Five Ways to Simplify Your Wedding

By: Alexine

Planning your wedding can be quite a headache these days due to all the hype about every little detail. These nit-picky things add up to a whole list of tedious tasks you and your fiancé will cringe about by the end. Trying to incorporate all the little hopes and dreams of both of you along with input from the wedding planner (if you have one) and parents (if you let them) can bring you to your boiling point. To try and eliminate reaching your limit I have come up with five ways to simplify your wedding.

Location
The location is first on the list because it can be one of the most frustrating parts of planning your wedding. Trying to juggle the time at your church and reception is quite a headache, especially with the details of parking and getting everyone from one place to another. To solve this problem you can have your wedding in one location.

Whether you have the ceremony outside in the garden and the reception inside of an old Victorian home or vice versa, it is easy simplify the location of your wedding. There are many places where you can have both the ceremony and reception to eliminate the cost and confusion of two different places. We personally did this and it saved us a lot of time and money.

Attendants
Wedding photos of large wedding parties that line up about sixteen across are fun to look at but are not so fun to figure out. Picking out dresses to meet every girl’s need and making sure the groomsmen line up their tuxedo rental on time can be almost impossible. This task alone can make any bride-to-be want to pull her hair out.

In order to simplify the tasks of your wedding attendants you can cut the numbers down so you each only have one to three people or set up the tux rentals and dress specifics at nationwide stores. Some people even choose to do both of these.

To make the tuxedo rental easier on you there are several stores that are nationwide and allow the groomsmen to go in and get sized to make sure their correct suit is waiting at the same tuxedo shop for your wedding day. This is a great way to keep the groomsmen looking alike.

For the bridesmaid dresses you can go to a bridal shop that is all around the country and choose a color. Then allow your bridesmaids to pick and choose the dress that looks best on their figure. This will give you the right color scheme without the fuss of trying to make sure the same dress looks perfect on each woman.

Guests
To cut down on costs and the worry of trying to spend time with so many people at once you can simplify your guest list by going through each of your lists and eliminating the extras. To make this task easier on each of you categorize the guests in three groups; must invite, should invite and could invite.
This could also be done by putting a number one, two or three next to each name based on the three different categories. Then you can eliminate the “could invite” list and some of the “should invite”.

By eliminating unnecessary guests you save both time and money at your wedding. It may seem like a cruel thing to do but in reality it is only one day in a lifetime of being able to see people. For all the people you do not invite there are plenty of other times you can make to hang out together.

Accommodations
For those of you who have all your family and friends in one area, you do not have to worry about this simplification. However, if you are one of the bride and groom couples that do not, then setting up accommodations for the traveling guests is a very good idea.

To avoid five hundred calls about where to stay while attending your wedding you should make a block reservation at a local hotel. Then your guests will all be in the same place and there will be less confusion on how to get to your wedding. This is also a much easier solution than trying to make room for all the visitors with your local family and friends.

Food and Drinks
Last but not least you can cut down on many time consuming tasks by simplifying the food and drinks at your wedding. While a “choose your entrée” dinner and an open bar are nice at the wedding, you will be spending a lot of money and time preparing both. The most efficient solutions to food and drinks at your wedding are to have an elegant buffet or just appetizers and a selective bar.

For the buffet you should choose two entrées and three side dishes to be served at the wedding. This will eliminate the need of extra servers and dinner choice response cards that go along with a sit down dinner. Also if you have a free bar with a couple types of beer and wine then you do not have to afford a full bar or an extra beverage server.

Simplify
The idea of “simplifying” your wedding should be a positive thought. So many people associate the idea of “simplifying” with being cheap but it really is a great way to help cut down on the stresses of planning your wedding. Even if you choose only one of the suggestions above a load can be lifted off your shoulders. Just pick and choose what you feel comfortable with and run with it. Planning your wedding is supposed to be fun so make sure you enjoy it.