Just got engaged!!!!

GiaM1179

Hey ladies! My name is Gia and i just got ENGAGED!!!!!!!! i'm so excited and ready to begin planning but one problem.... where do i start? Does anyone have any suggestions? We picked June 23, 2012 as our date and are looking in the north Jersey area for reception halls and vendors. Would love to hear input and suggestions. Thank you so much and best of luck to all of you!!!!

smw42

First off- congrats!!

Put together tentative guest list and determine how much you can spend per person, and how much you can spend as your total budget. Once you have that you can start looking for reception halls. Be careful to not look at halls until you've determined what you can afford per head.

Good luck and this is a great board for recommendations and support. Welcome

maddie7

Wow! Fun! Congrats! I got engaged this time last year!  Good luck!  You have to be more specific with what you like, I say take a day and drive to a few venues that you like- look in a NJ Reception Hall Magazine for ideas/places.

jaimelody

Congratulations!
Best place for you to start would be your guestlist and budget. You'll want to figure out how many people and how much you'll need to make the wedding possible before you book anything!

mbcdefg

Hi!

Your date isn't officially set until you book your ceremony venue (if it's a church/temple, book that first) and your reception hall. So keep a few backup dates in mind. Also remember that prices will vary according to the month of the year and the day of the week ... January-March is usually cheaper than the peak months, and Saturday nights are more expensive than Fridays or Sundays or Saturday afternoons.

Talk to your FI about how much money you want to spend. About 50% of that will go to the reception. Then talk about a guest list. Figure out how many people you want to invite, and using the 50% of your budget figure out your desired per-person price (don't forget that you'll also be charged sales tax and the hall's gratuity charge, which can be anywhere from 8-20% in New Jersey).

Nearly every reception hall will negotiate with you, so don't take everything at sticker price. Ask them to work with you on a lower price and/or more food or amenities in your package.

After you get the ceremony and reception sites nailed down, that will give you a definite date. Then you can work on photography, entertainment, stationery, attire, etc. You can probably book the photographer and entertainment this year, but I personally wouldn't worry about most other things until summer 2011.

I would also HIGHLY recommend not asking a bridal party until summer 2011. Once you ask, you can't un-ask, and there's no reason why they need to know two years in advance anyway (plus they can get Wedding Burnout if you ask too early and get them involved this early on). Wait until next year to worry about who will be in the bridal party. If people ask you about that this year, just reply that you are enjoying the engagement and need to get some bigger details hammered out first. Don't ask them this year, don't make any promises or hints.

tvlirene

Welcome and congrats!  Enjoy the planning.  You'll get great advice here and I agree with all that pp's said above.

Danes983

Welcome Welcome!  Congrats. Any questions we are all here to help.

jrgoogrl

Welcome and congrats! We are hear to help! Once you have your budget and know how much you can spend per person, then you can start looking into venues. Happy planning!

Laurms15

Just want to say welcome and congrats. MB and the oother girls covered most of it!

ecg129

The best place to start is here!!! Smart choice!!

Congrats

kasabby

Congratulations! This is such an exciting time so enjoy every minute! I think most of the other girls covered everything--best of luck in planning! You will get a lot of help here!

Julephenia

Congrats and welcome!

The pps had great advice. If you are someone who likes to write things down, go get a bridal planning book - or use an online one. I find these helpful just to keep things straight and help weed out what I don't want.

NJMom050911

Welcome and Congratulations! The ladies have already given you great advice as to were to begin planning I just wanted to say this again - Do NOT pick your bridal party until 6 months before the wedding. Enjoy planning!

GiaM1179

Thank you Thank you. You guys are fabulous, i can't believe how quickly you all got back to me. This is great!!!!! We made a mock guest list and so far we around 175. I'm hoping to cut it down alittle for right now it seems we are inviting every person we know haha. Definitly do not want to go over board. As far as a budget goes, i am very lucky to have my parents full support for i am the only girl with 4 brothers. Although budget is not really an issue i do not want to take advantage of their generosity. I have not begun to yet think about the bridal party or if i even want to make that a big deal. What is a normal bridal party size? is there one?  Also i love the idea of having an online wedding planner so i can write everything down and keep track of things i love, does anyone know where i go to look into one of those? Once again thank you so much again. This is fabulous and making me more excited by the minute.

uppereastgirl

Welcome Gia.

There is no normal wedding party size.  I had 5 girls, I know people who have had 1 girl, and some people will have 15 girls.  I will say, 1 or 5 is probably easier to deal with than 15!!!

If you by any chance have a Mac, I have a wonderful program called Yojimbo that I use for organization.  It isn't wedding-related, but I used it a lot for my wedding.  It is cool because you can make folders and store photos, web archives, urls, passwords, notes, etc. all in there.  It is a great way to organize all sorts of different types of information.

http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/

demarcosjd

Congrats! I agree with pp's. Good luck and happy planning.

akmackay

I agree- there's no "normal" wedding party size. I had 9 BMs and that was a lot- while I loved having them there, if I could go back I would've had 6 or 7. Day of I thought it was going to be chaos but  it really didn't matter, it was more important to have my best friends with me.

As far as your guest count, remember you will have people decline. I invited 215 and had 150 people come. So for 175, counting in about 20% decline rate, you're looking at around 140 (if you go with what's "normal")

Good luck and happy planning!

mbcdefg

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_just-got-engaged?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:a40d98d9-f8cd-416e-ac83-b936fb28771fPost:6f8591e6-6bc8-4187-8cb7-eaf55b621137">Re: Just got engaged!!!!</a>:
[QUOTE]I have not begun to yet think about the bridal party or if i even want to make that a big deal. What is a normal bridal party size? is there one?  Posted by GiaM1179[/QUOTE]

There's no standard. Pick your closest friends. You don't need to match the number of people your fiance has, and you can include men if you want (maybe brothers or best friends).

The fewer you have, the easier it'll be. I had two bridesmaids and it made everything a breeze.

You can also opt out of a bridal party all together if you want.



In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_just-got-engaged?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:a40d98d9-f8cd-416e-ac83-b936fb28771fPost:6f8591e6-6bc8-4187-8cb7-eaf55b621137">Re: Just got engaged!!!!</a>:
[QUOTE]Also i love the idea of having an online wedding planner so i can write everything down and keep track of things i love, does anyone know where i go to look into one of those? Once again thank you so much again. This is fabulous and making me more excited by the minute.
Posted by GiaM1179[/QUOTE]

I just used a little notebook that I kept in my purse :)

mchristian05

Congratulations!!!!  This is such an exciting time....enjoy every minute of it  

Faith2730

Congrats!!! 

teacup0618

cngratulations!! i love planning its so fun, and the knot girls are soooo helpful!

capecod1986

Like the others said, start with your guest list. All the venues have a minimum and maximum and it narrows your choices down from the start. Congrats!

GiaM1179

Again what great suggestions, thank you so much!!!!!

lynzandgreg

Congrats! I just recently got engaged myself and we aren't looking until June 2012 as well! I would just suggest going to see as many venues as you can. You may not like a place from a picture, but seeing it in person is so much better! Seriously though, just enjoy every second of it!