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Wedding Planning

You and your soon to be spouse have fallen in love and you have set the date to be married.  Celebrating your wedding will be important not only for the ceremony itself, but also in allowing others to share your joy and love.  Planning your wedding can be done in a very short amount of time if you have covered the most important points of the wedding itself.

You will need to know where you want to be married, usually a place where the bride grew up or lived when she was young.  This can be anywhere that the two of you agree to be married at.  As long as your vows are going to take place, the actual place is not going to matter but this is the very first decision that needs to be made after you have set a date.

After you have decided where the wedding will take place, you will need to decide how big of a reception, and where your reception is going to take place.  Depending on the number of people that you are going to invite to your reception, will determine where you are going to have your reception.  Sometimes the reception can be very close to the wedding ceremony location, other times it can be a few miles away.  This decision is totally up to you.

So now the time of the wedding, the time of the reception and the locations for each is falling into place.  You will need to make up a listing of potential guests that you would like to invite.  After you have a listing of your guests and your spouse�s guests, be sure to ask both your parents and your future spouses parents for the lists of guests as well.

From the listing of guests that you are planning to invite, you will need to order your invitations.  Ordering about twenty or twenty five extras will ensure that you have enough invitations for all of the people on your guest list most often there will be additions that had been forgotten about.  Ordering thank you notes at the same time you are ordering your invitations will ensure that you will remember to send out your thank you cards as needed without delay.

Addressing and mailing your invitations about a month before the wedding is ample time so that your guests can plan to attend your wedding and the celebration after.

You will need to decide who is going to be in your wedding party.  Both the women and the men, you will need to have to limit yourself on the numbers so that you can make �couples� out of the wedding party.  You will also want to be sure to have tuxedos and gowns fitted and ordered well before the wedding is to take place.  You should go for final fittings on gowns and tuxedos about a week before the wedding.

Plan your finances.  Plan on paying the minister, making a donation to the church, paying the organist or band at the church, and you will need to make arrangements how the wedding party will get from the ceremony to the reception with as little problems as possible.

Plan for where you are going to have pictures taken.  You will need to budget a photographer or a videographer during your wedding as well.  Pictures can be taken indoors or outdoors depending on your weather.  Family members and friends of the family can be your most inexpensive photographers for the wedding while saving money at the same time.

Flowers are important for decorating the church and at the hall.  The women in the wedding party generally carry flowers, and the men in the bridal party wear lapel flowers.  Parents of both the bride and the groom will wear flowers as well as any grandparents that are present as well.

The decorations at the reception hall, the flowers, and the centerpiece for the tables at the reception hall are all items that you will gather before the wedding.  Decorating the reception hall is usually done the night before the wedding and sometimes the morning of the wedding if there is enough time.

Plan on where guests can stay where they will be close, or for some guests, where they can stay free or at least cheaper places.  Special arrangements may be needed for those attending your wedding from out of town that are staying for more than one night, such as where they will be visiting and what they can be doing while they are in town.

Make the most of your wedding memories by planning your wedding step by step.  Writing everything down on a piece of paper and marking it off as it is completed will ensure that your wedding is a memory that will last forever!