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I had my wedding in August so I am just fresh out of wedding planning.
Choose two or three things that are important to you. Music most important? Hire a band. Food most important? Hire a caterer. Drinks most important? Hire a bartender. You get the drift. My husband and I knew that we wanted to hang out with the guests so we went informal at my parents' house. We did the food ourselves with a buffet which wasn't as much of a hassle as I would have imagined. We had wine, a mixed punch and beer so that cut down on our costs. We did music from my computer with guests suggesting songs on the RSVP cards. My husband is a graphic designer so he did the invitations but even to have them done professionally would have been less per invitation than ordering really formal ones. We did hire a professional photographer because it was worth the money to us.
Don't buy things just because they have 'wedding' in the name. I chose to wear a colored dress and so I purchased a bridesmaid's dress for $300 less than a similarly styled 'wedding' dress. I made it clear to my bridesmaids that I didn't care what they wore as long as they were in clothes. One bridesmaid wore a dress she had made for a Ren Fair but it ended up matching the other two dresses and I knew she was comfortable. Don't worry about matching the number of bridesmaids to groomsmen. I had three women on my side and my husband had just a best man.
Also, don't worry if things don't go the way you imagined. We had planned on a garden wedding and my parents had put many hours into making the garden look great. The day of the rehearsal dinner, it began to pour. It poured until the Sunday after the wedding. We rigged tents in the front yard and had the guests sit in the garage on chairs. It wasn't what we imagined at the start but it turned out very nicely. You can plan everything down to the last detail but you will get lost in the details and miss out on the day of the wedding.
Have the bachelor/bachelorette parties at least a week beforehand if possible. No one wants to be trashed on their wedding day.
Remember that this is a day of coming together and love. Plan things so you can have fun. We had our photographer take a group picture of all of our guests right after the wedding. It was the last weekend of the Olympics and Michael Phelps was going to race for his 8th gold medal. We stopped dancing for a bit and watched him race. It was memorable.
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"Mommy, the presidents are squishing me!"
"Using the pull out method of contraceptive is like saying I won't use a seat belt, I'll just jump out of the car before it hits that tree."
Sara
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