I’m excited to introduce my guest blogger today, Shannon. Shannon was married in October in San Diego. To see her wedding post, click HERE.
Planning (And Enjoying) A Wedding…
a.k.a what I learned along the way on my journey towards our wedding in October 2010
by Shannon Pesce
You’re engaged- yay!!! You now have to plan a wedding- oh boy! If you’re the kind of person who has been thinking of and planning their wedding for a long time (like since you were a little girl), you may have a head start. I was not that kind of person. But wedding planning is not that bad…it just takes organization, persistence and of course creativity, and you, too can have an amazing wedding.
In order to get started with ideas (especially if you don’t have a starting point), a fabulous place to get ideas and see a zillion pictures of things like dresses, flowers, receptions, etc. is the knot.com (www.theknot.com). Go on this website, sign up, and be on it all the time. Seriously. Also, as you get down the road with planning, it has tools to help you with budget, guest list, seating charts- awesome!! And for free (the best part).
Let’s see, a few other good ideas. Consider having your rehearsal on a Thursday (if your wedding is on a Saturday). If your wedding will be another day of the week, have at least a day in between the rehearsal and the ceremony. Having it on Thursday allows you to have the day before your wedding free to do other things, like maybe relax. When my brother got married a couple years before me, they had their rehearsal/rehearsal dinner on Thursday and wedding on Saturday, so I copied the idea for my wedding- it worked!!
We had a photobooth at our reception at it was fun for everybody. Besides the fun it is for your guests, it is also a great wedding favor- one strip of pics stayed in a book and people wrote things (usually quite humorous to go along with some silly pictures) next to their pics so it was a unique guestbook for us, and the other strip the guests got to take with them. We still laugh looking at the book now. Don’t we look like we are having fun???
Really consider a day-of coordinator. Having a wedding coordinator/planner for a period of time is expensive and may not be an option for most people, but it’s so worth it to at least have somebody be there the last few days/day-of to coordinate all the last minute things. You don’t want to have to worry about little details on your wedding day- let somebody else do it. It’s an expense well worth it.
A honeymoon registry is a genius idea. There are a couple out there- like www.honeyfund.com and www.honeyluna.com. Especially if you don’t need a lot of “stuff,” having people contribute to your honeymoon experience is a wonderful thing. We loved it!!
And one little thing that I wish I had thought of on my wedding day…have a nice hanger available to hang your dress on for the “wedding dress on a hanger” photo. It’s a nice photo…how serene and beautiful the dress looks before all the action starts…and deserves a nice hanger. I REALLY wish mine wasn’t on a plastic hanger. I know, there are SO many things to try and remember, but tuck this little recommendation away in a safe spot.
So be happy, take a deep breath, and enjoy the adventure you are about to have. Good luck!!
