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

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

How to Choose Your Wedding Professionals

Eight most important principles to consider when choosing your wedding professionals:

Reliability, Experience, Reputation, Honesty, Ethic, Personality, Professionalism, Cost

A wedding professional with all of those values is the one you want. The real challenge is to find one. Newly engaged couples have to select qualified wedding experts from unqualified ones.

Because in today's advanced internet era it takes just a few hours to create a spectacular website, then a few minutes to insert raving reviews by imaginary wedding couples, less than a hundred dollar payment to the top wedding sites for advertising and off you go. Online you would never know the difference! You hear a lot of horrifying stories how the florist did not show up to the wedding or photo albums did not come in, or wedding video got lost and it goes on and on. Unfortunately it is true. In today's economy, it is obvious that price determines the sale. You will find people who will promise you an exceptional deal for a very low cost. Just be aware that grapes are not always sweet and even the best deals sometimes fail. We all know that the value of quality, honesty and reliability cannot be priced. Indeed we are not suggesting clients to overpay just because some vendors have been on the market for 20 years.

Always check the credentials or at least ask for valid references. Any vendor should not be offended, he or she should be happy to provide you with a list, because word of mouth is the best advertising. This does not apply to situations, where your sister already used the services of the same professional, it applies to professionals you do not know.

I would suggest meeting the vendor before reserving his/her services. If you have three similar offers from wedding professionals in pricing, quality and services - who will you hire? You need to establish a bond and understanding with that person. Personal qualities are important and you have to assure that you feel comfortable. There are some exceptions; for instance being an out of state bride makes it difficult to meet with the vendors in advance. In that case, I would either call up the banquet hall or ask for references.

Also, don't forget to ask for a contract, read it carefully and then mutually sign it. Make sure that the person you are meeting with is actually the one performing the services on your wedding day, and if not, ask to meet with the one who is. The last thing you want is to spend all that time and money to find out on your wedding day that the job is subcontracted to a totally different person or a company.

If quality is important to you, don't only consider the price, find out about how reliable and experienced the vendor is. You have to keep in mind that most of the advertisements in different wedding magazines and sites are "paid advertisements" and do not necessarily always mean high quality service. As I said before the best advertising is word of mouth. If your friend is raving to you about a wedding designer who decorated her/his wedding, definitely check that professional out.

by Kristina Valdmaa

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.