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The Engagement Party is over and the shiny ring is feeling pretty comfortable about now. The glow is still shiny and he is the best thing in the universe!
But what about that wedding! Your mother, aunts, cousins and friends are all asking about it and probably giving you hundreds of hints and snippets of advice, along with the horror stories of the things that went wrong at their or their friends. Right? So you have probably had a look at some magazines where everything looks perfect and glossy and you are wondering how on earth you are going to do that, especially when you start adding up the costs! Well you can and it will be brilliant. But you do need to plan and to keep a firm hand on everything, including who ever have you enlisted to help you, even the mothers!
Do look at everything wedding related you can, get as many ideas as possible on-line, at wedding fairs and from all those people so eager to help you, but remember it is your day and what you want is what you get. Now all those images are running around in your mind, and getting mixed up.
Let's try and simplify it a little.
Do you want a traditional wedding, church / chapel and hundreds of guest? Or otherwise, you just want a simple ceremony with family and a few friends? Or something different? What about marrying on a foreign shore with the sun, palm trees and gentle waves splashing in the background? Or a themed wedding with costumes for all? None of them are more complicated than the other so pick which you and your partner want.
Okay you have picked the overall theme: traditional, modern, simple, themed, abroad. Now pick your second favorite. Maybe you will want to combine a theme with a traditional or simple wedding. Anything is possible.
How many people are likely to come to your wedding? Have you got a big family with lots of friends who will never forgive you if they can not see you on the day, be that at the reception or the ceremony itself? If you have, and you want them there too, then you may need to reconsider the beech ceremony in the Tropics. Not everyone can afford to take the time and spend the money to have a holiday abroad when you say, and where you say. But if you only have a small wedding party then it can be perfect! What better way to celebrate but with your family, however, do book your honeymoon suite in a different hotel and do not tell them where, just so you have your privacy when you want it!
Numbers are not as important for the other themes; they are only constrained by the size of the venue you pick and sometimes by the location (parking restrictions for instance).
Venues – This splits into two parts, the ceremony and the reception. Traditionally these were separate venues in the UK but increasingly hotels, neatly homes and other venues are able to perform the ceremony and host the reception too. This is personal choice. If you want to wed in a church or other religious establishment then you are likely to need a separate venue for the reception. Depending on budget you can have a great reception in the church / village hall or the ballroom of the big hotel down the road or even hire a castle or pretty home.
If you are having the church wedding, then just remember to book ahead. Get several possible dates at the time of year you want to wed in and provisionally book your favorite. Now short-list your favorite venues for the rest of the day, do not pin your hopes on only one venue unless you are prepared to move the wedding date. Once the dates for the venue and the wedding match and you have booked those items, breath a big sigh. But you can not relax, sorry! That is just stage one.
A word of warning! If you can have specific ideas on how you want your reception or even the ceremony to be performed; eg decorations you want, layout of chairs, tables and other items. Then you will need to work closely with the management of your venue / s. It is best to get the groundwork for this worked out as soon as possible. I know of friends who organized the hotel and the management said they would do everything my friends wanted, then, as the date got closer, the hotel management could not seem to remember agreeing to do this or that. So to help take the headache out of that situation try to get what you want the gateway to provide or allow you to provide or do on their promises and then get it signed by the hotel or venue manager and their wedding coordinator (if they have one ). Give them a copy and keep one yourself, this will not stop problems but may help sort them out.
Keep an eye out for my other articles in this series on: Themed Weddings, The Gown The Ceremony The Reception Entertainment
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Source by Yvonne Pace
