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New Jersey
GiaM1179
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Just got engaged!!!!
in New Jersey
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!!!!
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Re: Just got engaged!!!!
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
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!
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.
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.
My Ovulation Chart || Ovulation Tracker
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/
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!
[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 :)