Wedding Tips for Future Brides
Every girl dreams about this perfect day! Beautiful dress, flowers, all eyes on you while you are exchanging vows and rings with your one and only love. It sounds amazing, but it does get a little stressful when the preparation period begins. Since I've been through this whole wedding planning thing, I want to share a few of my tips for you, future brides. :) Btw, if you would like to see the post about my wedding, you can find it here.
1) Go to wedding expos! Jude and I learned so late about these fun events. I believe it was about 3 months before our wedding, when we found out about the possibility to win free things for our wedding. We signed up for two expos. We didn't win anything, unfortunately. However, there were so many couples that won honeymoon packages, free cakes, limo rides, dresses, and lots of other things. You can meet your potential photographers, DJ's, etc. there, so I definitely recommend checking out as many of these wedding expos as possible. You can find them online in your area. :)
2) The easiest way to get your RSVP's is by using this awesome free website, called RSVPify. Basically, you create your own wedding page, where the invited guests are able to let you know whether they are coming or not, and what their meal choice is. You are able to check how many guests RSVP'ed at any time of the day. So easy!
3) Use Wedding Wire or The Knot websites to help you find your perfect venue. Jude and I spent so much time on Wedding Wire, but we were so happy that we came across this website, because it helped us discover our amazing wedding venue.
4) Start looking for dresses and bridesmaid dresses as soon as you can. Unless your dress is a sample, is your perfect size, and you are ready to take it home there and then, most dresses are custom made. You will need to wait around 6 months for the dress to be made, and don't forget about the fittings! When it comes to bridesmaid dresses, the timing may be a little less harsh. My maid of honor bought her dress online, and it took her about three months to receive it. It looked amazing on her. :)
5) Consider renting your wedding dress. To be honest, I did not want to rent it, but now I am struggling to sell my dress, and it just sits in a big box at my apartment. I have no idea what to do with it. I guess I'm just going to wear it every now and then for my husband. Haha. But seriously, do consider renting it, if you want to save money.
6) Flowers for the wedding are not cheap! Jude and I had artificial flowers used for our table centerpiece, which we was also put on the arch outside during our ceremony. If you love DIY projects, consider making your own centerpieces. I did just that by getting lots of artificial flowers, vases, sand and rocks from Michael's, and everyone loved the way the tables were decorated. It is a great opportunity to have your girlfriends help out while having a movie+wine night. :)
7) Use Pinterest for inspiration! This website helped me come up with my own centerpieces, with the way I wanted to decorate the aisle and chairs, etc. You can find lots of useful information in the Weddings category.
8) Download a wedding planner to your phone. This really helped me a lot. I was able to set the budget, and make sure that everything would be done on time and paid for. There were little things like table numbers that I would definitely forget about if not for the reminder from my wedding planner.
9) Buy your veil and accessories separately from your dress. Usually, bridal salons have very expensive prices for veils, shoes, and accessories. My veil's price was three times more at the bridal salon than at the website I bought it from. I bought it at TBDress for about $15, and despite the price, it looked amazing and the way I wanted it to!
10) The most important thing about your wedding is not even your dress, but the people who you invite. Some people think that is is necessary to invite every single person they are acquainted with to share their special day. The question is why? You stress over food, and your budget, etc., and invite individuals that are there to simply eat and party and put pictures of themselves on their social media. Jude and I had fewer than 80 guests at our wedding. Those were the people we cared about, and we were so happy to spend that day with them. Don't think you are obligated to invite people that you kind of talk to once in a while to show everyone else that you have friends. Even a small circle of family and friends is much better than hundreds of people who are there for the wrong reasons.
I hope you found this post helpful! Let me know what you think! :)