The Five Biggest Wedding Preparation and Planning Mistakes

Just as with any big show, your wedding day will not be perfect - but that's okay. While you cannot plan ahead for every little detail or problematic situation that may arise, you can arm yourself with some helpful advice to be prepared at all times for any potential wedding mistakes. But before you begin planning your special day, consider these five biggest wedding preparation and planning mistakes that amateur 'wedding planners' often make.

1. Not Budgeting Costs

It's hard to believe, but true - many couples do not create a budget when it comes to wedding preparation and end up in a deep hole of debt. The very first thing you should do to avoid disastrous (and bankrupting) wedding mistakes is devise an itemized budget, allowing for the necessary requirements, such as a venue for both the ceremony and reception, food and drinks, flowers, favors, decorations, etc. If anything is left over, either use this money for your honeymoon or spend it on something a little more frivolous, like a horse drawn carriage for your departure from the reception.

Budgeting ahead of time also involves your acknowledging the fact that you may surpass the total by at least 10%. Surprises do happen, so cutting back on other needless things will ensure that you don't go over budget too much. In these initial wedding preparation stages, you and your fiancé need to discuss who will be paying for what. It used to be that the bride's parents paid for everything, but this ideal is slowly fading away. If you're still coming up short on funds, there are literally hundreds of ways to cut costs for your wedding day, including having fewer guests, choosing an off-season date, selecting flowers that are in season, and having friends and family play a bigger part by making the wedding cake or trying their hand at photography.

2. Not Giving Yourself Enough Time

The image of the harried bride has been engrained into the psyche through a number of television shows that hype up the combination of little to no time and a 'my way or the highway' attitude. This is why giving yourself ample wedding preparation time is necessary to ensuring that your wedding flows seamlessly. If you want a large, extravagant wedding, you need to begin planning at least a year and a half in advance; for a smaller, more intimate wedding of about 50 guests, eight months to a year is fine. You need to take into account what your plans are for your wedding and adjust your schedule accordingly to prevent costly wedding mistakes from occurring.

Giving yourself more wedding preparation time allows you to order your cake, dress, wedding favors, flowers, decorations, etc. well in advance so that you don't come up empty-handed from last minute rushing. Allotting enough time also applies to your wedding ceremony and reception. Don't keep your guests waiting at the reception venue while you and your wedding party are taking hundreds of photos - consider taking a majority of the pictures before the ceremony and the all-important couple, wedding party, and family pictures after the vows have been exchanged.

Here's 4 Secrets to Having the Wedding of Your Dreams!

SECRET #1: How To Guarantee Your Wedding Lives Up To Your Dreams.

Believe it or not, the wedding photographer you select to photograph your wedding can make or break your wedding day. Yes, I kid you not, your wedding day - not just your photographs! Why? Because he's THERE - with you and your family, in person - interacting with all your family and guests - and representing you every minute.

 SECRET #2: What Other Wedding Photographers Don't Want You To Know!

So here's the secret: Meet the photographer - IN PERSON - before you hire anyone to photograph your wedding! Most brides don't realize that many studios hire part time wedding photographers to photograph their weddings for them -a lot of the low end studios might hire high school and college kids, friends, relatives, etc. This means that you go to a studio, talk with a salesperson, look at their samples, and make a decision - without really knowing who will be photographing your wedding! And if it's not just the right person doing the photography, and interacting with all your family and guests, everything can be ruined!

So, when you're talking with a potential studio, ask them the following questions:

1. Who did these photographs you are showing me?

2. Who, by name, will be the wedding photographer of our wedding if we hire your studio?

3. We want to MEET this person, BEFORE we hire your studio.

How to Plan a Wedding - Step by Step Guide

Planning a wedding can be a daunting and very stressful task. We highly recommend you take six months to a year to plan your wedding and will outline for you an easy-to-follow schedule.

Twelve months before the Wedding

• Get yourself a binder with paper and dividing tabs.
• Discuss with your fiancé and his/her families, plus your own, to determine a budget.
• Decide on your wedding theme e.g. Christmas, Fall, Snowflakes, Black and White, etc.
• Select a wedding date with your fiancé and families.
• Decide on your wedding attendants.
• Book a ceremony and reception location(s).
• Book your professional wedding photographer, florist, caterer, videographer, and DJ or wedding musicians.

Nine months before the Wedding

• Make an appointment with your officiant. For most religious ceremonies, you may be required to attend pre-wedding counseling. For civil ceremonies, your officiant may require a meeting to discuss your wedding ceremony.
• Wedding gown shopping and first fittings should be looked after at this time.
• Shop for your wedding accessories, wedding veil or head piece, and wedding shoes.
• Begin preparation of the guest list. Be sure to include both sides of the family as guest lists are often a contentious issue. It will take time to decide on long lost cousins, work friends, neighbors, etc.
• Decide on gift registry locations and register.
• Begin your search for your honeymoon location. If you are getting married during a peak holiday season such as Christmas, you may need to book your honeymoon up to nine months in advance.

Selecting The Best Videographer For Your Wedding Celebrations

Selecting the right wedding videographer is very important because wedding videos hold special moments from your wedding day. Just like you need to find the perfect wedding dress, it should be without question that you need a quality wedding videographer.

Now I don't mean a wedding videographer that asks Aunt Gretchen to say a few words about her little niece Sharon who is all grown up. And I don't mean a wedding videographer that likes to force everyone to smile in the middle of dinner time because he is always in your face with that video camera. Run from those wedding videographers.

The Right Wedding Videographer

During my wedding, I was lucky to have a very efficient videographer. He was unobtrusive (we hardly knew he was around), he didn't use crazy special effects in his previous wedding videos and he had a demeanor that made it easy to feel comfortable around him. Don't worry, the right wedding videographer for you is out there. And once you find him, hold on tight because he is an important part of your wedding budget and he (along with the wedding photographer) has your once in your lifetime moments in his hands. Make sure your wedding videographer is experienced. You wouldn't believe how easy it is for someone to just call themselves a videographer. Do you really want to be one of their early wedding video mistakes? Our videographer had hundreds of video that my husband went through with him during the consultation but even though he had done so many wedding videos, our wedding video was still different from all the others.

I just popped in my wedding DVD (that's right, I didn't get my wedding video on VHS) in order to give you some important tips on what to look for in your wedding videographer's portfolio. Yes, you need to see the wedding videographer's portfolio.

Why Use A Wedding Planner?

What is a Wedding Planner?

Essentially, a Wedding Planner is a professional whose expertise and contacts can turn your wedding into a day of absolute perfection. He or she is the lynch pin for your event; the one who will locate the services and suppliers you require; who will negotiate contracts; mediate and manage the various companies involved in your day and ensure that everything runs like clock-work. Popular alternative job titles may include Wedding Coordinator, Wedding Consultant, Wedding Designer or even Wedding Specialist. I will use the terms interchangeably throughout this paper.

The job of planning weddings is great fun. However, as with any other job in this world it is not all plain sailing. Planning a wedding with the expectation that it will be a day to eclipse all others can take an unbelievable amount of time and effort, to say nothing of the stress and worry! There are ups and downs, periods of great joy and times of immense stress and pressure. Weddings are events that are dreamt about: some brides have imagined walking down the aisle in a pure white dress and a tiara for 30 years or more! It is certainly a challenge unlike any others you may have come across before. And when you add both work and a hectic, pre-wedding social life to the equation, often the feat seems monumental. It is an honour not to be taken lightly.

Budget Saving Wedding Cake Ideas

The wedding cake is one of the major elements of the wedding day. Because it is such a big purchase, much time and purpose needs to be dedicated into making the perfect cake. If you have never planned a wedding before, you may have a hard time figuring out where to start. Well, by the end of this article, I hope that you will have a clearer understanding about what you need to create that wedding cake of your dreams.

The Shape Basics

First, let's focus on the different shapes of most cakes. The shape of your cake is very important because it can affect the number of people that can be served and the price as well.

Round: This is the traditional shape of most wedding cakes and is still widely used by most brides. Because the shape of the round cake is the most simplistic, it is usually the least expensive; plus it's usually easier to decorate.

Square: The square wedding cake is, usually, used by brides that want to break away from the traditional round cakes; but at the same time, they still have the look of a basic wedding cake. The square cake can be more expensive because it may require more labor. Oftentimes, the baker has to cut the sides of the cake to make them look sharper and neater.

Heart: For those eternal romantics, this is the cake shape for you. Again it may be a bit more labor intensive depending on how it is to be frosted and decorated. It's also important to keep in mind that the amount served from this shape may differ from that of other shapes.

Mad Hatter: This is for the couples that really want to have a more whimsical & fun feel to their wedding cakes. These cakes are usually uneven & slanted shaped. This is for the bold couples that are not afraid to be different. Instead of the traditional wedding décor, these cakes are usually decorated in bold colors and patterns.

Hexagon: This is a cake with six sides. This is another shape that is growing in popularity because it is a deviation from the traditional round wedding cake. Again, the price of this cake is more expensive than that of a round cake because of the time it will take the baker to cut and frost these cakes, but the finished product can be absolutely breathtaking.

How to Make Sure Your Wedding Day Will be Perfect?

Your wedding day is one the most important day in your life . You will find lots of joy and life altering events. You may ask the question "how to make sure your wedding day will be perfect". There are some ways for you to ensure that you will have a perfect wedding.

Plan for your wedding

After you decide the date for your wedding, you can start to do the wedding planning work. A good planning would help you to make you mind clear and know what kind of wedding you want to have for your own wedding. Although you have to make plenty of decisions, you would probably find the process very enjoyable.

Start your wedding plan right the way

Start your wedding planning as soon as possible. Because the earlier you start to make the plan, the less stress you would face later on. You will find this especially true when your wedding is coming very soon and you still find lots of stuff leave behind.

A good wedding plan would help you to control the budget of your wedding wisely. It will also prevent you from working till the last minute for your wedding. You would find your wedding in a good order if you have a really good wedding planning.

A good wedding plan would also help you in accomplishing your dream wedding. You can choose a wedding venue which you love most. And you can have the best services you want for your guests too. If you do not plan your wedding well, you will find everything ending up with a mess and it will not go as you plan or you original want it to go.