the Wedding Planner Thread

[Fandango 1,439]

Ok, so we've all seen my dress thread, but I figured lets make one where all of us brides can brainstorm & post ideas,deals, pictures etc.

Anyone up for it? Got any ideas? I've already said all of mine so far, lolz

Or anyone who's just had a wedding and wants to give some tips is more than welcome too!

Edited May 25, 2007 by LisaD

[Marilyn. 340]

I planned my wedding in less then 2 months... we had a very small wedding but it still was crazy trying to get it all done ...

luckily my sis-in-law knew some people, so she hooked me up

Edited May 25, 2007 by MarilynP

[Fandango 1,439]

That does sound crazy Marilyn...I'd be going insane!

I figured we could keep this thread alive for a bit which might be filled with good tips for planning a quick wedding. Which most of us have to do! After all the USCIS stuff, who wants to dot every t on wedding stuff.

First tip: check the prices of the photog before hiring him/her. Poor GaryA got ripped off & the damn photog is essentially keeping the photos hostage for $5k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ban Hammer 12,880]

Ok, so we've all seen my dress thread, but I figured lets make one where all of us brides can brainstorm & post ideas,deals, pictures etc.

Anyone up for it? Got any ideas? I've already said all of mine so far, lolz

Or anyone who's just had a wedding and wants to give some tips is more than welcome too!

i'll pencil in being the stripper for your bachlorette party

First tip: check the prices of the photog before hiring him/her. Poor GaryA got ripped off & the damn photog is essentially keeping the photos hostage for $5k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

issue the guests disposable cameras, or tell them to bring digital ones

[Fandango 1,439]

Ok, so we've all seen my dress thread, but I figured lets make one where all of us brides can brainstorm & post ideas,deals, pictures etc.

Anyone up for it? Got any ideas? I've already said all of mine so far, lolz

Or anyone who's just had a wedding and wants to give some tips is more than welcome too!

i'll pencil in being the stripper for your bachlorette party

lol now THAT'S a visual I didn't want in my head!

[Marilyn. 340]

also even though it might be free, having a friend of the family take the pictures is not always a good idea ...

our photographer did a good job but we were constantly having to tell him what pictures to take and all the pictures were taken kind of far away.... He was more used to taking pictures of trains then people.... but he did take them for free and even developed the first set of pictures free as a wedding gift to us.... and I do have a couple of pictures that I really like ...

but I still kind of I wish we would have spent the extra money and hired a professional.... one thing I am a little disappointed about is that there are no pictures of just me.. he took about 4 or 5 of just my hubby

My brother did do a good job of the video though

[Ban Hammer 12,880]

Ok, so we've all seen my dress thread, but I figured lets make one where all of us brides can brainstorm & post ideas,deals, pictures etc.

Anyone up for it? Got any ideas? I've already said all of mine so far, lolz

Or anyone who's just had a wedding and wants to give some tips is more than welcome too!

i'll pencil in being the stripper for your bachlorette party

lol now THAT'S a visual I didn't want in my head!

just doing my part, lisa

[Ephesia 0]

Lisa dear,

Hopefully, these tips will help you. Brandon and I practiced them when we planned our own wedding in 6 weeks after I got my visa. lol. Time was such a huge crunch but we did it, and our wedding was a blast.

1. Know what you want, so other people cannot change your minds even if they try to.

2. Delegate very specific tasks to the people who are going to help you and David on your big day. There was never any doubt in our wedding who was doing what. No room for random finger-pointing here. Hehe.

3. Don't change your wedding budget as time passes.

Some things we did that made our wedding feel very special:

1. Our photographer was a good friend who was close to graduating from photography school. We paid for her air ticket, accommodation, and gas. She took our photos for free. She made several 8x11 prints and mailed the CDs or all the originals to us - for free. The pictures were so well taken Walgreens and CVS refused to print our pictures because they were convinced we were trying to infringe someone's copyrights (even though we gave them a letter our friend had written that essentially said she was releasing all copyrights to us). His dad ended up buying an awesome HP photo printer and printed EVERYTHING out for us.

We're now making plans with this same friend to take our portraits outdoors in the fall. Woo hoo!

2. I made the wedding souvenirs - ordered paper bags and candy from bulk websites, and used traditional Asian items that I brought from home. Love bulk websites!

3. Sister-in-law made all the wedding invites. And she composed a very beautiful poem that encapsulated our long distance relationship in the invitation.

4. I ordered silk flowers online. Two years on, my bouquet still looks great!

Keep me posted on your wedding plans! I am so happy for you and David!

[Fandango 1,439]

Are you going to dance to James Blunt? lol

Meanwhile, getting back to the thread, I've thought a lot about photogs, and I'm leaning towards hiring one, cos whoever's taking the pictures won't be in them (if it's a fam member).

I fig we'll hire them for the ceremony & some posed afterwards, but then just have a free for all afterwards. Because it's a destination wedding, I don't know how to go about picking one tho

[new orleans bound 0]

Ok, so we've all seen my dress thread, but I figured lets make one where all of us brides can brainstorm & post ideas,deals, pictures etc.

Anyone up for it? Got any ideas? I've already said all of mine so far, lolz

Or anyone who's just had a wedding and wants to give some tips is more than welcome too!

My wedding was planned in two weeks. I did have help from my best friend, her sister, her mother and my mother.

For our wedding invitations and wedding program we went to staples and bought the pre-printed wedding invites there and printed them off the computer. For the wedding program we a card stock from a speciality store amd made on own programs.

One of my old high school classmates is a singer and she agreed to sign at the wedding and her friend played the piano.

My best friend's uncle is a priest and as a favour to her and me- he agreed to marry us as in the catholic church- he waived the 6 month notice thing.

We got flowers from grocery flower store and they were beautiful. The roses were on sale- 24 roses for 20.oo. we basically bought out all the red and white roses. From two different stores. My wedding bouquet was done by a small flower store.

Our two tier weeding cake was ordered a week from the wedding at the local grocery store bakery.

One of my dad's best friends is a really good photographer and he took the pictures while another one of his friends video taped it.

We bought chocolate truffles from a warehouse-they were cheap about 25 bucks for a box of 150 truffles, and those were our party gifts.

Basically my friends and I were able to buy center pieces and flowers and stuff fairly inexpensively. It's also good to know what your local grocery stores and speciality stores cause you can buy a lot of things there cheaper.

[mi_illusion_st 0]

my mother made my 4 yard long veil out of shimmery sheer curatain material at 4$ a yard. and willl be baking my cake. we are doing our own bbq reception. I made my own centerpieces. I am making my own invitations by using a kit I bought at wal mart. I bought inexpensive on sale cake knife & server for a grand total of 13$ and change. we are just adding bows to them. we also bought 1$ a yard material we are using on the table for table clothes (its in my colours that way too) and placing them over paperr table clothes for aborbtion. my party favors are gonna be herseys hugs and kisses in a bag with a card that says a hug and a kiss from the new mr and mrs. I also am using the church where my mother is a member for the wedding and reception which is provided for free because she is a member. I also along the way we found "us" and decided that we really truly only wanted people who were supportive of us all along to be at our wedding so that cut our list considereably. well enuff rambling from me.

edited to say: I have saved enough that we have $500 to spend on our honeymoon.

Edited May 26, 2007 by mi_illusion_st

[homesick_american 1]

That does sound crazy Marilyn...I'd be going insane!

I figured we could keep this thread alive for a bit which might be filled with good tips for planning a quick wedding. Which most of us have to do! After all the USCIS stuff, who wants to dot every t on wedding stuff.

First tip: check the prices of the photog before hiring him/her. Poor GaryA got ripped off & the damn photog is essentially keeping the photos hostage for $5k!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get everything...and I mean EVERYTHING...in writing.

[homesick_american 1]

Re: the wedding photos....

I wouldn't bother with digital, since even high-end digital cameras still cannot match even the quality of 35mm film. Wedding pictures are traditionally shot using medium format cameras and 120 film, which can make the traditional square photographs people associate with wedding photography.

The superior quality of medium format film vs digital photographs is immediately apparent as soon as you look at the finished product. We insisted on our wedding being shot using medium format film. Didn't cost us $5k either.

[LaL 418]

Are you going to dance to James Blunt? lol

Meanwhile, getting back to the thread, I've thought a lot about photogs, and I'm leaning towards hiring one, cos whoever's taking the pictures won't be in them (if it's a fam member).

I fig we'll hire them for the ceremony & some posed afterwards, but then just have a free for all afterwards. Because it's a destination wedding, I don't know how to go about picking one tho

we hired a photographer, and quite literally he was the one who salvaged our wedding during the evac. you saw a lil sample of my pix... they were photojournalistic style, posing to a bare minimum. They guy was kinda like a lil surfer dude, but was super accommodating. Inexpensive as well. We received a CD for digital images and also received proofs. Thought i would mention it since he is a Key West photographer.

http://www.tommynagel.com/

Edited May 26, 2007 by lal_brandow

[Cassie 8]

We used a combo of professional photographer (who didn't cost us an arm and a leg, because we only had her for a couple of hours), and my brother, who is an amazing amateur photographer. She used a combination of film and digital, and I bought B&W film for my brother to take during the ceremony. Completely worth it.

I also humbly suggest having specific jobs to keep the two moms occupied before the wedding. They wanted to help, so I gladly handed over certain things to them, and they were happy as clams, because they were "contributing".

I bought long stemmed roses and made my bouquet from that, saved me oodles of money.

The maid of honour's bouquet and flower girls's baskets had silk roses that matched the roses in my bouquet, saved money there too.

My aunt made my veil to match the one I saw in the bridal boutique, saved $170 on that one!

We had a buffet for the reception -- we made the squares/desserts, and got beautiful platters of croissant sandwiches, cheese/crackers, fruit, from a local grocer's deli.