Wedding Planning Without Stress-Part Two

The major aspects of organizing your wedding day doesn't have to be overwhelming if you afford yourself enough time to work through the details. Remember that tasks always appear simpler in the mind than in the reality of making them manifest. In addition, you and your partner need to afford yourselves a cushion of time to handle the invariable unexpected things that happen during the process. Managing an event where many people are involved requires patience and flexibility.

In the first part of this article the wedding theme, budget, location and the parties responsible for the expenses were discussed. Now let's look at the other four questions that are important to be answered to make sure your wedding day is a joyful experience:

Who will conduct the marriage ceremony? This can be a relatively simple decision if you plan to have your wedding in a church where you and your partner attend services. Now the question is whether or not the church and the officiant are available on the date that you desire. However depending on the type of marriage ceremony you want to have, you may need to order certain items beside your wedding rings, for example a canopy or divan is used in many ethnic weddings. These details should be considered when choosing your location as well.

Who will be in the bridal party? Beyond the best man and the maid/matron of honor, selecting the number of bridesmaids and groomsmen can be a challenging process and the time factor again plays a major role. The other issue that should be addressed to avoid problems is the personalities of the individuals. For couples with siblings and a large social circle of friends it's a good idea to start discussions with your siblings first to avoid damaging your relationship.

Where will the reception be held? Just as in the case of the marriage ceremony, your reception venue has to chosen well in advance to ensure availability. Transportation to the location for the bridal party and guests come into play here in addition to how well the location works with your chosen theme. Your reception accessories are also dictated by the location and will impact the entertainment and photography.

How many guests do you want to attend? More than the ceremony, the number of guests affect your reception the most because the total cost is based on how many people must be served during the festivities. The number of guests has to be given to your wedding cake baker as well to be sure everyone is able to have a generous portion and also to afford guests a piece of wedding cake to take home.

Although the questions here may appear to be simple, it's surprising how much time they can consume to finalize. Keep in mind that many of the details are processed in stages; selecting and ordering wedding invitations is one thing, but it can take several weeks for them to be approved and delivered. Plus you must allow several weeks ahead of the wedding date to post them to your guest list and receive their response in order to give your reception caterer the number of people that will need to be served.

Many couples think that a small wedding is easier to organize and in some respects this is true. However, regardless of the size of the wedding, unless you are having your ceremony and reception at home, you still need to start the planning process well in advance to be sure that the locations for your marriage celebration will be available.

On the other hand, for couples who are planning very large weddings with a guest list of more than 200 people, the planning process should be given even more time: this type of wedding can easily take 24 months to successfully work through all of the details.

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