On Planning a Wedding

A wedding is no small event and planning a wedding is a major undertaking and can be very costly in terms of time and money. So you want to make sure you cover every important detail about your big day when planning a wedding.

Planning a wedding involves ironing out the details about attire, invitations, guests, honeymoon, entertainment and other wedding things. It even requires forethought on what to do if certain problems or even conflicts arise. Going into a wedding without a plan can be disastrous so take some care to do this right.

When planning a wedding, you have the option of hiring a wedding planner but with a little effort and information you can also do this well yourself. One advantage you have over a wedding planner is that you and your spouse both know your family and friends who will be your guests at your wedding.

A professional wedding planner will not have this “insider” knowledge. You are the one who knows what your guests will probably like and not like. You are the one who knows which members of your family are fighting or won’t speak to each other. A wedding planner would not know this.

Planning for the Contingencies

The title of this section sounds more like a disaster recovery plan than it does as a subject for planning a wedding but you don’t want to avoid the subject of planning ahead to deal with the problems that will inevitably manifest themselves. These days, there are a lot of blended families and divorce has been ever so prevalent in the past few years. This means that there are more weddings where one or both in the couple have been married before.

While in theory everything should be okay, in reality it more than likely will not be. For example, if your divorce was particularly hostile, do you want to invite your ex-spouse to the wedding or even let that party know of it? Only you would know. And, if you are a bride with an involved biological father divorced from your mom and an involved step-father, who do you offer the privilege to give you away? These contingencies need to be planned for carefully so as to avoid bitter turf wars at your wedding.

Then, there is the family member who you know will meddle in everything. Or there is the family member who you know will come to your wedding and try to run the show and put a wrench in the machinery of planning a wedding. One bit of advice: If these members are not in the wedding party (they are guests only) then try to avoid inviting them to the rehearsal if you at all possibly can. People who like to run everything will typically interfere with your rehearsal and try to tell you how to run it. Remember, this is your day and it has to be the way you want it.

Some Other Planning Considerations

When you are planning a wedding, make a checklist. As you think of something else while planning, add it to the checklist. There are just so many things that we don’t typically think about so it is helpful if you check the internet for others’ insights on planning a wedding.

It they bring up some special point, add it to the checklist. For example, one source brought up the fact that you should check the car that you as a couple will be driving off in. You don’t want it to break down as you are driving away.

If you are going to have a themed wedding or a wedding with a special twist, you might want to get some advice from others when planning a wedding. For example, sometimes, folks like to include their pets in their wedding. While it all seems so “cute” you need to stop and consider how well your pet is trained before doing so. Maybe you want to have your wedding on a baseball field. Make sure your local city baseball team will let you do that and if so, how much it will cost.

Maybe it is special music that you want or a live band. For example, in the southwestern region of the United States, folks like to hire Mariachi bands playing Mexican Mariachi music which is typical at weddings in this part of the world. You better look at the cost when planning a weddng. One source quoted a Mariachi band that plays at weddings with a price range from $400 USD to $10,000 USD. Make sure you can pay these bills before getting out of control with your wedding planning.

Conclusion

There are many resources on the internet that you can use to consider all points when planning a wedding. Many internet sites have sample checklists that you can use to make your own. And, sometimes the best advice is to talk to others who have already gone through the marriage planning process. They can tell you from experience.

See Also:

Using Wedding Planning Software