As my wedding is fast approaching I would just like to pass on some advice/tips I have learned through this whole process.
1. Wait to pick your bridal party until 8 months before the wedding. Seriously. Don't let the excitment of the engagement get the better of you. I love everyone in mine, but I would of had fewer people in hindsight. It's a lot to coordinate for dresses, tuxes, the cost of transportation for everyone and bridal party gifts will eat away at your budget.
2. ONLY send STDs to family members and people that live out of town. You have no idea how much your guest list is going to change with additions, subtractions, budget changes etc. Your good friends do not need STDs. Once you send them, you cannot retract that invite. Over the course of a year you will grow closer to new friends and more distant from old friends.
3. Invitations- only give them 4-6 weeks to return them. And give yourself a full month before you need to give your final numbers for the RSVP deadline. There will be plenty of people that don't send them back and you want to give yourself enough time to call them. Also, the shorter they have them the more likely they are to send them in at a decent time.
4. Be careful who you ask for opinions about anything regarding the wedding. The more people you ask the more opinions you will get, which is not necessarily a good thing.
5. Invitations- number the backs of them and coordinate it with each guest on your guest list. Sometimes people send back RSVPs with no names on them! Not fun.
6. READ VENDOR REVIEWS. This is how I booked almost all of my vendors, based on the opinions of other local knotties. The girls on this board have a tremendous amount of information and are incredibly helpful. Never hesitate to post a question if you have one.
I wish you all the best in the planning process! It's a huge task, but remember it goes by so fast and try to have a good time with it.
Thank you for all of your help Cbus Knotties!!