Top 10 biggest wedding-planning mistakes
Don’t fall prey to these wedding-planning blunders like some unfortunate brides before you:
- Spending money on things that aren’t important to you. Just because your mother-in-law thinks you should spend $400 on wedding favors doesn’t mean you have to. If giving your guests token favors isn’t important to you, then put that money somewhere that IS important, whether it’s the menu, the dress of the honeymoon. Wedding vendors are constantly going to be trying to talk you into spending more than you anticipated on their services. Learn to just say “no.”
- Drinking too much the night before the wedding. Whether your bridesmaids want to take you out for the bachelorette party or your rehearsal dinner has free-flowing beverages, getting trashed the night before you walk down the aisle is a bad idea. Not only will it ruin what is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life because you’ll have a headache — or worse — but you’ll also have bloodshot eyes, baggy under-eye circles and blotchy skin. That’s not exactly what a blushing bride is supposed to look like.
- Thinking that because it’s your wedding day, you can do whatever you want. That’s the exact definition of a bridezilla. It’s not just YOUR day, it’s your FIANCEE’S day as well, so don’t forget about him.
- Booking a ceremony or reception hall before finalizing the guest list. If you fall in love and put a deposit down on a reception venue that only holds 100 guests, but then your future in-laws come to you with their third of the guest list, and it tops out your guest list at 145, what are you going to do? It’s going to be a tough decision to cut 45 people. Follow a wedding planning checklist to make sure that you’re getting things done in the proper order, and you won’t run into a blunder like this.
- Not paying attention to the legalities. This could be in regards to the marriage license — there are rules that vary by states, and if you screw things up, your marriage license might not be valid. Certain states have waiting periods (for example, three days between when you receive the license until when you can legally marry), and some have time limits (the marriage has to take place within 60 days of the license being issued). Be on top of this at least a month before the wedding.
- Forgetting to book a block of hotel rooms. If you have a lot of guests coming from out of town, it’s courteous for you to block off a certain number of rooms that the hotel then offers to guests at a discount. If you forget to do this, the guests could have a hard time finding a room near your wedding, especially if you live in a seasonally touristy town or there’s a big event going on in your city the same weekend.
- Underpaying invitation postage. If you send out a big batch of invitations right at the two-month mark, you’re perfectly on schedule. Except what happens when they’re returned for insufficient postage? That will throw the whole schedule off track and your guests won’t enough notice of the wedding.
- Not setting up a formal time line for your wedding. Things will be chaos if people don’t know where they’re supposed to be and when. Type out a timeline that indicates the start and end time of the ceremony, the introduction of the bridal party, the time dinner is being served, when the toasts and first dances are, and when the cake is being cut. Hand this out to people who need to know — the DJ or bandleader, the officiant, the maid of honor and best man, and the head of the catering staff. This ensures that no one is taken by surprise.
- Choosing a menu that most people won’t eat. It’s great if you want to have more than the standard chicken, potatoes and steamed vegetables served as your meal. But if you choose a duo of veal and lamb without any other choices, you’ll likely alienate many of your guests, who will then go hungry (or binge on wedding cake).
- Putting off wedding dress shopping. The wedding dress process can take time. Not only is it unlikely you’ll find the dress of your dreams the first time you shop, but even if you do, alterations can take months. Occasionally a bride will find an off-the-rack dress that she can take home and not worry about, but it’s more likely that your dress will take at least six to eight months to be ready.
Do you know about any other mistakes? Let us know and leave a comment.
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