Now that you and your fiancé are on the road to holy matrimony, you have a lot of decisions to make. Some of your decisions are very important and need to be addressed right away, while other decisions can wait and be answered later on. Be sure that you and your fiancé start the process by addressing important decisions when starting the wedding planning process. We can categorize these as main and minor decisions. So, how about we explore what would be a couple’s top 10 main decisions to make when forecasting decisions to start the planning process of your upcoming wedding, this week we will look at the top 5:
1. When and what time of day? – This is usually the first question that a couple will face, when do we want to marry. Some want to do it right away while others wait and plan a celebration. Whichever fits the couple, they will normally take into consideration several factors. One being whether they prefer warm weather or cold. A special intimate day that is significant to the couple like on the day they met, first kiss or Valentine’s Day. At times, the venue where the couple wants to marry may dictate the when; popular locations are difficult to get unless you plan in advance so it may determine if the couple can marry on their Ideal day.
2. What is our budget? – This seems to be a big question because many couples typically aren’t aware of the average cost of a wedding and it varies from geographic location. It is important to talk about how you will finance this event and without going broke or in debt. If you are fortunate, you may have support from parents, and grandparents but whatever the source, you need to have a starting point unless you have a big purse like the likes of Oprah, Taylor Swift, Jayz and Beyonce or Donald Trump, just to name a few with seemingly unlimited resources.
3. Where are we going to marry? – Will you choose the church, the beach, the rain forest, a hotel, your parent’s estate, a museum, the back yard, Vegas, a cruise ship or in a hot air balloon. Today’s couples have a world of choices but unless you want to share your special moment with family and friends, it’s probably best to marry where the majority of the people that you want to share it with can come.
4. Who are we inviting? – This goes hand in hand with your budget. You can’t have a fancy wedding with all the bells and whistles and invite 150 – 200 people. If you have beer money, then you best have a nice small intimate celebration and invite the most important people in your life. This task will be difficult to manage because everyone will want to come and you and your fiancé have to make some difficult decisions whether or not Aunt Phyllis from Tennessee will get an invite or your best buddy from college.
5. Who’s going to marry us? – If you are a member of a religious organization, you may want to ask your spiritual leader, he/she will be honored. If you don’t have an affiliation, you may want to hire an officiate who has the license to marry which in many cases can provide the flexibility of locations that your spiritual leader may not agree to. Also, if you are same sex couple, some organizations may refuse to perform your service so you may have to seek other professionals who can with no problem.
Next week we will explore the last set of top 10 initial decisions a couple should consider once they start the planning process for their wedding.
TAP