Personal Wedding Planner

On any given day at just about any named place, anywhere in the world, at almost any hour of the day, there is a wedding taking place.

You have met the man of your dreams and you are the woman he wants to spend his life with. You have made a commitment to each other. The next step in the process is planning the wedding.

Newly engaged women rush out to the store to purchase bridal magazines. These magazines are filled with articles about planning your wedding, your honeymoon, picking the perfect dress, and photographs of weddings to give you ideas. As a bride-to-be, you want to have the best and most perfect wedding day that will fit your budget.

To have a perfect wedding, ideally you should start planning your wedding at least a year prior to your wedding day. If that is not possible, you will need to get organized as soon as possible.

As you go through the magazines, you should create charts that outline the tasks that should be performed in planning your wedding. The first thing you should do is try to organize your thoughts and all of the material you have collected.

First, you will need a system to keep all the details in one place. You can create your won system by using a three-ring binder with plastic protectors to hold small items such as pictures, business cards, brochures, and receipts. You should include a tabbed sheet for each category you will need. The categories may include:

• Wedding cake
• Ceremony
• Caterer
• Florist
• Music
• Reception
• Photography
• Transportation, and so on

You can also use an accordion file with the same category tabs. If you keep files in a file cabinet or your desk drawer, you can also create files to keep in you file cabinet or desk drawer. You should also have a calendar. If your wedding activities will begin in one year and the wedding date is in the next year, you should get a calendar that will allow you to pencil in the activities on the appropriate dates. One method is to use a calendar system such as a Daytimer where you add the pages for each year.

You can also use wedding planners on the Internet. There are a number of wedding sites where you can register and plan your wedding. You can enter the dates when a task is completed and keep lists of tasks that need to be done.

The system you choose is up to you. It may be a simple system of collecting receipts and putting them in the appropriate place. You also have the option of contracting with a wedding planner.

A wedding planner will work with you to plan the wedding and then coordinate all the activities needed to make your wedding day the perfect day you want. If you work, having a wedding planner will take a great deal of the stress associated with the tasks involved off your shoulders.

When you decide whether you are going to plan your wedding or hire a wedding planner, you should start your research. You can borrow books from the library, purchase books, or if you a recently married friend, borrow a book from them.

The next step is to start laying out a timetable for the tasks that need to be performed. These are the tasks leading up to the wedding day and the tasks that need to be performed on your wedding day, including the ceremony and the reception.

Some of the tasks that need to be performed include:

• Deciding if you are going to make a formal announcement of your engagement, when, and how.
• Discussing with your groom the date of the wedding.
• Deciding if you are going to hire a wedding consultant.
• Determining the type of wedding you will have, its location, formality, time of day, number of guests, and so on.

You may need to discuss a number of these tasks with your groom before the final decision is made.

If you are planning your own wedding and you have a task list and a timetable outlined, you can start to ask family and friends for their help.

Planning a wedding whether it is a formal or casual affair, or on the beach, or an elopement, takes time. Your wedding day is one of the most important occasions in your life and it is worth the time and effort to make it the best you can.