The holiday season is prime time for many couples to become engaged to be married. And equally so, once the holidays are over, the month of January is prime season for bridal shows, so the Department of Consumer Protection is offering some advice for couples who are going to be planning and shopping for their wedding in the upcoming months.

“Starting this weekend, there are at least 10 major bridal events scheduled in or around the state through March, so we want to offer a little advance advice,” Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell, Jr. said. “No matter if it’s small or large, casual or fancy, your wedding is an event that’s going to involve some out-of-the-ordinary expenses and purchases, and you’ve got to be well prepared. My first piece of advice if you’re going to a bridal fair, is to bring a notebook but leave your checkbook home. Take the time you need to gather information on lots of venues, photographers, florists, dresses and caterers. Don’t make any hasty decisions.”

However, says Farrell, as you move further into the planning process, the single most important thing you must do is carefully read all contracts and be sure you understand them before you sign.

“What are the cancellation policies and deadlines? How much of your deposit is non-refundable? What is the exchange or refund policy on your wedding dress? What is included in the catering cost? How much will it cost for the band to play an extra hour? You’ll want to be sure you understand all of these possibilities and contingencies,” Farrell said. “Get every detail in writing and be sure both you and the business agree on all points before signing a contract. Include exact descriptions, and add your own statement that you will not pay for services and expect a complete refund on any deposits if the company does not deliver exactly as specified in the contract.”

When booking photography, video or DJ services, you may want a particular person assigned to your wedding because you have seen their work and really like it. Make sure this individual’s name is specified on the contract.

Specify in writing the photos that absolutely must be taken — for example, your great aunt or your twin nephews. You’ll also want to provide some overall direction, such as how many candid photos you prefer versus formal photos. Give your DJ a list of songs to play. Agree in writing to a time frame in which you’ll receive and approve your proofs, and a price for a minimum number of prints you agree to purchase — aim low because you can always add more later.

After you’ve made all your choices based on careful attention to personal recommendations, price, quality, convenience and amenities, you’ll want your down-payments to be safe.

“Use a credit card for all deposit payments — where possible — and give the smallest possible deposit that you can,” Farrell said. “If something goes wrong, payments you made by a credit card can be disputed through the credit card company, but payments made by check or cash will be much harder to get back.”

It’s a good idea to book your wedding sooner rather than later, in order to get the widest choice. Also, if something does go wrong, you should have enough time to make alternate arrangements.

Once you have booked your hall, caterer, florist, photographer and other businesses, be sure to stay aware of how those specific businesses are doing.

“In good times and bad, there will always be companies that go out of business for a wide variety of reasons,” Farrell said. “If the caterer or photographer has a Web site or e-mail newsletter, sign on and check that the information there is up-to-date. Take an occasional ride by the reception hall or the florist shop on a weekend to see that it’s thriving. Stay informed about the companies you’re doing business with.”

Your wedding party is very important event in your life and you always want to make it memorable among all peoples. But it is really hard to find the right event planner for wedding party. If you have complete information related to how to organize a wedding party then you would be the best event planner for your party. This article is for you to short out various problems related to birthday, wedding party ideas and event planners. By this article you can get a great help for party idea. Mainly people would like to hire party entertainer to their local area for marquee hire, table hire, chair hire, glass and glassware hire.

People would like to send invitations to their relatives, friends and other peoples when they have selected a location for their wedding party. Selecting a location for your wedding is not too complicated. There are various alternatives available, as well as party rooms at restaurants, private homes, hotels, and many more. First of all check your budget and then choose the perfect location for your wedding party.

Make right decision for selecting a perfect date for your wedding event. Your friends are the main pride for you on your wedding party so you should try to choose a date according to their availability for your marriage party. This would help you preventing from the disappointment that your friends are not coming in your marriage due to their busy schedule. Be sure that long weekends may not be the perfect time to arrange your wedding party. To a certain extent frequently people go away and you may find it hard to plug your guest catalog with all of your unique friends.

For making your party distinctive and attractive you will have to be innovative with your party supplies. It will make your party memorable among your guests. There are also various websites which can get you ideas for unique party supplies. For your wedding party you need tasty foods, marquees, table and chairs, glass and glassware equipments and hiring these things within your budget is very hard. Don’t worry. Just search to internet and you can get various websites in which complete or individual equipment can be hired very easily. You have to do some homework like according to the number of your guests you have to order. Prices are mentioned with each product you need. So calculate the actual number of guests and then order them.

Finally, the main point is to confirm the service aspects of the party organizer. You have to check testimonials from the sites where their clients tell about the services the party planner provides. If you are looking locally to your area for a party planner then confirm everything about their services. Don’t hesitate to share your opinions about party planning with him. It will help the party planner to better understand your party needs. The best homework you can do arise the best and memorable party among all your wedding party guests.

There really are no major rules on what exactly you need to do to set your wedding date. So pick your date once you’re sure you will be happy with that decision and stick with it. I know it seems a little obvious but sometimes people pick wedding dates and then realize that it would not be a great idea to get married on your brother’s girlfriends birthday or the weekend of your cousins graduation and then they have to start all over again and hopefully the second time around they spend more time thinking about any other events happening in that time or conflicts for that day or weekend.

How do you set the wedding date? Many people will decide their wedding date in several steps, the first of which is narrowing down when you want to be married by season and year. Once you narrow down the choices you need to confirm eligibility of the locations for the same date. Method Two: Picking a date based upon the services and vendors you want to use. You may choose to set the date based upon the availibility of the ceremony site, such as when the church you want to get married is available for use.

Just remember making decisions based upon availability of venue could shorten or lengthen your engagement time considerably. There are some locations for ceremonies that are very popular.

If you really must get married in a certain location you could be adding a year or more onto your engagement. Method Three: Based upon traditions, family or other. Setting the date may become simple if you are particularly close to someone like a grandmother and you want to get married on the day she was. Perhaps all the women in your family get married in June, and so all you need to do is narrow it down by date.

Unique Wedding Decorations – Make Your Wedding Unique!

Do you feel overwhelmed with your goal of having the perfect wedding? Do you feel pressured when thinking about how to make your dream day become a reality? Planning a wedding can take months of preparation and can become stressful, especially for the bride! If you want to have great ideas for your wedding, then read on and learn about unique wedding ideas that can add life, twists, and joy to your wedding!

1. Journal Book
During the wedding reception, pass around a nicely designed wedding journal among your guests. Have them write short notes, stories or messages about or to the bride or the groom. Of course, you need to keep this journal as part of your wedding keepsake.

2. Potted Plants as Centerpieces
Instead of having the usual flower centerpieces which can be quite expensive, why not have a very unique and earth-friendly centerpiece for your wedding reception? Use small potted plants as centerpieces to your guests tables and you will be surprised at how this unique wedding idea can add life and twist to the usual wedding scene.

3. Candle Pots and Lanterns for Decoration
The light emitted by candles and lanterns create you a magical glow compared to the traditional lights. If your wedding is in the early morning, at dusk, or at night, use candles or lanterns to create a wonderful venue. You can opt to place big lanterns on specific places or use lots of candles in some corners for an amazing effect.

4. Kid’s Corner
While most weddings are often adult events, you cannot help but have a throng of tiny guests especially if your friends are married. Have one corner at the reception set aside for kids so they will not get bored through the reception program. Have face painting, free balloons, free caricatures, or even a playing area. After all, these kids deserve some of the fun and action on your wedding.

5. The Wedding Ceremony
If you want to break away from the usual church or hall wedding, then do a fun wedding ceremony that is far from the traditional. Have a beach wedding where you can go barefoot and get adorned by a shell necklace. Have a garden wedding where you will be surrounded by color and flowers. Have a pool wedding where guests can swim, drink and be merry right after the ceremony. Up to spending much? Rent a yacht and have a floating wedding and reception. There are many unique wedding ideas for themes and venues. Explore those ideas so you can have the wedding you want most.

6. Uniue Wedding Favors
Unique wedding ideas are not limited to the program, the reception or even the theme. You can make your wedding day memorable to you and your guests by giving away unique wedding favors. If you got married on the beach, give bottled sand as keepsakes. If you had a nature themed wedding, give away small potted bamboo plants as wedding favors.

7. The Traveling Wedding
Another unique wedding idea is to celebrate a wedding is to have a traveling or mobile wedding. If your guest list is short and if your guests are up to it, then you can have a roving wedding. Start off with a bridal shower party at one place, move on to an exotic ceremony in another state, then have a grand wedding reception somewhere new to family and friends. This can create lots of great memories not only for the bride and groom but also for friends and family.

Fun Ideas For Your Budget Wedding Reception

When planning a wedding reception, there is nothing that says a couple MUST just have a sit-down dinner at a reception hall. This is a good time for the creativity of the couple to come shining through, especially if your friends and relations share some kind of special interest.

One fun idea for your budget wedding reception is to plan to have a family-style picnic, either in your back yard or at a local park like a town or state park where you can rent a picnic shelter. This allows you to take advantage of anything special available at the site like a swimming pool or barbecue pits that may be available. You can also allow the people attending to provide their own foods for the day, and be responsible only for providing the wedding cake as dessert, and beverages like lemonade for the group.

By selecting this type of event, you provide fun activities as well as allowing the guests to change out of any formalized dress they might have worn for the actual ceremony. This will allow your guests to more fully relax and can help to take some of the burden off you in the form of reduced costs for the reception. Often the cost of the rental of a picnic pavilion will be far below that of a reception hall with catering.

Other activities available at this kind of site can include volleyball games, football games, baseball games and the space necessary to conduct races or activities for the kids in who might be in attendance to keep them less bored and more engaged to keep them out of mischief. Depending on the rules of the site chosen, cleanup can be as simple as policing the area you are utilizing (easier with the participation of other guests) and seeing that the garbage is contained appropriately for pick up.

Another fun idea for your budget wedding reception is to schedule it in conjunction with some sort of event put on by a group that caters to a shared interest like a medieval faire or sci-fi or comic convention. If the bride and groom are members of the group sponsoring the event, they can usually work with the sponsoring group to make appropriate accommodations for the reception. By sharing in some of the costs of the event, the bridal couple can find exceptional savings over what it would cost to rent a hall.

Members of the bridal party and any interested guests could put on appropriate costumes to attend the event, and chances are they couple could enlist other members of the group to help find costumes or other appropriate clothing for anyone who didn’t have any but were interested in having some to better participate.

One final fun idea for your budget wedding reception is to have the option of hiring live music for the reception that more accurately reflects your personal tastes in music and that of the majority of your guests. If you prefer country or Celtic music, for example, how much more preferable would that be over a DJ who offers only canned music via CDs? If chosen carefully, the cost of live music could be equal to or even less than the cost of a DJ, and often a live group can go farther in engaging the guests who attend your reception.

Participation from the audience in singing with the band would be encouraged, whereas this might not be possible with a DJ. Dancing as a participatory exercise for more ages might be possible for guests at a reception where there is an abundance of songs familiar to a greater population of your guests.

To your beautiful wedding reception!

By: Bob Hamilton