Throughout your engagement season, we know you have been carefully researching, curating, and planning every aspect of your wedding day. As your celebration nears, you’re likely feeling a complete mixture of emotions – elation that your soiree is almost here and a little trepidation that you have perhaps forgotten to cross something off of your list. During these final weeks and days before your wedding day, our goal is for you to be able to focus on feeling pure excitement that your celebration has finally arrived. So, we thought we would create a list of 10 things you can do in order to ensure your wedding day goes smoothly, you’re stress-free (or as stress-free as possible!), and you’re able to stay totally present with your love and your guests.
1. Purchase Wedding Insurance:
Wedding insurance is something you can purchase well in advance of your wedding day. In fact, some couples opt to purchase it right after they celebrate their engagement. Insurance has a few facets to it, but the two most common are cancellation/postponement insurance and liability insurance.
The first helps to protect you from your vendors (and vice versa) should you need to cancel your wedding day due to an Act of God (illness, weather, deployment). The second type of coverage, liability insurance, is most often required by venues because it protects you (and them) from any damage or injury that may occur while you, your love, and your guests are celebrating at your venue’s property.
The cost of wedding insurance is typically not very high in most cases, and the peace of mind it provides is 100% worth it!
2. Read and Save All Vendor Contracts:
We’re certain you will be excited to receive and sign contracts from all of your wedding professionals. Before you sign your name, make sure to read each contract carefully. You’ll want to make sure your name(s), wedding date, and venue are correctly noted. You will also want to note that the correct package is printed (hours and price). Once you sign your contract, it’s viewed as a legal document, so if something isn’t correct that may become an issue later on.
Once you’ve deemed everything correct and signed, hold onto your contracts! You will want to make sure you or your wedding coordinator has them on hand throughout your wedding day to reference in case any questions about agreed upon services arise.
3. Complete DIY Projects in Advance:
If you’re trying to remain stress-free on your wedding day, one of the things you can do is to make sure you complete the majority of your DIY projects in advance. Few things are worse than spending the night before your wedding day knee-deep in projects that need to be complete prior to your wedding day. Instead of becoming one with your glue gun, opt to wrap things up a week prior (if possible!) or ensure you have built in plenty of time to finish your details, relax with family and friends, and rest before your celebration.
4. Rehearse Your Ceremony:
No matter if you, your partner, and your wedding party have been in or attended weddings in the past, it’s helpful to set aside 30-60 minutes the afternoon or night before your wedding day to rehearse your wedding ceremony. Many ceremony spaces and venues include rehearsals in your package, so you won’t need to build in an additional fee.
During this time, your officiant will walk everyone through your wedding ceremony from how to walk down the aisle and where to stand to what to do while the ceremony is underway and how to recess back down the aisle once. Everyone likes to feel like they’re in the know, especially when all eyes will be on them, and a rehearsal will allow your group’s nerves to be quelled.
5. Confirm Family Photos in Advance:
A little bit of organization goes a long way with family photos! Plan to inform all family members who you would like to appear in photos in advance of your wedding day. You’ll want to let them know what time and where photos will take place, so they can be at the ready. Then consider working with your photographer to create a list of photos you would like captured. If you complete both steps, your family members will jump in and out of photos quickly so everyone can continue on to the ceremony (if you do photos prior to reciting your vows) or cocktail hour (if photos happen post-ceremony).
6. Hire a Day of Wedding Coordinator:
If you want to be present on your wedding day because you’re not the main point of contact (among other things), you may want to consider hiring a day of wedding coordinator. During the weeks leading up to your wedding day, your coordinator will review your contracts, get and stay in touch with all of your vendors, create your wedding day timeline, organize your details, and run your wedding day from start to finish. In our opinion, the relief you will feel that someone other than you is in charge is worth the cost!
7. Follow a Wedding Day Timeline:
Whether you choose to work with a day of wedding coordinator or not, one of the key things you will want to do is follow a wedding day timeline. Your timeline should note the timing and order that hair and makeup will follow, what time your partner and his or her group should start getting ready, when your first look will occur, the details about your ceremony, and everything that will happen during your reception. Think of a wedding day timeline like a playbook for a big game – it spells out the key players and when every moment will happen!
8. Do a First Look:
A first look is when both partners agree to see each other prior to their ceremony. And, we can assure you it does not take away from any of the emotion that will be seen and felt during the ceremony! Instead, a first look only adds to the day. Plus, this moment allows you and your love to squelch any nerves either of you may feel because your first look will only be shared between both of you and your photographer. Another great perk is your photographer will often capture couple’s portraits right after your first look, which means you will likely be able to attend and enjoy your cocktail hour.
9. Make Sure to Eat (& Drink Water!):
As you plan ahead for how you will spend your time leading up to your ceremony, make sure both breakfast and lunch are part of your plans for you, your partner, and your entire wedding party. You may even find it helpful to pack some snacks in your wedding day emergency kit– a protein bar can be clutch if you’re hangry.
It’s a big day with lots of big moments, and allow us to be among the many to remind you that there is a lot of time in between when you wake up and when you will enjoy dinner during your reception! While we’re on the topic, make sure to eat dinner during your reception too. Not only have you carefully chosen your menu, but it’s also important to stay fueled for dancing and to counterbalance any cocktails you’re enjoying. P.S: Hydration is important so make sure you’re drinking water periodically, friends!
10. Appoint a Trusted Love One to Transport Cards & Gifts:
Guests will arrive to your wedding with cards and gifts in hand, and they will most likely drop them off at a gift table at your reception. That’s a wonderful first step! After the cards and gifts have been dropped off, they will need to be transported back to your hotel room or home. So, appoint a trusted family member or friend to take on this task (if you’re not working with a wedding coordinator). We highly recommend choosing someone who will either not be planning to drink or will drink very little during your reception – a clear mind is key to complete this to-do well!
What steps are you taking to make sure you’re able to be present on your wedding day? Is there anything else you would add to our list? Let’s keep the conversation going in our community!
This article originally appeared on Savvy Budget Bride and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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5 ways modern couples pay for their weddings
You’re engaged! As you bubble over with excitement, you might have a nagging feeling at the back of your mind – who is going to pay for this wedding? Wedding traditions dictate their own set of rules, but modern-day couples are also evolving how they’d like to handle wedding finances. So to make it easier, and give you a flavor of both old and new approaches (see what we did there?), here’s a guide to wedding budgets.
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Before we even get into wedding budgets, let’s not forget that having the “who’s going to pay for what” conversation can be super stressful. Doesn’t everyone love asking their parents or in-laws for financial help?! (lies, no one does). You can avoid the drama by walking through a carefully designed process that respects everyone’s perspective.
Here’s our recommended process:
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Start by getting on the same page with your partner. Set your expectations with each other before meeting up with the parentals. Discuss how much each of you can chip in (if at all) and a realistic idea of what you’ll ask your families to cover.
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Having a budget in mind. Having a sense of your overall budget will be helpful going into a conversation with your parents/in-laws. Plus, it will show that you’ve done your research! Try and break out what you’ll want to spend in different categories (food, music, venue, etc.) so it will be easier to divvy up expenses amongst everyone involved.
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Be respectful, appreciative and flexible. Once you’ve actually begun discussing who’s going to pay for what, you’ll want to consider being transparent about your own finances, mindful of others’ situations, and flexible to a possible compromise. Instead of telling them “we’d like you to cover these wedding expenses”, ask them “what would you be comfortable paying for?”. Remember, any contribution towards your day is a nice gesture, so don’t forget to show them some love. Here are a few cute thank you gifts you can take along.
Now that you know how to handle the “who pays for what” convo like a boss, let’s get right into the different ways a wedding can be paid for.
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Traditional wedding etiquette began hundreds of years ago when dowries were commonplace — parents of the bride paid the groom’s family to accept their daughter into the new family (eye roll). While weddings today have evolved considerably since then, the concept of who pays for what in this traditional context has remained steadfast. Typically, the families of the bride and groom pay for the celebration, leaving the newlyweds without a bill to bear. Here’s how the expenses usually break down:
- The engagement party, (if you’re having one)
- Wedding planning costs, including a planner
- Wedding announcements and invitations
- Bride’s wedding dress, veil, jewelry, and shoes (sometimes hair/makeup)
- Venue for the ceremony
- Music for the ceremony
- Ceremony decorations, including the floral arrangements
- Floral arrangements for the reception, as well as the bridesmaids’ bouquets
- Photography and videography
- Transportation for the wedding party on the day of
- Wedding reception expenses, from decorations to live music
- Transportation and hotel expenses for the officiant
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- Any expenses relating to the rehearsal dinner
- Bride’s bouquet, as well as corsages and boutonnieres for immediate family members on both sides
- Groom’s suit, and any other attire expenses
- Fees for the officiate
- All of the honeymoon costs
Talk about a hefty bill! As is painfully clear above, the bride’s family traditionally has a much larger financial burden. To some couples, that doesn’t seem fair and modern couples are choosing to revise that split.
While the parents cover most of the costs in this traditional model, the bride and groom do pay for a variety of things for each other and their wedding party. This includes each other’s rings/bands, gifts for each other, gifts for bridesmaids and groomsmen, and gifts for their attendees. The groom also typically pays for the marriage license on his own.
Here are five ways today’s couples are doing things a little differently:
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Many modern couples are taking it upon themselves to pay for their own weddings in full. This is an especially popular option when parents can’t afford such expenses. When couples take on the cost of their weddings, budgets and more affordable options (like renting a wedding dress) are of utmost importance. Sticking to the essentials and prioritizing your absolute “must-haves” vs. “nice-to-haves” is a good way to stay true to what matters most to you.
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Another option in determining who pays for what in a wedding is just to take the full cost of the event and evenly split it between the bride/groom, the bride’s family, and the groom’s family. This way, each family involved is paying an equal portion of the wedding costs. The best way to do this is to determine a contribution amount early on (say $10k each) and then craft a budget to help you stick to that amount.This is a popular method amongst young couples because everyone shares in all expenses equally.
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Another option is to let the wedding couples’ families own the bill together. For those families who want to and are able to take on the wedding costs for their children, this is a great option that still balances fairness between families.
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Setting a budget can be incredibly helpful in determining who pays for what in a wedding, especially if you create a wedding budget for each expense. For example, if you decide that photography and videography will make up 15% of your total wedding budget, you could delegate that cost specifically to the groom’s family. As you budget specific items within your overall wedding budget, you can delegate those items to family members (and yourself) accordingly. This is a great solution for families who can’t contribute across the whole budget but can contribute towards something specific. Keep scrolling for one of our favorite wedding budget templates!
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The thought behind this approach is that if one party has more people in attendance, then they’ll pay for more of the wedding expenses. Let’s say the bride’s family wants to invite second and third cousins, friends of friends, and maybe teachers that had an impact on them growing up. But, the groom’s family only wants to invite immediate family members. Since the bride’s family has a higher headcount than the groom’s family, they’d be responsible for paying more of the wedding costs.
While these are all valid ways to decide who pays for the wedding, you’ll want to choose the right fit for you, your spouse-to-be, and your families. Once you’ve collectively decided on the ideal way to pay for the wedding, keeping track of the planned expenses will reduce stress for everyone.
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The best way to stick to a wedding budget is to keep track of it. Start by outlining the potential costs of the wedding, broken down by sections. Here’s one of our favorite wedding budget templates. Use this as a jumping off point and you’ll be well on your way to being a wedding budget pro.
Related:
- If you’ve been married this many times, you aren’t unusual
- 30 etiquette rules too many people are breaking these days
This article originally appeared on AskZeta.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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