Tag: wedding planning

6 Mocktails Your Guests Will Actually Enjoy

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For some, a wedding reception is all about the bar and signature cocktails. Colleen Shea and Christopher Smith, who live in Orlando, Fla., said that a highlight of their celebration on Aug. 17, 2019, was the menu of drinks. But the couple, who met in 2015 at a 12-step program in Washington, D.C., didn’t offer your typical assortment of cocktails.

“We had a coffee bar with coffee, cappuccinos, lattes, and syrups to satisfy everyone’s caffeine fix,” said Ms. Shea, 33, a communications manager in the transportation industry.

Mr. Smith, 32, and Ms. Shea’s wedding at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., was alcohol-free and kicked off at 10 a.m. “Because we don’t drink and a lot of our guests don’t drink, it didn’t make sense to serve alcohol,” she said.

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How to Use Instagram to Plan Your Wedding

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It’s no secret that couples can use social media when planning their wedding. But one site that stands out for its utility, wedding planners say, is Instagram.

“Wedding planners, vendors, photographers, florists and venues all use Instagram to promote their services, so couples can easily find wedding inspiration by following these types of accounts,” said Antonia Baker, an event and wedding planner in Fredericksburg, Va. “From hairstyles to wedding venues to design ideas, Instagram has it all.”

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Outdoor Winter Wedding Hacks

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Usually when temperatures drop, couples hold their wedding indoors, away from the cold. But with social-distancing requirements and restrictions on gatherings amid the coronavirus, more weddings will be taking place outdoors this winter.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, so long as marrying couples embrace the elements. If you’re planning an outdoor winter wedding, here are some must-have items and creative ideas from professional wedding planners.

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Buying Wedding Insurance During the Pandemic

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The coronavirus pandemic foiled many couple’s wedding plans this year, but at the same time, it has helped raised awareness of wedding insurance.

“When the pandemic first hit back in March, we were handling dozens of clients with cancellations, postponements, contract negotiations, relocations, and a flurry of questions from 2020 couples about how to move forward and handle their event in the safest and most reassuring way,” said Noelle Ahmad-Snedegar, who owns the Washington-based event-planning company Lily & Grayson Events.

“One question that we received many times,” she said, “and still continue to answer, is, ‘Do you think we should get wedding insurance?’”

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Wedding Canceled or Postponed? Here’s How to Get a Refund

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Frank Dariano and Sharon Mensah had planned to marry on July 5, with 50 guests in attendance, at a resort in Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. But they canceled the wedding shortly after shelter-in-place orders were issued in San Jose, Calif., their hometown. “Our plans really went south as the pandemic started cracking down on international travel,” said Mr. Dariano, an administrative assistant at an outpatient rehabilitation center in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Things got even worse when their venue refused to refund their $8,300 deposit. “We didn’t feel it was right to lose our deposit when no services had been rendered,” said Ms. Mensah, 36, a high school therapist in Sunnyvale. When pleading with the venue led to a dead end, the couple consulted a lawyer in Canada, who reviewed their contract and negotiated with the resort for a full refund.

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Planning a Wedding at Home? Here Are a Few Things to Consider

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While many couples around the world are canceling or postponing their weddings because of the coronavirus pandemic, some are scaling down their plans and getting married at home.

Justine Roach, 31, and Hrishikesh Desai, 37, who are from Los Angeles, had originally planned to marry March 21 at Ojai Valley Inn, a resort in Ojai, Calif., before about 200 guests. The couple instead chose to exchange vows on the same day at the Beverly Hills home of the bride’s parents, with only their immediate family of six present.

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Wedding Insurance 101

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After a year and a half of careful wedding planning, Sally Niebuhr was ready to watch her oldest daughter, Kiki LaCroix, walk down the aisle at a winery in Sonoma, Calif., last October. But Mother Nature had other plans.

When the Kincade fire struck the area just a few days before the wedding was scheduled to take place, causing widespread evacuations, their dreams of a wine-country wedding were crushed.

The good news? Ms. Niebuhr had bought a wedding insurance policy for $350 from Travelers Insurance that provided $7,500 of cancellation coverage. She was refunded the $6,500 deposit she paid for the venue. The money was then used to book another place in San Francisco on Oct. 26, her original wedding date and just three days after the wildfires hit Sonoma.

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How to Handle Wedding-Planning Disputes With Parents

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Wedding planning can stir up conflict between marrying couples and their parents. Some squabbles are minor. Should the table linens be white or ivory? What should go inside the welcome bags for out-of-town guests? But disagreements can turn into a wedge between families.

Insecurity, said Dr. Tamar Blank, a psychologist in the Bronx, is largely to blame. “Parents may feel insecure or vulnerable due to the fact that they are ‘losing’ their child,” she said. “They may want to feel more appreciation. Or they may have insecurities of their own that are impacting the way in which they treat their children.”

“Similarly,” she added, “children may experience insecurity as their parents may be paying for the wedding, while the child yearns for more power and control.”

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Tips for Building a Wedding Website

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For many engaged couples, a personal website is an important part of the wedding-planning process. Often, it’s where guests go to find gift registry information, directions to the reception, preferred attire suggestions, and other useful information about the upcoming nuptials.

Seventy-four percent of couples who married in 2018 created a wedding site, up from 59 percent in 2015, according to the WeddingWire’s latest Newlywed Report.

Of course, not all wedding websites are created equally. What sets great web pages apart from so-so ones?

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7 Smart Ways to Stay Organized While Wedding Planning

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Staying organized while planning a wedding is no small feat. Forty-seven percent of engaged and newlywed couples said the process was so stressful they considered eloping or getting married at city hall, according to a 2018 survey of 500 engaged and newlywed couples by Zola, a wedding planning and registry website. Fifty-six percent reported elevated anxiety, 37 percent difficulty sleeping, and 10 percent loss of sex drive because of wedding planning stress.

Clearly, wedding planning can be a mentally and physically taxing job, which may explain why one in three couples (29 percent) who married in 2018 hired a professional wedding planner, according to The Knot.

Of course, not everyone can afford a professional planner, whose services cost, on average, $2,002. But by implementing a few smart organization strategies, you can plan your own wedding without losing too much sleep.

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