My Wedding Preparation Checklist (Any Suggestions?)

Philippines
December 15, 2007 8:02am CST
Hi Guys!I am new here and our wedding is on May 2, 2008. Since I keep on discussing details of our wedding with people, hence increasing the number of our wedding guests, I decided to participate in this forum to earn extra cash for the wedding and enable myself to discuss my millions of wedding ideas and issues to relieve my self from preparation stress. 6 months before the wedding and we have already chosen a wedding theme, bridal entourage members and wedding rings; we have already booked wedding chapel, reception venue, photo and video supplier, wedding dress designer, caterers and wedding musicians. But we still need to do the ff:1. Finalize the design of our wedding invitation. 2. Choose flowers to be used in the bridal bouquet, entourage bouquet and wedding chapel. 3. Select wedding favors 4. Select gifts to be given to parents (as thank you gifts) 5. Select tokens to be given to bridal entourage. 6. Choose wedding cake designs. Our wedding theme is semi-modern Hispanic (Spanish) and our color motifs are red, turquoise and dark brown. I will be wearing a lacy white wedding gown and we booked a historical/classic wedding church and reception venue (indoor). We will serve Spanish food such as Paella and Callos and hired musicians to sing bossa nova songs. I hope you can give me suggestions regarding numbers 1-6. Your suggestions will really help me a lot. Thanks, MaryGen www.weddingprep101.com
4 people like this
11 responses
• United States
15 Dec 07
What about: Are you having a "head table" and guest tables or are you having a regular table for bride and groom? What about seating arrangements? Who will sit with who? What about centerpieces for the tables? Also, be sure to proofread the invitations very carefully. My sister's had a typo that was never caught. Are you getting a limo? Is the reception g oing well into the night? If so do you need to order pizzas or have to have another round of appetizers for your guests later? What about the photographer? Is there a special list of shots you want to discuss (for example - you want to make sure you get a picture with godparents or great-grandparents, etc). Also, will you change clothes and say farewell to your guests at the end of the reception and be whisked off to your honeymoon or are you staying the whole time? if its the former, you will need a cute outfit.
1 person likes this
• Philippines
15 Dec 07
Thanks Houndsgood! 1. I am actually thinking of setting-up a "mini-bridal stage" where the "head table" will be located. In fact, I am looking for pegs how my head table and bridal stage "background" will look like... any ideas? I just want them to be Hispanic (Spanish) looking to match my antique candle holders and red roses centerpieces. 2. I am also planning to serve our guests mini-cocktails while they are waiting for the bride and groom's entrance. This is so because our wedding ceremony will be at 6:30-7:30pm and we still need to travel (around 5 minutes only) to the reception venue. However, I don't know of a notable lite Spanish cocktails. I hope you guys and help me with this as well? 3. Thanks for the rest of you reminders; I will make sure that I will consider all of them.
1 person likes this
• United States
15 Dec 07
As far as the backdrop, take a look at the place the reception is at. Sometimes places have natural features like fireplaces, picture windows, interesting architecture that naturally look very nice and you need do very little too, even if it means changing where the head table is to take advantage of it. As far as cocktails but something light, if you are going Spanish, what about a punch with Sangria and frut as some of the ingredients it or a mixture of sangria and seltzer water for something sparkling.
2 people like this
@cheenlly (3476)
• Philippines
16 Dec 07
hi welcome on mylot. I couldnt really give some points about the 1-6 as i am not yet married but i'm sure you will get many ideas here when people respond. All i can say is your motifs are nice. YOu can surf the net so you can have an idea and BTW bosa nova is great. Best wishes for your wedding and again welcome to mylot and enjoy your stay here. God bless !
• Philippines
17 Dec 07
Thank you very much Cheenlly! After all the planning, it really feels good to know that someone likes our wedding ideas :)
@Syam4u (307)
• India
15 Dec 07
hey i just stopped here to wish a best luck. i will pray to the god almighty to help ur family:)
1 person likes this
• Philippines
17 Dec 07
Thank you very much! Pls. do; we need a lot of prayers (more than you ever know:)
• United States
15 Dec 07
I work at a venue where we host about 20 wedding receptions a year. It sounds to me like you have gotten all the important stuff taken care of already. The rest of the items should be low-stress decisions. When picking the flowers, make sure you pick things that will be in season at the time, or you might have to do a last minute substitution if the desired flowers are not available. Just remember not to let the little things that may go wrong ruin your mood. I've actually seen a bride get terribly upset with a caterer when she used only black napkins instead of a mix of black and white napkins. Not one guest would have known this was a mistake if they hadn't heard about the bride yelling at the caterer; moreover, not one guest even cared what color the napkins were. Just try to keep everything in perspective. Good Luck.
1 person likes this
@laydee (12798)
• Philippines
20 Dec 07
Yeah, that's a good comment. Most people see the 'bad things' at wedding and they fail to see the good in them. Most couples want everything too perfect thus stopping them from enjoying their day. It's good to really remember this. We shouldn't allow one mistake to destroy the occasion. =)
@oliverdt (1958)
• Philippines
15 Dec 07
hey don't forget your music album, you can also add this to your souvenir list.
1 person likes this
• United States
16 Dec 07
What's a music album?
1 person likes this
@Sillychick (3275)
• United States
15 Dec 07
Here are a couple of things that I did not think of ahead of time, hopefully they will help you. If you are going to throw your bouquet, have 2. That way you can keep the one you carried down the aisle, and the person who catches it will have one to keep also. Remeber to eat before you start getting ready. I have heard of brides not eating and fainting during or shortly before the ceremony. Plus, there's a good chance you may not eat at the reception- I didn't. Don't stress the small details. If you worry about every little detail and things going wrong, you won't enjoy yourself. Have a professional document the day. Either photographer or vidiographer or both. I didn't have a professional videographer, and I regret that.
1 person likes this
• Philippines
17 Dec 07
Thanks Sillychick! I'm really thinking of preserving my bouquet (though I'm having second thought because I don't really like flowers; I think i'm also pondering about this because of the wedding thing:) Thanks for the eating advice. I will really try to eat before our wedding ceremony; especially because my wedding gown is tight-fitting (mermaid-cut). As per my designer, this cut will make me look taller. I'm trying not to be stressed on details as well but I can't help it because I used to do events in my previous job:) Finally, we hired a professional photographer. He is kinna expensive so we did not get his superior package (just the regular one); but we will haggle for more inclusion in our package such as free AVP etc. (Wish us luck, we will talk to him next year to finalized everything:)
@Ohara_1983 (4117)
• Kuwait
16 Dec 07
I can suggest only to your wedding cake, 12 layer of cake and the formation of stairs and then put ice on top or in the middle with an accent of light's, and in the flavor will be chocolate because that will be sweetness of LOVE, will be forever. Hope you will like it. Good luck to you
• India
16 Dec 07
i think u should give some thing which is very important to ur parents for which they can remember it all the time. it will tell them that u also loves them veryt much.
@dianne17k (587)
• Philippines
17 Dec 07
I noticed you're from the Philippines too... My brother's wedding is on the 17th of May and we're also busy in handling all that. Right now, we've booked the church and the venue. We have a lot of things to do and I don't know if we could manage all of it by May. My brother's wedding will be at the san sebastian church and the venue will be at patio victoria. where will yours be?
• Indonesia
19 Dec 07
how about jewellery as thank you gifts for your parents ? gold or silver ring, necklace,etc ? In my country, the couple gives a piece of wedding cake as thank you gift (for symbol only). Find out what your parents would like to receive as a gift.
• United States
13 Dec 08
In regards to point #1..Finalize the design of our wedding invitation.. Printing companies that specialize in wedding invitations often have a large number of their own which can be used and will still provide the image you want to give; but it will be less costly