Wedding Planner

WOW! These other mommies sound so ogranized. I used a single sheet of paper and organized my wedding in 6 weeks...A.

I recommend having a wedding planner for the day of, if possible. It's nice for someone else to make sure the timing of everything is right, gather the right people together for photos, make little decisions as issues arise, invite guests to different areas (like moving from receiving line to cocktail area to dinner), etc. Sanford Marshall is a local event and wedding planner that I recommend (http://www.weddingcoach.bz/SMP/index2.html). Good luck and enjoy the experience!

I planned our whole wedding 2 1/2 years ago and we had a blast. A wedding binder is a must have! and the first thing in it should be a printed out budget spreadsheet with columns for projected and actual money spent. I belive I still have the excel sheet I used for mine - shoot me an email and I'll send you the file (kuumba_5 at hotmail dot com). Other sectionsin the binder included - location, catering, cake, clothes, decorations...I still have my binder in tact and can give you plenty more info.
Also I wrote a bridesmaid newsletter every few months just to keep everyone on the same page (I had some coming from out of state).

One sanity saving measure that really worked for me was getting together with my (now) husband and writing down our top 3 goals for the day. They were this:
-Be married at the end of the day
-Spend time with family and friends from out of town
-Dance a lot
(note: the first one this almost didn't happen because our pastor almost left without signing the wedding certificate!!!)
When I started to get all wigged out about the cost of chair covers (which we decided against), or finding the perfect candles for the centerpieces (I did them myself), I just looked back at the list to refocus on what was really important.

We saved money by doing some things ourselves (centerpieces, favors, place cards), buying used (silk flower petals, beautiful veil), opting out of things that weren't important to us (chair covers, flowers at EVERY table); and spent money on what was important to us: location, location, location.

I still have most of what I used to plan and pictures of the final event and great recommendations for florist, cake baker, photographer, and videographer. message or email me if you'd like.

Also - HAVE FUN!! There were some tense moments but over all we had a blast.

There are a lot of wedding planning books out there that can help you. Just watch out for their high-priced attitude! You'll find that anything labeled specifically for brides is very expensive, and it just isn't necessary to spend a lot of money in order to have a really great, memorable wedding. We spent about $5,000 in 1994.

I suggest buying your dress not from a bridal shop but from some other boutique. Florists charge a fortune, so we asked our friends to bring cuttings from their yards and we all made the centerpieces together the day before the wedding. I was truly surprised by their beauty. My sister made me a bouquet just minutes before the wedding, and it was lovely. We kept the guest list very short because the catering is the biggest expense. We wrote our own ceremony, but kept it playful and simple so that it didn't have to go perfectly to script in order to be wonderful. We did not have a rehersal or a rehersal dinner. We went with the cheapest photographer we could find and bought the minimum set of pictures, and they are wonderful.

We were able to buy our first house two years later. If we had spent $30,000 on a wedding, that would not have been possible. So think about the future, not just the wedding day, and have a good time!

Hi R. ~
I planned my entire wedding almost 2 years ago myself. It wasn't stressful as long as you keep organized. My saving grace through it all was to make a "wedding binder". It it I included clear sleeves that you can place all contracts and subdivided each section i.e. photographer;caterer;music;pastor,event location etc.
In the front I made an outline/checklist of all pertinent items relating to the wedding: guest list(including addresses); invitations; stamps; clothing (wedding attire for bride;groom, bridesmaids & bestmen) etc. This way as you're lining up all your stuff you have a list to keep you on track and helps you prevent from missing anything. I included a chart of r.s.v.p's and # of guests so you have a head count available for your caterer. Lastly, this helped me out alot, I kept a index card box for those who r.s.v.p'd to bridal showers and weddings and when we received gifts I wrote on the back what the gift was so come time to write "thank you" cards the information was all there. I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask - I'm more than happy to help! G.