Wedding Planning

If you’re getting married and happened to watch last week’s royal wedding on TV (or were noble enough to merit an invitation to witness the event in person), I imagine you might be feeling a little… deflated. Let’s be honest here - a wedding as grand as Prince William’s certainly makes a tough act to follow, regardless of your levels of income, power, and notoriety. I mean really, did you see the hats that Fergie’s two daughters were wearing? As hideous as they were, they still probably cost more than most people’s wedding rings…

But I suppose this matter does lead to its own conclusion – if you can’t beat it, why try? Or to put it another way – since Prince William has set the wedding bar so high this season, why not aim low? Not only will a simpler home wedding be easier to plan and pay for, but it just very well may be more fun. And so today I shall begin a series of tips devoted to hosting a home wedding that everyone is sure to remember.

Perhaps the first decision that must be made when planning a wedding is the location. Pretty much all the other decisions involved in planning a wedding are dependent upon the location. For example, if you are planning on getting married in an open field, you may consider purchasing a wedding dress that isn’t floor-length. This will avoid the despairingly permanent grass stains that will ruin the hem of a longer dress. (You may also wish to consider dumping your current fiancé in lieu of someone who isn’t allergic to grass, pollen, and nature in general. Nothing ruins a wedding more than an anaphylactic groom…)

When choosing your location, take the following elements into consideration:

• Is the location available when you need it? Chances are if you are planning on getting married in that open field, it won’t be available in December. (Unless of course you plan to wear an all-white parka, that is…)
  
  
• How beautiful is the location? Yes, the garbage dump is available year-round, but do you really want piles of someone else’s used coffee grounds surrounding you?
  
  
• How convenient is the location? Though it might be quite beautiful to get married on a coral reef, somehow I don’t think that all the requisite scuba gear will be very convenient. (Especially when it comes to the first kiss and the rebreathers have to come off…)
  
  
• And finally, how expensive is the location? We probably all would like to be married in Westminster, but unless you have some sort of title of nobility and the money to back it up, that’s probably not going to be happening any time soon. So find a location you love and can afford. And if that location is your own backyard, then so be it. (Unless, of course, your backyard features some sort of makeshift pet cemetery, because that would just be creepy…)

So those are some of the major things to take into consideration when planning that simple wedding. I’ll be back next Monday with another wedding planning tip. Until then, good luck!