Planning A Wedding? Read on to Avoid Common Mistakes!

Regardless of whether your plan is to have a small or huge wedding, undoubtedly the initial planning process is extremely important. Commonly the female and her family and friends will be the most actively involved in the organizing side of things, although now days more men are participating as well. Don't be surprised if five minutes after the "I do's" are out of the way, the bride to be begins gushing out hundreds of ideas that have been brewing since she was thirteen years old! The goal is to work out together what kind of event would make your wedding a memorable event for both of you, then get out your pen and paper and start writing.

Mistakes happen, and it isn't humanly possible for a couple to plan a massive function without any hiccoughs when they have never had experience in that area. Admittedly, most errors involve something not being booked on time or followed up with booking fees on time, such as bands, hotels, caterers, priests, flowers and cars. Leaving bridesmaids dresses, the brides dress or shoes till too close to the date also often results in disaster. When you make your first list, you must include a column just for recording anything that requires bookings and confirmation so you can organize all of them before anything else. If you find your wedding is too far in advance for most services, clearly diarize when you can call to make the commitment.

Confirming every booking is very important too, and you can't just presume that because you have your name down everything will run smoothly. By paying a percentage in advance to confirm the details is a good idea, and regular phone calls every month or so is good follow up and also good for report. One bride in particular had verbal confirmation from a singer and piano player who promised to work her wedding. Having trusted this to be a booking, she arrived at the wedding to see no musician anywhere! Her mother was frantically trying to call while her father scoured the guests for a potential fill in. Unfortunately, the bride walked down the isle in silence, and although she fared well considering, it will forever play on her mind that something was really missing.

A wedding is an occasion to remember, and one mistake often made is supplying too much alcohol. If it is your style, many people like to have a few drinks at a wedding, but be aware that horror stories have come from too much alcohol. Sometimes it is best to have a plan in place where you supply a glass of champagne on arrival at the reception, followed by a glass with the toasts. You can provide one glass of wine or a beer to each person with food, then another drink with desert. When the speeches are over, the tables are cleared and everyone is ready to dance you may decide to provide an open bar for the people who choose to have a later night, but having copious amounts of free alcohol the whole time can be a bad idea.

Don't invite too many guests and stick to your agreed budget. If a relative offers to assist in paying for your wedding, don't see it as a sign to be extravagant and instead use it to pay for your existing plans. Too many couples today are starting marriage off in debt from their wedding, and when the party is over this causes a lot of stress on the relationship. Not a good way to begin marriage, and it never would have been like that in your ancestor's days. They would have saved for the wedding upfront or been lucky enough to have parents or in-laws pay for them. Now days loans and credit cards are easy to use, but you only want people at your wedding you will enjoy sharing your special day with. For those who you rarely have contact with you may want to consider sending them a DVD of the events afterwards, explaining that it was a small wedding but you still wanted to share it with them.

Another problem arising on the wedding scene is couples asking guests to only pay money in place of a gift: Many potential guests will be put out by it, and it takes the personal touch out of it. Friends and family prefer to express their love and caring for you through picking out something special you will have and use through your whole married lives, and when you ask for money everyone is individually forgotten. If you don't want a sterile or greedy undertone to your wedding, let people give gifts from their hearts, after all you are getting married to be with the one you love not to increase your bank balance!