Pre-Wedding Planning

In the last post, I talked about deciding where and when you want to get married.

Now let’s talk about what kind of wedding you want to have. Making a determination if your wedding is casual, formal, or somewhere in-between will influence the type of wedding invitations you select, the wedding dress, wedding flowers and even the number of wedding attendants you have.

If you're getting married in a barn on the family farm and the annoucement was made on MySpace, you probably don’t want a cathedral train on your wedding gown. That’s pretty extreme, but you know what I mean.

Let’s say you are having a destination wedding. (We'll speak more specifially in later posts about the pros and cons of these). Since some of your family and friends might not be able to go to Punta Cana, you may want to throw a party or a second wedding reception at home at a later date. I mean the Eva Longoria wedding in the French chateau was lovely, but do you have millions to spend?

So before you sit down and make all your budget plans, make a list of the different types of wedding and receptions that interest you and what the budget for each would be.

Talk to parents and others involved in helping you pay for the event, and decide what is best for you, them and your comfort level. Weddings are supposed to be happy occasions, and are not supposed to drive you too far into debt. If you know your ideas and your limitations, then you can make the right determinations for YOU and not allow undue influence from others who have their own best interests in mind.