How to make a wedding planning checklist

Wedding planning 1 - Squidoo

Afterwards, most brides and grooms will look back with fond memories on their wedding day. If the wedding planning went as it should so will all the guests that attended the event. Pulling of the perfect wedding for everyone involved is quite a lot of work however, and as weddings in our society have a tendency to become bigger and bigger so does the planning process. Of course, not wanting to mess up your special day is a common concern no matter how small or lavish your wedding is.

It's natural for you to feel a little anxious when faced with planning a wedding. I can certainly share that sentiment. You're wondering right now how to get the most out of your wedding. This is the first in a series of article where I will try to help you figure it out, I'll be your online friend to lean on. Planning a wedding can be quite tough on all the people involved. Everyone, all absolutely included, will have an idea on what you should do and how to do it best.

Go ahead and tell them that the only way that matters is your way! Albeit, within a reasonable economical frame of course. Because when it really comes down to it you and your fiancé are the most important figures. Plan your wedding like you want to have it. Naturally you shouldn't run people over left and right, and hurt people's feelings either.

When you're in love and about to get married, the world tends to become another place. It is important to both cherish this feeling, while opening your eyes to reality at the same time. A wedding will not plan itself, but you should also not allow it to become such an undertaking that you - or your love for your partner - is consumed in the process.

Although a good planning strategy is the corner stones of a great wedding, you also need to relax. I can from experience tell you that almost every wedding has a way of turning out great in the end.

Make no mistake though, planning a wedding quickly turns into a full time job. I have determined that there are several areas that will need extra attention if you're going to SAVE BIG MONEY on your wedding costs. You'll need to have what I call a sit down heart to heart with your fiancé. This step will help you to determine what is a priority for you as a couple.

One of the first things to discuss is if there are certain things specific to the wedding that you must have. It could be special arrangements for the musical entertainment or a certain color to wear. Or it could be a particular location to have the wedding or reception at.

For example, I know a bride who was hell bent on having her wedding at an exclusive resort. The wedding chapel was in the midst of an exquisitely beautiful garden. While they spent a great deal on reserving the location, they actually ended up saving money because they didn't have to buy flowers. Try to determine what the "things" for your wedding are, you can then begin to incorporate them into your wedding.

To sum up then: wedding planning certainly isn't without its challenges - it very often the biggest organizational task so far in the bride's and groom's life. For that reason more and more professional wedding planners have started to offer their services.

Besides your own wedding, that should of course be a fabulous memory for life, going to s friends wedding can be very memorable as well. Summer weddings can be especially memorable, and although it is your friends important day, there's no reason why you wouldn't pick out something fabulous to wear for yourself. Here are a few tips and ideas for dressing up for your best friends wedding.

If you are the made of honour

Being the made of honour means that you will be standing right next to the bride so you must look your best for the part. You should dress differently than the other bridesmaids. You must visually announce to the people who are attending the wedding that you are the maid of honour by wearing something that makes you stand out from the other girls in the bridal entourage. For example, if the wedding colours are peach and gold, you may wear a golden gown while the other girls are dressed in peach coloured gowns. But what if there is only one wedding colour selected by the bride? If there is only one wedding colour, you can still wear a dress of the same colour and have it style differently instead. Wearing some distinctive accessories is also a good idea.

There aren't really any rule against a made of honour wearing something white, a hat for example. But it is good manners to not compete with the bride - your best friend - on her important day, be it a summer wedding or otherwise. It will be your turn to really shine all dressed in white at your own wedding. Thus, unless it's you who are getting married, you shouldn't be wearing white at all.

Going as a guest

If you have to travel far for the wedding and you do not have time to perform some special roles during your best friend's summer wedding, do not let this hold you back. You will still have a great time just going and attending as a special guest on your best friend's summer wedding. Even so, just because you are not part of the bridal entourage, doesn't mean that you can forget about looking great during the ceremony and party held afterwards.

For any outdoor wedding, especially those held in the summer, one of those nice pastel coloured dresses can be an excellent choice. As the weather can be very hot during the summer (if you're lucky), you should take this into consideration by avoiding dresses with long sleeves. Heavy make up can likewise be a bad idea, unless you want to end up melting like a snow(wo)man.

Many of the wedding traditions still in practice actually date back as far as medieval times. For example, one of the crowning moments of medieval weddings ceremonies was the exchange of rings between the married couple. Performing this formal act in front of a priest has since then symbolized the mans request for the woman to become his wife. In a way then, almost every wedding held today could be said to have medieval influences.

The main difference between the engagements in the medieval era compared to our modern times, is that groom is asked to give a betrothal "deposit" in terms of money or properties to the family of the women that he is going to marry. Should the man decide to bolt out of the commitment to marry the woman, he has to pay a penalty - a form of insurance, if you will. The penalty could amount to four times the sum of money or properties given as "betrothal deposit". In contemporary society, we no longer practice the betrothal "deposit" and both parties can now dump each other unceremoniously before the wedding if they want to.

Better or worse - I'll leave that up to you.

After the engagement, according to medieval tradition, rings was exchanged for the second time at the actual ceremony, thus setting the tradition that has prevailed to this very day. The exchanging of rings is without a doubt one of the pivotal points of any wedding held today. In fact, almost regardless of other stylistic nuances bestowed upon a wedding, it is not considered complete without the exchange of rings.

The Maid Of Honor

Another traditional practice that can be traced to medieval weddings is the presence of the made of honor. The practice of having a maid of honor during weddings started in England during the medieval times. In the past, the maid of honor's assignment was seeing to the needs of the bride one week before the wedding. She was in charge of preparing the bouquet and the wedding decorations as well. Since the task of administering to the needs of the bride and making sure that the wedding decorations are in place, the maid of honor usually has host bridesmaids to help her fulfil her duties.

Formally, the contemporary maid of honor still is supposed to see to it that the bride has everything she needs. But since weddings are usually arranged by professionals these days, the task isn't quite as heavy a workload today as it once was.

We all want our weddings to be memorable events, and for that reason creating the budget is often one of the tougher aspects of the wedding planning process.

The days when the wedding is paid for by the parents of the bride are long gone now.

According to some experts in the field the average cost for weddings in the US amounts to about 45 dollars per guests. If you are going to have a huge wedding, that will of course add up rather quickly.

When we're mentioning figures anyway, it is also worth pointing out that it is indeed not entirely uncommon for people to spend $30,000 on their reception alone, but history has also seen charming receptions that set the couple back only a couple of hundred dollars.

Once the official limit has finally been set it's time to start doing the actual math. Part of planning the budget involves breaking down all needs into categories and then calculating as exactly as possible how much money will be spent for each category.

With at least a basic idea of what you can afford to spend, you can start shopping around more seriously.

It may feel a little boring, but this is one of those occasions where being organized can pay off in spades.