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What Should We Do To Plan Our Wedding? – Ask The Expert Answer

March 8, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Question from Sherif/Nourhan:

Our wedding is arranged to be 15 july 2009, please advice on what should we be doing in order to get ready for this day.  Please note that it will be my birthday too.

Answer from Bridal Expert Angela:

Hi, and congratulations on your upcoming wedding.  The first thing you should do is get a good wedding planner.  These checklists are found in most bridal magazines.  There are many great wedding planning books for sale in your local book store, and also online. 

This article covers the first things to start with in planning your wedding.

Filed Under: Ask The Expert, planning Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Engagement Announcements and Party Invitations

February 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment
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You are engaged!  You are feeling excited, and your first thought is to share the news with everyone you know.  Then comes the first choices in a long list of wedding planning choices—do we send out engagement annoucements or do we have an engagement party?

An engagement notice is a formal notice that you send out to family and close friends.  Usually the wording announces the upcoming wedding that is planned for a specific date, it asks the recipient that they ‘save the date’, and it states that wedding invitations will be sent out closer to the date.  An alternative is to send out save-the-date cards which basically has the same message.  Since you state you will later be sending out wedding invitations, be sure that the people you send this to will actually be on your wedding guest list.  For this reason, it is usually sent to family and close friends only.

Another way to announce your engagement is to put it in your local newspaper.  If there is a group of family members living in another city or town, be sure to also put the announcement in their local paper.  Usually a photo is included with a newspaper annoucement, and the newspaper has a format that they give you to follow when writing up the announcement.

Another unique way to send out your engagement announcement is to take a photo and create photo cards at your local drug store or photo store.  These can be made right at the photo kiosk from a digital picture, and there are usually a number of templates to choose from which allows you to put in a personalized message.

Sometimes, couples opt for an engagement party and announce the engagement at the party.  Although tradition states that the engagement party is hosted by the bride’s mother, and the rehearsal dinner is hosted by the groom’s parents, today engagement parties are often jointly hosted by the parents of the bride and groom.

Whether you choose to send out engagement announcements or throw an engagement party, there is a large selection of invitations to choose from that will set the tone for your wedding theme or motif.

Filed Under: Engagement, invitations, Save-The-Date Cards Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Wedding Colour Choices Made Easy by Angela Fiebelkorn

February 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Wedding Colour Choices Made Easy by Angela Fiebelkorn.  This 10 page document explains the basic principles of using a colour wheel to figure out what colours go together.

Explore Tonal Colour Schemes, Complementary Colour Schemes, Harmonious Colour Schemes, and Triadic Colour Schemes, as well as the use of neutrals and texture in design.  Filled with pictures to explain each concept as they are presented, this handy document is a great primer to design and decor planning.  Using these principles will give you the knowledge and confidence to make choosing your wedding colours an easy task.

Remember, we are always available on the blog to answer your personal wedding planning questions. 

If you would like to receive this .pdf file, sign up for our SmartBrideTM Newsletter.  When you sign up, we give three bonus wedding planning tools which includes: 

  • Wedding Colour Choices Made Easy (a .pdf document),
  • The Hidden Meaning of Wedding Flowers  (a 3 part video series) and
  • The Secret of Dressing Your Body Type (another .pdf document). 

Remember, the newsletter is free, and you can cancel at any time.

Filed Under: Ask The Expert, Colours Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Wedding Planning Budgets

January 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
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When you start to plan your wedding, it is easy to get caught up in the fun of shopping, and designing your overall theme, but wedding planning needs to start with your budget.  When you first start planning your wedding, it is important to speak to your family to see what they are willing to contribute to the overall budget. 

There are costs that are traditionally paid for by the bride’s family, the groom’s family, and by the bride and groom themselves.  The bride’s family traditionally pays for the engagement party, newspaper notices, music, photography, invitations, ceremony site, flowers for decorations and bridesmaids, and reception expenses (except for the alcohol), to name the main ones.

The groom and his family pays for the groom’s attire, marriage license, accommodations for out of town guests, alcohol for the reception, bride’s bouquet, corsages, boutonnieres, and officiant’s fee to name the main costs. 

The bride pays for thank you notes, guest book, gifts for her attendants, and beauty appointments for her attendants and herself.  The groom pays for gifts for his attendants, contributes to costs paid for by his family, as well paying for the honeymoon.

The average cost of a wedding in Canada in 2007 was $18,500, but ranged anywhere from $10,000 to over $30,000.  The largest cost for a wedding is the reception/catering (42%), followed by the rings (20%), photography (8%), apparel (7%), video (5%), flowers (5%), music (3%), ceremony (3%), cake (3%), invitations (2%), limo (1%) and miscellaneous (4%). 

It is important to get a great wedding planning checklist and stick to the timeline.  I have witnessed weddings being postponed due to the wedding dress and bridemaid dresses not arriving in time.  Everything takes longer than you think when planning your wedding.  Sticking to your budget is the most important thing when going through your wedding planning.  There are many ways to cut costs. 

Since the reception costs take the greatest part of your budget, it is easy to try to cut your costs there.  It is true, there are some great ways to save money on reception costs, but you might consider eliminating some other costs like the videography, or the limousine.  A family member, or even a number of family members could take video at the wedding and reception, or a family friend might have a beautiful car that can be the wedding car. 

Whatever your plans, define your budget, and be clear on your timeline and follow it.  Get input from your family on what they are interested in paying for, and plan your budget accordingly.  Just because there are traditional costs, doesn’t mean they will actually pay for all those costs.  Be gracious for all offers of assistance to your wedding budget.

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How Do I Find A Wedding Planner? – Ask The Wedding Expert Answer

January 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Question from Carra:

Hello, I live in Victoria, BC and I am planning on getting married next year, and a friend of mine gave me her planner from 2006 and I was wondering where we can get one for 2009.

Answer from The Wedding Expert:

Hi Carra, and congratulations on your upcoming wedding.  There are many wedding planners available on the market, but they usually come in four styles.  First, you can find wedding planning checklists all over the internet if you search for them.  I suggest looking at more than one list, because each list is slightly different and this will give you more ideas for your wedding.  You can print the list(s) and keep everything organized in a binder for yourself.

The second type of wedding planner that I have regularly seen is the kind often available at bridal shows.  These are usually created locally and have suggestions for local vendors who specialize in weddings.  I suggest you attend your local bridal shows to see what is available in your area.

The third type of wedding planner is commercial style books/albums/keepsakes that are available in all the major bookstores, and of course, can be found on-line with a ‘wedding planner book’ search.  These planners are often quite different from each other, each giving information in a different way.  Some of these planners become a keepsake book for you at the end of the wedding process.

The fourth type of wedding planner is to hire a wedding planner to look after all the details for you.  Many brides discount this option as being too expensive, but consider hiring a wedding planner to do only part of your wedding process.  For example, the most common problem brides have is deciding how to decorate their reception space to create the feeling that they want.  By hiring a wedding planner to only ‘decorate the reception space’ you will get the best of both worlds—cost savings by doing most of the planning yourself, and wisely spending money on the part of the wedding planning process that is too much for you.

I suggest you check to see who published the wedding planner that was lent to you.  There might be a phone number or contact information if it is locally produced, or if it is a commercial style, you can ask at a bookstore to see if that publisher has a 2009 version of the wedding planner. 

The wedding planning process should be a joyful time, but can get stressful.  Your bridal party is there to help you, your family and friends can help out, and you can hire people to do all or part of the work.  You have many options.  Enjoy the memories you are creating!

Angela Fiebelkorn, The Wedding Expert

Filed Under: Ask The Expert, Reception Tagged With: , , , , ,