Hiring Babysitters for Your Wedding

So you've gotten the replies from your wedding invitations, but some guests are on the fence because they have babies and small kids who can't sit through a reception. You have a decision to make: should you hire babysitters or not?

If you are inviting guests with children, then you should definitely consider hiring a babysitter or babysitters during your ceremony, reception, or both. This gives your guests more flexibility and a chance to fully celebrate your nuptials.

In your invitations or save-the-date information, you may want to give guests a reply option for a babysitter. At least this way you'll know how many guests may need someone to watch their kids and if you'll need to hire more than one babysitter.

If you do decide to hire a babysitter, then you may need to reserve an extra room or two. The hotel should be able to place the babysitters in adjoining rooms to give children more space and create areas for sleep and play. This is especially useful if guests have children with varying sleep schedules.



Photo by gratsy, sxc.hu

Designer Wedding Attire for Less

You could feel a bit like a guestzilla when trying to find something to wear to a wedding. It's even more challenging when you find the right dress, but it turns out to be the same exact dress that Julia Roberts wore to the Oscars and at the same nothing-to-sneeze-at price.

No longer do you have to sacrifice your personal style or your hard-earned pennies if you look for a similar dress with a more buyer-friendly price tag!

Spring/Summer

BergdorfGoodman.com $1550.00
Macys.com $178.00

Fall

BergdorfGoodman.com $1990.00

Macys.com $99.00

Winter

BergdorfGoodman.com $640.00

Macys.com $137.99

*First photo is from Bergdorf and second photo is from Macy's reading left to right.

Who Pays for What?

Whether you believe marriage to be an emotional, spiritual, physical, or even mental investment, most couples will agree that it is definitely a financial one.

If you and your fiance are receiving money from your families for wedding expenses, then you might be trying to figure out who actually pays for what. You should probably discuss how their money can be spent, which has the added benefit of making your family feel that much more appreciated.

Traditionally, the breakdown of who pays for what is as follows:

Bride and Family Pays For:

• The wedding and reception venue
• Any and all bridal attire and floral needs (except for the bridal bouquet)
• The bridesmaid luncheon and wedding shower
• Photography and videography
• All catering, entertainment, and professional service cost

Groom and Family Pays For:

• Marriage license and officiant's fee
• Groom's outfit, bachelors' dinner and both bride's rings
• Bride's bouquet and going-away corsage, boutonnières for men and corsages for mothers and grandmothers
• Rehearsal dinner and honeymoon

Of course, several couples don't follow these rules that may or may not apply their own wedding needs. Also, with different family structures and familial relationships, not everything can be so easily divided. Even though not all of the tradition is practical, but you get a sense of where you could allocate a generous contribution toward your wedding.

Photo by foxumon, sxc.hu

A Few Tips for Planning Your Wedding

While you’re planning your wedding it may seem that everything around you somehow relates to the upcoming special day. Whether it be a commercial or some conversation that you overhear at Starbucks, you start to imagine how the wedding day will go, infused by images of things that you particularly feel strongly about like décor, the wedding dress, the cake, the venue location and more.

If you are trying to develop your vision of the big day, but don’t know where to begin, try these tips to help you on your way!

1. Start with your favorites spots. You and your fiancé should revisit some shared favorite places, like a restaurant, park, or even a movie theater. Just pick places where you love to go and write down or talk about why you love that place so much. Not only will this help you think about what kind of venue you want to have, but the tone and style that you want to achieve.

2. Consult with an expert. You probably want to bounce your ideas off of an impartial party or need help to extract and combine your particular tastes. You may discover that when you talk with a wedding consultant that the impossible may be possible with a bit of creativity.

3. Look through old and new photographs. If your family is involved in planning your guest list, then you could suggest sitting down with photographs to determine the guest list. You may not have pictures of everyone that you want to invite, but it’s a good start to know who matters most to your family. Looking through photos is a good refresher for everyone about your guests' names, especially if the list is long!

Photo by bea29sm, sxc.hu

Event Designer - Luxury or Necessity ?

The wedding/event designer, once a luxury reserved for only the wealthy and elite, has become a necessity in today's world. Planning and orchestrating a successful event can require the coordination of numerous details. A wedding designer can provide services in various capacities, from concierge to coordinator. It's important to learn as much as you can when you are looking into hiring a wedding designer for your event. How does one person manage to stay on top of the myriad decisions that must be made? Often the biggest challenge will be to keep yourself focused as you bringing your thoughts and ideas to a particular venue. You have to adopt your vision to a location without losing it. Designing an event or a wedding takes much more time and effort than planning it. Planning an event is like a production of the show, whereas the venue is a stage, the bride is a director and your designer a producer. A good wedding/event designer will help you to express your vision. Begin with inspiration, ideas and dreams! He will help you to generate an overall concept, conceptualize a style and communicate this to your guests. He should be able to find a way to create a wedding uniquely your own.

What makes an event to be a success? I think the "WOW" factor, the feeling of joy that people will feel when they remember the party later. Your wedding/event designer should create a unique atmosphere to ensure that your guests would truly enjoy the memorable moment of your life. When you design a wedding you are surrounding your guests with a part of who you are. It would be a challenge for a wedding designer to read your mind, sometimes as we say get into your head to understand what are the most important aspects that matter to you. He has to help you to express yourself and what you are aiming for.

Usually at the first meeting with your wedding/designer, you should discuss an ultimate concept or theme, including color and mood. You have to be as original as you can and design something that you are comfortable with. You have to pinpoint what do words like romantic, chic or elegant mean to you. You will be surprised how differently each one of us defines them.

Style is adaptable; it can be anything for anyone. Signature elements of your own wedding design have been overlooked in the pass, some of the elements like ambiance lighting in reception area will add enormous visual impact, adding scent will tickle your guests' senses and using texture in your floral décor and table setting will leave fabulous and breathtaking effect.

A good wedding designer also should maximize any budget and make the most out of the couples' valuable time and hard-earned money. He should be there to ensure proper setup and breakdown of each decorative element. Any wedding and event presents a challenge and it will turn out to be successful when you will love the result and your guests will never forget it.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Heifez

The Wedding Guild

Society of Certified Wedding Professionals of NJ

So many books are written, thousands of articles are published; endless blogs are overpowering the net… New trends are set every day…thousands of ads...

Where do we go? How do we select? How do we make a decision which would be the best for our special day that we have dreamed of for years? How much time do we need for preparation? How do we choose? What criteria should we use to decide who to trust? The list of questions is endless. It is too overwhelming and stressful - isn’t it?

Don’t worry. There are thousands of great professionals with solid reputation. The only thing left to do is to find them which can take hours of research. You need to collect references and evaluate their performance, professional attitude, personality. For instance you just visited several photographers, who all are compatible in their work and pricing. Now you have to make a choice. And then a scary thought - “did I make the right choice”.

That is where we come in. For decades we have worked side by side with professionals in every aspect of wedding production. We have seen the success and the failures, and we want to protect our own clients from costly mistakes, from series of disappointments and frustration.

To that end we created the Wedding Guild of wedding craftsmen based on the guilds of medieval times. A guild was composed by the most experienced and confirmed experts of their field. A prerequisite of any new member joining the guild is a thorough and careful evaluation of his experience, reliability and approval by all the other guild members. Our standards are set to be the highest in the industry and we enforce a code of professional responsibly by examining the knowledge of our members.

A wedding is very much like Broadway show, with a wedding planner as a director and all of the other professionals as cast members. The more we “perform” together, the better we know what to expect from each other. We become intuitive. We trust each other to provide everything necessary to make your event beautifully seamless.

We would gladly share this information with you and refer you only the best. Contact our concierge service; give them all the necessary details and criteria. They will find you a match who will suit your needs. In case you don’t know yet what you are looking for, or have not picked your venue, theme and décor, again we can help. Make an appointment with one of our experienced wedding and event planners and they will coach you through.

Do you know what the most fascinating part of all is? It is absolutely FREE. You will not be charged for any of the event planning consultations or referrals.

Now you are asking yourself, why would anybody do this? What’s the catch?

All of our members refer each other to their clients. We believe in “word of mouth” referrals, which only occur when you make your client completely happy. This is our highest reward.
One more benefit! When you call us, you will be given a unique pass, a number that you can take to any of the guild members and receive incentives as a Wedding Guild client. The more vendors you choose, the greater your savings.

So why not try it? What have you got to lose? Imagine…save time and aggravation, hire a team of professionals, and save money too. Call or email us today and obtain some valuable information that will help you plan the wedding more efficiently.