planning a wedding

villagera · June 2012

I am helping to plan my son's wedding, were are people looking for ideas online, magazines. where to begin?

Beverly8 · June 2012

This website would be a great start. There is just a ton of information on this website and you can get alot of good advice from the community boards here as well. I also bought a planner from barnes and nobles that turned out to be extremely helpful.

Lisa50 · June 2012

Fav wedding magazine: Real Simple Weddings
Fav wedding website: www.stylemepretty.com

kitkatchica86 · June 2012

I highly suggest starting with your local board. You can get vendor reviews from locals, that have been there, done that. For inspiration, have the bride and groom figure their most basic wants. Grand or intimate wedding. What season? Do they have a color they like... things like that can help alot with the planning. Certain venues will be in higher demand certain times of the year, some may not be available year round. Venue's may require you to use their caterers, etc etc. But discussing with your local board is where I would start.

Congrats!

meganb1977 · June 2012

Remember it's your son's wedding and his future wife's. I'm sure you're excited and want to help, but they can probably take care of most of the details between the two of them!

Avion22 · June 2012

The best place to start planning a wedding is with a BUDGET. Your son and his fiance need to decide how much money they are willing to spend. If you plan to contribute, then let him know. Perhaps her family will want to contribute as well. Of course, parental contributions are BY NO MEANS required -- a modern bride and groom should be prepared to pay for their own wedding!

Once they have the budget figured out, then the B&G should decide on the feel they are looking for -- big vs.small, formal vs. casual, church wedding vs. secular wedding, indoor vs. outdoor, etc. The budget and desired size/guest-list, along with the feel they are looking for, will drive a venue selection.

The rest is all little details!

Summer2011Bride · June 2012

PPs have given good suggestions about talking to your son and Future daughter-in-law and also setting a budget (who is paying for the wedding, for instance?) But if they want your help and you've got all that stuff figured out, here's what I'd suggest:

If you haven't already, join Pinterest. I wish pinterest would have been popular when I planned my own wedding! You can search for weddings in general or specific things like "wedding cakes" and get tons of photos/links and start your own wedding "board" of ideas.

StyleMePretty, A Practical Wedding, and Offbeat Bride were my favorite wedding blogs to read while planning. Beautiful pics but also very insightful blog posts and advice as well, esp. APW. I'd suggest to your daughter-in-law (and even son) to read some of the posts on there about not just weddings, but marriage in general. I'm married and still learn a lot from reading them.

futuremrsbruno · June 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_ceremony-ideas_planning-a-wedding?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:10Discussion:a8664b10-6d10-4713-9d15-d97244dd1a4fPost:7175f4df-420d-4930-919f-2a2899109191">Re: planning a wedding</a>:
[QUOTE]Remember it's your son's wedding and his future wife's. I'm sure you're excited and want to help, but they can probably take care of most of the details between the two of them!
Posted by meganb1977[/QUOTE]

This. I get how excited you are, but I think they are the first place you need to start. You may end up seeing things and getting one set of ideas, and they are on a whole other page. While I do think it's great that you are excited and willing to pitch in, you need to see what it is they are looking for and go from there.

That being said, the PP's pretty much nailed it as far as where to look. I would also add Google. I have found that if you Google what you have in mind, something is bound to pop up. Sometimes you have to change your wording and be more patient, but eventually, you will find what you're looking for.

kmmssg · June 2012

Welcome to the boards. I am a 3 time mother of the bride - 1 more girl to go and then we have a teenage son. I helped my girls plan their weddings so I thought I'd offer a couple of thoughts.

The first thing I do is have them define their vision of their wedding. I was very involved in the planning and vendors and I wanted to make sure the time I spent on the wedding was going in the direction of their vision. Our last DD was living in UT and getting married back here in MI so I was doing the overwhelming majority of the legwork for her.

The second thing I do is make a deal with them. I am free to offer a suggestion or idea I think they might like. They are, in return, absolutely free to say "mom, that isn't part of our vision." My feelings don't get hurt, we have communicated well, and we are still moving toward their vision.

Many couples today plan and pay for their weddings without any contributions or input by the parents. If this is how they wish to plan their wedding be very supportive and remember that the day should be their vision and no one else's.

An acquaintance of mine was getting married 5 or so years ago. Her mother in law was a dollar store pain in the butt. My friend hates hearts and didn't want any hearts in the decorations. Her mother in law knew this. Mother in law goes to the dollar store and gets some hideous heart shaped glass candle holder and presents it at the shower for them to use for their unity candle. One of the groomsman volunteered to drop it in the parking lot as he carried it into the church. Mission accomplished. I don't ever want to be that kind of mother/mother in law.

The blogs and websites that have been suggested are great. I hope you all enjoy this time as the wedding planning gets underway!!!

FutureWifey4Lifey · June 2012

I used the Vera Wang on Weddings app to help get me started, it's super helpful!!

rooney2012 · June 2012

Here's a budget worksheet from Real Simple.
http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/weddings/budget/wedding-budget-worksheet-00000000009135/index.html
Although it's up to the bride and groom to set a budget, if they're asking for help planning this worksheet may help. It lists the things you'll need pay for.

planning a wedding

Re: planning a wedding

Choose Another Board

Search Boards