Wedding Layers

Before a couple can truly begin planning their wedding, they must decide on a wedding location or at minimum narrow it down to a couple of venues. Attempting to plan a wedding without knowing the location is equivalent to a bride shopping for bridal jewelry without having a wedding dress. When it comes to choosing a wedding location there are many things to consider. There are two questions that you should ask yourself before settling on a wedding venue.

How does the location make you feel? Can you imagine your wedding actually taking place in this location?

If you can answer “yes” to each of these questions then you should definitely consider this particular site for your wedding day. However, if you say “no” to any of these internal questions then you should move on to the next place on the list. A bride is better off getting married at home in her wedding gown and bridal jewelry rather than wasting tons of money on the wrong wedding site.

Before you settle on a wedding location there are a few considerations that must be made.

Size

If you plan to invite 500 people to your wedding you should not choose a wedding location with a maximum capacity of 150. After you have decided on the number of guests that you plan to invite you should research two or three wedding locations that will accommodate that amount of people.

Decor

Most brides have specific color schemes in mind as well as ideas for decorations. Unfortunately, some churches do not allow extravagant accessories such as overly elaborate bridal jewelry, flowers, or decorations. As such, if you have your heart set on these things then you need to consider places that will allow it.

Lighting

Another factor to consider when searching for a location for your wedding is lighting. If you desire a bright and vibrant ambiance to reflect the glow in your eyes, the sparkle in your bridal jewelry, and the hue in your dress, then consider whether the places on your list will meet your needs. It would be in your best interest to visit each location at the time of day in which your wedding will take place. This will give you the opportunity to test the waters before you make a final decision.

The above suggestions are important topics to think about and should not be taken lightly. Just as you might debate for hours or weeks over what bridal jewelry looks best with your wedding dress, you should give your wedding location the same consideration.

Nicole Lindsey writes about fashion, jewelry and weddings for Silverland Jewelry and gifts. http://www.silverlandjewelry.com

Bridesmaids jewelry of Swarovski crystals and pearls make unforgettable gifts.

Author: Nicole Lindsey
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Information

There are four simple secrets to planning a wedding without (a) losing
your sanity or (b) having your dreams stolen by the people around you.

o Eat the elephant one bite at a time.

o Stand strong, sister!

o Give yourself time.

o Hand over the reigns . . . at the END.

Eat the Elephant One Bite at a Time

Have you ever heard about how to eat an elephant? The answer is “One bite at a time.”

It’s the same with planning something as elephant-sized as your wedding. Even if your wedding is relatively small in terms of the
number of guests or the number of vendors, planning a wedding is
an elephant. There are many, many decisions you have to make.

Wedding task check lists make it clear that you don’t need to
find a florist or invitations first thing. Finding a venue and a
caterer are tasks that need to be addressed earlier on.

Even if flowers and invitations are crucial pieces of your
wedding dreams, don’t worry about them until it’s time. Don’t
try to jam the entire elephant into your mouth at once.

Stand Strong, Sister!

Do you want the wedding of YOUR dreams? Or are you relatively
happy if you get half the wedding that you want and half the
wedding that other people think you should want?

If it’s the latter, that’ll be no problem. Other people are more
than willing to take over your wedding. You don’t have to put
any effort into getting people to bully you around to creating
the wedding of their dreams.

It’s a little more effort (although about 90% of it is purely
psychological effort) to be sure that you get the wedding of YOUR
dreams.

There are essentially two types of people who will try to take
over your wedding:

o Family members (including soon-to-be in-laws)

o Vendors

Handling these two types of “controllers” takes different approaches.

Vendors are with you just for this wedding. Family you have to
live with for the rest of your life!

Where do your priorities lie in managing these two types of
controllers?

With professional vendors, your top priority may be getting what
you want, at the price you’ve negotiated, and it really doesn’t
matter if you have to step on a few toes to get it. You’ll be
polite and professional when dealing with vendors, but you must
not be a push-over.

With family, your priority may lie with maintaining loving
relationships for a lifetime. You should be no more of a
pushover with family than with other vendors, but you SHOULD make
sure to hear their side of any issues that arise and to
continually emphasize (both with your words and
with your actions) your gratitude for this loving effort they’re
putting forth for your very special day.

A third possible type of controller is a combination of the other
two:

o friends or family providing services for your wedding.

This can be a little trickier, because you’re both dealing with
them as a vendor and planning to have a relationship with them
for the rest of your life. This requires a balance of the
strategies used with family members and the strategies used with
vendors.

You’ll need to find the right balance between treating a
particular person as a vendor who is a friend/family member vs. a
friend/family member who is doing you a favor by providing
something you’d otherwise get from a vendor.

Give Yourself Time

To have the most flexibility, you should start your wedding
planning anywhere from a year to eighteen months before you’d
like to actually get married.

Don’t panic! People have successfully pulled together weddings
with a few weeks or even a few days of planning. The 12-18 month
suggestion is just that, a suggestion. It’s based on the idea
that spreading the tasks out over time will cause you less
stress.

A longer timetable also allows for those chunks of time when
you’re lying on your couch thinking, “I could not care less if I
had a wedding!”

But, for those who find the last minute approach preferable (or
necessary), timetables can be completely ignored.

If you’re planning your wedding under a tight timeline,
controlling your own brain is one of the most important things
you can do. If you panic, you’ll not only make yourself miserable
at the time of panic, you’ll be more likely to ruin your wedding.

Even if you’re working under a tight timeline, plan in rest
periods. You need to take a couple days (or at least a few hours)
here or there where you don’t work on your wedding. Spend this
time just having fun with your beloved and remembering why you
wanted to marry him in the first place. Or spend the time by
yourself, resting and doing things you enjoy (other than wedding
planning).

When you’re working on your wedding, work on it, concentrate and
move forward. When you’re not working on it, put it from your
mind and remember that your wedding is but one day in the
wonderful life you have ahead. Don’t screw up the life just to
have the wedding.

Hand Over the Reigns . . . At the END

Even if you hire a wedding planner, don’t completely hand over
the reigns early on. Not if you want to achieve the wedding of
YOUR dreams.

But as you’re getting down to the week or so before your wedding,
the balance between the importance of planning your dream wedding
and the importance of living your dream wedding will shift. It’s
time to stop with the planning and start with the living.

Unfortunately, the planning won’t actually be finished a week or
two before your wedding. Some of the most important things you
have to do to stop others from taking over your dream wedding
have to be done right before your wedding. In fact, many of them
have to be done the day before or the day of your wedding.

But, repeat after me: “I don’t want to be planning my wedding on
my wedding day.”

You want to be living your wedding on the day of your wedding.
And if you can manage to start living your wedding several days
or even a couple weeks before your wedding, the better off you’ll
be.

To hand over the reigns in the right way and at the right time
comes down to (a) being prepared to tell others exactly what you
want and (b) handing the reigns to the right person/people.

One excellent reason to hire a wedding planner is if you don’t
know the right kind of people in your personal life to do (b).
If you ended up with a lot of unreliable or free-spirited or
wimpy friends and family, you’ll need to hire someone to hand the
reigns off to. It’s critical to be able to hand off the reigns
and live your wedding day!

(c) All Rights Reserved — Debbie MacGuffie

–Debbie MacGuffie is a professional writer who saved almost $10,000 while planning and executing the wedding ceremony and reception of her dreams. If you’ want to discover the money-saving secrets that industry insiders would rather you never knew, get free instant access to the facts at Fire Your Wedding Planner! [http://www.plan-it-reviews.com]

Author: Debbie MacGuffie
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

Arranging plans for your wedding will involve many things from hiring a photographer to selecting a good caterer and allot more in between. Whether you are having your wedding in sunny San Diego or breezy San Francisco, the average cost of a California wedding has just recently surpassed $40,000 with many couples electing to spend far more than that figure as guest lists expand and venues are upgraded. Regardless of your budget, you can control costs and enjoy your day without being saddled with tremendous debt. Let’s take a look at all that you can do to plan for your upcoming California wedding.

A Budget and a List

Planning for a California wedding will likely include the input of your parents as well as your significant other. Traditionally, the bride’s family paid for the entire event, but today’s couples sometimes prefer to foot the bill themselves or ask both sets of parents for financial contributions. Regardless, a ballpark amount of money should be budgeted before you begin the wedding planning process. Much of those plans will be centered around the total number of guests expected to attend the reception, so go ahead and begin working on the list as you scout out various venues.

The Ceremony and the Reception

Although you may have a date in mind, those plans will be quickly altered if either your church is unavailable that day or a favored reception hall is already booked. If your marriage plans include a wedding during the most popular months of June through September, you may encounter more difficulty on getting the date that you want. Conversely, if you marry during the four months of the year, you will have the best chance of seeing your plans come to fruition. Consider a Friday evening wedding if your Saturday plans cannot be worked out.

The Internet: An Indispensable Tool

21st Century couples are using the internet like never before to help plan their big day. You can do the same for your California wedding to help you search for vendors, compare prices, and purchase goods. Indeed, savvy couples can accomplish the majority of their work online 24/7/365 to save time and money.

Virtually every business has a web site these days and from the ease of your laptop you can accomplish the following tasks:

o Tour reception halls via links to video clips and photographs.

o Find a wedding disc jockey to listen to interviews and music clips.

o Locate florists to preview flower designs and arrangements.

o Preview sites featuring the works of photographers.

o Shop for wedding rings, bridesmaid gifts, party favors, etc.

Spreadsheets and Wedding Plan Software

To keep track of and manage all of the costs, you can also use a handy spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel to get the job done. Beyond Excel, some couples have discovered that by using dedicated wedding plan software you can control all of your pertinent information and create a web site for guest preview. Some couples are now extending invitations and receiving replies completely electronically through these types of sites. Use whatever plans works best for you as you do have options!

Here Comes the Beautiful Bride!

Once your wedding plans are in place you can fully enjoy the day without worrying about the details. Short of hiring a wedding planner, a trusted family member or friend can help you keep you on track and relieve you of much of the minutiae related to planning your California wedding.

Click here if you need help planning for your California Wedding.

Michael Brito is an internet marketing consultant and freelance writer for a variety of consumer related products.

Author: Michael Brito
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: PCB Prototype & Manufacturing

If you have experience with project planning in a professional sense at your employment then you should treat the planning of your wedding no different. Wedding Planning is a must for small or big weddings perhaps its more critical to plan out your wedding for the large weddings for everything to run smoothly on the day.

A Big or Small Wedding?

First of all, you should have a general number of guests you would like to invite. This will determine everything else you do in your wedding planning. Do you want a small cozy wedding or a large wedding gathering? Is it what you want or what your parents or in-laws want? Is it within your budget? Once you answer these questions your wedding planning has now been kick started.

Assign Tasks

In a project situation, it is important to delegate tasks and so in your wedding planning you need to determine who will be responsible for certain aspects of your wedding. For example you may want to designate responsibility of handling of catering for yourself while delegating the responsibility of the wedding music or entertainment to your partner.

Wedding Budget

A commercial project always has a profit and loss statement and a budget. A wedding plan profits when you succeed and you lose when everything falls apart you dont want the latter to happen. One of the more important aspects of wedding planning is your wedding budget. You should have a general number in your head of how much you want to spend on your wedding and from that starting number you can allocate money to the sub-projects of your wedding such as the catering, the reception hall, etc. Watch carefully how you spend your wedding budget and always keep a look out for ways to save money on weddings.

Wedding Research

Keep note of what works and what doesnt when you attend other weddings, talk to the caterers and the musicians or the DJ if you like their service. Talk to the wedding couple or other recently wedded couples to ask them what worked in their wedding and what didnt and what other advice they could offer. A part of your research would take you to wedding expos and shows around the country in your city or local area. At the wedding show you can take into account the latest trends and products that are popular in the wedding industry. You will be able to talk to reception services, caterers and bakers for your wedding cake. You will able to see their showcase of wedding dresses and possibly catch a catwalk display of the dresses. Remember your purpose at these shows that you are there as research for your wedding plan and not be tempted by the other extras that arent really a part of what you want for a wedding. Your purpose is to get an idea of how much everything you want at your wedding would cost as well as your options in the variety of wedding areas.

Wedding Ceremony and Reception Location

Finally, a major element to your wedding project plan is to arrange the ceremony and the locations of the ceremony and reception. If you are religious it would probably be assumed that you would be wedded in a church or other religious building. If arent religious and are looking for a civil celebrant you will also need to plan around that. Planning your reception location would probably take into consideration the research you have done previously. Shop around for prices; ask around for testimonials of good service to find the perfect location to suit what you want and your budget.

Good luck in your wedding planning!

Author: Janey McKenzie
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Make PCB Assembly