When you start planning for your big day, remember these ten important tips:
1. Begin preparations as soon as possible - All the service providers you’ll deal with are seeing earlier and earlier reservations. Not only that, but getting reservations early means you’ll have more time to communicate what you want to fix any problems.
2. Know your providers - If you can’t use someone you’re familiar with (or that was referred to you by a friend), then do your homework and check out their reputation. The last thing you want is some shoddy operation providing your wedding cake!
3. Get it in writing - It’s a contract and so you should get it all in writing. Getting it in writing also makes sure that there’s no miscommunication and that you’ve captured every last detail.
4. Stay organized - Planning a wedding takes a lot of hard work and can at times become very stressful. If you stay organized and stay on top of everything, you won’t be as easily overwhelmed.
5. Follow proper etiquette - With many different age groups and perhaps different cultures at your big day, learning proper etiquette can avoid embarrassing situations.
6. Invite the right people - We all feel like we should invite everyone we know to our wedding out of obligation, but you should really stick to people who you know care about you.
7. Watch the budget - This is a very important tip because if you go over, it will hurt you for a very long time. It’s also hard to remember because you hope to only be married once, you want it to perfect, and there are a lot of nice things you can do for yourselves. 
8. Compromise - It’s a partnership and this is the first big decision you’ll probably have to make. Compromise ensures everyone stays happy and their spirits are up for the big day.
9. Confirm and follow up - About two months before the date, follow up with everyone. This lets you make final changes (in case your schedule changes or you reached a compromise on something) and gives you another opportunity to make sure they have the details right.
10. Remember to have fun - I know it sounds silly to mention it but remember weddings are a happy time, don’t let the stressful planning process stop you from enjoy the big day!
It was reported a few days ago that the Gemological Institute of America fired four employees and shuffled its top brass when a former jewelry dealer claimed that the GIA and two diamond dealers conspired to increase the grade of two diamonds he sold to the Saudi royal family. All told the diamonds were sold for $15 million and when they were taken to an independent appraiser were rated lower and made them worth significantly less. When we’re talking about items that your average layperson has no ability to do, you wonder how often this sort of thing happens? Certainly most of us aren’t going around buying diamonds worth millions but who is to know if the diamond you just gave as a gift wasn’t just a little bit higher and so cost you a few thousand bucks more?
While I wouldn’t be too worried about this, it does make you wonder if you got your money’s worth.
Save The Date magnets seem to be the popular things these days to help your guests remember the special day. They can throw them on the refridgerator and be reminded of that day from now until eternity.
Well, these magnets can be made pretty easily if you have a high quality printer or photocopier and an arts & crafts store nearby. Simply find the images you’d like the use, the details you’d like to include, and photocopy them into place. You can purchase precut adhesive-backed sheet magnets and simply crop and crimp away. No need to get a third party to do it for you when you can do it yourself!
Ever wonder what the top ten wedding gifts are? Well, WeddingChannel.com has a great list, with gorgeous photos, of the top ten wedding gifts for younger couples just starting out (as opposed to second, third, or fourth marriages!):
1. Casual Dinnerware
2. Casual Glassware
3. 20-piece Flatware Set
4. Mixing Bowls
5. Mixer
6. Cookware
7. Toaster Over
8. Blender
9. Wine Glasses
10. Cutlery
Notice how everything goes into the kitchen?
One of the new things couples are doing these days is getting their own website so they can spread information, photos, etc. There’s a site, we have no affiliation with them, that’s giving out two year wedding websites for free:
http://www.tgwedding.com/tgwedding/index.php
We’ve never used them but they look reputable.
Most discerning buyers, when selected a ring, note that they can get a 14K or an 18K gold ring and wonder what the difference, other than gold quantity, there actually is between the two.
The 14K and 18K refer to the amount of gold actually present in the item you’re looking at. Pure gold contains 24K so 18K contains 18 parts gold and 6 parts of some other metal, or 75% gold. 14K gold contains 14 parts gold and 10 parts some other metal. The lowest karat weight for gold in the United States, and for the material to still legally be called gold, is 10K (10 parts gold, 14 parts something else).
The ‘other parts’ is what jewelers use to fiddle with the color. You can get it to be gray by using nickel, you can create white gold by using Palladium, and you can use copper to get a rosy effect.
The only warning about gold and the concept of “more is better” is that 24K gold is usually too soft for jewelry. If you look, you’ll often even see that the settings on an engagement ring are white gold or some other “harder” metal and not 18 or 14 karat gold, just to get additional strength. For jewelry, 18K and 14K gold is strong enough.
Money talks and cash speaks the loudest, so when you’re talking to a vendor or the reception hall, ask them if they offer any sort of discount for paying with cash and most places, if they aren’t huge outfits like a Marriott or a Sheraton, they will offer a bit of a discount.
Why are they willing to do this? Well, with a credit card they have to pay interchange processing fees which can run somewhere in the neighborhood of 3% - cash has no associated fee. If you pay with a check, while there are no fees, there’s always the risk that the check will bounce - cash won’t bounce.
One of the easiest way to cut costs with a wedding is to be flexible with your wedding date. Each region of the country has “off-season” times of the year where you can get great deals on just about everything for your wedding. Getting married in the off-season can provide the following benefits:
- Cheaper receptions fees. The food, wait staff, and bar fees may be the same but many places will offer discounts to those brides willing to get married during the slower months. It never hurts to ask if your reception sites has any offers for those less desired months.
- Vendors will be willing to work with your budget since they have less options for work. Be nice though, don’t assume that just because it is Janurary (the least popular month of them all), your vendor will be obligated to offer you a discount. Its best to approach them with your budget and see if they can work with it. The only caveat to this rule is that flowers, especially roses, will be very expensive around Valentine’s Day.
- You have more options since fewer vendors and locations will be booked when you are looking. This leads to great last minute deals if you are willing to wait until a few months before your wedding to book your reception local and vendors.
This is less a wedding specific money saving tip and more a general personal finance tip: No matter when you get married, you’ll file as married for that year when you prepare your tax return. If you get married on December 31st, 2006, then come April 15th, 2007, you will file a return as either a Married Filed Jointly or Married Filed Separately - not as a Single. If you get married on January 1st, 2007, when you file your 2006 Tax Return, you’ll file it as a Single.
How does this affect you? Take a look at the Married Filing Jointly tax brackets, they’re considerably larger than the Single tax brackets (but less than two Single brackets put together), which means that if your combined income is in the right range, you could save in taxes by filing jointly.
For example, if between you earn $60,000 and your spouse earns $0 - you would pay $11,557.50 in taxes if you filed as a Single. If you two wed in December 31st and filed 2006 as a Married Filing Jointly, you’d only see a tax bill of $8,245 - a difference of $3,312.50.
If you’ve ever been to a wedding you’ll likely have seen, along with the invitation, information that indicated that the happy couple has negotiated a special rate with the hotel on a block of rooms. Well, now it’s your turn to negotiate this block of rooms and it’s your job to make sure two things happen:
- The deal is actually a deal and,
- You get something out of it.
When you negotiate, be sure to have a general idea of how many rooms you will need and for how many days. Hotels hate having empty rooms and hotels that occur on weekends where that hotel won’t be jam packed (concert or convention weekends would thus be a bad weekend to pick) are great opportunities to negotiate a better deal for your guests. After you get a deal, check to see that you can’t beat (or even match) that deal through travel websites - it’s not a deal if anyone can get it.
Second, make sure you get something out of it like a free room for yourself or some other perk. It’s not uncommon for a hotel to throw in a free room if you hold the reception there or get a whole block of rooms actually reserved and used.
