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Tag: wedding timeline

  • Wedding Planning Websites and Apps

    Wedding Planning Websites and Apps

    If you’re just starting your wedding planning or just checking off some of the last things on your wedding checklist, here are some helpful Wedding Planning Websites and Apps to use as you plan your wedding while still maintaining your sanity.

    Latest trends and etiquettes

    • Brides.com will keep you up to date with the latest trends and etiquettes.  You will also be aware of some overlooked, expenses, formalities issues, and planning suggestions as you plan your wedding.

    Do a quick search and narrow results by type

    • If you don’t know where to start WeddingWire is a comprehensive venue and vendor database. There you will find more than 200,000 local listings and 2.5 million reviews by real couples. If you’re clueless about where to get married and who to hire, you can do a quick search and narrow results by type, location, price, and/or rating. When you’re finished locking in the big-ticket items, you’ll find checklists, budget templates, and etiquette tips as well.

    Your personal assistant

    • If you’re planning not to hire a Wedding Planner, WeddingHappy is a free app that can serve as your personal assistant. It’s preloaded with tasks to guide you through your to do task list. It even alerts you as you approach deadlines for things like when to mail invites or pay deposit for your DJ or band. The same way a planner would do in real life. You can share your events with your fiancé, parents, or maid-of-honor/bridesmaids so everyone is up to date and has access to the same info.

    Invitation design

    • For awesome invitations that won’t break the bank try Minted. This site works with indie artists and graphic designers to offer chic, ready-made invites, save-the-dates, ceremony programs, and escort cards. Templates can be customized, down to the card size and paper stock. If you are on a tight budget you can print your suite at home. You can even take the file to a local copy shop. Minted also offers bespoke invitation design in case you don’t have an illustrator on speed dial but still want a hand-drawn map of your wedding location or a watercolor rendering of you and your fiancé.

    Custom wedding website

    • For a custom wedding website that looks totally different try Riley & Grey. It is where design-minded couples go to create their wedding hubs (reasonable $35 per month). Modern templates are added every few months, so you won’t use the same one as your friends or family members who are getting married after you. Your site will not only be beautifully laid out but also user friendly, with zero clicks required. Simply scroll down to go between tabs like close “People” tab for bios for those involved in your wedding party. Even a “Place” tab for tips on where to stay, eat, and drink near your wedding venue. You can also embed links to travel site Kayak for flight bookings and Google Maps for directions to your ceremony & venue.

    Free money management site

    • For tracking your wedding (and life) budget you can use Mint. While not made specifically with weddings in mind, Mint is a popular free money management site. It’s easy to use, syncing with your bank account and credit cards so you can monitor your spending and move funds around as needed. (And it probably will be needed.) Create a wedding budget and stay on track, thanks to weekly email summaries and text reminders when payments are due.

    Keeping your planning crew informed

    • For keeping your planning crew informed and on point use Google Drive. Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, photos, etc, can be uploaded, stored, and shared in Drive for seamless viewing and editing by anyone with a Gmail account. You can pull up your guest list, budget, or vendor contacts during a venue walk-through. The mobile app is there in a pinch. Need to share important dates with your fiancé, parents, and planner? The hub links directly to Google Calendar, so no one can complain about being left out of the loop. Hopefully some of these helpful Wedding Planning Websites and Apps will be what you need to keep everything organized.
  • To Do Checklist

    Week of the Wedding “To Do” Checklist

    With only a few days left before the wedding reception, it’s  totally understandable that a few things on your growing Week of the Wedding “To Do” Checklist might slip your mind.  You should use the whole bridal entourage (including the future spouse) for help on the to do list. Keep track of your master checklist, but delegate tasks as needed. You will need all the support you can get. It’s best to get all of your to do’s in order sooner than later, so you can kick up your feet up and enjoy every second of your wedding reception. Below is a checklist to help with wedding week to do’s.

    Wedding Dress, Shoe and Jewelry “To Do’s”

    Try on your full wedding dress, including shoes and jewelry. Practice walking down the aisle and make sure everything looks and feels comfortable. Try going to the bathroom in your dress as well so there are no surprises.

    Go to your jeweler to get your engagement ring professionally clean so it’s extra sparkly on your wedding day especially for pictures.

    Break in your wedding shoes. Wear them for a short period of time each day around the house and walk around on a few different surfaces.

    Things to get ready for your Wedding vendors.

    Shoot all your vendors an email or give them a quick call on the Monday before the event. Be sure to confirm arrival times. This includes your hair and makeup team!

    Send off your pictures to take list to your photographer and designate a responsible family member or member of the wedding party to regularly check in with the photographer on the wedding day to ensure they are all your key pictures are being taken.

    Get any checks or final payments ready for vendors. Check your contracts for payment deadlines.

     

    Other Week of the Wedding “To Do” Checklist Items

    Be sure to give your email a last minute read through and answer any emails that are filled with pressing wedding questions a few days before you get to your wedding day.

    Reach out to the last-minute stragglers who haven’t RSVP’d yet to see whether or not they’re coming to your wedding. It’s better to know the final count sooner than later for seating arrangements, final venue bill, or for those guests who might show up and have nowhere to sit.

    Sit down with your spouse-to-be and finalize the seating arrangements. Be sure to send a copy to those who need it, like the wedding planner, photographer and designated bridesmaid.

    Make sure your marriage license is in order and assign someone to keep track of it on your wedding day to ensure it’s signed correctly and doesn’t get lost in the mix.

    Take care of any work to do assignments so that you don’t have a Week of the Wedding “To Do” Checklist work tasks floating around in your head. Work should be the last thing you want to think about heading into your wedding weekend.

     

  • Time Management DASH OF CLASS PLATINUM

    Time Management Tips for your Wedding Day

    After months of investing much time and money into your wedding day & reception, you want to be sure you will enjoy it and take it all in! If you have your ceremony on premises and a possible viennese hour, the 4 to 7 hours can really fly by. Even though the average reception is 4 to 5 hours, dancing time may be limited to only about 2 to 2 1/2 hours because of formalities & dinner courses. Here are some helpful tips on how to enjoy, mingle, and dance the night away at your wedding reception with your family and friends.

    Helpful Time Management Tips for your Wedding Day

    ⁃ If you’re having an on-site ceremony, be sure to have a “first look” before the ceremony. Taking most of your formal pictures with your spouse-to-be, family, & bridal party before so you will not have to take them during cocktail hour and then be rushed to your introductions into your ballroom.

    Picture time

    ⁃ If you are not having an on-site ceremony, give yourself 2-3 hours between the end of the church ceremony and arrival to your reception venue so you are not rushed. By doing that you can enjoy the day with your family & bridal party. Some couples want to make a stop to at a picturesque-location which takes time as well. Try to get to your reception hall at least one hour before cocktail hour so you can take the majority of formal pictures with family and bridal party at the venue. This will allow for a little time to kick back, relax, and have a bite to eat before mingling in cocktail hour.

    Your Cocktail Hour

    ⁃ Most couples are now electing to mingle during their cocktail hour. This gives you the chance to say hello and have brief conversations with the majority of your guests in an informal atmosphere. Doing this will not make you feel obligated to visit each and every table during your reception. If you’re possibly having 150 to 200 guests for example, that’s 15 to 20 tables you may have to visit and say hello to which will cut into your dancing and partying time.

    Time to Toast!

    ⁃ Recently, couples are having multiple maid of honor‘s and multiple best men which are doing toasts as well as parent’s possibly doing a welcoming. It would bode well to give a gentle respectful restriction on the time allotted (such as 2-3 minutes for each) before the reception, such as at the rehearsal dinner. If there are many toast/speeches(ie, more than 4) it would be well advised to split them up and possibly have some after the first dance and others during the first course when you have a captive audience. This is a great way to make everyone happy and will not cut into dancing time.

    Special performance or presentation

    ⁃ If you’re going to have any family or friends sing/perform, it would be prudent to have them do so during downtime such as during salad, appetizer, or main course, etc. so as not to cut into dancing time. This would bode well if you have any type of couple photo montage presentation as well.

    Dessert time isn’t always sweet

    ⁃ After your cake cutting (and possible Viennese tables) we advise for couples to stay away from their sweetheart/main table. That is usually the time that some guests may be looking to leave early. This is the first place they will look for you and if a line forms by your sweetheart table you will be stuck there. You don’t want to miss your last dance set. This is the time you want to party it up with your immediate family and friends especially now that all the formalities are over. You should be mingling and dancing around the dance floor area. Guests leaving can give you a quick hug and goodbye and you can continue partying to the end of the reception.

    Time to say Good-Bye

    ⁃ If you are providing transportation for your guests to and from hotels or a particular central meeting place, think about the time you should have your first shuttle/bus come. Keep in mind after the reception ends there is a time of mingling, socializing, & saying goodbyes. Too many times couples have the shuttle/buses come too early before the reception ends. The entertainment is making announcements regarding the shuttle/buses being outside your venue essentially chasing your guests off the dance floor and out of your ballroom. This is the last thing you would want to do after all the time and money invested into your reception.

  • Wedding Planning Timeline Blog

    Sequence of events to plan your wedding.

    Once the initial excitement of getting engaged wears off, the planning starts. With an average 16 month engagement in the US, there are certain key preliminary decisions to make that will get you started with the sequence of events to plan your wedding. Selecting key vendors such as your venue, entertainment, photographer/videographer, flowers, wedding dress, tuxedo, etc. Doing these steps first will get you on your way.

    Guest List

    Come up with a tentative guest list to help determine and narrow down the venues that you may want to consider that will cater to your number of guests. Start off with the most important guests like immediate family and friends. Continue with extended family, then coworkers, neighbors, parents friends, etc. Then narrow down from the bottom up.

    Budget

    Come up with a budget and figure from where (savings, salaries, credit, etc) and possibly from whom (parents, grandparents, close friends). Funds will be coming to help pay for the venue and all the related costs of a wedding reception. Knowing and narrowing down the number of guests, as discussed above, will help determine your budget.

    Location

    Next step, choose the locations of the ceremony and reception. Will both be at your venue or will the ceremony be in a different location? If in separate locations, you will have to account for travel time and accommodations for you and your guests. If you’re considering a destination wedding it is even more logistically challenging. Consider the extended travel, accommodations, and comfort for you and all invited guests. You’ll possibly have to deal with your vendors via email, phone calls, FaceTime/Skype and forego the comfort level of dealing with many of your vendors face to face.

    Theme

    Choose a theme, season, and day of the week for your wedding day based on your personal preferences. Season & day of the week can dramatically affect your budget. It will help your budget if you chose off peak months such as January & February. Also, considering a Sunday, Friday, or weekday can also significantly reduce your overall budget. The same venues and vendors you would be considering will cost much more on a Saturday and during peak wedding season. The theme or season you choose will affect your choice of decor and floral arrangements/centerpieces as well.

    Wedding Planner

    Hiring a wedding planner is an extra expense up front, but, for those couples with busy career schedules, can save you money & time throughout the whole planning process. By pointing you in the right direction and suggesting the sequence of events to plan your wedding. This also means recommending vendors who fit your personality, style, & budget. They can handle a lot of the grunt work to make it a less stressful & enjoyable experience as you plan your wedding and the smaller celebrations leading up to your wedding with close family & friends.

    The Right Vendors

    Hire vendors who book up quickly such as DJ/Band, photographers, & videographers so you can book someone who fits your style, personality, and budget. Higher quality & reputable vendors book up quickly and earlier in the planning process so don’t procrastinate and continue to check off items on your checklist.
    Start shopping for your wedding dress. Finding the one that captures your heart and fits just right may take a lot of trial & error and many higher end gowns take many months to be delivered once ordered. You want to get it at least several weeks before the big day in case minor fitting adjustments need to be made.

  • LaptopWithNotepad

    WEDDING PLANNING BEFORE BOOKING VENDORS

    With so many decisions, big and small, creating a personal budget, coming up with well thought
    out timeline, and being focused on detail are key. This will likely be your first time organizing
    such a large-size event, so Wedding planning before booking vendors would be a huge help. Any
    bride-to-be who has spent even just one day wedding planning knows it takes an immense
    amount of organization.

    ESTABLISH A BUDGET

    Coming up with a budget based on the couple’s income, savings,
    and possible family contributions (parents, grandparents, etc.) will help narrow your
    choices as far as venue and other vendors. Avoid falling in love with venues and
    vendors you just can’t afford and therefore avoid the disappointment of not being able
    to hire them.

    COME UP WITH A GUEST LIST

    Coming up with a tentative guest list will provide the
    approximate number guests attending your reception and help you aim for a venue that
    can comfortably accommodate your number of invited guests. Once the right size
    venue within your budget is booked, you can consider other vendors to decorate/work
    within your venue logistically ie: florists, DJ with production services,
    photographers/videographer etc.

    CREATE A WORKABLE TIMELINE WHEN PICKING A WEDDING DATE

    With hectic work schedules, family obligations, holidays, unexpected life issues, etc. pick a workable time
    line to plan your wedding so it doesn’t become a stressful process. The wedding day
    does sneak up on couples and it should be a process shared and enjoyed with immediate
    family and friends.

    RESEARCH/INTERVIEW VENDORS WHO WILL WORK BEST WITH YOUR PERSONALITY

    To avoid stressful situations, hire the right group of vendors who work best with both
    your personalities. This will help fulfill your vision for your wedding day. By having these
    preliminary discussions with possible vendors early, it will help set the tone of the planning
    process.

    HIRE A WEDDING PLANNER

    Even though an additional cost, hiring a wedding planner from the get go can help you attain your wedding day vision while working within your budget. Career driven couples with hectic schedules will benefit most with having a wedding planner throughout the whole wedding planning process. An experienced
    wedding planner has relationships with many vendors and can point you in the right
    direction of vendors that fit your budget and personality. Most couples say the week
    before the wedding day is the most stressful. That’s when problems with unexpected
    details come up, leaving some brides stressing and overly coordinating instead of enjoying time with family and friends. Hiring a week of or even day of wedding planner is an
    option that can help handle last-minute vendor meetings and unexpected situations
    that arise.