The Wedding Planner, part two

Continuing from my previous post ...

Doing things differently
Think of ways in which you can incorporate your personalities, interests, etc into your wedding day to make it more personal to you.

If you want to get married in a red evening dress, do it. I got married in a lilac medieaval-style dress and received nothing but fabulous compliments.

If you want to spend the night before the wedding with your partner, do it. Equally if you want to stay apart, do so. But do so because you want to follow tradition, not because of what anyone else says.

Also, be mindful of those taking part in your wedding.
Hubby and his best man weren't keen on making speeches, so they didn't - I made a speech instead. Hubby doesn't dance, ever, so we decided that we wouldn't have a first dance. Once we'd decided that, was there any need for a disco/band so we recorded our own backing CDs to be played.

Think about how you want to feed your guests - we decided on a later ceremony so we could have a meal with everyone and therefore no need for a buffet later. I can't stand fruit cake so we had little individually iced sponge cakes.

If you don't want to have a grand exit or rush off on honeymoon at midnight, don't. We sauntered to bed when we'd had enough. The following day we had brunch at a civilised hour at a local pub with family, attendants and our american guests. It was a nice way to round off the event.

Most importantly, we wanted our guests to be relaxed and enjoy the day as much as we hoped we would!


Finding Suppliers
You will have your own ideas of what makes a good supplier but I would suggest one criteria that I used. If I heard "this is what we will give you", I'd walk away or at least put them on the maybe pile. If they said "what do you want?" I'd listen up. Depending on what they are providing, you could be working with this supplier for quite a number of months, it's a good idea for you to be able to get on with them.

Bookmark webpages, print pictures out, tear pages out of magazines and catalogues. Keep a folder of ideas, pictures, styles, colours, flowers, menus fabrics, etc, etc. From my experience, suppliers much prefer to meet with couples who have an idea of what they want. Let's face it - it makes their lives easier if they're simply working out how to fulfill your requirements. If they have to work with you to find out what that requirement is, it takes longer! That said, when you have found a good supplier, trust their judgement and experience. They may offer ideas that you'd never even considered.

I also found that suppliers love it when you are doing something different from "the norm" - Invitations printed on textured parchment-coloured paper in the form of a scroll "Be it known, you are hereby requested and required to witness the ceremony of holy matrimony betwixt Mistress Rhea and Master Hubby" (hehe - I had great fun with that); tables named after locations in the Lord of the Rings; an elven-style silver circlet headress.

The most expensive is not always the best. I obtained three quotations for my dress to be made for me. I knew what I wanted, what colour, etc. I went to two "designers" and one dress maker. The designers both quoted £1500. The dress maker quoted £500 to 600 (depending on fabric). She was a fabulous lady and made sure I got what I wanted.

Tune in tomorrow for the final part - Guests; Things going wrong & Chilling out.

Happy Journeys.