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.

Wedding Favors - Does Your Wedding Really Need Them?

Wedding favors can be the perfect ending to a wonderful wedding day. However, there is frequently a debate among brides as to whether wedding favors are really needed.

Some brides see wedding favors as a way to thank the guests of their wedding while others see them as an unnecessary expense. Listed below are views from both sides of the argument.

Here are six good reasons why you should have wedding favors for your guests:

• Your wedding guests were gracious enough to spend the day at your wedding, and some have traveled a long distance to be there. A wedding favor is your way of saying thank you.
• Wedding favors can help finish off your wedding theme. For example, if you are having an apple-themed wedding you can give candy apples as your wedding favor. Having a beach or destination wedding on an island? Consider giving your guests beach bags filled with beach items or local favorites that they can use on the trip.
• In addition to acting as wedding favors, they can also be part of your table centerpieces. For example, for a Halloween-themed wedding jack-o-lanterns can act as both centerpieces and wedding favors for your guests. Another option would be to have small vases or mint julep cups gathered in the middle of the tables with arrangements of flowers as centerpieces. At the end of the reception each couple or single attendee would get to take one home.
• Wedding favors are part of wedding tradition. If you are having a very traditional wedding, you will want to include favors.
• As you probably already know, weddings are expensive. However, if you are already spending $20,000 on your big day, does spending another couple hundred on wedding favors really make a difference?
• Wedding favors allow you to show your creativity and style. This is one area of your wedding that you can really do something unique and different.