Planning the Best Wedding

How to Plan the Best Wedding Possible

You have likely heard men say that after they propose (and are accepted) that all they do is wait for details on when the wedding is and what they need to wear. Well, this might be one of those stories that just trickle down over time.
The reality is that you both need to work together on a plan regardless of the size of your wedding. You can of course hire a wedding planner. This is not always possible. Not every area has a wedding planner. Not every area has a
good wedding planner.

Not everyone has a budget for a wedding planner. Before you make a decision, start your own wedding planning and then decide whether you want to handle it yourself or hire a planner.

Here's How to Plan Your Own Wedding

Regardless of whether you hire a planner or not, you have to set out a framework for the wedding festivities so let’s take a look at the process so that there are no disasters or surprise obstacles along the way. The same process works whether you plan a wedding on a budget or an extravaganza.
Rather than a step by step plan, this approach involves drilling down through the tasks. There are essential and major tasks that you have to deal with first. Then there are medium sized details to take care of. And then there are the minute details that add the flavor and texture to the wedding.

If you take care of the high-level tasks first, you set the ambiance for the wedding so that all following decisions fit into the master plan.

The Overview Tasks

Buy a Journal

Make this something that captures your thoughts, feelings, and wedding ideas. Even though you think you will never forget this time in your life, the details will become blurred over the years. Think about the wedding colors you want and use this as the background for all decisions.
This is where you doodle your planning basics. Without an underlying plan, it is very difficult to bring all the elements together. Planning a wedding should be fun and not completely stress filled.
You will need a checklist that you keep adding to as time progresses. But the journal captures everything.

Announce the Engagement

The traditional method for announcing the engagement is to place an advertisement in the newspaper. You can also send out handwritten notices to your friends and family or set up a website or even a Facebook page. Email works too.
Set the Date
And set the time of day. This is more important than you might suspect. You need time to get ready in the morning but you don’t want a long time between the ceremony and the wedding meal. But you don’t want it to be too short a time because photos must be taken to commemorate the day and this is the traditional time for formal photographs.
Check the calendar. A Friday the 13th date might not be ideal. And you don’t necessarily want the wedding to be on a holiday weekend or a gigantic sporting event weekend. Think about special days that might suit your timeline.
Perhaps there is a special event in your family that you can celebrate with your wedding. The anniversary of the day you two met would be a good choice. Lucky numbers, if you happen to believe in them, also make the day special. Take some time to play around with the date.

Pick the Location

Choose the style and location for the ceremony and then choose the venue for your celebration. You need to have the date chosen before choosing these locations. There is always the possibility that the dates will not be available.
This becomes decision time. Do you want to look elsewhere for the site for your special day or do you want to change the date?
The ideal spot would be a banquet hall that is designed for weddings. Many such places have a ceremony room and that might work perfectly for your wedding.

The Guest List

Start now working on the guest list. There are some essential people you must invite. You know who they are – your family, your best friends, people you love. There are some duty invitations you might have to have on your list even if you don’t know them too well.
You need to work on this list together. Let it sit for a few days and take another look at the list. In the meantime, get a general notion of what it will cost for each guest at the reception. This can be as high as $100 per person in some places. Calculate your budget and decide whether to have more people and a lower cost per person at the reception or fewer people and a high cost per person.

The Main Event Tasks

Choose the invitations and begin to address the envelopes. You have the choice of inviting people to the wedding ceremony or to both the ceremony and the reception. As for when to send out the invitations, the typical advance notice is six weeks.
However, if you are inviting guests from out of town, you do need to allow them time to make plans to travel. Some people prefer to send the invitations out 10 or 12 weeks in advance. Any longer notice than that and you risk people putting off and forgetting to RSVP because the wedding is so far away they are not yet ready to make plans that far in advance.

Set up your gift registry. Start working with your bridesmaids and maid of honor. Discuss wedding hairstyles, dresses, photography, and videotaping. Do not forget that the bride and groom need to keep in constant communication on all decisions. Choose gifts for your wedding party.

The Details

You have to choose the wedding dress, the wedding music, the wedding cake, flowers, drinks and food. There are dozens of other small details that need to be handled but if you have the big things decided, you have a little flexibility regarding the accessories to the wedding. Hair and makeup are important but these can be scheduled later than the venue and date.

If you hire a banquet hall, ask for the complete list of what they can do for you. They likely have themes and décor for any taste.

The primary thing to remember is to have a deadline and don’t delay or dither about your decisions. Florists need to prepare in advance to meet your requests and if you change your mind too late, it can cause a problem for both you and the florist. It is the same with the food.
Keeping a running list of wedding to-do items and keep working on that list, adding things as they crop up and crossing off the completed items. This way you forget nothing and are well on your way to a stress-free wedding.