Wedding Planning|Wedding Planning & Wedding Advice

If you’re a huge fan of Cinderella, and your “Prince Charming” is willing to play along with your fantasy – there are a lot of great options out there for fairy tale theme weddings – from the elegant royal event to the over-the-top fairy tale extravaganza!

Last week we featured the extreme end of ‘happily ever after’ in our post “Extremely Happily Ever After: Fairy Tale Weddings Part 1″.

This week we will take a look at the subtler side of all things Cinderella.

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Royal Favors

Card Boxes

Since my last post I have discovered an online store dedicated to making ?your wedding fairytale dreams come true: it’s called weddingfairytaledreams.com (surprise surprise). ?They specialize in fairy tale theme cake toppers and unity candles, but they also sell unique card boxes that every princess bride should own! Guests can deposit their wedding cards here. Traditionally, guests might bring monetary gifts to the wedding reception. Today, many guests who would otherwise buy a gift from your registry choose to buy a gift card instead. Also, some guests bring a card with well wishes to the event and then deliver their gift later (perhaps the gift is large or they haven’t purchased it yet; etiquette allows one year of shopping from the wedding date).

weddingfairytaledreams.com

Ring Bearer Pillow

packageperfect.net

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If you’re a huge fan of Cinderella, and your “Prince Charming” is willing to play along with your fantasy – there are a lot of great options out there for fairy tale theme weddings – from the elegant royal event to the over-the-top fairy tale extravaganza!

This week we will look at the extreme end of fairy tale weddings, starting with the Disney version…

Disney Dream Come True

On any given day, Disneyland is packed with little girls dressed up as their favorite princesses. You can be the envy of them all when you get married at Sleeping Beauty Castle. You can even arrive in Cinderella’s coach, if you like (and you can afford it!). According to their sample wedding budgets, your dream fairytale wedding will range in cost from $15,000 – $45,000. They offer a long list of ‘lavish’ wedding options, you can even have the wedding rings delivered in a glass slipper during the ceremony, a white chocolate castle cake topper, or Mickey and Minnie in formal attire as your special guests! Visit the Disney website for more information (disneyland.disney.go.com).

castles.org

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I am now going to share something with you that is very valuable. It is the minute-by-minute schedule for a wedding ceremony and reception that went off without a hitch! When I created this, I was a Project Manager for a large corporation (I now work as a consultant – and as a freelance writer on the side).

If you’re not sure if you want to plan your own event, you should read two of my earlier posts at this blog: Planning Your Own Wedding: R-R-R-R-R-R-really? and Do I Need a Wedding Planner or Not?

Even if you are convinced that you are going to ‘do it yourself’, you might change your mind once you see the schedule below! Those involved in the event referred to it as “the novel” – it’s pretty long and detailed, but IT WORKED. Everyone involved received a copy with their responsibilities highlighted. We met and went through the document word for word about a week before the big day to make sure every one understood their role and how it fit into the big picture. I also tried to speak to each person one-on-one where it was possible. We didn’t really have a wedding rehearsal at the venue – we had everyone stand in their places and then we practiced leaving after the ceremony was over.

Some notes about the schedule below:

The wedding ceremony and reception took place at same venue, keeping our costs down. The martini bar opened immediately after the ceremony so guests stayed at the venue while we ran around the corner to a nearby park for pictures. I removed names due to privacy so you will see people are called “Best Man1″ or “Friend5″. Some people had two roles – for example, one of the Best Men was also the Master of Ceremonies (the wedding party was a bit different because it had two best men and two maids of honor.) Even with the double-duties, you can see that there were A LOT of friends and family involved (the wedding party, moms, a dad, brothers, sisters, 3 nieces, 2 nephews, 7 friends, and a dog).

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Are You Planning Your Own Event?

Here are some helpful tips if you want to plan your own wedding, from someone who has been through the experience!?

The Six R’s of Planning Your Own Wedding:

3 R’s

1. Realistic

By realistic, perhaps I mean pessimistic – but it’s actually for your own good. Don’t take any chances when planning this important day. Don’t leave things to luck. For example, don’t assume that someone will pick the best man up from the airport. Arrange it. Don’t assume that the caterer knows where the Main Hall you keep referring to is located – there might be several places called Main Hall in your city. Don’t hope it won’t rain, have a contingency plan in case it does.

Also, you need to be realistic about what you can ‘pull off’ all by yourself. If you’re not hiring a wedding planner, consider taking things down a notch or two. (You’ve heard the expression KISS before, haven’t you? Keep It Simple, Stupid!) Reduce the guest list size, try to hire caterers and rental companies that provide service staff and set up/tear down, or consider a destination wedding – many ‘destination’ hotels help out with services for weddings…

2. Research

There is a lot of information online and in wedding planning books. Also, make sure you research any vendors you want to use. Wedding Planners often have established relationships with vendors. Your vendor could suddenly go out of business or not show up – ask for customer references, check with the Better Business Bureau, look online to see what other people are saying about their experience.

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