and the wedding was planned for February. It can be stressful but don't let it be. Go for the big items first. Find where you want to have the wedding and who you want to perform it and find out if both of those things are available. After that is set go and find that dress that you have always dreamed of. Next is to decide who you want in your wedding party and what you want them to wear and then start planning the other details; like flowers, cake, registry, announcements, etc. I hope this helps. Congratulations. Again try not to let it stress you out. I did and it wasn't worth stressing out over. Enjoy the whole process. Hopefully it will only happen once. :) Oh and the americanwedding.com is a great place to order invitations.
2006-07-31 17:47:44 · answer #3 · answered by Meg 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First, decide ur budget and a general idea about the kind of wedding u want...next, make a guest list so u know the no. of guests that will come and get ur fiance's list too. Based on it, find options and cost estimates of different venues, food and drinks, decorations, invitation cards. Select the combination that works best for u and ur fiance. Also consider how much money u will need left for ur honeymoon and setting up a new home. Get ur clothes together and have a ball !!
2006-07-31 23:35:02 · answer #4 · answered by Nisha 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well my dear, you seem to want to do it all yourself. Well there are two of you who are getting married and it needs to be done jointly. Go to your newsagent, they have lots of different books and magazines on it. But sometimes you need to plan things way in advance. But Im sure there are lots who will accommodate you for November. There are also planning calendars you can buy as well. You really need to start doing things now. Especially if your going to have cars, flowers, menus for the reception. Church or garden wedding. My daughter married in March and you don't realise how many small things you need to do. Also bridesmaids, how many and how many groomsmen, outfits and dresses.
You both need to sit down and decide on who you want at the wedding and numbers. Get the parents involved. Whatever you do don't leave them out as it will cause problems. If you want to do it yourselves, then I suggest you sit down one weekend and go through it all. From beginning to last detail. Good luck.
2006-07-31 18:03:58 · answer #5 · answered by hugabye 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As a recently married (just over 7 months) guy and an event planner (though not weddings), my perspective on this is more functional.
There are lots of places, noted in previous answers, where you can get checklists, timelines and other information about what needs to be done when. You're compressing things a bit (though not all that much), so a lot of that goes out the window and you just have to prioritize for yourself. I will do my best to break it down for you.
1. Pick a date, venue/caterer, officiant
These all sort of go together. Generally, if you can find a place to hold the ceremony and reception (could be same place, could be two places) and someone to marry you, the rest will fall into place. Start with a range of dates. Are you married to (ha ha) a specific day of the week? If not, you'll have a lot more flexibility. Depending on when in November you intend to marry, you might start running into holiday-related events, so flexibility is key.
Also include in this first list anything else that is non-negotiable. If you must have so-and-so band or DJ, check on availability at this stage.
Of course, you have to have some idea of your budget at this time. You may find that your budget does not support your tastes... and that's a rude awakening to be sure. Magazines have guides as to average percent of budget spent on various things. They are useful as a starting point only... you can reallocate with smart planning. Like renting a nice dress instead of buying it ($1,000 vs. $5,000). So many ways to save (and every wedding magazine has lists of them alongside the ads for five-figure dresses and $20-a-shot invitations...)
2. Start looking at how you'll do invitations and start working on The List. This takes more time than you realize. There are lots of invitation printers besides the ones in those giant sample books at stationery stores by the way. A couple to check ou:
http://www.mpresstudio.com
http://www.concreteabstract.com
3. Find the other "big ticket" vendors: Photographer, entertainment, dress, rehearsal dinner site come to mind. If you're planning on doing a photo montage at the reception or rehearsal dinner, start gathering photos/videos to include (it'll talk your folks time to dig that stuff out, too).
http://www.bigmomentfilims.com
All these vendors take time, though. You'll want to look at photographers' work, watch and listen to band DVDs or CDs.
4. Get your fiancé involved! I think I was unusually helpful to my wife because I'm in the event biz. But give him a few specific tasks. Obviously, he'll need to work on his side of the invite list. Ask him to research/interview some of the vendors. For instance, I was in charge of (because it was most important to me) the photographer. We consulted on everything, but that was one item on which I took the lead.
5. Once you get through these things and start getting down to nitty-gritty, you can go back to the wedding checklists. There are a lot of little things (programs, favors), most of which we skipped, that you may want to include. Brides magazine and theknot.com do, I'm sure, a good job at reminding you of every single place you might want to spend money!
Most importantly (and it's hard to see now, but try), relax and enjoy it. When all is said and done, the reason you're planning this big event is to celebrate your decision to spend your life together. Don't forget that part of it -- especially when it gets stressful, the budget looks too small, and you're having to perform delicate shuttle diplomacy between families....
Good luck!
2006-08-01 01:58:47 · answer #6 · answered by Andy G 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are several wedding sites to help you
www.theweddingchannel.com
www.theknot.com
They both have message boards that have probably answered any questions you have.
What you need to do NOW--
Set a date
book reception and ceremony sites
get your dress--possibly may still be time to order, but you may have to buy one already in stock.
I would send out save the date cards immediately too...you can just print something fun off the printer.
Go to the websites, they both have countdown calendars with what has to be done when.
Relax and have fun! Best of luck to you and congrats!
2006-07-31 17:44:13 · answer #7 · answered by basketcase88 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lets start 4months is very little time
step1-cake
step 2-dresses
step 3-invites (takes about 7 weeks to get and must be sent about 7 or 8 weeks before wedding.Forget save the date cards.)
step 4-flowers (must be order in advance)
step 5-transportation
step 6-reception hall and place your getting married
step7-tux
step 8-food
step 9-guest list(figure out who you want to invite before you get invites
step 10-pick out attendants
here are planning sites:
ebay.com
theknot.com
martha stewart has some books
bridal magazines
bwedd.com
earlenescakes.com
modernbride.com
njwedding.com
buffalobride.com
weddinghelpline.com
superwedding.com(no www)
magicwandweddings.com
dianescakesandmore.com(no www)
usabride.com
brideus.com
diy.com
2006-07-31 22:10:43 · answer #8 · answered by movin12006 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you can afford hire a wedding coordinator and it will release a lot of headaches. If you can not find a really good friend or family member who is good at organizing events and let them take the lead on the matter they will love it!
2006-07-31 17:40:23 · answer #9 · answered by 2deep4u 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check with your County Courthouse regarding a civil ceremony.
Call local VFW halls for your reception. An alternative would be if you know anyone that has a large enough house/yard to hold all of your guests. You could also make the food yourself or ask family members to help (ie: potluck). http://allrecipes.com/
Check out Dreams by Renee. They have some absolutely gorgeous dresses PLUS they will do custom work based off of drawings/pictures at extremely reasonable prices. http://dreamsbyreneebridal.com
Are you (or do you know someone willing to help that is) crafty? Check out Michaels for decorations, floral, favors, etc. It will help with your budget if you can do as much as possible yourself. I used to be an Instructor/Event Coordinator for them and we had alot of classes for wedding related items. http://www.michaels.com
As for invitations, I'm a rep for Regency Thermographics. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. http://aphroditescreations.regency.ac
Good luck!
2006-07-31 17:47:20 · answer #10 · answered by Angie P. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋