Usually on Wedding Wednesday we concentrate on all things shiny, pretty and wedding-y. Well this week I thought I'd take a different route. I have a few friends that are getting married in the (nearish) future and for some reason I've become the group "expert" (I"m using this term VERY loosely) on weddings and wedding advice. I'm not really sure how this happened. Maybe it was my time on The Knot...or just my general "I need to know everything about this subject before I dive in" attitude but I've been getting some questions lately so I thought it might be neat to address some of them here. So here we go:
Q) When should I order my wedding dress?
A) You should try and give yourself enough time that your dress can be ordered, made, shipped and altered without panicking the week before the wedding. A good rule of thumb is order 6-9 months out. Some designers take up to 6 months to create a dress and ship it, while others can rush it in a few months. Either way, unless you're buying a sample right off the rack I would give yourself lots of time. Better to have it sit in your closet for a month or two, then to be calling the store the month before the wedding.
Q) When should I ask my wedding party?
A) I'm a big believer in waiting. You need to at least have a firm date and a venue before asking your party. This means your contract is signed and it's a done deal. We asked about 10 months out. Normally I would say, again, 6-9 months out. You don't want to ask too early because, let's face it, relationships can change. But you also don't want to leave it to the last minute and have people scrambling for money.
Q) What do I need to do first? What needs to be booked and when?
A) Big question. Number one thing you need to do is the budget. You need to know how much you are working with and then go from there. After that you need a guest list and then move on to the date/venue/caterer/etc. The Knot has a great checklist. Or check out my to-do list on mine and Mr. Dan's planning site.
Q) How many people should I invite? How do I know how big to make my guest list? Who goes on it?
A) That's a really personal question. How many people do you want there? How many people can your venue hold? Never invite more people than your venue can hold. If you invite more and they all show up...well basically you're screwed! I would suggest making a guest list with everyone you want to be there. Make sure you ask mom and dad/future in-laws for names as well. Then, if it's too large, go through and start removing people that you aren't that close to, or people that you haven't seen in X years, co-workers, etc. Also, please don't make an A and a B list. That is so rude. It's like saying to the B list "You weren't important enough to come but now that one of my A's can't come...would you like to?". RUDE. And it would piss me off. I'd rather not get an invite, personally.
Those are my basic wedding questions for today. Please feel free to leave me a comment or send me an e-mail if you have any other questions!
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