Going back a few pages..

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I would do a post on why it's so important to take your time planning a wedding. If you're an indecisive person, it might not be the best fit, but if you're someone who needs to watch your budget then a year's engagement might be just what you need.

First step always is creating your budget-- if you don't know what you have to spend, you'll end up spending too much, and that applies in all areas of life! Sometimes this takes more than a few minutes because you will ALWAYS forget something! "What's that you say? We need something for people to toast with? Can't they just do that with air?"

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Secondly is creating your "look"-- do you want it to be a simple spring wedding or are you looking for the pretty pretty princess wedding with jewels, a big dress, and a cake taller than yourself? Either way, you'll want time to make the centerpieces made from Bell jars OR to save up a little extra coin to rent out the Kennedy family jewels and find a baker who does the best combination of almond cake with raspberry filling.

Thirdly is dress shopping, for you AND your wedding party-- since we gave my bridesmaids a lot of notice, they were able to find their dresses on sale which saved a few of them almost $50!! For a volunteer position that requires such a financial commitment (especially on the part of out of towners), it's not just nice but polite to give your wedding party as much forewarning of possible.

There are a thousand other little details to think about with your wedding and there won't ever be a time when you have everything covered, which is why my profession exists! If you can't afford to hire a wedding planner, I've got you covered-- once our move is finished I will start producing my own DIY planning handbooks to be sold on Etsy! (don't you worry, I'll keep you posted on that)

All of that said, the biggest tip I could ever give you is... write it all down! Take a little note pad with you and jot down every idea that comes in to your head from the second you start thinking you might get engaged-- when you have a date set, you can finally start working everything in to your calendar!

Gift Horsing Around

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So your wedding party is spread out over the US and you've been dreaming of gift cards as a final thank you for their assistance... but how do you know what's in their area? What if they're picky? What if they already have everything and couldn't really use another Target gift card?

Enter the online discount industry! Groupon, Half Off Depot, Double Take Deals, LivingSocial, Crowd Cut, and others are spread around the US and tend to pick the better restaurants and shops in the area to promote with deals. Just check out the hometown deals and get them dinner, lunch, or even a massage!

Getcha hur did

One of the expenses I finally bit the bullet on for my wedding was getting my hair done-- thankfully I figured out that Fresche (which was right across from our reception site and two minutes from the church) has a really reasonable price on that sort of thing, but what if I hadn't been so lucky? Or what if someone in your wedding party just needed a bit of a touch up? DoubleTakeDeals has had recently, and Groupon as well, coupons for local salons including Fresche and (I believe) Salon Red. Even if you can't find a salon you like on the coupon circuit, you can frequently find specials on their websites! Also, if you have a regular stylist and you're a good customer and have done referrals to others, there's a possibility you could talk them in to helping you out if you're tight on money. Scoutmob has had a slew of them lately, as well.

I did make the decision not to get my nails done before the wedding-- it was hard enough to squeeze out $100 for my hair, I just couldn't bring myself to plop down another $30 to have my nails properly done. If this Pampered Nail and Body Spa deal had been around at the time, I probably could have talked myself in to it and maybe passed it on to my bridesmaids as well since the big thing seems to be Spa Days for bridal parties!

If you spend a little time (and I really do mean a little, I found Fresche after a day) looking around you can find plenty of specials online and through the shops-- you may end up with a newer stylist, but it worked out perfectly for me and we had a trial run beforehand to make sure that nothing went wrong!