2016

Building your wedding around a major holiday has some advantages, but also some disadvantages. Here’s how to get the most out of the holiday, while avoiding the pitfalls.

There are conflicting opinions about the appropriate time to let your Best Man, Maid of Honor and other speakers deliver their toasts. So let’s review some of the pro’s and con’s of each option.

In an earlier post on this blog, we gave you some great tips on how to anticipate and address potential wedding day challenges before they erupt into major problems. Here are some more great ideas on how to make your wedding stress-free.

If you’re filling out your wedding budget based on some planning web site, you may find to your surprise that a lot of the real costs never get mentioned, and your revised budget may force you to make some painful cuts. The more you know about those hidden costs, the better you can prepare without being blindsided. Here are a few things to watch for:

There’s a troublesome member of your family who’s all but guaranteed to cause an ugly scene at your wedding. But he/she’s family! How do you tactfully explain that they’re not inviting him/her? Here’s how to handle it.

If you don’t budget your time and energy in the days leading up to and including your wedding day, you may just miss many of those precious moments that make your celebration truly special. Here’s how to keep control of your time and sanity, and leave yourself open to those most precious experiences.

If the thought of planning a full-scale wedding reception with a big meal and dancing is just too much for you to bear, perhaps you’d like to simplify, and plan a cocktail reception instead. Here are some of the advantages of a cocktail reception.

Jamie and Jose Perez-Nelson put on an extraordinary wedding celebration at Naperville’s Meson Sabika. And to pull it all together in sound and lighting, they chose the Chicago DJ and Chicago uplighting professionals from Fourth Estate Audio. Learn more about Fourth Estate at (630) 654-4440.

Now that you’ve decided to take that big step, there are some important things you can do right now, to make the rest of your wedding planning a breeze. Here’s what you need to do first.

Every couple chooses a First Dance song, and most of them simply look through lists of overplayed love songs and select one. If you’d like to make your First Dance a lot more personal — for you and your guests — try one of these ideas.