Wedding Planning

Planning the party of a lifetime can be hard work. here are five quick tips to help make your job a little easier.

1. Pick a theme and stick with it
While you may think having a theme may leave you with a lot of work on yours hands it can actually serve to do the opposite, saving you time and helping to make some of your decisions for you. A theme helps narrow down your choices for decorations, flowers and food, among others. Check out this article for a couple of theme ideas or why not flirt with a few of the theme ideas here.

2. Recruit An Army Of Helpers
Planning the party of the century is a massive task and like it or not it is just not going to happen if do it alone. Get help from wherever you can, friends and family are key. Why not liaise with your bridesmaids and plan social events where you can also plan aspects of the reception? And get your fiancé involved in the action as well. It's his wedding too so he'll no doubt be happy to help.

3. Slim The Seating
One of the major elements of planning your wedding reception is the decorations, with the table decorations at the forefront of many brides' minds. A quick tip for reducing the amount of decorating you'll have to do is to streamline your tables. Making your tables longer and narrower will reduce the amount of tabletop space you have to decorate but still leave your guests with enough space to feel comfortable. Just make sure your guests aren't knocking each other's knees!

4. Shorten The Speeches
In the words of Pink lets get the party started. Try to keep the speeches to the main players, the father of the bride, the newlyweds, the best man and the maid of honor. This should reduce the chance of impromptu speeches from other guests (who may have had a little too much champagne) that tend to drag on. For tips on more tips on wedding speeches check out our articles.

5. Save Money With DIY
Your wedding reception is going to be one of the most expensive aspects of your wedding; for most couples it will be the costliest. Fortunately there are great ways to cut the cost with out necessarily cutting corners. From flowers to favors your wedding reception is full with items that you can make your self. Check out DIY Bride for a whole host of excellent ideas or the DIY forum at i-Village for lively discussion with other do-it-yourself brides.