Should You Hire A Wedding Consultant?

Most of today’s brides-to-be are older, more mature and has launched their own careers apart from their future husbands.  With the competing demands of their career and personal lives, planning a wedding could be stressful and tasking, while exhilarating at the same time.  Are you one of these ladies? Even if you are not planning to hire a professional wedding consultant, wouldn’t you want to know what services does a wedding consultant offer and how much would it cost? Then, read on…

Those of us who saw the hit movie “The Wedding Planner”, which stared Jennifer Lopez as the wedding planner, have a clear idea of what wedding consultants do. They coordinate the numerous details that go into planning the perfect wedding from dealing with wedding suppliers to choosing flowers and wedding reception venues to making sure that everyone arrives on time for the wedding day.
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Planning A Wedding Step 1

According to the latest Wedding Report published by Wedding Industry Trends, the average cost of US weddings in 2007 is $28,732. That is not a small change. The rise in wedding cost could be attributed to men and women waiting longer for marriage, thus, they have more money to spend. Also, the parents of the soon-to-be-married couple usually share in the cost of the wedding. No matter what the reasons are, it is best to determine early in your wedding planning stage what you want or what you can afford to spend and stick to it. Yes, I am talking about creating a budget. “But”, you ask, “where do I start?”

There are two elements in your wedding planning that will determine how much the wedding would cost you – the size of your guest list and the theme or style of your wedding. It does not mean to say that the fewer guests you invite, the less money you’d spend. It depends on how much the reception would cost per guest. The same applies to the style of your wedding. You could save money by choosing an informal wedding in a neighboring public beach, But if you chose a beach in one of the Caribbean island, it would add up to the cost of your wedding, unless you do not plan to invite many of your friends and relatives to your wedding.

Weddings are not only for the bride and groom. It is a celebration of love and, thus, wedding is an event to share with people you care about – friends and relatives. People are more important than money. For many bride and groom, they would rather have a less formal wedding than to cut their friends and relatives out of the wedding.

Consider your guest list as one of the major determining factor in setting your wedding budget. Making a guest list should be the first step in your wedding planning. On average, the biggest cost in your wedding would be the reception at 42%, next comes the rings at 20%, then bridal gown and groom’s rental tux at 7%. The rest of the expenses go to photography or videography, invitations including save the date and thank you cards, limousine, Music, ceremony, flowers, and cake.

Do you want more information about how to plan your wedding? Visit our blog often. We will write a series of articles on ideas on saving money on your wedding.

What are wedding favors?

Wedding reception favors, also called “bridal favors“, are gifts given by the bride and groom to their wedding guests as gestures of thanks for sharing in the happiness of their wedding day. There are no definite dates on when the tradition of giving wedding reception favors started. However, it is an accepted fact that this tradition dates back several centuries ago. The belief is that wedding reception favors started with the Europeans, especially the Italians and French nobilities and aristocrats. The wedding reception favors were made of sugar cubes or delicate confections, since sugar was quite an expensive commodity during that era. In addition, sugar also symbolizes wealth and royalty. These sugar cubes are placed inside small trinket boxes called “Bombonieres”, which are made of crystal, porcelain or metal and decorated with precious or semi-precious stones.
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