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wedding planning
Hello. I am 18 years old and also have a boyfriend that is 18. we are engage now and want to start working on plannin our wedding but have no idea where to even start at. Has anyone else plan their own or somebody else wedding and know where to start, we really need help because we are totally lost. Thank you in advance for all the advice, you are really helpful.
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Maybe give some free advice about: Etiquette?
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This is a young woman who's in the process of planning her wedding with her sister who happens to be a wedding planner.
They upload videos at least one a week or more often, explaining how to get started, how to plan it and so on.
The girl herself is a great youtuber anyway, and this channel seems very helpful and they have a blog site alongside it.
This should most definitely help you with the planning! And I'm sure you'll enjoy watching the videos.
Good luck! Let me know if this is helpful to you!
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Here's a good place to start: [Link](Mouse over link to see full location). Read some of the wedding horror stories on that website and learn what NOT to do.
Once you've done that, the next thing to do is figure out your budget. That will be the thing that pretty much drives everything else. Once you've got that, you can start thinking about how many people to invite, when and where to have it, and the cost per person insofar as food, drinks, and the size of the room at the reception.
One thing I learned from my own wedding is that it doesn't matter if certain things don't turn out the way you imagined, or if you aren't able to do everything you might have hoped, or even if there are some major problems on the day itself. What matters most, in the end, is who you're getting married to.
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I planned my own wedding, but we did things a little differently from some others.
The first thing you'll want to do is discuss what it is you want, and research how much that costs. Then once reality hits you, cry and wish you were born a billionaire, then start over.
You need to figure out what you can afford and what you are willing to pay. Keep in mind that a wedding is a one-day party, and that it's not worth going into debt over. Marriages that start with a huge pile of debt are under a lot of pressure! It's perfectly possible to have a perfect, fairytale wedding on a low budget (mine was $3500 all in) as long as you don't have visions of a Kardashian-esque extravaganza.
Our first step was to figure out how many people we were going to invite. Based on that number, you can get started looking at venues. We chose to have ours at a conservation area where you could rent out a barn and a large private area of the park for $300 plus the cost of each person's park admission, which was a great deal! Some places cost upwards of $10 000 for the day.
Some locations will require that you use "approved" vendors for your flowers, photography and catering. This can mean that your options are limited. Otherwise, get creative!
Because of our location and the timing (early afternoon), we did a picnic-themed wedding. Sandwiches, fruit and veggie trays and pink lemonade were on our menu. A lot of locations will offer a fixed-price per person menu. This can include an open bar, or you can also opt to have a paid bar, or no bar if you prefer to go alcohol-free.
There are a few ways to tackle photography. I happened to have a childhood friend who is an amazing photographer and who offered to give us our wedding photos as a gift. A lot of people these days have really good cameras, so you can also go the amateur route... some of our favourite pictures of the day were taken by relatives! If you prefer to hire a professional, it can get pricey. From what my friends have said, $3000 seems to be the average. You could also try contacting your local community college to see if there's someone who is trying to build a portfolio and is willing to work for a lower price.
You'll want to have decorations for the venue as well. Some places will include these things, others will charge for things like chair covers and the like. For our centerpieces, we skipped on the traditional floral route (which can run you $150+ per arrangement) and filled jars with homemade chocolate chip cookies... they were a hit!
Favours are another detail. We made cake pops in our wedding colours and gave them out. I've seen bags of specialty tea, mints in fancy containers, or even tiny trees for people to take home and plant in their gardens.
Invitations can be very pricey if you get the fancy kits from craft stores, but if you design your own you can get them printed at a print shop inexpensively. Ours were very plain with just lyrics from one of my favourite songs on the front, so we did ours at home.
You may want to register. Big stores often have a registry service so that you can tag items that you would like for gifts. It's a great time to get household items if you are going to be moving in for the first time. We had been living together for a while, so we didn't register. You can also register with travel agents (for a honeymoon) or for a down payment on a house!
Now for the big ones...
What are the attendants on either side going to wear? Opinions vary on this, but I think it's tacky to make the groomsmen pay for a tux/suit rental, or to make the bridesmaids pay for a dress in a weird colour that they'll only wear once. We had the guys wear their own black suits (most people own one already) and a white shirt, while we provided a tie in our wedding colour. I only had one bridesmaid (my maid of honour was a man of honour) and we got her dress at David's Bridal for an incredibly reasonable price.
What are you going to wear? It's easy to get caught up in things, but wedding dresses are crazy. They're expensive, they're uncomfortable and they're heavy! If you're getting married in the summer, steer clear of the huge laced-up dresses with the crinolines underneath, because they trap heat and weigh about 25 lbs. My friend nearly fainted at her wedding for this very reason. I got a tea-length dress at David's Bridal because it was more practical for outdoors. One of my friends who is getting married got her dress at a regular clothing store! For shoes, don't wear anything high-heeled if you'll be outside, and make sure you can walk in it all day. I wore cute flats in my wedding colour that I got from Wal-Mart, and nobody knew.
Are you and the girls going to have your hair and makeup done? You can get people to come to your home, or you can find a salon nearby. Be prepared for the $150+ it will cost for each of you. I had my hair done, but did my own makeup because I wanted to look like myself.
Who is going to marry you? It's best if you can get someone you know to do it. We had the best man's father, who is a pastor, and it was great because he's known my husband for years. The church charged a $200 fee. You will also need a marriage license. The rules on this vary depending on where you live. We had to get ours within 3 months of getting married.
What is your ceremony going to look like? We went casual, with a couple of funny readings and vows that we wrote ourselves, as well as a non-denominational prayer. Some officiants will be stricter on this than others.
I know this seems like an awful lot. Trust me, I was super overwhelmed when I had to plan my wedding. And things go wrong. Because of a mail strike before our wedding, our invitations didn't get out until 3 weeks before. I forgot my shoes and had to run out the morning of to get a new pair. My bridesmaid's zipper broke on the back of her dress and my mother ended up sewing her into it. The best part was, I was so relaxed that all of this was just another funny story that we remember when we look back on that day. Try to keep in mind that a wedding is just a party, and that the important part is who you're getting married to. No matter whether your wedding costs $500 or $50 000, you're getting the same amazing thing out of it... a lifelong commitment to someone else!
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