Wedding Tactics

I’ve just started hearing about a few engagements that took place around Valentine’s Day. If you are one of those people, a sincere congratulations to you!

One couple in particular is getting married at the end of the summer. A wedding, in exactly six months. I can hear the style guides and high-glam planners cringing with absolute fright. But I assure you, it is possible to have the wedding you want in six months or less. All it takes is some careful planning in the beginning and some diligent team work. By team work I am absolutely implying that if you have a mother or mother-in-law who wants to man the controls, by all means, this is the time they are needed. You really do need someone working on plans more than just on weekends.

Many vendors book up months and even years in advance so it may not be possible to have your choice of vendors. You do compromise some degree of choosiness but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on quality. Employ your friends and family to help you, you will need it for making phone calls and lining up vendors.

I have also written a detailed beauty checklist to follow leading up to your wedding. Many of these activities can be abbreviated when time is limited.

Here is an abbreviated to do list in you are planning to get married in less than six months:

Immediately:
Decide on your budget, color/theme, and make a thorough list of all the things you wish to incorporate into the wedding, include EVERYTHING, even things like newspaper announcement or embossed personalized napkins because for one it will help you decide what is really important to you, it will force you to prioritize and most importantly, delegate and ask for help. With this short of a time frame, you have to ask others, unless of course you don’t work and can spend forty plus hours a week planning your own wedding, in which case, you shouldn’t be reading my website.

Questions to ask yourself:
1. Will you hire a coordinator?
2. Will you have a separate ceremony/reception site, or will it be the same location?
3. Start looking for a gown, most likely, unless you buy off the rack or at a close-out sale, it will take a few months for the dress to be made and be shipped to you.
4. Create your guest list because this will determine what kind of venue size you need.
5. Register for gifts.

Vendors:
1. Book an officiant, NOW.
2. DJ or Band? You have a much better bet finding a DJ on shorter notice.
3. Caterer.
4. Florist.
5. Photographer.
6. Do them all now. Make phone calls and your first question needs to be: ARE YOU AVAILABLE ON MY WEDDING DATE? If they are, then talk specifics and decide if you want them.

Other important things to do:
1. Order invitations.
2. Book a honeymoon.
3. Select a cake.
4. Shop for rings.

Okay! Phew! That’s the short list of what you need to think about and do RIGHT NOW if you are getting married this summer and haven’t done anything yet.

And don’t stress too much, remember, weddings are happy times and should be FUN.

Last night I was sitting at Marc’s desk in the office downstairs using his newly purchased and what still remains to be a slight mystery to me, Mac computer.

As I was ripping CDs and adding songs to my iPod I saw a binder of CDs on the floor. I don’t keep my CDs organized very well. I never have. I take out three to take to work and then I never put them back in the cases so the original cases sit empty until they are stepped on or thrown away. I have small CD envelopes that hold twelve discs and large ones that hold over one hundred. I never seem to get my CDs alphabetized or organized so they end up sitting in stacks organized by, “listened to recently” and “dear GOD why did I ever buy this“.

I found a CD folder on the floor and started looking for something to add to my workout mix. I realized with this horrified and disgusted look that my CDs and Marc’s CDs are all blended together. I do not know how this happened. My CD filing system is perfect and I know where everything is located.

It was a very surreal moment and I felt like I was actually looking at myself and I realized that I was totally okay with our CDs being mixed up because we are going to be together forever and I will never have to separate my CDs from his. Our CDs are meshed and intertwined and so are our lives.

I was most surprised at how comfortable it actually felt.

I need suggestions!

I need someone who KNOWS music.

My DJ (I’m having DJ, not a band) gave me a list of some popular songs, but says he has many more on file.

I haven’t even gotten to the thought of what our first dance song will be. When I think about it, I keep replaying the sceen from Everybody Loves Raymond where the brother gets married and they dance to only about two verses of a nice dancey-love song, the break into The Robot. I have not ruled this out either. You know I have something up my sleeve!

During the 4 hours of wedding, about 60 songs are played. Ya’ll know I’m crazy indecisive, so how do I come up with this list?

I’m thinking some oldies, some 80s, some classics like Sinatra and Tony Bennett, maybe an Etta James (At Last …) and then dance songs of today. But, how do I begin? Eeek!

Please! Suggest songs. Without help, we’re going to have random inappropriate John Mayer songs, very out of place Elton John and Billy Joel songs, and an unfortunately timed playing of Hips Don’t Lie.