1. Plan Early
The later you plan the less option you’ll have. And the more highly sought after a place, the sooner you need to book ahead. This isn’t just for locations, it’s also for photographers, musicians, and so on. Start your wedding planning as soon as you can.

2. Stick to Your Budget
Before you even start your wedding planning, create a budget! Then from this budget divide up how much your willing to spend on the different parts of your wedding. For example how much are you willing to pay for flowers, for entertainment, for the wedding dress, etc. And stick to it.

3. Choose Reputable Service Providers
This is one of the most important days in your life, so don’t go with the cheapest service provide all the time. Pick people and companies that have good reputations and can get the job done. Hopefully you’ll only have one chance to get it right.

4. Put everything in Writing
It’s important to have everything in writing, not just for you but for your service providers as well. The longer it’s been since you made the agreement the more likely someone is to forget something. And this becomes especially true for the price of less reputable service providers.

5. Organize Yourself
Planning any event requires a lot of different tasks, so don’t be afraid to write down everything. Have a scheduler. Create timelines and goals. Try to meet them. For example as part of your wedding planning you can create a goal of choosing your flowers and florist by the first of March. An extra quick tip, plan the higher risk items, especially those can impact other decisions, first (such as selecting and booking your location).

6. Follow Proper Etiquette When Possible
Not everyone will agree with all your choices. But the more traditional you can go the less likely you’re to have confrontations and negative feedback. Of course it’s your day and you can do anything you want, after all you’re also paying for the wedding, but why create confrontations if you don’t need to.

7. Carefully Select Who You Ask to Help you Plan Your Wedding
A reality of today is that most people have very limited time and therefore can’t help as much as in the past. Therefore don’t be upset if someone offers to help but can’t follow through, it happens. But to avoid this, it’s recommend that you select a small and very close wedding party to help with your wedding planning. The closer your wedding party is to you, the more likely they’re to help you. Everyone wants to help, it’s just that unfortunately not everyone can.

8. Be Prepared to Compromise
Yes it’s your wedding day, but be willing to compromise on the less important things. No one wants to deal with bridezilla, never mind going out of their way to help her. So don’t become a bridezilla.

9. Follow-up as the Date Nears
Always follow-up as your wedding day arrives. As much for you as to remind your service provider. It will also ease your mind because you’ll get last minute confirmations. And as a worse case, you’ll have some warning ahead of your wedding day that something might be wrong. You’ll have time to plan ahead rather than scramble at the last minute.

10. ENJOY YOUR WEDDING DAY!
Once the day is upon you there’s very little you can do. Let your wedding party react. Your wedding will never go perfectly, there will always be little things that go wrong. That’s ok, just go with the flow. By far the most important wedding planning tip is that no wedding plan is perfect. But that’s ok, just enjoy yourself because at this point there’s nothing you can do. It’s your wedding day and you want to remember it forever, so enjoy it!

Sign-up at multiple stores
While one-stop shopping may be easier for most of your guests, odds are it won’t have everything you need as a newlywed couple. Don’t be afraid to register at 2-3 stores.

Offer a wide range of prices for your gifts
Although most people will give gifts in the range of $50-$150, there will always be some people who either can’t afford this, or who just want to give a lot more. Let them. Offer a few gift selections as low as $25. And don’t forget to offer some higher priced gifts for that special aunt or uncle that wants to spoil you. Offer a some choices up to $500 just in case, but don’t expect anything. Anything above that price is probably going to be done outside of any gift registry.

Start with items you need most
If you’re moving into a new house, start with your kitchen because this is where you’re most likely to spend a lot of money, and it’s where a lot of people like to give. After that look at entertainment related presents. This is because not only are there many kitchen and entertainment gift options, it’s also the most likely type of gifts that the recipient will see in the future when they visit you.

Ask for gifts within your lifestyle
Ask for gifts you can actually use, that aren’t out of place in your home. For example don’t ask for a $500 vase if you’re going to display it on a $20 used Ikea table. Choose gifts within your lifestyle, that will fit with your decor.

Avoid fads and current fashions
Look for timeless gifts if at all possible. Avoid very trendy items that will go with the wind as fashions change. Gift givers generally like to see you use their presents past one fashion season.

Shop with your other half
There’s nothing wrong with going out yourself ahead of time and selecting all the items, but double check with your spouse before registering them. There’s nothing worse when your spouse can’t stand a new piece of decor that you just got. And if your spouse absolutely hates shopping, pre-pick the items, this will make it a lot quicker.

Offer a cash or gift card option
Some people just won’t want to select a present. Others might know that you’d prefer to pool a bunch of your gifts to get a bigger present, perhaps even a small renovation to your home. Give them the option to contribute to a pot somewhere. It could be a gift card at Home Depot. It could be a cash balance. Basically somewhere where they can all pool their money together.

Have your registry available online
Most store registries now offer this option, which is great. If they don’t, I would recommend looking at another store that does. A lot of people just don’t have the time to make it out, so make it easy for them. After all their already taking the time to make it to your wedding and giving you an expensive gift, so make their lives a little easier. Give them the option to select and buy a gift online.

Provide a lot of choices
Although you may only want a select few things, not everyone thinks like you, even when giving gifts. They may want to personalize their gifts to their personality. So give them more options. You might be surprised.

Almost every wedding has a guest registry, where everyone who was invited is asked to sign their names so that the newlywed couple can remember who participated in their wedding. But why not take that one step further? Why not create a guest registry with pictures?

Several years ago I cam across a great idea at a wedding, before digital photography had really taken hold. Every person who attended the wedding reception was asked to stand in front of a Polaroid camera to take a quick picture. Of course families took the picture togethers, groups of friends together, and so on. Once the picture was developed (within seconds) it was glued into the book and the people in the picture were asked to sign their names below, and possibly include a message to the newlyweds.

This was all done of course without the knowledge of the newlyweds, while they were taking their wedding photos elsewhere with the professional photographer. By the time they arrived at the reception everyone had taken their picture, and signed it along with a nice personal message.

Then later, as part of the ceremony, the newlyweds were presented with their amazingly beautiful and personal wedding registry. Not only was it better than just signatures, it had pictures of people from that very night.

We loved this idea so much that we did it at our own wedding. Yes we did know about it, but that didn’t diminish it in any way. It’s one of our most cherished souvenirs from the wedding. We probably look at it as much as the wedding pictures!

Today of course things have changed. Rather than using a Polaroid camera you can use any digital camera. And with a small Portable Photo Printer you can print the pictures as their taken. The pictures look great, much better than a Polaroid picture!

So if you haven’t already thought about for your wedding, or your friends, you should do it now. All it takes is two people to create this great souvenir. One person to take the pictures, another to print them and stick them in the book. It’s well worth it!