Wedding Etiquette

So I got this great idea to write about this blog because I am planning my own wedding and there are a lot of decisions that I am unsure of. I always turn to the web to answer questions I have so I thought I would share some of the things I have learned so far in my wedding adventure. 

BUDGET
As most of you may know, the times have changed and weddings now are not mostly paid for my the brides parents (well most of the time). As for the families involved in my wedding we decided to divide it up equally. Now this did take a lot of time to figure out and to tell you the truth this was one of the HARDEST things to solve! First of all it makes it difficult when their is divorced parents on one side. Each parent had a budget in their head and let me tell you, everyones was different. But we decided in the beginning that everyone would pay equal shares. My parents paid half, his mom paid a fourth and his dad paid a fourth (his parents are divorced). Now is this correct? I think so. We are not back in the day when the wedding was only about the bride. I believe that for today's weddings to work, we need to all work together!


Now that the boring stuff is over, lets get to the fun stuff!


PICKING THE WEDDING PARTY
Many would this that this would be easy, but friends stay and friends go. I thought I had my wedding party picked out for the longest time, but you loose touch, so you have to change your plans. I decided to do something different. I have two best friends! I could not pick between them. I mean we do EVERYTHING together! So why not two maids of honors? Yes I said two!! Well I of course went to the computer and started searching. I actually found it is not that weird after all. I was so relieved! No choosing for me! Also, I have 6 girls on my side and my soon-to-be husband has only 5... hmmm.. Is this a problem? No. Since I have two maid-of-honors we are going to have both walk down the aisle with the one best man! Let me tell you he is going to love this! Also, since I do have two maid-of-honors, I am going to delegate the tasks out to them equally. One will stand next to me and the other will sign the marriage license. Also, what is better than having 2 besties plan your wedding shower and bachelorette party! I say have fun with choosing you wedding party.. It is YOUR day! Who says there are rules! ;)

INVITATIONS

Wow. who knew there were so many do's and don'ts to this topic! First of all depending on the type of event you are having (casual vs. formal) there are certain ways to word your invitation. Check out this site for examples on wording for your invitations! Also, another thing I found out is that you are not suppose to put where you are registered in your invitation. I know its not polite to ask for gifts, but everyone wants to know where you are registered. Ever site I looked at said DO NOT DO THIS, but I don't know what the big deal is if you slip a small card in the back with the invitations. I think this will take out the hassle of trying to find where the couple is registered for your guests. Again, times have changed!

Now I feel like I could go on and on about different things I do and do not agree with but I think I will stop here! Again, this is YOUR day and you can do what you want! Times have changed and traditions change along with it.  

Social Networking is Taking Over!

Having learned so much about social media and realizing how important it is today. It is so beneficial for your event to use Social Media to promote it to everyone!


There are so many options!!

Now if your event cannot find a site to advertise your event, your not looking very hard. You first need to decide how much time you want to spend on your social media sites. Twitter for example takes a lot of time and you need to make sure you are tweeting regularly. If you do not think you have enough to tweet about then maybe you should use Facebook and update statuses about your event and promote your event by posting pictures of last years event. Also, flickr is another great site that you can use to upload pictures for everyone to see. If you let people see how fun or exciting your event is, it could get more people to come!

Since many events have a very strict budget, social media is a great thing to use because many sites are free and if you can find someone to do this for you for free it would be so beneficial for your event! 

First of all, you need to make a presence in your social networking sites! Start getting friends on Facebook or Following people on Twitter. You can promote your event to so many more people than traditional advertising. Think about, how many people actually saw that sign you posted on the wall of a restaurant last year? Probably not many! But with social networking, your reach is endless!

According to Constant Contact Survey,  "A full 78% of survey respondents believe that social media is an important marketing tool for their events. Roughly the same percent (77%) currently use social media to market and/or promote their events and another 14% pan to do so in the next year."

^^^ If your that 14 percent. You need to just on the band wagon now!!

My suggestions to promote your event are to make sure you research your social media options! Even though Facebook and Twitter are the most popular today, don't worry if they don't fit your goals. Do what you think is right!