Okay! Let's create a wedding!! By this point in time you have determined what is most important to you and your fiance'. Also at this point in time, you will run into the biggest "What comes first, the chicken or the egg?" I would say that usually it is the dress and venue or the venue and the dress.
With full planning, your Wedding Coordinator will meet with you on all of the various types appointments that you will have during the planning process. Their job is to ask the questions you don't know to ask and do their best to make sure that your interests are addressed.
If you already know that you're getting married in your grandmother's rose garden, you don't have to worry about the location. You will soon find out that not having a venue, where they are not used to having events, comes with its own bundle of challenges. Without going into all the details, I have counted 39 questions that I have in my head when I visit a venue! You might think that that is overboard, but that is really just covering the basics. If you have your heart set on a venue you might actually want to set your wedding date according to that. It just depends on how long you want to wait for your wedding. Your Wedding Coordinator will be able to suggest others venues, some of which you have never heard of, that might just make you forget all about the venue that you had your heart set on! Your coordinator can help you get through many disappointments or incorrect assumptions, but don't worry. If he/she knows your vision of your wedding, there are ways to make it happen no matter what!
You must also have some kind of a "guestimate" of the number or people who will likely come to your wedding. Your Coordinator will discuss with you what the challenges might be with setting a particular wedding date such as seasons, holidays, weekends or weekdays, evening or daytime hours for a wedding.
On average, right up there with finding a venue is finding
the dress! With some designers it can take many months to get the dress you chose delivered to you and you still need to leave time for alterations if necessary and then the final fitting. At any rate even if you get a dress that is delivered in a very short time, you will need a fitting or two as your wedding date gets closer. This isn't the time to put extra pressure on yourself to lose that 50 pounds you have been going to lose for a few years now! The important thing, if you can do it, is to be healthy and fit so that you stay well. There are many ways to take a lot of the frustration out of the process of finding the right dress and there are options other than finding a dress at a bridal shop. Don't be surprised if your Coordinator tries to get you to steer clear of some types of bridal stores. We care again about your style, personality, budget and your priorities for quality.
With all appointments it's great if you know what you want, but having an open mind is almost just as important. Sometimes, just like shopping for your regular wardrobe, it helps to know what looks best for your coloring and your body type. However, you might miss out on that perfect dress if you are zeroed in on one particular type of dress. You should allow yourself to think outside the box, be more daring and have fun. If you have heard that a bride has found her dress when she cries tears of joy, I think that it is quite true. Another sign is if she takes much longer to get back to the dressing room, does many more turns in the mirror and the repeats with a couple more poses or angles! I love the look on the bride's face when she finds that dress!
So in summary, venue and dress or dress and venue? There are no rules set in stone, but this falls within the average. Stay tuned for Customizing Your Wedding and Dual-Purposing to Save Money!
As always, wishing you the greatest of days!
Featured in: Not My Mother's Wedding, blog for Mothers of the Bride
Founder of South King County Event and Wedding Vendors
The 7th largest Wedding Vendors networking group in the world through Meetup.com.
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