Wedding Planning 101 - Part 2

We left off with you have a date night with no wedding talk...did you do it?? So, let's jump back into what our next steps should be with wedding planning. You have taken care of the 1st 5 important steps...and now we get to start in with some of the (hopefully) fun details of planning the biggest day of your life! You have your date set, a deposit on the venue, your guest list has been started and most likely you have been listening to people giving you all kinds of advice - hey now...that's not what I am doing!! haha. I am just giving you some tools...

• I would suggest, at this part of the planning, if you are going to do engagement photos now is the time! Decide if you are going to go casual (a photographer friend) or professional. The person you have do your engagement photos doesn't have to be booked to do your wedding - but it is a great time to scope out the person's work! Engagement photos will be used to...
• Get your Save The Dates cards ready! There are so many choices for Save The Date cards and I will have to make a separate post about them, because I have quite a few useful links! Some people may ask "Do I even need to do this?" Well, the simple answer is NO. But, they are nice to have - especially if you have people coming from out of town or if your are planning your wedding around a time when people might have a lot going on (summer time...holidays, etc). Plus, it's a pretty nice way to let the entire world know about your wedding!
• Have you narrowed down who your bridal party will be? This is probably a perfect time to do this because you are going to need some reliable help with the rest of the planning parts of a wedding! Once again, get ready to have people telling you who you just HAVE to have as part of your wedding party. This is another fun process that might get you back to eloping. You don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but come on...the truth is you can only have so many people standing next to you. My suggestion is to always keep the people who you know love and support you - no matter what - and those people who you know will honor your vows you will soon be taking. 
• Now, on we go to details, details, details! You need to choose your wedding theme - or at least wedding colors. You have MANY choices out there! 
• If you have chosen a place to get married where a package is given - and today quite a few venues offer this - from catering, florist options and cakes. Your work is a little less complicated. You still need to pick all these things out to personalize you day but...you don't have to go through the work of interviewing tons of vendors! I am basing this little helpful post assuming you have a venue that has a list of preferred vendors you have to work with.