12 Month Wedding Planner – How To Plan Your Wedding In One Year

Wedding Planning Stage 1: 12 Months Before Wedding

  1. Work out your maximum budget
  2. Write out the elements of the wedding needing organised, e.g. wedding dress, catering & entertainment, honeymoon etc.
  3. Rank each area based on it’s importance to you. This way, you’ll be able to spend more money on what’s important to you, e.g. you may want to spend more on great entetainment as opposed to the catering.

This stage is crucial and will inform the whole of the wedding planning process. It lets you know exactly how much you can afford to spend on each element, thus making the vendor selection process less arduous.

Wedding Planning Stage 2: 11-12 Months Before Wedding

  1. Calculate guest numbers
  2. Search for suitable venues that can cater for your guest numbers on your chosen date
  3. Visit venues if possible to get a feel for them and short-list top 3
  4. Select preferred choice and sign contracts and pay deposit to secure venue booking

Wedding Planning Stage 3: 8-11 Months Before Wedding (Vendor research phase)

  1. Investigate theme options, e.g. colours and styles – refer to wedding magazines, websites for inspiration
  2. Research wedding dress vendors and dressmakers who can create your dream outfit in the fabric and colour you desire
  3. Do the same for groomswear and bridesmaids
  4. Seek out appropriate caterers only if necessary (your venue may provide catering)
  5. Investigate the following vendors: Entertainment, e.g. bands, DJ’s etc Continue reading
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Relationship Advice – Is Arguing In A Marriage Always A Bad Thing?

Regardless of how much you love each other, if you are a married couple then you are going to argue. This is natural. But is it healthy? Is there such a thing as good arguing? It depends on how you look at it!

Arguing doesn’t necessarily have to be evil as long as there are boundaries and those boundaries are observed. Arguing can bring up deep-seated issues that would otherwise have never surfaced. How many times have you ever said something in anger that you would normally have never mentioned?

Sometimes it takes extreme emotion to release those feelings rooted deep down in your subconscious. If you are hiding your emotions, then you are not being fair to your partner. You should be able to be honest with them about everything.

If you feel an argument coming on, embrace it. Obviously, there is something that needs resolving. But remember to fight fairly. Stay on topic. This is not a platform to try to see how much you can belittle your spouse. Continue reading

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Get Pregnant Naturally

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When it comes to having a baby the process should be natural and as simple as what we were taught in 5th grade sexual education class. The process of getting pregnant naturally should involve a woman, a man and Viola 9 months later a baby is born. However, this is not always the case, and more often than not people who are actually TRYING to get pregnant run into one road block or another. Quite frankly if you’ve never “tried” to become pregnant your blissfully unaware of the desire to be a parent.

A “healthy” young (under 35 for the woman) couple is allotted a time frame of 12 months of unprotected intercourse prior to being labeled “infertile”. An older couple may be allotted 6 months or less before having the scary looking diagnosis of infertility glaring back at them.

Infertility is horrible, it begs questions that do not always have answers, and leaves the longing parents with little to no control over family planning. As woman delay becoming parents by using methods of birth control well into their 20′s and sometimes 30′s it seems that time begins to work against us. Continue reading

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Don’t Hire Your Wedding Master Of Ceremonies Without First Reading This

Who has the skill to bring all the guests together as one in an organized and entertaining way without being overbearing or appearing nervous?

Who will acknowledge the bridal party with the right amount of style and enthusiasm, pronounce all their names correctly while in the same moment introduce the bride and groom with confidence, continue to make announcements with elegance and wit, and co-ordinate all the other reception rituals right throughout the night?

Up to now, couples looked through their guest list and gingerly offered the role to the person who was the most ‘out-going’ or extroverted – or has some experience with a microphone; and then hoped for the best.

This is not a great option when you are talking about an event that has taken months to prepare, requires many different skill sets (right and left brain working overtime) and a cool head under pressure i.e. no matter how bad things get, an MC can never ever show themselves as angry or stressed. Continue reading

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Destination Weddings – Pros and Cons

So is a destination wedding right for you? Destination weddings over the past few years have spiraled into being one of the most popular marriage trends

Destination weddings allows the couple being married to combine the best of a honeymoon with a more traditional ceremony in a destination such as the Caribbean, Mexico, Bermuda, Hawaii, Alaska, or some other venue, and sometimes save money in the process. Traditionally with this type of wedding the bride and groom pay for the hotel, food, and most of the guests’ expenses. Guests on the other hand pay for their own airfare. This alone can set a couple back if the guest list is huge. However, if the bride and groom keep the wedding list to a minimum then the savings can be huge.

Also, you don’t have to feel committed to invite that uncle to your wedding if you haven’t spoken or even seen each other in years. If you have a friend that likes to stir up trouble and you do not want that person attending your wedding. Then you don’t have to invite them because of it being a smaller and more intimate event. However, if you have someone who insists on being at the destination wedding you can have this person book directly through the travel agent and explain that you will not be paying their portion of the travel, hotel, food, and other costs, but would be happy to have them added to the event and have the travel agent collect the costs from the add on guest directly. Continue reading

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Wedding Photographers

A wedding photographer is not just any photographer who comes along to take some photographs; they should be able to connect in a friendly and confident manner, with the bride, groom, parents, grandparents and any children at the wedding and sometimes, the pet dog as well. The photographer should feel all the emotions and become a part of their day, by that I mean that they should understand the emotions of the people attending the wedding, after all, how else can the wedding photographer capture these emotions on camera, if they don’t feel and understand them.

The romance, excitement and the final realisation of months, maybe even years, of planning for this one day and it’s the wedding photographer’s job to capture these emotions in a realistic yet, beautiful way. The bride and groom will be nervous, the parents hoping everything runs as smoothly as they have planned for and the kids, trying not to look too bored with all the fuss around them. I often capture some great photographs of the kids at weddings. The photographs should reflect the events of the day in such a way that, looking back, when you’re an old married couple, it will seem like the wedding was only yesterday.

All the details need to be photographed, including the church or venue for the ceremony and of course, the reception. As a wedding photographer, I consider it a vital part of my work, to arrive early, get to know the layout of wedding venue, select the best positions and angles for the shots that I want to capture, during the ceremony and strive to produce incredible photos.

Unfortunately, there are still some people who will not allow the religious ceremony to be photographed which is another reason I like to arrive early, to give myself the opportunity to chat with the minister, priest or official who will be conducting the ceremony and if possible, gain a little compromise, in such cases. A good wedding photographer will be aware of all the areas to consider for every occasion. Your wedding will be unique and your wedding photographs should also be unique. Continue reading

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The Advantage of Hiring a Wedding Planner

A wedding is a lot of planning. It can cost tens of thousands of dollars (in fact the average is between $30K and $20K) and employ a small army of staff for a one day event. A whole industry has grown up around catering to the various needs of weddings, including specially trained organizers. These may be graduates of an event management school, and there’s a good reason why. There may be months of work leading up to a particularly large affair, and since most people only have one wedding in a lifetime they have little practice with this sort of thing. Wedding planners cost extra money, but a good one pays it back with their expertise.

The Consultation

Before a couple chooses to employ a wedding planner, they may meet for a first consultation. This can be a reality check if the engaged couple isn’t planning realistically, but also a chance to find out if the person they want to employ suits them. The wedding planner, in turn, will get a chance to show off their skills and background. For a couple on a budget, go straight to your city’s event management school. Fresh graduates won’t have built up the complete range of contacts of a veteran, but they’ll still be able to do a great job.

Planning It Out

With your wedding planner, you need to share your budget and what you’d like to see. Your job is still the big things, but they take care of smaller details and they can help you decide on everything from a colour scheme to picking the music, which depending on your budget, could be hiring a string quartet or finding someone with gear and DJ training. You’ll also get their help in choosing a venue. The wedding planner will have probably seen the insides of many of the popular locations. They will have also sampled the best dishes from the catering companies you’re thinking about, and their experience will make sure you don’t waste food. Continue reading

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5 Reasons Your Marriage Probably Can’t Be Saved

Marriage problems are much more common than happy marriages. In fact, you aren’t likely to find even a happy marriage that doesn’t have its share of difficulties. A happy marriage is possible; but lasting happiness is, for most people, a frustrating myth – the proverbial magic unicorn. Roughly half of all marriages end in divorce; while the other half are a mixture of miserable arrangements, unpleasant unions, outright battlefields, a few amicable partnerships and, yes, an occasional unicorn. The bottom line is that marriage is not for wimps. Statistically, the deck is stacked against you where “happily ever after” is concerned.

This article may seem anti-marriage or a bit more cynical than most of my articles on relationships; but, in the case of marriage, reality is not pretty and ignoring the truth doesn’t change it. If you want a chance at saving your marriage, you’ve got to come to grips with some of the reasons most marriages cannot be saved. I’m not talking about infidelity, dishonesty, abuse, insensitivity or any of the other obvious issues that lead to marriage problems and divorce; I’m talking about the issues behind some of those problems and the reasons most marriages cannot survive such problems and become irretrievably broken. Here’s a list of five-common reasons most marriages are destined to fail or fall disappointingly short of the bliss most couples think they’re signing-up for:

1. You probably got married for the wrong reason – most people do – and are therefore lacking adequate common goals and incentives to invest more in your marriage than you already have. This is most likely true for at least you or your spouse if not both of you. The reason you got married was either a lie, or has since disappeared, leaving you with no reason to stay together or work on a relationship. Continue reading

Why Do Married Women Flirt With Other Men?

Why do married women flirt with other men? You’re asking that question from the perspective of a man married to one such woman, yes? Your wife is a flirt and she’s not afraid to show it. Maybe you tell her that it bothers you or perhaps you keep that to yourself for fear of starting an argument you’re not certain you can win. Regardless, you’re not happy about the fact that your wife seems incredibly comfortable flirting with any attractive man she sees. Is this a sign that something is amiss in your marriage? Does it mean that your wife is on the brink of leaving you or is it just harmless fun? Understanding your wife’s motivations will help you gain clarity and will also give you the insight you need to make this problem disappear if it’s truly bothering you.

Many married women flirt without fully realizing that’s what they’re doing. That sounds suspiciously like an excuse, doesn’t it? It’s not. Women, as a whole, tend to be a compassionate and friendly bunch. What one woman may perceive as just kindness can easily be misinterpreted by her husband or another man as flirting. Take for instance when a woman compliments a man on his suit. To her she’s just sharing the knowledge that she truly admires his fashion sense, but to him it may come across as a personal compliment that is meant to grab his attention. If your wife hands out compliments to other men fairly easily consider the idea that she may just be genuinely kind and may not be aware of the other message that she’s sending.

Marriage can become stale. For a woman who feels under-appreciated by her husband the thrill of flirting with another man can make her feel desired and accepted. If she doesn’t get the attention she wants within the confines of her own marriage, she may go looking outside for validation. This is often the case when a woman takes her martial dissatisfaction online and flirts with other men. If your wife seems giddy after being on the computer, chances are very good that somewhere there’s a man who has the same grin on his face because your wife has made him feel cherished and special. Obviously, the flirting can also occur in person so keep your eyes out for any man who seems to be paying a bit too much attention to your wife. Continue reading

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Ten Reasons Why Marriages End in Divorce

The statistics are shocking. Right now in the United States, over 50% of all marriages are ending in divorce. We can’t help but wonder what happened to change marriage success rates so drastically over the past few decades. The truth is that people just aren’t as willing to put up with situations that aren’t making them happy. The secret to maintaining a marriage is to find out the reasons why the relationship isn’t the satisfying experience it could be and fix them. Listed below are ten of the major reasons marriages fail:

1. When trust and understanding are no longer part of a marriage, it’s headed for failure. Things like this occur when partners are too stubborn to try and see things from the perspective of their mates. Compromise is a necessary commodity.

2. Have you ever heard yourself accusing your spouse of having changed from the person you originally married? All of us grow and change throughout life based on our experiences. If you feel your spouse has changed, stop and consider why that has happened.

3. If you start thinking that being married to someone else would make you happier, you’re asking for disaster. About 90% of marriages that end do so because one or both spouses have been unfaithful. In truth, most of themselves unable to be happy in any kind of relationship due to the fact that they aren’t willing to make the commitment to live with both bad and good. Continue reading