First things First!

To some, planning a wedding might be intimidating. There are many decisions to be made and even more that you might not even be aware of!

Once the sweet couple announce their engagement, it's time to set a date. Sometimes they already know what time of year they want to be married, but sometimes not. Most books that I have read say that a six month to one year engagement is optimal. I'm sure that long engagements, as well as short ones have their own benefits and challenges. That said, sometimes the couple can't contain their excitement and opt for a shorter engagement period. I am currently planning one of each! One daughter is marrying in June, and one in September. I am not a professional wedding planner, just a creative mom with a few tricks up my sleeves!

The date has been set, now what?

It's time for a family meeting. Get together the bride, groom and mom and dad or any other financiers for a meeting. This is best done in a place that doesn't have a lot of distractions. The kitchen table is a good place, as long as there isn't a tv in sight! Have everyone bring their ideas, hopes and dreams to the meeting and lay it all out! I began with the bride, she's the one with the vision of what she wants for her wedding. Let her talk through all that would like to have. I would ask about her dream wedding. Begin by following along with her dream as if money were no option. The groom may have some input, but more than likely he will agree to whatever his sweetheart wants. Take notes in your wedding notebook. (You must have a designated notebook!) This way you can refer back to the original dream.

Once you have a vision for your wedding you can begin to plan out a budget. Your daughter may be a Daddy's girl and he might be open to whatever she wants. Even if Daddy has no idea what a wedding costs, it's to your advantage to fill him in! If you really want to blow his mind, do a google search on wedding costs for your area. Don't do this if he has a heart condition! I'm not sure where the research comes from on what they deem as the "average" cost of a wedding, but to me, they seemed outlandish! The spectrum of weddings is vast, so to lump them all together seems a bit unfair to me, but it will give Daddy Warbucks a place to start! A $30,000 is very unreasonable to me. We don't live in a high profile, designer city, so I thought a third of that was more suited to the average wedding in the Midwest. I threw out the $10k number and watched as my husband turned green, then yellow, then red! Dad spoke up and said, "No way, we can't do that." I already knew that, but wanted to get him thinking. This is a tactic I have used for years with my husband, shoot him a higher amount first, and then he's much happier with an actual lower number.

The budget

Set a budget and TRY to stick to it! I say "try" because I am more flexible. I preferred a budget range. My personal budget range for each wedding is $2000 to $2500. I will try to stick around $2,000, but won't beat myself up if I go over a little.
Next, think about sponsors! Sometimes it's not all about Dad paying for everything. Some families want to help out. For instance, in our family, the grandmother would like to purchase the wedding gowns. (that's a huge chunk of your budget relieved!) So, grandmother goes down on the list along with any other aunts, uncles, cousins etc that have voiced an interest in having a financial part in the wedding. Not all families have this, but it doesn't hurt to ask! Some couples even want to pay for a lot of their own wedding.

The next section on your budget sheet should be your worker bees. Cousin Jill runs a florist shop, check! Put her down as a possible helper with flowers and decorations. Granny Fran works at the school cafeteria and cooks meals for hundreds of people daily - another great resource! She can help plan the meal!
You get the picture.

Once you have all of this down on paper it's time to take a serious look at what you have before you. Do a rough calculation and then make a preliminary decision on what Dad wants the budget to be. This first figure may get changed a few times before becoming set in stone. But it's a jumping off point.

The next segment will be all about your Wedding Planning supplies and tools.

A Wedding Planner

It's time for new beginnings! No better time than now to get back into my blog and use it to plan out my daughters' weddings. Yes, that is plural! I thought that having one daughter getting married was going to be exciting, but now I have two! My goal for both weddings is to take a very small wedding budget and make an ultra-fabulous celebration! It is almost a game, like my love for the couponing game! I will document both plans separately so that anyone who wants to follow along can do so. Hopefully someone will be inspired to take on such a task!

I have read e-books on how to have a super wedding on a small budget, and I will use some of what I learned there, and add in a few of my own ideas.