how to plan a home wedding
The first thing you need to do when planning a wedding, is book the venue. If you plan on having your ceremony and reception in the same place, this step should be pretty simple. Most venues will have a standard minimum length of time that they require for rental, but oftentimes larger places have multiple rooms that can also break up some of the time. Other places might require that you use all their rooms, and then there will be a minimum amount of hours that you need to rent it for. This is one area where you probably don’t want to try and save too much money. A local church or community centre may work out but by hosting your wedding at a hotel or a restaurant, you get that certain “je ne sais quoi” which draws people to your celebration.
Pictures of your wedding
Once the venue is taken care of, you will need to book a planner and a photographer. The planner will be responsible for taking care of all the little details that can drive a bride crazy trying to think about them. This includes:Where tables will go, what kind of chairs you want- crescent, rectangle, your choice of table linens and their colour combinations. They can even help with finding a baker for your cake and someone to make it look pretty (you do not need to know anything about making cakes). The planner should be able to take care of all of this for you. A photographer is a must. You can hire a professional, but most likely their costs will range from $3000 – $5000 and up depending on how long they need to be there and what you want them to do. This is another area where a good friend with a nice camera might be able to help you out or even a student photographer. They are usually much cheaper and can still take beautiful pictures of your special day.
Hiring the band or Dj for wedding
Most couples will book the band, DJ or singer themselves but you could always ask your wedding planner for recommendations. They should know who is hot in town right now and have access to their resumes so that you at least have an idea of what type of music they play, if you are not sure yourself. They may be able to recommend someone that is more in your price range or even help you book one for cheaper since they have the connections.
Wedding dresses
Now comes the fun part- dress shopping! For this you will need a good bridal party to go with you and try on all the pretty dresses. You can actually have a friend or family member make you one, but for this article’s sake let’s just pretend that it is not an option 🙂 A wedding dress will cost anywhere from $500 – $5000 and up. This is one thing that definitely needs to be bought early since it takes time to make something as intricate as dresses. This is one time when you should definitely go all out and get the most expensive, nicest dress that you can afford since this is probably going to be the only wedding you will have in your life. You need to look at your financial situation before buying a dress so check around with different places for prices on dresses in your price range . You might be pleasantly surprised.
A photo booth is a great idea for a wedding and you won’t have to spend too much on it either. A box of props can be found online quite easily and once at the venue, all you need is someone to run the booth (or give the person running it instructions) and scrapbook materials to put the photos in. This is also a very good way to give guests something to do at the wedding since you want them mingling and talking before dinner.
Plan the invitation for a guests
As mentioned before, you might make your own invitations and everyone will be impressed that you came up with such a creative idea. You can always ask someone who works in graphic design to help you out or just go to the store and see what they have for wedding invitations. Make sure there is enough time between when you send them out and the wedding date so that people have enough time to make arrangements.
A female voice-over interrupts the article here. She says, “And now it’s my turn.” Her name is “Maggie” and she has her hair in a bun with glasses on. She begins talking about how she met her husband at one of his concerts and your wedding so that your guests have time to save up for your big day.
If you are having a large wedding, it would be appropriate to offer your family members and bridesmaids small gifts for helping you out. You could put together an inexpensive photo album of all the fun you had planning the wedding or even buy them something nice. Have a fun bridal shower and give out shower favours to all the ladies that show up. If you are really crafty, you could make it yourself or again, ask your wedding planner for some ideas on how to do this inexpensively if she is not able to help with it. Keeping your guests engaged is important for any wedding. Offer some fun games like “Who Knows the Bride/Groom Best?” or if you are having a large number of guests, consider hiring an entertainer to play music, do magic tricks and more to keep everyone entertained throughout the evening.
Now that all your plans are set, make sure you order invitations well ahead of time. You can either design them yourself.