Wedding Planning Tips & Ideas

Guidelines I used for picking the Bridesmaids

Picking your bridal party can be stressful. Agree on a certain number in your party before you start thinking of names and who you want in your party.

Here is my personal checklist I used to choose my bridesmaids

1. Are they trustworthy, reliable and organized?

2. Have they been there for you through tough times and always try to connect with you throughout the years?

3. Do they always care about your well-being and have been a true friend? Do they ask how you're doing or do they always mainly want to talk about themselves?

4. Do you think they'll complain about it? (Sorry, I had to add this one.)

5. Do they understand you to the core and do you feel the same? 

Picking my Maid of Honor and Matron of Honor

I have decided on having a maid of honor and a matron of honor for my party. I used the first two people I thought of when people started asking me this. I didn't know it at the time but those thoughts are my gut instincts. Some brides just have one while others have two.

Wedding Planning

Make it fun! 

We had 7 months of planning and it was just enough time! Check out the wedding checklist that's also on this page and the actual steps I took to complete my to-do list by date/order.

My bridal bouquet was a tad different than the majority. I asked him (the florist) to do groupings instead of making it symmetrical and it was well worth the creativity! We had beach-themed decorations and this tree was literally within 5 yards from the water.

Wedding Checklist 

Here was my wedding checklist with some notes regarding some of the venues I picked. Feel free to use this as a guide for your own wedding.

1. Rehearsal Dinner - The groom's family usually pay for this. This was our case as well.

2. Bar Tab - Included in Reception budget

3. Reception - 75% of total cost

4. Outdoor Ceremony -  Site + Officiant - We have found an officiant to perform our ceremony. If you are not religious or have different religions from each other, an officiant is a great option to help you with your vows.

5. Cake - Included in Reception package. We picked our cake and flavors 5 months before our wedding day. Check with your venue if they include the cake as well. 

6. Wedding Gown & Tux - Wedding Gown + Groom's tux cost us about $500 before alterations. (I placed a low budget on these.)

7. Decor & Flowers -   We picked our flowers and signed the contract with the florist four months before my wedding. They were spectacular. 

8. Gifts/Transportation/DJ Entertainment - Our DJ was found on Craigslist.org. I was satisfied with my decision on this one.

9. Photography/Videography - We only hired 1 photographer. He took our engagement photos and they turned out excellent! This photographer has moved away from Southern California. We were lucky to have him as our photographer.

10. Invitations - I ordered invitations from David's Bridals' website 4 months before our wedding with the goal to send the invitations 2.5 months before our wedding. I was happy with them so I suggest you look at the David's Bridal websites for the invitations before you go look somewhere else. I think it's a pretty good price range for the quality. They also let you get a free sample.

11. Party Favors - These cost me about $250 which includes us decorating them. I've had friends who did bottle toppers, shot glasses, candy, etc. and I think you shouldn't go overboard with it because more likely than not, they will be tossed out from their home in a couple of years.

12. Bridesmaids' gifts/groomsmen gifts - Don't forget about a gift to your bridal party!

13. Hair and make up - Make sure you have your hair and make up trial before you agree on having that person do your hair and make-up. Sometimes you might end up not liking the hairstyle you intended to have on yourself.

14. Rehearsal Dinner invitations - Don't forget this as it's a nice touch to your personal party group. 

15. Menu Cards  - This is a nice touch on each plate. (scroll down to the bottom to see my menu)

Sailor Girlfriend's Steps for Wedding Planning

27 Steps 

Step 1: Budget and Synergy of Ideas (common ground)

Our first strategy to save money for the wedding is to shack up so we can save on rent. So we did!

Step 2: Calling and picking venues (6.5 months from wedding)

Since my husband was in the Navy, we checked out the navy bases for event options. They offered quite a few options for catering and if you're in the military, it is 10% off the tab and the service charge is 5% less so that is 15% service charge instead of 20%. It's a not a bad deal and you can have the ceremony there. Even if you're non-military, you can still have your events here. It would range between $500 - 750 to rent the outdoor space for the military.  The negative thing is you can't hire outside caterers or bring outside food or beverage if you rent their space. You have to buy food and beverages there however they don't tax so you can actually save thousands with that.

Another thought that we had was just rent a space some where and pick our own caterers and then have our friends help out with bartending. We found a banquet venue for a 6 hour rental which includes a dance floor, tables and 2 security guards for $1,800.  It was cheap but it was far. Then, we figured it would be too much work for our visitors to try to find the event place at the military base since most of our friends and family are civilians, so we decided to not do it at the navy base either.

Three weeks later, we're still researching to find the right venue for our wedding. My fiance actually have a lot of input on our wedding plans so it's nice that the burden is just not on me. We were hoping our connections could help us lower the cost of the venue. It didn't. I suggest you look within your circle of friends to see if they have any catering or event planning hook ups because weddings are expensive to plan!

A little bit less than 6 months from wedding - My four bridesmaids helped me pick my wedding dress. We went to David's Bridal and it was the 8th dress I tried on. I didn't want to try on any more dresses. It costed me $400 because it was luckily on sale! Till this day, my friends still call me simple because I was so easy on picking out the dress. Comparing to my friends, whose dresses were all $1000 or more, I saved a lot of money on this so I had enough money to pay for all of my bridesmaids' makeup and hair on my expense on my wedding day. :) 


About 5.5 months from wedding date - We picked the venue. We narrowed it down to one place after one month of searching. We're having both the ceremony and reception at the same venue. This makes is much easier and guests do not have to worry about driving to 2 different places. Their Saturdays were very limited so we decided to do it on a Sunday! The wedding package includes our reception, ceremony, cake, linens and chair covers with sash, and open bar cocktail hours. I suggest you attend a bridal show or bazaar near your town to see if you can steal some deals. Our menu included 4 different hor d'erves, salad, filet migon with shrimp with potatoes and veggies with 2 desserts. Scroll down to see my menu cards and wedding cake. 

Step 3: We Picked our Photographer (About 5 months before wedding date)

Our photographer drove all the way from Laguna Beach, California to meet with us about our expectations and we appreciated it very much. We signed the contract the next day and mailed the deposit check to him. I only hired one photographer and he shot our engagement photos and wedding day. He was fantastic but now that I look back, I wish I had hire two photographers.

Step 4: About 4.5 months before our wedding date - DJ Vendor shopping

This may sound crazy but we found ours from Craigslist! He entertained our guests during the ceremony and reception. He's a true professional. 

Step 5: About 5 months before wedding - I picked my wedding coordinator to help with our event and dog. I didn't budget in for this initially but it seems like a really good idea at the time. We're having our wonderful dog be our ring bearer and she agreed to have her team drive him to the daycare during the wedding day after our ceremony since dogs are not allowed in the ballroom where our reception is (sadly). She will have a team of 2 or 3. I like that. I just pay another $125 and I get another person instead of using the resort's one day coordinator for $500. That's really expensive.  Our wedding coordinator was also there for our rehearsal to make sure our line up was right. She did the job but I didn't think she was excellent. A lot of people told me later that I overpaid for a wedding coordinator. I think hiring a wedding coordinator costs a lot more now.

Step 6: Less than 5 months from the wedding - We picked our cake from Flour Power who was included in our venue contract for our reception.

We tasted 13 different cakes and were allowed to choose up to 4 different flavors for our cake that came with our package/ We picked a yummy beach themed cake.  The cake tasting experience was so welcoming and helpful. This was our actual cake on our wedding day below. It had edible seashells and clams and matched our wedding theme so well. Our venue was located right by the water and beach.

Step 7: Less than 4 months from our wedding - We met with our florist who was contracted with the our ceremony and reception venue in our package to do our floral spray for the ceremony and put petals down the aisle. I liked him so much, I hired him for and all of the bouquets, boutineres  and reception centerpieces! Scroll down to Step 11 to see my floral spray and center pieces! They were fantastic!

Step 8: 3.5 months from our wedding - We picked our officiant, Cindie, who wonderfully performed our outdoor ceremony. She's a supporter of our military men and women and I highly recommend her if you're in San Diego! Cindie's website is: www.ceremoniesbycindie.com.

Step 9: About 3 months before wedding date -  I followed up with another potential florist vendor for my reception center pieces before signing a contract, just to make sure I picked the right vendor. 

Step 10: 3 months before the wedding - I also finished collecting my last address to mail out my invitations around mid-Aug. This was a huge task on itself. We invited around 220 guests using the 70 - 75% rule that only 75% will be able to attend. That means about 154 - 165 people would be expected to attend. The math was right. I had 155 guests! It really depends on how many of your guests are out of towners. This percentage can be higher if you have a lot of local guests. We had a lot of out-of-state family members.  

Step 11: 3 months before wedding date -  I signed the official contract with my florist to do my all bouquets and center pieces, ceremony flowers for the wedding. I'm so ecstatic! They turned out great and better than many other weddings for an appropriate price. He also did me a favor and took down my floral spray that we used for the ceremony and put it on the sweetheart table. So it was very useful! It was beautiful. Here is the beach themed centerpiece we came up with together for the reception. My florist luckily had real conch seashells we put the fresh flowers in so I was able to just rent the seashells. 





























Above is the floral spray that was used on the gazebo where we got married and then put on top of the sweetheart table during the reception. My florist did a wonderful job and we got many compliments. It matched our bouquets and our centerpieces as well. 


Step 12: 2.5 months before wedding - We started the mailing and sending of invitations so the out of town guests can start planning their travels and have time to respond back.
  
Step 13: 2.5 months before the wedding - We had our engagement photos taken 1 block from our home at the time, which meant the beach! Till this day, we still get compliments on our engagement photos.

Step 14: Less than 2.5 months from our wedding - We picked up the groom's tux and 6 groomsmen suits. We ordered these 2 weeks ago and we're getting the tux sized. We were trying to find the most reasonable suits for them to keep so they only cost $100 each for each groomsman. 

By the way, my bridal party threw me a bachelorette and bridal shower weekend during this time in Coronado at the Hotel Del and downtown. They were very, very sweet and I am very, very lucky! They spent a boat load of money on it for me.

Step 15: 2 month count down from the wedding -  We received our engagement photos from our photographer on a disc via mail.

Sept 16: 1.5 months from the wedding - I had my first fitting for the wedding dress at David's Bridal. It will be ready to try on/pick up on Oct. 24, 2012 (1.5 weeks before my wedding). Diet time!

Step 17: 1 Month Countdown from the wedding! - We mailed out rehearsal dinner invitations to our bridal party and out of town guests. The out of towners who are not in my bridal party gets a different piece.  You can make any invitation from shutterfly.

Step 18: About 1 month before wedding - We received the BEO from the hotel for the ceremony and reception set-up which outlines our itinerary and details of our whole wedding day

Step 19: About 1 month before wedding -  Sent my officiant the vows to my officiant!

Step 20: Less than 1 month from wedding - I started my Party Favors decorations. One of my bridesmaids came over to help me with tying ribbons on party favors. I used paper lanterns with 2 different colors (our wedding theme colors) as gifts.

Step 21: Less than 1 month from wedding - Designed and ordered my menu cards. This actually took me a lot of time to do.

I also created stickers for the kid's menu.


Step 22: 2 weeks before the wedding - Finished my last payment for the DJ and buy gifts for bridal party

Step 23: 10 day countdown! - My wedding coordinator called me for last minute details. She helped me with the order of walking down the aisle, calling the resort about setting a water station at ceremony, gift table at the ceremony and for the Pet Taxi's name. I highly suggest having a wedding coordinator to help you with these details!

Step 24: 7 day countdown! - We created welcome bags for out of town guests staying in hotels where snacks are hard to reach. See more pictures of the welcome bags I created here. Here are the welcome bags I customized with an itinerary with healthy snacks and drinks for out of town guests so their stay is more comfortable. 


Step 25: 3 day countdown! - One of my bridesmaids helped me with writing names down on place cards and finalizing seating chart. We had assigned seating so that is why we did this.

Step 26: 1 day countdown! - Rehearsal at 3pm and Rehearsal Dinner hosted by my in laws at 6pm. It turned out fantastic. The food was great, my mother in law decorated wonderfully and she planned surprised games! It was memorable. 

Step 27: Wedding Day! What a rush! It was fantastic! One of the best days of my life! Success with little drama (because was there drama)! Remember that it is inevitable that something (at least 1 thing) will not go according to plan. Just improvise and smile, because dozens of cameras are on you! Have fun planning your wedding day.