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Cj
So I was asked to be the Maid-of-honor for a small wedding (small budget).
Surprisingly enough neither the bride or I have ever been to a wedding so I need some help. She is overwhelmed so I'm helping plan it (like I should).
How is a wedding usually set up? A small wedding in particular. SHe wants to have the ceremony and reception in the same place and its outside.
I know there is a ceremony, reception, dance?, etc but what is the order? HOw long does each part usually last?
Thanks for you help! The more details the better :) I've been looking online but sometimes it's easier to have someone lay it out real simple!
Answer
Weddings can be scary to plan if you don't know where to start! It's nice of you to help her though and I'll bet that she really appreciates it :)
Ok so the first thing is the date and the venue. If she's already found and booked that then you're in good shape!
She needs to choose her dress pretty quickly too as it can take between six to eight months if she's ordering one. You'll want to choose your dress and any other dresses about four months before hand. If there are a few girls of different sizes and shapes then it might work better to have everyone in the same colour and different dresses. I had a tall MOH and my BMs were plus sized, super tiny and had just had a baby. So they all wore little black dresses and carried red roses. So pretty!
She'll want a good estimate of how many guests there will be before she begins talking with caterers.
She'll need to decide what kind of reception she wants. Some people like a tea, some like heavy appies and most prefer the traditional dinner. If she opts for a dinner then she will need to decide between a buffet and a served dinner. Served dinners tend to be cheaper and you have the added benefit of not havin g to play those games to see which table goes next as most do with buffets. (Plus no one has to worry about dropping a plate on the bride!)
She'll need to book an officiant. Using a Justice of the Peace tends to be easiest because a lot of churches require premarital counselling and that adds to the wedding costs.
As for a cake, if she has the time then making cupcakes is cute and it saves a few hundred easily. Our costs for a cake would have been about 400.00 or so plus a cake cutting fee of 2.75 per guest. I bought cake mixes, icing tips and stands and spent under 100.00 and the end result was great! You could do plain chocolate with vanilla frosting, vanilla with chocolate frosting and one other kind with another colour/kind of frosting.
Flowers are a funny thing. The second anyone hears the word "wedding" they raise the price way up there. I actually kind of forgot flowers until the day of and just picked up six dozen red roses from Safeway for just under 100.00. They cut and tied them into nosegays (pretty little bouquets) at no extra charge and we wrapped the stems with pretty ribbons. So much cheaper!
Decor is overwhelming at first because there are so many different things that you can do. Don't stress. Just go with things that the bride likes and trust that it'll look good. Chair covers and tablecloths are the best thing that youcan rent. They aren't too expensive and they make everything look good and very polished. We got married in the fall and were going with a black and white damask pattern on everything. It was a bit cold looking so we added a lot of gorgeous fabric leaves and mini gourds to the tables and it was stunning! And cheap! Candles, small stones and crystals, shells, petals, leaves and mirrors all make awesome decor items and are way cheaper than flowers.
Wedding favours are easy to get carried away with too but they don't have to be. I picked up big containers of chocolates from Costco and filled cute little boxes with them and tied them with ribbons. I also made bath bombs (really cheap, fast and easy and people LOVED them) and put them in cute celophane bags. Cookies, candy, little photo frames, personalized cork screws etc are all great ideas. A trick is to buy something inexpensive, add some ribbon and suddenlt you have a pretty little gift.
Be careful with the band or a dj. Make sure that you've heard any band that is there and that either option has a contingency plan in case someone gets sick, simethign is broken etc. Anyone who knows their stuff will have a contract for your friend to sign that will cover all of this.
Get things in writing! Even it a vendor is a friend (especially) get anything that involves money in writing. We had a photographer friend offer to do our photos as a gift to us and she asked me for 500.00 to order prints afterwards. The pictures weren't good and she decided to keep the money and not put it towards prints because we had nothing in writing. And if the photos aren't good then invest in Photoshop Elements so that they can be fixed :)
A good photographer won't be cheap but it'll be worth it. Make sure that she goes with someoen who has a good wedding portfolio and that you like hsi or her work and that you have everything in writing there.
I think all that's left are clothes for the guys, gifts for the attendants and hair/makeup for the big day.
She's going to want to have everything reserved as quickly as possible. The invites should go out about three months beforehand. She'll also need to get the marriage license taken care of about a month or so beforehand too.
Weddings can be scary to plan if you don't know where to start! It's nice of you to help her though and I'll bet that she really appreciates it :)
Ok so the first thing is the date and the venue. If she's already found and booked that then you're in good shape!
She needs to choose her dress pretty quickly too as it can take between six to eight months if she's ordering one. You'll want to choose your dress and any other dresses about four months before hand. If there are a few girls of different sizes and shapes then it might work better to have everyone in the same colour and different dresses. I had a tall MOH and my BMs were plus sized, super tiny and had just had a baby. So they all wore little black dresses and carried red roses. So pretty!
She'll want a good estimate of how many guests there will be before she begins talking with caterers.
She'll need to decide what kind of reception she wants. Some people like a tea, some like heavy appies and most prefer the traditional dinner. If she opts for a dinner then she will need to decide between a buffet and a served dinner. Served dinners tend to be cheaper and you have the added benefit of not havin g to play those games to see which table goes next as most do with buffets. (Plus no one has to worry about dropping a plate on the bride!)
She'll need to book an officiant. Using a Justice of the Peace tends to be easiest because a lot of churches require premarital counselling and that adds to the wedding costs.
As for a cake, if she has the time then making cupcakes is cute and it saves a few hundred easily. Our costs for a cake would have been about 400.00 or so plus a cake cutting fee of 2.75 per guest. I bought cake mixes, icing tips and stands and spent under 100.00 and the end result was great! You could do plain chocolate with vanilla frosting, vanilla with chocolate frosting and one other kind with another colour/kind of frosting.
Flowers are a funny thing. The second anyone hears the word "wedding" they raise the price way up there. I actually kind of forgot flowers until the day of and just picked up six dozen red roses from Safeway for just under 100.00. They cut and tied them into nosegays (pretty little bouquets) at no extra charge and we wrapped the stems with pretty ribbons. So much cheaper!
Decor is overwhelming at first because there are so many different things that you can do. Don't stress. Just go with things that the bride likes and trust that it'll look good. Chair covers and tablecloths are the best thing that youcan rent. They aren't too expensive and they make everything look good and very polished. We got married in the fall and were going with a black and white damask pattern on everything. It was a bit cold looking so we added a lot of gorgeous fabric leaves and mini gourds to the tables and it was stunning! And cheap! Candles, small stones and crystals, shells, petals, leaves and mirrors all make awesome decor items and are way cheaper than flowers.
Wedding favours are easy to get carried away with too but they don't have to be. I picked up big containers of chocolates from Costco and filled cute little boxes with them and tied them with ribbons. I also made bath bombs (really cheap, fast and easy and people LOVED them) and put them in cute celophane bags. Cookies, candy, little photo frames, personalized cork screws etc are all great ideas. A trick is to buy something inexpensive, add some ribbon and suddenlt you have a pretty little gift.
Be careful with the band or a dj. Make sure that you've heard any band that is there and that either option has a contingency plan in case someone gets sick, simethign is broken etc. Anyone who knows their stuff will have a contract for your friend to sign that will cover all of this.
Get things in writing! Even it a vendor is a friend (especially) get anything that involves money in writing. We had a photographer friend offer to do our photos as a gift to us and she asked me for 500.00 to order prints afterwards. The pictures weren't good and she decided to keep the money and not put it towards prints because we had nothing in writing. And if the photos aren't good then invest in Photoshop Elements so that they can be fixed :)
A good photographer won't be cheap but it'll be worth it. Make sure that she goes with someoen who has a good wedding portfolio and that you like hsi or her work and that you have everything in writing there.
I think all that's left are clothes for the guys, gifts for the attendants and hair/makeup for the big day.
She's going to want to have everything reserved as quickly as possible. The invites should go out about three months beforehand. She'll also need to get the marriage license taken care of about a month or so beforehand too.
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