Wedding Planning|Wedding Planning & Wedding Advice

Tips for your Wedding Speech or Wedding Toast

Public Speaking is the number one fear of most people. It ranks even above the fear of death and spiders so don’t be surprised if your best friend is a little hesitant when asked to give a Wedding toast or a Wedding Speech.

The key to surviving any speech is preparation and the tips in this short video can help you be prepared.

Listen closely, take a gulp of water, stop those knees from shaking and palms from sweating, man up or woman up and get ready for that toast or you’ll be toast.

There is something about trying on those wedding gowns

I don’t think there is a woman alive that actually likes trying on swim suits, but ask any girl to try on a few Wedding gowns and we all get positively giddy.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this clip from the TV show “Friends”, it so reminded me of a few of my friends. No matter how uncomfortable a dress might be, you still don’t want to change. It’s the one time when we all get to feel like a princess.

Red Hot Wedding Gowns….

Not the traditionalist? Want your wedding gown to have a bit more personality than your Grandma’s Classic?

These gowns will certainly add some spark to your wedding and may have the gossips talking. Like Scarlet O’Hara you too can be the woman in red..

What do you think? Is red taking it a bit too far? Maybe you’d prefer more of a blush or pink.

Planning your own wedding
You’re in love, you’re engaged and now you’ve got wedding planning on the brain. Deciding to hire a wedding planner or going the route of planning your wedding yourself is a big decision.

DIY vs. Wedding Planner
Planning your own wedding is not for the faint of heart. It requires organization, attention to detail and a lot of your time. A wedding planner’s job is to give you advice, keep you within budget and make sure your wedding day goes off without a hitch. Although it would be nice to have someone to take care of all of the details, sometimes brides just can’t afford it. Planning a wedding yourself lets you save thousands of dollars and put it towards other aspects of your wedding.

Getting Started in Your Wedding Planning
Before you can start looking at venues and dress shopping the most important thing you must do is create a budget. Outline how much you can afford and what you think you should spend on each item. Having a list of everything you need in to budget for gives you an idea of what has to be organized. Keeping lists and staying organized right from the beginning makes the entire planning process easier and it also makes everything a little less stressful.

Planning your Wedding on a Timeline
This outlines the timeline of your wedding planning and everything you must remember to include before the big day.

After the engagement
Decide on a date
Set your budget
Choose your theme and colors
Decide who will be in your wedding party
Decide the size of the wedding and start a guest list
Choose your wedding dress and you bridesmaids’ dresses
Research and choose ceremony and wedding venues

6 months before the wedding
Make plans for catering, favors and reception décor
Finalize guest list
Hire florist, music, photographer and/or videographer

3 months before the wedding
Order and address invitations
Reserve groom and groomsmen’s tuxedos

2 months before the wedding
Consult with photographer about the photo details for your wedding day
Decide on the music you want at the wedding
Purchase guestbook, flower girl basket, ring bearer pillow etc.
Mail invitations

1 month before the wedding
Organize the rehearsal dinner
Finalize agreements with vendors and suppliers
Attend wedding dress fitting
Apply for your marriage license

3 weeks before the wedding
Arrange transportation for you, your fiancé and the rest of the bridal party

2 weeks before the wedding
Confirm number of guests with the caterer
Develop a seating plan and create place cards for the reception dinner
Arrange how your wedding gifts will be transported to you after the reception

1 week before the wedding
Inform your wedding party of the schedule of events
Have your final wedding dress fitting
Final confirmation of plans with all of your vendors
Confirm your plans with the officiant of your wedding ceremony

Starting out with a budget and staying organized the entire time is the best way to ensure that planning your wedding will be less stressful and still go smoothly.

The Do It Yourself Wedding Planning Guide

Unfortunately, most brides are not planning their wedding with an unlimited budget. To keep costs down, many elect to take on a Do-It-Yourself project or two.

If you want to do a project on your own but don’t know how to pick or where to start, these guidelines can help you out.

DIY Wedding Projects

Invitations
Do-It-Yourself invitations are a popular choice for a lot of DIY wedding couples. It may seem daunting when you first think about it but once you have some ideas about the look, the wording and what you want to include in your invitations, it’s not as complicated as you might think. Many crafts stores have wedding invitation sets you can purchase then print and assemble at home. Scrapbooking specialty stores are also a great place to get patterned paper, ribbons and decorating ideas.

Wedding Programs
Wedding programs give you a great opportunity to personalize your ceremony. Not only can you include the traditional break down of events but you can also choose to add short bios about each of the members of your bridal party.

There are a lot of websites that allow you to choose the format, font and look of your wedding program. All you need to do is fill in the information and print them off on your own computer. This saves you the hassle of having to trade emails and phone calls with a professional printer and you can make changes whenever you want.

Centerpieces
With DIY wedding centerpieces, you can do almost anything you want to personalize them. They are also one of the most important elements of your reception dinner and they will set the mood for the evening. Whether you want centerpieces that are formal and elegant or casual and stylish, the choices are endless.

Popular ideas for centerpieces include floating candles, tall vases filled with citrus fruits, tightly bound bouquets of flowers places in square glass containers or tall pillar candles in your wedding colors.

Wedding Favors
DIY wedding favors are a great way to give your guests something to take home at the end of the night. Favors are also something any bride can do and it’s very easy to personalize.

Favors like CDs with you and your fiancé’s favorite songs or pictures of the two of you from you childhood up to your wedding day are easy and inexpensive to make. You can also put together small bags filled with heart shaped cookies, candy hearts or order M&Ms online in your coordinating wedding colors.

Some brides choose to skip guest wedding favors and instead donate to a charity or cause on behalf of each guest. In place of the favor on the table, they leave a card telling them about the cause, who the donation was made to and the difference it will make.

No matter what wedding project you decide to do yourself you don’t have to be overwhelmed. Recruit your bridal party or family members to help you out by organizing and assembling décor with you. DIY wedding projects are a fun way to personalize your wedding even more, while saving money.