FIND EASY WAYS OF REDUCING THE COST OF YOUR WEDDING

Most of us look forward to getting married for almost the whole of our lives preceding the event and therefore have almost every specific detail, starting from the dress to the flowers to the cutlery the music and even the menu etched out in our minds. Unfortunately, when the time comes to finally turn these dreams to reality, practicality checks in, knocks us on our heads and reminds us of exactly how many dollars we have in the bank account!

Unlike what it used to be in the good old days, the modern day parents have learnt to ease their way out of bearing the financial burden of their son’s or daughter’s wedding. The logic used in this case is quite infallible really, most of us wait to tie the knot long enough to bear children, teach them how to walk and start helping them with their math homework. So, since we don’t do our share therefore the potential grandparents don’t do theirs. So finally when it comes to our wedding we are left out in the cold, joining bits and pieces of our earnings to build up the most important day of our lives.

For all of us who are bogged down by this sudden astounding realization, or the ones who will get similarly bogged down in a not so distant future date, here is a list of the average costs that you will have to incur in order to get married. Once you have the groom (or the Bride, as the case maybe), which tends to be the most expensive of the purchases, you are sure to save up enough to have a glorious wedding ceremony.

First up, flowers. Believe it or not, at any average wedding ceremony flowers can cost anything around or even above $800! Yes yes I know what you are thinking, you are probably itching to remind me how they finally add to the grandeur and emotion of the whole ceremony, but cap your outburst because ultimately this will probably be the one area you can cut your expenditure down in. If your budget is tight try something creative, scan issues of bridal magazines or the net for ideas.

Photography/Videography also takes up a large amount of your budget. Based on the kind of mementos you would want to keep from your wedding day you can end up spending anywhere between $900- $2500. Even though you probably think it’s a good idea it is best to not try and cut down your costs here, cause these will after all be one of the only things you will have to really re-live your wedding at a later date, and if saving a few dollars means you will end up looking like a fat hag or be ill-lit in your own wedding photographs then there is no point being a complete Scrooge about it.

Now if you are having a wedding ceremony, you will have to send out those few essential invitations, announcements and then the thank you notes, so there is no getting around the few hundred dollars it will set you back by, but you might try. Coax a friend with neat handwriting to take this load of your shoulders, get her to write your invitations for you, and keep it simple, so as to trim down the overall costs.

Finally of course there is the music. No wedding is complete without good music setting the right mood for the celebrations. Set apart about $1500 to fulfill your musical requirements.
Further costs include the price for the site of the ceremony. This you may safely estimate at around $400. of course you will also have to arrange for means to get to the site itself, this should cost around $450, all together. If you want to show your appreciation for the attendants with a little token of love, set apart another 400 bucks. The rehearsal dinner, which you must have, will be around $1000, the reception anywhere between $5000-$8000.

Expect your super special wedding dress to cost at least 1000 bucks and even if the groom settles for a rented tuxedo there is no getting away from the neat $500 you will have to flash out for it. So all in all, everything put together, added and multiplied, you have a whopping $25,000 bill tagged clean with your plan to get married. If marriages are really made in heaven then the God’s sure have expensive taste! However this isn’t by any means the final word in planning your wedding cheap, there are of course thousands of other ways of cutting your expenditure as per your personal means and fancies, this is just one of the very many ways of going about it. Figure out what suits you, and have a great wedding.

DECIDING ON YOUR WEDDING DRESS AND WEDDING HAIRSTYLE

Selecting the right wedding dress and the right wedding hairstyle are the most important decisions you will make ever. This is your big day, and after the groom you cannot ignore your quotient of style!

Regarding the wedding gown you will be spoilt for the right choice because of the variety of color, styles and shapes they are available in. subsequent importance must be given to how you will wear your hair, and at the end the wedding dress and the hairstyle must complement each other to complete the look.

If you ask me what to do, then I would advice you to go shopping without any expectations. It is sure that you already have envisioned the type of dress that you would like to see on yourself on the big day, but it is common knowledge that 75% of the brides carry home something quite different from what they had in mind. Going wedding shopping is a most enjoyable activity, and never again in your life would have the scope to experiment with that many numbers of wedding gowns!

One of the costliest wedding ventures of your life would be selecting your wedding gown. The majority of the people who specializes in wedding dresses would be come an extra step to help you in the selection, and will freely allow you to go to the trial room as many times as you want. There are a small number of places though where you would need to book ahead to get appointments. Remember Julia Robert in Pretty Woman when she visits Rodeo Drive and what she faces? If you apprehend the same treatment in your place, chuck the idea of going there at all. You should never be forced to make a choice in a hurry and nor should you be treated like a third class citizen.

Until the moment you hit on the right dress for you, you should keep on trying every style because you never know what would ultimately give you the best shape. Try out different skirt and bodice, bias cut, all-in-one empire line, spaghetti straps, strapless, short sleeves, long sleeves, off the shoulder, tulle, silk, organza, with and without a petticoat. You can also carry with you some hair clips so that while you are trying out the different dress style you can also change the look of your hair and know what goes with what.

There are many bridal magazines now available, so before you venture out shopping you can browse through their pages to get ideas. This way you will know beforehand some of the designers, fabrics, colors, shapes and styles, so that you can form an opinion about the wedding dress. In the bridal magazines, you will surely come across different hairstyles for a wedding. But keep your expectations as per your individual tastes and how much it will suit you; models in the pages of a magazine look good in whatever they wear, which may not necessarily work for you too.
Among all the models try to one who shares your face shape and skin tone. Also mix and match hairstyles and wedding gowns – many a times a particular hairstyle looks especially beautiful with a particular wedding gown.

As an instance, tall, slim brides look fetching in simple dresses of silk with cropped and short hairdos or tousled curls all falling round her face and neck, while wedding dresses that are without straps look gorgeous with hair all fitted up together.
When you arrive at a shop that sells wedding gowns, brief the assistant about the kind of dress that you would like. Try that on yourself and get a feel of the dress. But the assistant may have a different suggestion for you, which you can also give a try. They are veterans in this profession and have handled so many brides that they will instinctively know just by looking at you and conversing with you, what would go best with your personality. Be adventurous and give yourself another chance. It is never a cliché to say, “You will just know when you try on the right one!” because it rings with truth.

Go ahead and also ask them about hairstyles, because they just might have a few tips up their sleeves about hairstyles too!

CHOOSING YOUR WEDDING FAVORS JUST RIGHT

Wedding favors are the unacknowledged little treats which drag a number of unwilling parties to ceremonies they absolutely detest. A number of little kids, who are too young to dab their eyes when the vows are taken, but too old to pee on their mother’s lap during the process, are enthusiastic about weddings primarily due to the favors. Same goes for most grandpas and grandmas, let’s face it, these guys have seen far too many weddings to really want to sit through another, their mind therefore hovers off often to the little favors they will be receiving soon. ‘What will it be’ they wonder while the bride swears her undying love ‘Candies? Bubblemakers?’ they rack their brains in silence.

Given the expectations therefore, wedding favors are a must for every ceremony. Too many hearts stand a chance to be crushed if your wedding doesn’t end with one. So be rigorous while choosing your favors in order to make sure that they are just right. Here are a few pointers for you to consider;

1. Innovation – remember your wedding will probably turn up only once…or well twice….in your entire life time (that is, if you aren’t Elizabeth Taylor of course, but I give you the benefit of the doubt), so you wouldn’t want your guests to go back home with a gift which they will stack up with 20 others just like it somewhere on the floor of their closet. Make sure your favors are unique and in some way reflect you, your spouse, and especially your special day. Keep it connected to the theme of your wedding party or make it personal and give a compilation of your favorite songs. A number of people also gift their guests napkins embroidered with the bride and groom’s names. So take your pick.

2. Expenses – weddings are expensive, so you wouldn’t want to add an extra expense in the form of wedding favors. Choose gifts which you can make yourself to save money. A candle for instance is an easy and inexpensive gift which can be made right at your home, personalize it with ribbons and sparkles to give it a unique look and see how it is appreciated by all.

3. Planning – no matter what you choose to send your guests off with make sure you choose it early on. Like everything else in your wedding favors need to be planned for before making purchases. Take your spouse's opinion regarding the gift you have chosen. Remember it’s their special day too and in case you end up gifting people something he/she doesn’t like it might become a sore subject in the years to come. Consult your friends in case they are helping you out with the wedding. Make sure to have purchased or made your gifts at least two weeks before your wedding. Keep them packed and store them in a safe place to avoid any breakage or spoiling.

Your wedding is a special day for you so make sure your wedding favor reflects that. Remember to keep it simple, stylish and unique and ensure that they are packed beautifully. A great wedding favor will make your wedding a memorable affair for all, but especially for those little guys and the oldies who come to weddings just to know what the favors are….

CHOOSING YOUR WEDDING CEREMONY OFFICIANT

It is a fact that the wedding reception gains the most number of discussions before the wedding; it is the actual ceremony where you must focus your attention. You will have to meet the officiant or the prospective officiants before the wedding ceremony to discuss about it and any such requirements that you must consider before the wedding. Find out if the officiant is an open-minded person who tries to incorporate your ideas into the ceremony, which would help you to decide whether you want him or them to officiate. There are certain questions you must ask, and they are the following:

• Will the officiant deliver a speech or a sermon?
• Will the officiant show you the sermon so you can review it before the ceremony, and if necessary, then provide some inputs?
• At what time should the officiant come for the rehearsal?
• Does the officiant think that counseling is required before the wedding?
• Will the officiant accept personal non-secular inputs for the wedding ceremony, like vows, songs and readings?
• What will be the costume of the officiant?
• Is it necessary to bring the license of marriage to the ceremony, or is signing it required before the ceremony?
• Does the officiant know of any wedding site, in case you have not already zeroed in on one?
• If the officiant also acts as the officiant of the site, then are there are restrictions there that you need to know before hand like, tossing items, dress code, décor, music, photography and videography?
• What are the items that the officiant can provide and what are the things that you must make arrangements? Such things to consider are, microphone, isle runners, pews etc.
• What is the fee for the ceremony? Or is to be considered as a donation?

Important Things to Consider

The personal temperament should go hand in hand with the vision of the officiant as you have in mind. That should also set the mood for the wedding. Some officiants may posses a serious and formal demeanor, while others may be casual and friendly types who add their own special humor to the officiating process.

In case the officiating person bears no relation to you, you must think out about your comfort level with him or her and if you would be happy to see this person as your officiant, because he carries out the most crucial part of the wedding. A wedding takes place between two people to make them man and wife, and the officiant is the first person to declare this to the world. You should have a rapport with the officiant before you make him an everlasting part of this happiest and closest moment of your entire life.

Do not shy away from discussing personal affairs with the officiant before the big day. He or she can be there for you to resolve problems that can be spiritual and mundane including the conflicts within your family members, if any such need arises.

You must not forget to invite your officiant to the dinner rehearsal also. It’s a friendly move from your side and also very becoming. This is also a terrific way you can introduce your family members and friends to the officiant, in case they are unaware as to who is the individual chosen for the purpose.

CHOOSE YOUR WEDDING DANCE JUST RIGHT

One of the greatest things about your wedding is that it is your celebration. You are consequently the king or queen of the occasion so you get the crown and the first dance. It is the moment in time to get down.

By tradition, you will be doing the two-step. On the whole that means pick and choose a song that you can move back and forth to and take two steps to as you position yourself on the floor. This can be actually sweet but if truth were told... you can do that at some old time.

If you have the slightest capability to dance and you are eager to have a bit of enjoyable time, find out how to dance one very exclusive number. Take into service a choreographer if you require one. Show off your skill to move to the music.

If you have only done modern dances, you will come across that ballroom dances are beyond doubt a combination of the skills of two people. You need to work with your partner’s strong points and grab hold of the tempo as one. It may perhaps take a lot of rehearsals so that you move about and seem to be stunning together. After all, dancing should be striking to look at as well as to perform.

Out of most ballroom dances, it is the waltz, which is preferred most at weddings. The waltz is enjoyable and simple to become skilled at. You will also find it easy to dance the waltz in a wedding dress. Traditional music selections include the Skater's Waltz or the Blue Danube Waltz.

If you desire to use more contemporary music, variations have been made of fairly a number of songs as well, which may consist of your most wanted love song. The Way You Look Tonight and Moon River are just two of the songs used as options.

The Foxtrot is one more well-appreciated dance for weddings. Couples can sway fast to the melody of Cheek to Cheek or more slowly to Someone to Watch Over Me. The foxtrot is a much more energetic dance compared to the waltz but it retains the same romantic and dreamy feel.

Of course if you in reality dance nicely with each other, do not be timid about it. Why not go for the performance of a tango and warm up the floor. Make it totally sizzling!

Whatever dance you opt for, just have fun and enjoy yourself. Let yourselves be Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire and enjoy your dance to the hilt. Practice a lot and do not overlook to keep the dresses in mind. Get the celebration in progress the right way... with you having a great time.

BEAUTIFUL WEDDING FLOWERS ON A MODEST BUDGET

There is one thing that everyone craves for, and that is called style. So many make claims of possessing style, but truly speaking few understand its essence. Style is not bought and sold in the market, and spending huge amounts of money does not always translate into fine taste. Style is something more complicated than that.

Talking of weddings and the flowers that must grace the wedding, style and money may not follow the same tune. But there is good news. Nowadays arranging of flowers is bending more towards minimalism. So it’s a lot less difficult to come up with an eye-catching interior design on reasonable finances. So what is the way of reducing the cost of flowers without compromising with style? Let me present you with some terrific ideas, like designing a motif of flowers for the wedding that at once easy on the pockets and speaks of style too.

Have an Intimate Bridal Party

If the list of invitees is kept to minimum, then the florist will have to design just that many boutonnieres and bouquets. This would result in quick savings that will not contradict your floral aspirations. And if there are too many close pals then think of giving them alternative important posts – like a ceremony reader.

Shrink the Guest List

You will have to adorn fewer isles at the ceremony if there are fewer seats to begin with. And lesser tables at the reception party of the wedding ceremony would indicate lesser floral decoration pieces to keep on them. The concept is this – that you will have fabulous arrangements – just not too many of them.

Go With the Season

Get a list of the flowers for that season in which your wedding is taking place. The flowers that bloom during the season are easier to get hold of and are seldom very expensive.

Keep It Simple Sista!

Irrespective of the season, there are a few kinds of flowers that would surely be costly to purchase. You can have a session with your florist to know your options. You can in fact make less costly flowers look as stunning as the expensive ones - pack together the same kind of flowers. If you have ever seen a bunch of daisies packed together, you will know what I am saying.

Consider Alternative Arrangements

You can also go in for the latest hot trend of the season – beautiful decorations with vegetables, fruits, or grasses. Go green, in other words. Another favorite idea is to scatter flower petals around votive candles. This would create a romantic effect without crippling you financially.

Choose a Naturally Beautiful Location

Call on Mother Nature for help, and who would ask for expensive designs for the wedding? If you plan to have your wedding during the beautiful season of spring in a garden, then no flower arrangement would be necessary at all. Similarly a beautiful church can do the décor trick for you because it would be splendid to look at by its own merit. Then again, during holidays many facilities are decorated anyways. Hence a December wedding might just give you breathtaking garlands and poinsettias without spending a single penny.
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A GUIDE TO WEDDING PLANNING SOFTWARE

Let’s face it – a wedding is nothing short of a most complex thing to plan. Planning for a wedding is not an easy thing to do – unless you decide to just pay a visit to the register office or make a scheme to run away with your chosen groom. But if you are game for a fairly big, conservative wedding then you would need to keep track of all the functions and ceremonies so that the wedding is done on time.

There are quite a few individuals that you will find now who have made it their profession to plan weddings for people. That is how they earn their bread and butter – every day. It is not always possible to hire a person to help you out with your marriage plans, but it is one of the best solutions ahead of a wedding. The rates of a professional planner of weddings could be as high as 10% of the cumulative cost of the marriage. Hence many couples would rather take the planning on themselves than rather spend so much on a planner. The best thing is that today you will get numerous softwares in the market that can help you out without the necessity of a wedding planner.

The first thing you would need to see in the software that provides guidelines for a wedding plan is a calendar. A calendar will not just be a feature with which you can check the dates – it’s more than that. The calendar that you will get with the software should help to notify you about important functions. Generally the notification would be accomplished with e-mail alarms.

Furthermore, if the cell phone that you carry delivers the service of text-messages, then you can also receive your email notifications on your cell phone itself. This is indeed a great boon of modern technology.

In a wedding planning software programme, you should also find a procedure of how to arrange all the different tasks because at the time of wedding there are so many important events happening together, that you must learn how to coordinate them all. After distributing all the invitations for the wedding, you should also be able to know without difficulty who has replied and who is still left.

Then again there will be many other tasks to attend to than just the main ceremony. The wedding reception would also demand many definite arrangements to which you must look into. A wedding reception requires proper arrangements for seating, and your software must give you the necessary guidelines. Then there are the gifts. Your family and friends would undoubtedly flourish you with many gifts and you would have to send out thank you notes to all of them. The wedding planning software should be able to accommodate your requirement.

Looking into the financial aspect, along with tracking and scheduling, is one of the most important parts of a wedding. It is true that complex stuff like Peach Tree or Quick Books would perhaps make things difficult and on the other hand you should have a firm control over your budgets so that you do not go overboard and after the wedding end up with empty hands.

A further benefit that you can derive from such software is that it features custom stationary that you can put to use at the time of your wedding. This is an added advantage since it would save a lot of money that you can put to use somewhere else. A software application that has this element would generally carry templates for guidance for designing invitations or any other item of stationary that you could perhaps need for the wedding.

A search engine like Google is also one of the most intelligent methods of finding out software for the planning of a wedding. Here you will come across numerous choices from free to least expensive web based wedding planning services to ready to use software like Smart Wedding that can work on your personal computer. You must know the relative benefits of each service – because free does not always translate into good, and also you should know what you want exactly and how the software can fulfill that need. There are so many of the wedding planning softwares that you would absolutely hit on the right one for you, then your wedding would be an enjoyable experience without much hassle, to look forward to.