Helpful Advice For Your Wedding Planning

This is the first part of a two-part series on wedding parties. This first part is for the couples getting married. We have compiled some advice on wedding parties and how to make the experience amazing! Consider your people carefully The right people can make this experience wonderful. And the wrong people…well you may find yourself in wedding hell. So take this moment to evaluate the people you are considering for your wedding party. Will they meet your expectations? Will they keep to a timeline? Or are they going to cause problems? Or will they do something cringey? Go ahead, be different It’s okay if your wedding party numbers on each side don’t match. It’s okay to have different genders on one side of the wedding party. Pick great people who you would love to have standing right beside you. Be clear on your expectations When you ask someone to be in your wedding party, you should have an idea of the financial commitment, the time obligations, and any other expectations you may have. For example, will they have to purchase attire (dresses, suits, accessories)? Will they have to purchase specific attire that they may never wear again? Will they have to plan showers, bachelorette, bachelor parties? Are you expecting them to travel out of city/province/country for these events? Will they have to travel to the wedding? It’s okay if they say no If after presenting your expectations, let it be okay if they decline the invitation. Don’t take offence to it. Instead, give your friend/sibling/relative grace. It may be a hard period in their life and while I know that they would love to stand up there with you, it may not be possible. Instead, be happy that they will likely be at the wedding and possibly some of the surrounding events and can enjoy being there rather than stressed out to the max. Keep the communications clear Once someone has signed onto the task of being in your wedding party, keep the lines of communication going. Check in with them to see how they are doing. Is anything stressing them out about the wedding? Before the big day, it is a good time to reset the expectations for the day of the wedding. Provide a timeline to everyone and where they are supposed to be during the day. Other things to discuss could be alcohol consumption, seated for speeches, who is giving speeches and how long do they have? Are they expected to help get people on the dance floor?