Wedding Blog

At this weekend’s wedding seminar in South Florida, I spent a bit of time discussing contract negotiations and working with vendors who will help you maintain your budget. I truly believe that a good and ethical wedding professional will look beyond pure profitability in order to make recommendations for ways get services you want without overspending. Sometimes, the vendor’s recommendation may be to suggest another vendor who can accommodate your budget, others will work with you to shave costs of their own packages in order to work with you. In either case, knowing what you can spend is critical.

As we were discussing this, a bride name Megan offered up her story. She has found her location and hired a number of vendors. Almost everything of hers has been contracted. While she was reviewing what she was spending, she realized that she was spending a bit too much. She needed to find a way to cut costs. This is no easy task once a contract is signed.

Megan was very lucky. She went to her reception site and told her representative her plight. He suggested to her that she change the time of her reception in order to save money. That is exactly what she did. She moved from an evening wedding to an afternoon wedding and saved 10 percent on her bottom line. Just enough to help maintain her budget.

I want to emphasize that this is a very risky maneuver. It is much better to plan your budget in advance and stick to it. Going back to renegotiate a signed contract is very difficult.

Do you have a story about saving money at your wedding? Send it to me and I might just publish it on the blog or our Facebook Fan Page.

If you have questions on this or any other wedding related topic, please post for me here or send me an email to susan.southerland@pwg.com. Also become a fan on Facebook by clicking here and follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

Your partner in perfect planning,
Susan

I hope you took a peek at Rory and Michael’s wedding on “Real Wedding Wednesday” They were a great couple and it was a beautiful wedding. Here is the inside scoop on some of their near misses and a money-saving tip.

The weather was a huge issue that day. The Central Florida area had no rain for weeks, unfortunately, the week of Rory and Michael’s wedding, Mother Nature decided to give us all the rain we were missing in a matter of days. The wedding day looked pretty good up until about an hour prior to the ceremony start time. The sky opened up and poured for forty-five minutes. Everything had already been setup outside. It could have been a disaster, BUT, the florist attached the arbor to the lamppost so the wind didn’t blow it down.

The next issue was Rory’s bouquet. Rory fell in love with a bouquet in a magazine. It was orange mini calla lilies. There is only one problem with orange mini calla lilies… depending on the rain and soil conditions, they can come in more mango than orange. Also, very often, magazines will spray flowers to obtain the colors that they want for the shoot. The florist and I were really worried about what Rory would think. In fact, the florist brought another set of orange roses to the ceremony so she could construct a new bouquet in case Rory wasn’t happy. (I think that’s amazing!). In the end, Rory loved the calla lilies, mango-color and all.

Enough with the bad stuff; here is a money-saving tip from Rory and Michael’s wedding. Above is a photo of their arbor and below is their reception table. Do you notice anything? We took the flowers from the arbor and lined them down the center of the dining table. They looked gorgeous and they saved the newlyweds $360.00!

Speaking of saving money, check out this article on PerfectWeddingGuide.com on setting up your budget. A good budget is the key to saving money on your wedding day.

Thank you again to amagicmoment.com for the great photos!

If you have questions or comments regarding this or any wedding-related topic, please post a message for me here or email me at susan.southerland@pwg.com.

Your partner in perfect planning,

Susan

Happy Friday everyone! More budget buster information today.

Wedding receptions take power, lots of it. Reception facilities do have electricity in their ballrooms, but often it isn’t enough to accommodate all of your power needs. If you have one or more of the following “power-drainers” you may need to order extra power:

• Band with amplifier
• DJ with light show
• Pin spots and up lighting
• Chef attended stations with heat lamps

Keep in mind, paying for power isn’t a bad thing. Having these extras at your reception is wonderful, but you must account for the additional cost when you are planning your budget. Make sure your band, DJ or lighting contracts include information on what their power needs are and let your reception site know so that the catering manager can give you a cost estimate. Each circuit can cost as much as $200.00 and if your wedding is on the weekend, you may pay even more in overtime charges. That can really be a budget buster.

How can you save money in this area?

• Ask your reception site if you can have the power dropped on a weekday so you don’t have to pay the overtime fees.
• Reduce the number of items that need power, for example, the fewer instruments the band has, the less power it needs.

Keep in mind that most reception sites use an outside company to get their power, so the hourly rate is rarely negotiable.

If you haven’t already, check out the free budget planning tool on PerfectWeddingGuide.com. It’s fabulous!

If you have questions or comments about this post, leave a message for me here or email me at susan.southerland@pwg.com.

Your partner in perfect planning,

Susan

Happy Thursday. I apologize for not posting yesterday as promised. You would be surprised how flooded streets really back up traffic. There is a bit of sun today, but I don’t think it is going to last.

Anyway, rehearsals can be very confusing, even for professionals. It isn’t easy organizing a chatty group of bridesmaids and groomsmen. Below are my top ten tips to making your rehearsal run quickly and smoothly.

1. Greet the rehearsal attendees and explain to them how the rehearsal is going to proceed. (details below)
2. Line everyone up in the positions where they will be standing at the altar.
3. Ask the officiant to run through the ceremony. He probably won’t do the entire ceremony, but if you will be moving or if you have readers he will practice walking through those things.
4. After the officiant introduces you as almost husband and wife, practice the recessional and proceed to the back of the room.
5. Line up the wedding party starting with the grandmothers and/or mothers with their escorts. Practice having them walk down the aisle to their seats (or up to the unity candle if you will be lighting one).
6. The guys get into position next. If they are walking down the aisle, start with the officiant followed by the groom, best man and groomsmen. I have them walk down the aisle, single file with a bit of space in between each of them (They usually don’t like walking down the aisle one at a time like the bridesmaids). If you are in a location where there is a side entrance, they can proceed in the same order from the side and get into position.
7. The bridesmaids go next. Have them line up in reverse order (the bridesmaid furthest away from you goes first). Each one should walk down the aisle individually. If you have a very long aisle, you may send each bridesmaid down when the one in front of her is halfway down the aisle. If the aisle is short, let each woman process all the way down the aisle to her spot at the altar.
8. Ring bearers and flower girls are next. If they are very young, you may want to send them down the aisle together. If they want to walk on their own, send the ring bearer first followed by the flower girl.
9. Finally, you and your escort will process down the aisle. Don’t forget to take your time and smile, even at the rehearsal. This is your moment!
10. If the officiant prefers, do another ceremony run through then practice recessing again. If necessary, practice the processional one more time.

A few additional notes

I don’t usually review ushering with the groomsmen and ushers at the rehearsal. I find that they forget what I tell them by the time the wedding day rolls around. Not everyone agrees with me on that point. I gather them together fifteen minutes prior to the scheduled guest arrival time and give them directions.

If you have a flower girl and ring bearer who are young, keep a sense of humor about them making it down the aisle. I have had some who perform beautifully and others who get very shy and run away. If you expect perfection, do not have children in the wedding party.

If you have any questions or comments about the above post or any other wedding-related questions, please leave a post for me here or email me at susan.southerland@pwg.com.

Your partner in perfect planning,

Susan

I had a wonderful webinar session last night with some Perfect Wedding Guide brides. They had many great questions that I am going to share with your over the next few days.

Megan asked:

I don’t think I photograph well, so how do we avoid awkward pictures that we don’t like?

Personally, I think all brides look beautiful. I know it is cliché, but I truly believe that the adrenalin or dopamine that is released during the excitement of the wedding day gives brides a beautiful glow. With that said, I do have a few good suggestions to ensure beautiful wedding photos:

• If you are not accustomed to applying makeup, hire a professional to do it.
• Make sure when you interview your photographer, that you tell him or her that you aren’t very comfortable in front of the camera. Ask how he or she handles camera-shy brides.
• Schedule an engagement shoot. This would serve as a low-pressure practice run. You will get more used to being in front of the camera, and your photographer will have a chance to see how you move and act when he or she is shooting. This will make you both more comfortable on the wedding day.
• Remember that photos that your friends take are quite different from those taken by a professional wedding photographer. I used my Facebook page as an example. Some photos are taken by my friends and others are taken by professionals. Sometimes, I am not sure we are the same person!

Just remember to relax and enjoy yourself. Remember your wedding day is about celebrating with your family and friends. Your excitement and joy will definitely come across in your photos.

If you would like to comment on this post or discuss anything wedding related, leave a post here or email me at Susan.Southerland@pwg.com.

Your partner in perfect planning,

Susan