30 Days To Go Checklist

After you’ve spent months or a year planning and scheduling every minute detail of your wedding, you will wake up one morning and realize that it’s the last few weeks before the ceremony and there are things you haven’t done. Don’t be surprised if your mind goes blank and you just cannot remember what needs to be done. Stress!

Here is a quick checklist to get you back on track and relieve some of your stress:

• This would be a good time to apply for your marriage license, if you haven’t already done it. Different localities have different requirements so you and your fiancé need to take a little advance care with this process. Normally, this is a task handled by the groom.

The license is usually issued by the County Clerk or the Clerk of the Court. There will be a fee. Check in advance for the fee and method of payment required. Some states require blood tests and others require tests for German Measles, venereal diseases, sickle-cell anemia, tuberculosis, etc.

• Your dress needs a final fitting now to be sure there’s time to make any changes needed. While you are at it, make sure your bridesmaids and groomsmen have their attire ready to go.

• All your vendors need to be contacted to confirm arrival/delivery dates and times. This includes your caterer, florist, musicians, photographer, hotels, reception hall, minister or other officiate, transportation and hotel reservations and the bakery creating your wedding cake.

• Take a little time to check your wedding program for accuracy before you print it. Send a future change of address form to the post office. Make a list of those invited guests who have not responded to your request for an RSVP and ask your mother or sister to contact them. As soon as you know how many out-of-town guests you will have, create your welcome baskets for them.

• As soon as you receive gifts, write thank you notes. People consider it bad manners to have to wait weeks to get thanked for sending a gift.

Two Weeks To Go:

A couple of weeks before your ceremony, flesh out your seating plan and
write your place cards. Confirm any last minute details and tell your caterer how many to expect. Complete your seating chart.

Pick up your dress and hang it where it won’t wrinkle or get caught on something. Occasionally walk around your house wearing your wedding shoes to break them in and make them comfortable for your walk down the aisle.

Arrange for a house sitter while you are on your honeymoon, if necessary. You might need someone to water your plants or take care of your pets while you are gone.

Make sure someone has a list of your honeymoon itinerary and contact information in case of an emergency.

With your fiancé, write toasts for the rehearsal dinner and reception. Attend your bachelor or bachelorette parties.

The Day Before:

Your out-of-town guests will be arriving. Relax with them and make them
comfortable. Personally give them their welcome baskets or have them already in their rooms.

Take a break and have a manicure, pedicure and maybe a massage.

Confirm your transportation schedule.

Attend the rehearsal that afternoon or evening and hold the rehearsal dinner. Give your wedding party their gifts and make sure they know their individual responsibilities, like handing out corsages and boutonnieres, escorting guests down the aisle.

The Big Day:

Give your parents their wedding gifts, if you didn’t do it at the rehearsal dinner.

Follow the schedule you have set up for the morning; hair dresser, make up, etc., and you’ll make it just fine to the wedding with everything running fairly smoothly.

Technorati Tags: wedding planning, checklist, scheduling, ceremony, planning, marriage licience, wedding dress, wedding cake, reservations, gifts, honeymoon, wedding quests, wedding gifts, corsages and boutonnieres, flowers

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Wedding planning isn’t just for the bride; the groom should take some responsibility and have some input in the process too. However, traditionally the arrangements are covered by the bride and her mother. That means that many people don’t know how to get the groom involved. Let’s take a look at a few ways to help him avoid feeling left out of things or run over by your plans.

If you’ve just gotten engaged, you’re going to want to make the announcement. Both of you can create an announcement card to send out by mail or email, or share the responsibility of calling friends and family. Together, make the list of people you’d like to invite to the wedding.

Food is another important portion of your wedding. Your fiancé can help you with the budget, help figure out the catering situation, and maybe come up with a few creative ideas that you haven’t thought of. If one or the other of you is a skilled negotiator, consider delegating that person to work with the vendors to get the best price. Remember, every task is an important one!

You may wish to write your vows together, too. Collaboration can help you come up with the perfect words to say to one another to express your love. Other things you can do together include building decorations for the reception, researching the music and deciding on the DJs, and choosing the videographer or photographer. You’ll want to talk about just what each of you wants out of the wedding.

For many grooms, the wine and other drinks that will be provided at the reception are extremely important. If this is something your guy cares about, or if he loves food, let him handle the food and drink. Resist the urge to micro manage! Each of you has the ability to put together something great without supervision, as long as you’re clear on what needs to be done in advance.

Other things the groom can do to take a little bit of the load off the bride’s shoulders include choosing suits for the wedding, contributing his opinion on colors, theme, and size of the wedding, and choosing the transportation for the big day. He can also handle wedding present registrations and handle mediation with your families if there are problems. He can even talk about the toast with the best man if you’re feeling nervous about it.

It’s a great idea to involve your groom in the wedding planning. Just make sure to include him in the decision making as well as the labor, and relax about his ability to handle things. He can get the job done just as well as you can, and it’ll keep you from feeling quite as stressed and unhappy. If you’ll be married soon, you’re going to be entering a life where you do a lot of things together. Planning your ceremony and reception is a great start.

Technorati Tags: wedding planning, bride, mother of the bride, groom, reception, wedding, ceremony, planning, fiancé

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The traditional church weddings and formal receptions are not that attractive to many of today’s brides. Weddings are taking place in hot air balloons, on beaches, in airplanes and in fast food parking lots, to name a few currently popular non-traditional sites.

An emerging trend, highly creative wedding receptions, is a total flight from tradition and will make memories for your wedding guests that they won’t easily forget. You and your new spouse can add touches to your wedding reception that highlight your whimsical side, major interests or elements of your personalities.

Some couples have hosted two receptions, brunch for the family following their ceremony, with some of the traditional aspects their mothers wanted and the relatives were comfortable with.

Later that evening, they host a less formal reception for their friends. This reception could be an old-fashioned ice cream social or a barbecue on the beach, with youthful music and a party atmosphere. The bride’s wedding dress and the groom’s tux are abandoned for casual attire. Friends truly happy for the new couple, a relaxed, unfussy atmosphere, a tub of iced cool ones, chicken on the barbecue and dancing barefoot on the beach in the moonlight, would definitely make memories of your special wedding.

Even if you want a reception with familiar trappings, you can still jazz it up with some creative presentations.

If your reception hall is not huge, inflate balloons, with a small, light favor inside them. This favor could be a small token, like a map to the real favors hidden in the hall or a small snapshot of you and your new spouse. It does not have to be elaborate. The appreciation would be in the presentation.

Tie them off with a ribbon long enough to reach without ladders and have a guest’s name hanging from each ribbon, including the children at the reception. Let them hang from the ceiling around the walls, so as not to interfere with the meal or buffet you will be serving. This decoration would not only be colorful, but it would give your reception an intimate, closer feeling. At some point, have the guests find their name and get their wedding favor.

The way you present your food can add dramatic accents to plain food. Buffet tables are perfect for creative presentations. Tiered plates of strawberries dipped in chocolate are always an attraction at buffet tables. Consider dipping the strawberries in the hot chocolate mixture and letting them set up on a chocolate spoon. The dramatic effect could be enhanced by dipping the berries in white chocolate and then placing them on chocolate spoons. Other fruits can be strung on a bamboo skewer, dipped in chocolate and presented in silver goblets.

Martini glasses with their stems wrapped with pretty ribbons can be used to present almost any vegetable, fruit or candy. Instead of sit-down dinners of chicken or meat, served by caterers, consider bamboo skewers loaded with anything you can combine that doesn’t need to be kept warm in a sauce.

Try ice-cold shrimp, lightly brushed with a shrimp marinade and strung on a skewer. Separate the shrimp with red or black grapes. Creative salads can be put on a skewer and marinated with an elegant dressing before placing on the buffet table. Load salad skewers with cherry or grape tomatoes, chunks of red, green and yellow Bell peppers, whole, pitted olives, cocktail onions or slices of red onions, other veggies of your choice.

If your guest list is smaller, consider a river cruise with dinner, dancing and maybe a turn at the gambling tables, if they have them. Your wedding favors could be small bags of chips for your guests to try their luck at the tables.

You could schedule a hay ride by moonlight, with a surprise barbecue or candle-lit buffet tables arranged around a fire pit at the end of the ride. Be creative.

Instead of an organized wedding reception, you might try having a mystery party, like Clue. Some cities have Victorian houses you can rent for parties and events. Let your guests have some fun discovering “Who Dunnit.” Have a special prize for the one who unravels the mystery and smaller ones (themed favors) for the rest of the participants. In one room have a buffet table and a few bottles of wine.

There’s no reason to follow the old traditions with your reception if you don’t want to. Make it fun and memorable in your own way.

Technorati Tags: church weddings, creative wedding receptions, ceremony, formal reception, couples, reception hall

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