Don’t Doom Your Wedding -The Ultimate Wedding Checklist (Part 1) Planning Your Wedding To the inexperienced planning a wedding seems like a simple event. You buy a man’s and woman’s wedding band, pick out a dress, a church, a place to party, and your work is done. Nothing can be further from the truth! Most couples start planning their big day 12-16 months before the date of the ceremony. While this can be a daunting task, fear not for our helpful guide will have you chuckling at your friends wedding planning horror stories. Make Life Easy on Yourself Before you rush out to place a down payment on your diamond wedding dress and make a reservation at St. Thomas Church in Manhattan there is a lot of planning to do. First and foremost you should hire a wedding planner. Whether your budget is large or small, a good wedding planner is worth their weight in gold. In the early stages of planning your wedding you will want to: Establish a budget Pick your wedding party Throw an Engagement Party Set and Reserve Dates and Venues Start the Guest List Research Photographers, DJ’s/Bands, Florists, Caters, and Transportation As you see the list starts to grow pretty quickly and without a wedding planner this can all be a bit dizzying. Having someone with established contacts saves time, money, and headaches. Who to Book First Typically 8-10 months prior to the wedding date you will want to begin making reservations for: Photographers/Videographers Entertainment Caterers Rooms for Out of Town Guests. You will also want to have picked out your wedding gown and scheduled at least three fittings, as well as signing up for at least 3 gift registry’s, however I generally recommend 6-8. When hiring entertainment it’s a good idea to do some first hand research. Whether you are going to be hiring a cover band or a DJ I would suggest going to hear and see them perform. There are certain intangibles of entertainers that don’t come through on cd’s such as how they interact with the audience, do they sound good live, does their quality fall off as the show wears on, do they like to drink (sometimes too much)? All these questions can be answered without having to ever speak with anyone. For photographers I recommend setting up a shoot with your top 3 choices prior to narrowing it down to one. The reason I recommend this is, working with and having a conversation with a photographer can be a night and day experience. Some photographers are a joy to speak with but can become divas when working with them. Create a Wedding Website Creating a website or webpage for your wedding is becoming quite common, and for good reason. A website provides a central location for guests to check in on updates and changes to dates, times, accommodations, parties, and everything else related to your wedding. I would recommend going with someone such as eWedding or Weddingpages.com to set up your website. They make it easy to do and provide their products with little to no cost. Having a wedding website also allows you to blog about your experience and progress. This is a great way to bring those long distance loved ones into your world as you are working towards the big day. The webpage also allows you to easily share photos after the wedding instead of having to print out or email thousands of copies. And lastly the website can serve as a memento of what you and your loved one have accomplished together. The time leading up to a wedding can often become a blur so it is nice to have the events stored somewhere to reflect back upon. The Midway Point As you approach the midway point to your wedding day all the time and effort put in by you and your wedding planner will start to pay off. By this point you should have decided on many of the vendors whom will be making your big day the special day you always envisioned. At the midway point you should: Decide On and Meet the Officiant Book a Florist Select and Purchase Invitations Shop for Bridesmaid Dresses Have the Groomsmen Fitted Arrange Transportation Send Mark the Date Emails and Cards Plan your Honeymoon This point which I effectively like to refer to as the Mid-way point is where your wedding starts to take shape very quickly. Sometimes life goes into “Wedding Warpâ€�, where days just seem to fly by. The two major events of the mid-way point are planning your honeymoon and picking the dresses for the bridesmaids, with picking a florist bring up the rear. Personally deciding where to honeymoon was one of the biggest choices for my significant other and myself. With options ranging from cruises to a week of island living, to backpacking through the Himalayas and everything in between I would highly recommend one contact a travel agent. The money a travel agent is able to save you could be the difference between an average week together and the fair tale ending you always imagined. For the bride to be, having the perfect bridesmaid dresses to compliment her wedding gown and the floral arrangement is top priority. Knowing this you should allow a minimum of 6 months for the dresses to be ordered and sized. This does not take into factor the shopping time, so make sure you and your bridesmaids have set aside a few weekends in the 7-9 month range to tear up the town in search of the perfect dresses. Floral arrangements should also be made at this time as you will want the arrangements to compliment the colors you have chosen for the bridesmaids. A good wedding planner has a book full of connections to help with everything from ensuring your location is open on your date to how to get a discount on your bridesmaid dresses. As with any project the key to success lies is what I call the “4 Steps to Successâ€�. The first step is the Couples are normally asked this question upon announcement of an engagement. When the date is identified, it should be given exactly to the expected visitors so that it may be marked and remembered. Earlier wedding date announcements give guests more time to select gifts and arrange schedules on time.