A wedding is the biggest event most people will ever plan, endure, or enjoy.

• Your wedding is a show. Your obligation is to put on a show that impresses the women, period. Forget about the fathers, the brothers, the uncles, the male business associates invited - plan your wedding specifically for the women planned to be in attendance. Give the women a good show and your wedding will be a success, guaranteed.



• There is no specific dollar range that ensures success. You can blow tens of thousands and have a public relations disaster. On the other hand, don't get hysterical about the cost of everything. And these days you are free to talk about having both families help absorb the cost.



• It is an axiom that nothing guarantees success, but a lack of planning will guarantee dismal failure. So plan, plan, plan for every detail and put it neatly and legibly on paper.



• The more months you have to plan the more options you have for everything, including some room to re-negotiate with certain vendors.



• When planning the date consider:
  
  
  • The weather
  
  
  • Whether the most important people have scheduled commitments for that day that they cannot change
  
  
  • Whether some huge event in your town may interfere with traffic patterns around your wedding location or reception
  
  
  • Whether a close by Holiday may make air travel or transportation problematic as far as having people in town on time. For instance, if you live in New Orleans, a wedding in the French Quarter during Mardi Gras is asking for trouble.
  
  


• If a number of relatives and friends have to fly in, check with some local hotels or motels as far as a group rate for those dates and let people know right away.



• Get specific contracts with your vendors - bands, DJ, florists, caterers, and bakery - have everything in writing. And ask for additional costs that could be charged to you such as traveling, over time, sales tax. Insist on all the details in the contract. Be suspicious if your vendor doesn't like this.



• When negotiating on a wedding photography package, specify to your photographer that you want a very efficient picture-taking schedule. Concentrate on photos. Don't schmooze with the photographer if it distracts them from getting the next shot. Put into the printed schedule when and where the photo sessions are taking place before and after the ceremony. Appeal firmly to the wedding party and relatives you want in the photos to go immediately to these locations so that you don't waste precious time trying to round up everybody scattered all over the property. Your guests are waiting patiently for the photography to be finished. Also, remember that your caterer at the reception hall is depending on you sticking to your schedule to show up so that food will be at its peak.



• When planning the ceremony you should certainly try to personalize your ceremony. However, please don't fall into excess: such as three or four voice solos, extended memorized speeches or poems, or singing songs to each other. Your emotions WILL sneak up on you, no matter how calm you are even through a wedding rehearsal the night before. Nine out of 10 couples will blubber uncontrollably at the moment they are under pressure to face each other and perform. Yes, a wedding is a show, but keep it from being your take on Oscar night.



• Weigh the cuteness factor versus the unpredictability factor when thinking about using children in the ceremony under the age of five. They have notoriously small attention spans during the boredom of dry clerical recitations.



• If you plan to have a friend or relative read a poem or selection during the ceremony please have a rehearsal reading to check for mispronounced words and clarity. And for the love of all, make it short!



• Make sure the groom has some involvement in the planning, even if you have utterly no respect for his judgment!



• To go with that, enjoy the planning and don't fight with anybody!



• Understand that this wedding is also the joining of two entire families. If you are different in religion, background or culture, celebrate each side's uniqueness and emphasize the things in common - love for the bride and groom, for instance.



• Tactfully make sure the mothers understand that this is YOUR wedding. If you have reached a sticking point about something that you don't want to do that your mother does, back off and think carefully and as logically as possible. Where possible give in on some detail if it would make you happier to see your mother's satisfaction than to get your own way. But, if it's something that you absolutely have your own heart set on, we encourage you to cry uncontrollably until you get your own way.



• For the day of the wedding the bride should have a bag packed for the church and reception that assumes she's staying overnight for two days. An emergency pair of this and that, plus white chalk for touching up smudges on white shirts, blouses, and dresses.



• When it comes to a bachelor party or even bachelorette party, discuss your feelings with each other. Agree not to do things that will get you off on the wrong foot with each other. Be sensitive to each other's feelings but not too sensitive to your own. And give each other a little space, a little wiggle room, since both of you may be under some alcoholic influence as you blow off a little steam. Have a sense of humor about each other's night out with the guys or gals.



• Save yourself money and don't bring your checkbook to the wedding. Let your vendors know that you will mail them the remainder of the balance after the wedding. Having a checkbook handy may set you up for getting "hustled" for extra expenses while you are in a giddy mood.



• Don't plan to leave on your honeymoon immediately. This invites disappointment and ill feelings since both of you will be extremely exhausted right after the wedding. Wait a few days, open gifts, sleep in late, slow down and rest before you pack and take off on your honeymoon.



• To wrap up - use patience, plan, plan, write it down, get the details, divide work into teams, compromise where needed, give yourself months and months to organize, and enjoy the planning process itself. And never assume anything, check, and double check for all contingencies and possible snags and emergencies. Plan how you will cope and overcome these if they happen - WHEN they happen!

• If you are having your reception at a hotel and they are providing you with a bridal suite for the night, do not forget to bring a change of clothes for the next day.


• There is a tradition you should be aware of should you wish to prevent embarrassment to you on your wedding day. In this tradition, your groomsmen will steal away your shoes and write with shoe polish on the underside. On one shoe, they will write the word "HELP" and on the other shoe the word "ME" or some variation thereof. When you kneel before the altar, the underside of your shoes will be exposed to your entire congregation. So, be sure to hide your shoes from your groomsmen!


• Take the marriage license and wedding rings to the rehearsal and see if the officiant will store them until the wedding day. These are two less things not to have to worry about forgetting.


• Have someone make you sandwiches that you and your new spouse can eat in the car while driving from the ceremony to the reception site. YOU WILL NOT EAT DURING THE RECEPTION - too many people will keep asking to take your picture.


• Don't obsess. Something will not go as planned, but people will either not notice or will sympathize with you. Enjoy your wedding and laugh stuff off. Best wishes!


• Guys, don't let your fiancé take all the stress of the planning and budgeting. GET INVOLVED! Not only will it make things easier for both of you, you'll have a ceremony that you'll both look back on and be able to know that you worked on it together.

Average Age
In 2000, the average bride was 24 years old and the average groom was 28.

Bridesmaids Curse
Thrice a bridesmaid; never a bride is an old charm that can be broken by being a bridesmaid seven times.

Dressing Matters
The tradition of bridesmaids dressing the same as each other and in similar style to the bride comes from ancient days when it was believed that evil spirits have a more difficult time distinguishing which one is the bride and putting a hex on her.

Engagement Rings
74% of all brides receive a diamond engagement ring. Of those, 60% are involved in picking out their ring, while 3% actually pick it themselves.

Formal or Casual
80% of brides plan formal weddings.

Internet Wedding Planning
8% of all Internet users are engaged to be married.

Number of U.S. Weddings
The number of marriages in the U.S. has averaged 2.25 - 2.4 million every year for the past 20 years.

Oldest Bridal Tradition
The veil dates back to ancient Rome, when it was flame-yellow, always worn over the face, and called a flammeum.

Second Weddings
In almost half of U.S. weddings either the bride or groom has been married previously.

Something Blue
In the rhyme 'something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue', "blue" is symbolic of the blood of royalty, since both the bride and the groom were once considered to be "royal" on their wedding day.

Strange But True
In Pennsylvania, Ministers are forbidden from performing marriages when either the bride or groom is drunk.

The Kiss
The kiss that is given by the bride to the groom at the end of the wedding ceremony originates from the earliest times when the couple would actually make love for the first time under the eyes of half the village!

Wearing a Wedding Ring
The reason that the engagement ring and wedding band is worn on the fourth finger of the left hand is because the ancient Egyptians thought that the "vein of love' ran from this finger directly to the heart.

Wearing White
Queen Victoria made white the bridal color of choice when she wore it to wed Prince Albert in 1840.

Wedding Costs
The average wedding costs $18,874 with 186 guests.

Wedding Costs - 2nd Time Around
The average second wedding costs $12,000, but couples spend nearly double first time couples on their honeymoons.


People say that there are some things to look for on your wedding day that may ensure the happiness in your marriage.

Your marriage will be happy if...

You both step into and leave the church with your right foot first.

You see a lamb or a dove on the way to the church.

The bride wears earrings during the ceremony.

You carry a pinch of salt to the church (it is meant to chase away evil spirits).

You are married in the afternoon.

It snows on your wedding day.

You feed a cat out of one of your shoes just before your married.

Married in June ...life will be one honeymoon!

If you or your fiancé dream of your wedding day.

If a cat sneezes in front of you or your bride on the night before your wedding.

Your married on a beautiful day.

A ray of sunshine falls on you as you are leaving the church.

A flock of white birds flies over you on your way to the ceremony.

Your bride cries on her wedding day.

A new dime is put in your brides left shoe just before she walks down the isle.

Your ceremony lasts between half an hour and an hour, the longer the ceremony the rising fortune.

A spider is found crawling on the bride's wedding dress before the two of you are married...creepy!