This week, my mom told me that her co-worker’s daughter recently became engaged. (If she’s reading this, congratulations!) Mom asked if I had any advice to pass on to the daughter. Even though we’re not yet married (just over 6 months to go), I did have some advice. What follows is what I sent on. I invite you to add your advice in the comments.
Don’t let any vendor make you feel as if you are asking too many questions or being too picky. If they do, you don’t want to work for them.
Oh my goodness, do not use Asbury Park Grove as a site. Horrible, horrible and smells like urine. In fact, check out our wedding blog at www.karenanderik.com to see the Charlotte area vendors we have talked to, and our reviews.
For getting a ceremony/reception place, keep this in mind. There are 52 weeks in a year. There are thousands of couples getting married. There are only so many places to get married in. Because of this, some places have the attitude that they really don’t need to return calls or email because they’re going to get the business anyway (Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden was the worst offender – called them over a dozen times to get one lame voicemail reply back). So KEEP CALLING, and start calling NOW. We secured our places 10 months in advance after a 3 month process. That so far has been the most difficult part of the wedding planning. With every call to a reception site, ask them if they have your preferred date available, how many they can seat (if you are inviting 200 people, places like the Levine Museum of the New South are out because they can hold about 120) and what their minimum cost is for food/beverage. That will immediately tell you if they are available and in your budget.
We wanted to have a place that could house both the ceremony and reception in one place. This proved to be too much of a nightmare – a lot of sites that had a ceremony area put them in bad places (next to the dumpster or the parking lot, for example). Remember, the ceremony is the reason for the party, it should be in a special place. We ended up going with St. John’s Episcopal Church for the ceremony and Providence Country Club for the reception. With country clubs, you may have to be a member/know a member to have your event there (or it might just cost a bit more for non-members). Providence Country Club allows non-members to have events there, but it is a bit cheaper if you can get “sponsored” by a member.
Indulge in bridal magazines (seriously, they are awesome) but realize that most everything in there costs a crapload of money. The first thing you need to do is talk to your fiancé and discuss a budget. If family members can contribute, it is MUCH easier for them to contribute X amount of dollars than to say they’ll pay for a certain aspect, such as flowers.
(Note, by then I had to get back to work, but could have written much more. Leave your advice in the comments.)
Advice to the groom to be: Learn the phrases “Yes Dear!” and “That looks great dear!” and make sure its enthusiastic not sarcastic.
Advice to the groom: Joking about shoving cake in your bride’s face is really not a good idea.
What if you say “It’ll look great!”?
More advice: while kneeling at a serious part of the ceremony, motion to the bride that she has a booger hanging out of her nose and whisper “You have a booger.”
Guaranteed laughs for the groom, red cheeks for the bride.
Seriously. That was some funny shit. Even Dana will admit that.
Here’s the only advice I can offer:
No Children allowed/invited. You’ll be MUCH happier not having any children, rugrats, snot goblins, scream machines, little wailers, diaper loaders etc etc..(what ever you want to call them) at your Wedding or the Reception. That’s what a babysitter is for! – LeeChee
Mark’s right, the booger joke is always a riot, especially at your own wedding in a huge church in front of a ton of people.
But it was some funny s.
LeeChee: Congratulations, you’ve just been picked as the babysitter!
Dana/Fitx: This morning, I was listening to the radio and one of my favorite romantic songs came on. And I started to get all misty-eyed and blubbery thinking of the wedding, then the booger joke popped in my head. Snapped me right out of it!