Happy New Year!

Congratulations on your recent engagement!  You might be searching the Web and asking yourself, what is the next step?

Being a newly engaged bride has some challenges that can be overwhelming to say the least.

Here are a few tips that I hope will help make the process easier for you and allow you to enjoy your new engagement.

1. Establish a budget - without a budget, you won't be able to choose a venue, type of wedding or any of your vendors.  If you and your fiance are paying for the wedding yourselves, then we recommend sitting down during a relaxing time of day or evening and talking about the maximum budget.  If both sets of parents are involved, then determine if you want to talk to each of your parents together or separately and see what amount they feel comfortable contributing. 

2. Guest count - knowing the guest count will help you to find the right venue or private estate. Some estates or venues might have a maximum capacity of 150 guests and if your count goes to 200...well you can imagine that won't work. Also, if the budget has limitations, this will definitely impact your guest count.

3. Hiring an experienced event and wedding planner to help you stay stress free and manage the logistics.  If your life is super busy, then ask your planner to give you a package that will work with your schedule so she or he can take on the big projects.

4. Choose your wedding date - talk with both sides and find out if there are any conflicts - such as other family member weddings for the same year, babies being born, graduations, etc.  Once you settle on one or a few options then start looking for your venue.

5. Weather - we always look at the Farmer's Almanac to see what the weather has been like for previous years.  There is no guarantee, however, it helps when selecting a date.  If you choose a month that has a bigger risk for bad weather, then make sure your coordinator is on top of a contingency plan.

6. Once everything is secure (venue, date and your coordinator), then you can start with your dress, photographer, caterer (if applicable), video, make up and hair stylists, paper house, florist and entertainment.  We recommend hiring the vendors that can't do two weddings at the same time (like photographer and hair and makeup) first, before hiring the other vendors.

Please enjoy the process and let us know if we may assist you!

Yours truly,