Planning timeline (6- 9 months before the wedding)

Time flies for sure and my wedding is nearing 9 months to go and I have nothing to write home about. Well I have written about the tips since the time I began writing this blog and here are some more planning tips for those who are only 6-9 months away from the D- day …

1) Catering is a must and hence book a caterer – In our case it was the one suggested by the hotel folks and hence it was to find the catering things coordinated by the hotel folks itself and it was never a pain as usually is the case with food not being proper or the catering dishes not arriving in time.
2) Wedding registry – We thought about it and said that we will go with the Amazon registry as I have always trusted Amazon for all my online shopping
3) Time for the wedding gown to be ordered – Make sure that you order the wedding gown because the wedding gown is not the important thing but it is the alterations that generally will kill your and you will get frustrated easily.
4) Finalize your shoes, veil, jewelry and other decorations. I generally buy from Amazon or eBay and you may think differently and go to local store. The aim is that you have done and completed the shopping
5) Bridesmaid Dresses – You can either get a designer to have the bridesmaid dresses made or you can make sure that each gets a dress and they can get it altered wherever they live and you will bear the expenses.
6) Select a wedding photographer and videographer- We had a tough time finding the right one with the right price and make sure that you schedule your appointments for a nice portrait. Very much needed later
7) Schedule an appointment for a wedding floral designer – I came to know about a lot things including the special silk wedding flowers as well as various wedding flower arrangements and even the special things like the blue and white flower combinations or even the fall season wedding flowers
8) Music to be played at the wedding venue is a must and that will help all of you if you have decide that in advance. Oh oph do not forget the wedding cakes designs that you want to look at and then decide the best wedding cake design.
9) Last but not the least make sure that you have the honeymoon choice narrowed down.. I had selected for myself Aruba and my husband wanted Bahamas and we finally decided on Bahamas J well he was right on this occasion. My honeymoon stories later.

Update:

I forgot to number 10 which is very much important and that is that send out the save-the-date cards for the wedding. Very important especially if you are having a destination wedding (yes new term for me) as all guests need to make arrangements for travel and lodging.

A special post on the tips for the brides

After working hard on defining how and where the wedding should be here is what I have been doing and also this special post on whatever it takes for the brides.

Little Secret: - I will do a post for the groom to be.. I helped my future husband all along in the wedding.

As I said earlier in my profile that I work in a remote place and here there is no place which can be called wedding related and I was partly scared and partly nervous as I had no one to talk to locally and everything was in fact long distance planning. One more reason to be nervous about the wedding

Here are my tips for some initial planning for the couple especially the ladies (My vision that usually all planning is done by the ladies)

To all the brides this is a shout out to suggest where to start and what to do initially

Here is the laundry list of things to do..

1) tell everyone you are engaged via the local newspaper or your blog and even on the telephone
2) Set a wedding budget – Make sure you know the contribution of each person
3) Set the wedding date – Very important to make sure that you have the adequate time at hand
4) Set up meeting with the potential wedding planners and wedding coordinators as well as wedding designers
5) Select the ceremony and reception venues
6) Interview the officiant for the wedding
7) Complete the list of guests with suggestion from both sets of parents
8) Select the best man and the maid of honor.. A tough one to do but nevertheless has to be done
9) Wedding dress or wedding gown – Call by whatever name but it is important to start shopping around for one
10) Beauty Tips – Start the pre-wedding beauty regimen to get a better complexion J yes it is needed
11) Have a schedule of your appointments for facials, waxing, brow shaping and teeth whitening over the course of next few months

Wait for my next post and I have more wedding planning suggestions

How to prepare for a wedding and what are the relevant questions to ask:

Here are some of the ideas that did wonders to my wedding and I am sharing it with you right before you start planning:

I can say that loud that for wedding planning you can quit your job! I almost did when I was frustrated with the planning not going my way.

Always try to get him, your future husband silly! involved in the wedding as that is almost the most hard part because generally guys go with flow but you need the support and the occasional suggestion and the biggest one is that you need his attention and morale boost from time to time. It is the journey about doing things together and you should enjoy having the wedding planning together.

Here is my quick list of questions that we asked ourselves for the getaway wedding and I believe this helped us a lot and I believe it will benefit my readers too.

1) Select a destination

What is the destination where you want to get that beautiful wedding ceremony?
Do you know of the wedding requirements that you need to have in terms of getting the marriage license?
Are you getting married in the United States?
If yes, then call the county marriage license bearue and get all details about the birth certificates, divorce proof and also all sorts of health tests?
Best time of the year to get married?
Have you take into account the weather?
Can we avail of the off season discounts in some cases?

2) Select a wedding style or as the planners select a wedding theme?

What is your wedding theme?
What kind of the wedding will you have a simple cake and champagne party or a seated dinner and dancing reception?
Are you planning a do it yourself type thing or are you opting for the services of a wedding planner?
Are you still going to have the on site wedding coordinator from the resort or the hotel?
Will the wedding coordinator be there to help you and answer guest’s questions on the wedding day itself?


3) Guest List

What is the number if guests that you are planning to invite?
Who will pay for their airfare and accommodations? Will you in full or will you the part of the expenses?
When will you send out the save the date cards? Very important if you want to have a wedding that will make sure that the guests have time to plan for their travel and the accommodation arrangements?
Who will take care of things that need to be shipped back home because you will have wed and no longer be able to take care of these for a day or two and may be more based on the wedding dates and plans


4) Things to know about the wedding venue

Find out how many weddings are taking place at your same wedding venue?
That will help in case your decorations interfere with others?
Things that you need to do at the venue itself?
How many days in advance will you need to reach the venue ?
Are children allowed at the venue?
Is this an all inclusive venue? That will mean honeymoon and wedding togtreher? Good for you ;-)


5) Things to wedding consultants?
Doers the wedding consultant has prior experience?
Has he done weddings at this venue before ?

Hmm abig list of questions? I already feel stressed out remembering what happened at my wedding but the best part is that it has been done with and over and I am happy I repaying that back?

Till next post keep planning brides!! !

my first post for my wedding planning

I am Stressed out already thinking about wedding planning

The most exciting and the most harrowing time has been when I was planning my wedding and you just cannot believe the stress and the anger that I went through when I was planning for the marriage.

Yes this statement above is partly true and the reason is not far from that. I started lurking out in the internet sites finding out all about the wedding planners and the people who make their living helping people who are stressed out people like me and that in turn helped me a lot in understanding what my needs are for the wedding.

In general all those wedding planners take about two years booking in advance and hence my stress levels rise because mine is in less than a year.

Before I go any further and explain how that is now relevant and not so relevant from the stand point of how I will be getting married then here are tow or three things which me and my boyfriend had to decided and these are

1) We decided that we will be our wedding designers and that meant that we will be using some our own creativity along with that of the planner to get that special thing in the wedding which is the uniqueness of the wedding.
2) Next came the type of wedding to be chosen and that was hard as that meant that we need to decide the location and the it finally boiled to down to beach wedding, church wedding and also the garden wedding.
3) We also had to choose between the wedding place and that was not easy as I come from Philippines and then my husband is from USA and hence the choice was to have the wedding in Arizona, or a beach wedding in the Caribbean Islands or have the wedding in Mauritius. After a lot of debate we decided that we need to have the wedding in the Mauritius and looking back I feel that we have done right things as the Philippines marriage would have been never turned out the way the Beach Wedding Mauritius turned out to be.

How Was I feeling – On cloud nine with nothing close to as romantic as it is to have a beach wedding and then walk along your husbands on the moonlit beach? Those are stories that you read in the romantic novels and hence it was turning out to be much more romantic..