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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →