Wedding Planner Bridal Registry & Miscellaneous

Bridal Registry

The bridal registry is a free service offered by most department and speciality stores where brides and grooms can then communicate exactly what they need and want as wedding gifts.

Bridal registries are an advantage to both you and your guests...you receive what you need and your guests can avoid frustration and hassles of what to buy you.
To set up a registry call your favourite department stores or speciality stores to arrange an appointment to set up your registry form.

Photography

A photographer should be booked as early as eight months to a year in advance.
Shop around for your photographer, ask for references or ask friends and family who they used.
Ask about package prices and what is exactly included in a package.
Ask about extra costs: meal and transportation expenses, enlargements, extra prints, etc.
Who will own the negatives? Who is responsible for lost proofs?
Most importantly the photographer must be able to be a good listener and communicator.
Draft a Must Shots list for the photographer. Some of these shots might be:

Bride

Alone-close up and full length
With parents
With Maid of Honor
Tossing bouquet

Groom

Groom alone
With parents
With best man
Waiting for bride to enter just prior to ceremony

Couple

Lighting unity candle
Cutting cake
Exchanging rings
Talking with guests

Wedding Party

With bride
With groom
Getting bouquets and boutonnieres
Dancing

Miscellaneous

Ushers seating guests
Wedding cake
Candid photos during reception
Guests waving good-bye

Videography

All of us have seen home videos and know that videotaping requires practice and skill.
Hiring a professional videographer ensures a high quality and memorable video.
Professionals often use more than one camera and microphones placed in strategic positions throughout the ceremony and reception.
Interviews with parents, family and guests can make your video even more special.
Videographers can also add many special effects and can dub and edit the entire day personalizing the video to your wants and needs.
Before hiring a videographer be sure to shop around, comparing quality and price.

Wedding Flowers

Say it with flowers:

To make sure that your flowers say exactly what you want them to say, you must first successfully communicate with the florist.
Visit shops, talk to the florists and choose the florist you are most comfortable with.
Be prepared for your first consultation, you need to know how much you are willing to spend.
Bring along a swatch of your bridesmaid's dresses, to match colours.

Flowers are an important focal point of your total bridal picture. Visual impact is important so consider the colour, the size, and style of the message you are communicating with your flowers.

Flower Checklist

Brides Bouquet
Grooms Boutonniere
Maid of Honour's Bouquet
Bridesmaid's Bouquet
Best Man's Boutonniere
Groomsmen's Boutonnieres
Mother's Corsages
Grandmothers Corsages
Father's Boutonnieres
Grandfathers Boutonnieres
Master of Ceremonies Boutonniere
Honoured Guests
Flower girls Basket
Ringbearers Boutonniere

Reception Flowers

Reception flowers create both a special ambience and colour scheme at your head table. Center pieces add charm to each table but should be kept to a lower height to encourage conversation. Flowers are one of the ultimate symbols of love.

Musical Entertainment

The musical entertainment is a very noticeable reflection of the bride's and grooms personal taste. Music is a key part of the day from the beginning to the end.

The Prelude: is background music while the guests are being seated.
The First Solo: establishes the mood for the ceremony and is sung after the bride's mother is seated.
The Processional: the traditional wedding march is played while the wedding party members and the bride walk down the aisle.
The Second Solo: played immediately following the recital of the vows, this is usually a personal, meaningful song to the bride and groom.
The Recessional: this should be a up-beat celebratory piece heralding the new couple.
The Postlude: entertains the guests as they are being ushered out.
The Reception: the music should compliment the formality and mood of the reception, for smaller and formal receptions a string ensemble would be best but for a lively and large reception planned to last until the wee hours of the morning a professional DJ should be hired.
It is also important to keep your guests in mind: Are there songs for older couples to dance to? How about the twenty somethings?
Rehearsing is required no matter what type of music and musicians are decided on, most couple insist on hearing a rehearsal during the wedding rehearsal the night before.

Questions to ask while selecting your entertainment:

Can you get a tape or video of there live performances?
Can you play a variety of music?-Dance, polkas, jazz, etc.
Will you act as Master of Ceremonies?
How will you dress? (Preferably in formalwear)
How long will you play?
Overtime?
Will you provide all of your own equipment?
Do you provide any special effects or lighting?
Cancellation policies?
Are you allowed to control the volume of the music?

DJ Tips: Hear by Request.

Remarriage

In approximately 46% of weddings today the bride or groom has been previously married. It is often thought that a large second marriage is inappropriate, however a second wedding can be larger and more elaborate than the first if desired.

Announcements: The bride's and groom's children should be the first to know, then their parents, friends and relatives
Invitations: are printed for large or formal remarriages; after a private ceremony send announcements. The invitation' wording should fit the circumstances properly
Ceremony: The first thing is to contact your clergy member as often certain remarriage regulations must be followed for religious services. Regardless of the ceremony size, the children of the bride or groom may participate as attendants. The bride is escorted (the bride is never "given away" a second time) down the aisle alone or with her father, brother, son or her husband to be.
Attire: Only two guidelines should be followed by the bride: she should never wear either a full face veil (symbolizes virginity) or a long train (exclusively worn by first brides). Otherwise the bride can wear any color or style or wedding dress and the groom should follow the brides lead wear anything from a tuxedo to jeans.
Honeymoon: One necessity for any remarriage is the honeymoon. A practical way to solidify a new family is to split the honeymoon in half: the newlyweds spend half the time alone and can be joined for the other half of their honeymoon by their children if desired.

The Wedding Cake

The wedding cake is perhaps the most recognised symbol of wedding receptions and the cutting of it by the bride and groom is one of the most beloved traditions. The wedding cake got its start in ancient cultures as a fertility rite for the newlyweds. The Romans broke grain cakes over a bride's head to bless her future with successful childbearing. Today, the bride and groom simply cut the first slice together, with his hand placed over hers on the cake knife.

The bride always samples the cake first before lovingly giving her groom a taste, a leftover gesture of the fertility rite. Saving the top layer of the wedding cake for the couple to eat on their first wedding anniversary is a more recent custom, at least since efficient refrigeration has been made available!

Wedding cakes come in a multitude of flavours, shapes and sizes. From amaretto and mint to chocolate and traditional white.
Icing flowers, fresh flowers, fountains, hand blown glass and other decorative tops can all be used to decorate the cake.
The size of the cake is best decided after the number of guests is finalized.
Delivery and set-up is usually included in the price. It is advised to pay extra, if necessary, to have the baker setup the cake. Do not set up your own cake.
Some bakers provide knives to cut the cake, but many couples provide their own.

Traditionally, the groom's cake is a small, single layer dark fruitcake with white icing, but it can also be baked in your fiancé's favourite flavour, or in the shape symbolic of his special interest or hobby. At the reception, it is served along with the bride's cake or packed in decorative boxes for guests to take home as favours. Legend says that single guests who put a sliver of groom's cake under their pillows on the wedding night will dream of their future spouses.

Wedding Day Transportation

Today wedding parties are finding original modes of transportation on their wedding day ranging from limousines to horse drawn carriages, Lamborghini's to hot air balloons, a vintage Rolls Royce to a bus.
Order of Procession to the church: 1st car includes the bride's mother, maid of honor, and a couple of attendants, the 2nd car includes the rest of the attendants. The 3rd car carries the bride and her father. The groom and his attendants should arrange their own transportation to the church before hand.
Order of Procession after the ceremony: the bride and groom leave in the car the bride and her father arrived in, the 2nd car is for the bride's and groom's parents, the rest of the bridal party leave in the 3rd car.

Questions to ask when booking your transportation:

Are the vehicles available to be seen prior to the wedding?
Minimum rental time?
What about overtime availability and costs?
Mileage limits?
What is the deposit and when is the remainder due?
Cancellation policies?