Click for the 101 on Amaryllis

E is for Eating (keep doing so!)

Sounds like silly advice but you would be surprised how many brides go a little overboard in the weeks right after the engagement and try to lose as much weight as possible, as quickly as possible.  You have plenty of time to lose weight before the wedding – don’t stop eating and do it all at once.  Just eat sensibly and any extra pounds will come off by wedding day.

D is for Date (set one!)

There are two ways to approach setting a date – either you have a very specific date in mind and will arrange your locations and vendors around it or you have a location or vendor in mind and will set your date based on their availability.  Decide which approach you fall into and then begin your planning.

I usually see people with a specific date when it coincides with either the couple’s anniversay or a family member’s anniversary or with a holiday weekend.  Bear in mind if you have a specific date in mind that you don’t want to change, you are going to have a more limited choice with regard to locations and key vendors.

C is for Contracts (be prepared to start reading!)

Contracts aren’t much fun – I don’t know anyone who considers them a good beach read by any means!  But when it comes to your wedding, they are mandatory reading.  You are going to be spending a lot of money (and I say that whether your budget is $5000, $50,000 or $500,000) on this one day – make sure that when you hire a vendor, you understand their contract.  Read every word of every contract because you need to know what happens if you decide you want to cancel their services or what happens if they get sick and need to send a sub at the last minute.

Also, a good vendor will NEVER pressure you to sign a contract on the spot and will let you look it over before you sign it – if someone pushes you to sign something without giving you the time to understand it, please walk away.  Our contracts are written to protect us AND you so we want you to understand what you are signing.

B is for Budget (make one ASAP!)

This is actually the very first thing that you should do – before you visit any bridal salons, before you make a guest list and even before you set a date!  The budget controls everything about your wedding so don’t make ANY decisions before you have it firmly set.

Talk to everyone who is involved – parents, other family members, anyone else who you think might contribute to wedding costs.  The worst thing you can do is set a budget based on what you think someone might be contributing only to find out later that they aren’t thinking the same thing!  Make sure everyone is on the same page with regards to money and then start your plans – this is one place you really don’t want to get ahead of yourself!

A is for Attendants (don’t ask too quickly!)

They are your best friends and the first people you probably called when you got engaged so don’t ask them to be in your bridal party.  Not right away.  Even if you know exactly who you would like to have in your bridal party, wait until you nail down the budget and size of your wedding before you ask them.  Having a wedding with 50 guests and 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen would be a bit strange, no?

Your guest list and your bridal party should be in proportion to each other – there is no set rule of thumb but your bridal party probably shouldn’t be more than 10% of your guest list unless you are having a small destination wedding or there are some unique circumstances in play.

If you are worried about hurting your friend’s feelings by not asking immediately, just make sure you ask everyone at about the same time and no one will feel like they were a second or third choice.  You can’t unask someone to be the in bridal party and that would hurt their feelings more than waiting a few weeks to be asked in the first place.

Click for the 101 on Veronica

Last year I did a series called Last Minute Tips: A-Z.  It is some of my favorite tips on things to remember in the last month of so before the wedding – you can read that series here.  It was a favorite of mine to put together and still a favorite of readers.

While I have covered the time right before the wedding, I have never discussed the first steps to take after the engagement.  There are a lot of things that should be done and as many things that really should NOT be done right after that question is popped!  So over the next few weeks, watch for my new series: First Things First: A-Z.

Tomorrow we’ll start at the very beginning, a very good place to start – A is for Attendants. (Sorry, channeled Sound of Music there for a second.)  Hope you enjoy it!