My sister is having a wedding and my, mom, and my other sister and I are planning it for her. I wanted to know if anyone has had any experience with wedding planning if they can give us a few tips and pointers.
I planned my own wedding, and I had so much fun! Your sister is lucky to have you guys to help! As far as pointers go:
-start with a realistic budget
-make a list of likes about your sister – favorite colors, places, things to do, flowers, foods, style – think about her closet and her home as hints – write down everything you can think of, so you can keep these things in mind to guide your choices
-book the big stuff asap – ceremony and reception sites, caterer etc.
-involve your sister in the choices, at least a little. ie. set up an appt. with a florist and take your sister along to make choices
-plan ahead, write everything down, and stay as organized as possible and it will be a breeze
I planned my entire wedding in less than 6months, with 90 guests, and had help from my mum and sister a bit, but mostly did it myself. It was so fun! And we had a wonderful wedding, for less than $2500!
November 21st, 2009 at 2:55 am
Depends on the price. I did mine for under 2k and had a blast. We were married in our living room and dinner was a pot luck. We bbq’ed and had a great time. If she wants something more lavish then they have books and the like you can buy to help you plan things out. Good luck.
References :
November 21st, 2009 at 3:33 am
There are some easy and hard ways to plan a wedding. I really didn’t want to plan mine, with all the little details to worry about, so my fiance and I looked for "all inclusive" type venues.
There are some venues that include absolutely everything you need for your wedding in one per person price (there are lots where I live, so I imagine they are popular). Some places include everything from all the food, open bar, linens, napkins, chair covers, etc. Some venues will even include the centerpieces, basic decor, cake, DJ service, I’ve even seen one with a limo rental included.
It all depends on what you want and what you want done for you. These types of places you book it and then go in a few months before the wedding and choose the colours you want for the linens, choose the centerpieces from a selection they provide (like chose one of 8 or 10 then have), they have 3 or 4 cake designs you choose from and add ribbon with your wedding colour to personalize it.
Some of these venues can be cheesy, but some can be really nice, and they are affordable for what you get. So if you are worried about planning all those little details look into something like that.
When I started planning our wedding I was really worried about this so we looked into a lot of these places, and we went with one that does the catering, bar, linens, but not much else, just because we love the atmosphere of venue itself.
Go to a place like theknot.com or weddingbells.ca and sign up to get a "to do" list. It has a list of all the general things that need to be done (and a suggested time line to have things done/ordered by) for planning a wedding start to finish.
Also check out Martha Stewart Weddings web site too. She’s the queen of to do lists!
References :
November 21st, 2009 at 3:57 am
That depends on how simple or extravagant you want to make it. Wedding planning can be fun but it takes a lot of time and weddings are expensive. If you’re going to do a traditional ceremony/reception you need to reserve a date about a year or more in advance usually. Other things to do schedule in advance are the photographer, and the band/dj. Flowers, dresses, and the cake should be next. You can find some great ideas/references from theknot.com, and bridal magazines. Also, bookstores usually have books/binders that help you to organize everything while planning a wedding as well as giving guidelines and tips. Good luck, have fun, and congrats to your sister and her fiance.
References :
November 21st, 2009 at 4:09 am
How did you choose your wedding location: The wedding location was chosen based on a friend’s recommendation (he had chosen it for his honeymoon) and from travel and destination wedding magazines. Los Cabos comes very highly recommended.
Best idea you had in planning your destination wedding:The best idea we had in planning the wedding was to keep it simple and that meant just the two of us. The traditional wedding doesn’t fit all couples and thank God in the world of weddings there is something for everyone.
Decor Details: The bouquet was made of entirely of white roses and accented with bear grass, which was perfect against our beach location. I also incorporated a crystal crucifix bouquet jewel to symbolize our faith. We were married under a bamboo chuppah covered very simply in white fabric. As I walked out to meet my groom, a musician accompanied me playing the "Wedding March" on acoustic guitar. We also incorporated a sand ceremony that used colored sand in our wedding colors.
Food: After the ceremony, we dined in the romantic setting of the wine cellar at the Pitayhas restaurant. The Pitayhas is the only restaurant in Los Cabos to receive the coveted "Five-Star Diamond Award" for six consecutive years. Dinner started with a salad (mixed greens, roasted ginger tomatoes, green papaya and minted cucumber, lemongrass vinaigrette), Spicy roasted shrimp cocktail, dipping sauces and seaweed salad and for the main course we enjoyed the Ying-yang combo, petite fillet mignon and half lobster tail.
Best advice to future brides and grooms of destination weddings: Just because it is just the two of you on a beach, doesn’t mean you should not think about the details. A beach wedding can be still be filled with style. I was worried because I wanted to incorporate color into my wedding, but without bridesmaids and groomsmen I wasn’t sure how to do this. You can incorporate color into your bouquet with a simple ribbon.
Best memory of the wedding: The best memory of the wedding was walking through the sand to meet my groom and the look he had on his face when he first saw me. The location and surroundings were also incredible.
Did you use a wedding planner? Even though it was an intimate affair for just the two of us, we choose to hire a wedding coordinator. I know the ceremony would not have been as successful with JoAnn of Baja Weddings. She reserved the location and worked with all the vendors to make sure I had exactly what I wanted.
What was the most unique thing about your wedding? The most unique thing about our wedding was that it was just the two of us. Most people think that if you choose to marry with just the two of you then that means you can’t have a ceremony. I disagree. You can still have a beautiful ceremony. I have received so many compliments on the intimacy of the ceremony and the photographs.
What obstacles did you face in planning a destination wedding? Since everyone loves to attend a wedding, you will get some push back if it’s not local. It’s a personal decision. In the end we choose to make the wedding day about us.
Honeymoon Location: The good thing about destination weddings is that you can choose to honeymoon there as well. We stayed at the beautiful Westin Resort and Spa in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Honeymoon planning:
Where do You go? 😕
Sounds simple, but when you put the importance of what a honeymoon is on it, that is not so simple anymore. You want the place to be perfect, so that you can remeber. That means it has to be perfect for the two of you. You can take to the internet and read this and that about so many places you end up even more confused. STOP!
The first thing you should do is talk. Sit down, go out to dinner, carryout, dine in, just the two of you. Write a list down on what you want out of your honeymoon. Talk between each other. If you have traveled before, then that is better, get a lists of likes and dislikes, then go searching. I tell bridal couples find three places that you can agree on, then a budget and go on from there. If you want an all inclusive with only adults then what about Couples or Secrets resorts? If you want to have tours included in your vacation plus adults only, then you have Couples and Palace resort? Or if you want golf and scuba included, then you have Couples, Grand Lido and Sandals resorts? Then if you search the trip report sites, find a posting from the timeframe that you want to travel along with atleast 15 new ones. That will give you a broad spectrum of what you can expect from a resort.
Why you ask go back to a report? Because you need to know what goes on during the time you want to travel. The resort might have a sand flea problem during that month only or it is the rainy season with heat seeking mosquitos. If you read what is going on now, you could get a surpise that you do not want.
Next thing treat this like a vacation, because in the long run, that is what this is, just a va
References :
November 21st, 2009 at 4:52 am
I planned my own wedding, and I had so much fun! Your sister is lucky to have you guys to help! As far as pointers go:
-start with a realistic budget
-make a list of likes about your sister – favorite colors, places, things to do, flowers, foods, style – think about her closet and her home as hints – write down everything you can think of, so you can keep these things in mind to guide your choices
-book the big stuff asap – ceremony and reception sites, caterer etc.
-involve your sister in the choices, at least a little. ie. set up an appt. with a florist and take your sister along to make choices
-plan ahead, write everything down, and stay as organized as possible and it will be a breeze
I planned my entire wedding in less than 6months, with 90 guests, and had help from my mum and sister a bit, but mostly did it myself. It was so fun! And we had a wonderful wedding, for less than $2500!
References :
November 21st, 2009 at 5:24 am
http://www.theknot.com BEST WEDDING SITE EVER! so much help, like a budgeter, a timeline of when you should get certain tasks completed, etc etc. GREAT ideas on there too. It’s helped me SO much (and yes it’s free). I also went to Chapters and bought a wedding planning binder for $20 to keep everything in order. Other than that, it’s not as hard as you’d think it was.
References :
November 21st, 2009 at 6:04 am
planning a wedding is only as hard as you make it
References :
November 21st, 2009 at 6:19 am
I was my cousin maid of honor and it totally stressed me out. Now I am getting married in 8 months and I have already started planning because I dont want to spazz out again. Her wedding was beautiful though and the good thing about it is that even though she is not my MOH she is giving me her time one hundred percent the way i helped her. I wasnt expecting her to help but she wants too because she appreciates what I did for her to help her through all the meltdowns and problems. So plan, plan, plan and make it beautiful for her. Who knows she may want to repay you when it is your turn and trust me, you will want to have someone there.
References :
November 21st, 2009 at 7:00 am
It may be harder than you think. The little things are easily over looked.
**Try to include the bride. ask what she likes or wants.
** have budget, and stick to it.
** plan things around your money that you actually have, don’t do things and expect the money to pop up later.
** shop around for the best price on everything.
** anything you all can do yourselves, do it. Party favors, flowers, food. It reallt adds up.
GOOD LUCK To YOU.
References :
November 21st, 2009 at 7:18 am
Its not that hard. Just take your time and research. My wedding is 3/07/09. I found a nice cheap wedding dress that’s not costing me a lot of money.
References :