Wedding Wednesday: You're engaged...now what?

Here are some wedding planning tips to get you started.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! It's Wednesday, so this is the first Wedding Wednesday of the year and the first one in the blog format!
The time between Thanksgiving and New Years is the most popular time of year for marriage proposals! In fact, I proposed to my wife at the stroke of midnight 19 years ago :) Maybe you or someone you know got engaged recently, now what do you do? The easy answer is to start planning, but where do you even begin with that?

Nearly every newly engaged couple I've talked to has told me that they have no idea what they're doing when it comes to planning. While there are a lot of resources out there, it's good to start off with some basic information first, here's my advice.

Of course, I would love to say that you need to find your photographer first, and some people do book their photographer and then base the rest of the decisions around their availability. Most experts recommend getting what are called the "four corners" booked- church or other ceremony venue, reception venue, photographer, and DJ.

Generally speaking, most people decide the time of year they want to get married and begin looking for ceremony and reception venues that are available. Once those are booked and your date is locked in, you can look at booking the other two corners- the photographer and the DJ. Why these two? Because they are vendors who only do one wedding a day. Florists, cake bakers, rental companies, officiants, and other vendors can do more than one wedding so they don't get booked up as quickly. However, they can only do so many weddings in a weekend so it's best not to delay looking for these vendors or you may not be able to get the one you want. As you might imagine, the best florists and bakers have are the first ones to fill their calendars.

For a list of vendors that I've personally worked with and recommend, visit my website, www.samellis.com and go to the Wedding Package and Information page. If you're reading this blog early enough, consider going to the Night Under The Stars Wedding Expo on Friday, January 3rd. Click on the link to find out more information.