Wedding Planning 101: Chapter 2

9 - 6 months prior to your wedding
The knot's checklist items
MY extra bonus checklist items

• Buy your dress
• This is a big decision, however, don't let it take over. If your dress doesn't feel right, then it's not the right time or dress. Make sure you put your money into a dress you're confident in, 100% http://www.davidsbridal.com/
• Find out when it will be in and try to schedule a fitting ahead of time

• Hire your photographer
• We thankfully were given a recommendation on a photographer who we absolutely love and adore (and we will probably travel to her when we have kids so she can do our pictures) http://katekerrphotography.com/
• Look online, use recommendation, look at portfolios BEFORE you hire someone
• Don't overpay, price compare!
• We booked our photographer and her assistant for the full day, from getting ready to the reception
• Make sure they are easy to get a hold of when you have questions or concerns
• Make sure you show them samples of pictures or poses of what you want to try during your pictures

• Hire your videographer
• We found our videographer through www.theknot.com's recommended vendors http://www.timekeepersproductions.com/index.php
• Look online, use recommendation, look at portfolios BEFORE you hire someone
• Don't overpay, price compare!
• We booked our videographer and his assistant for the wedding and the reception
• Make sure they are easy to get a hold of when you have questions or concerns

***BONUS TIP!

• Make a list for all of your vendors so they know where to be when! Include:
• Location names and addresses
• Times you'll be there or need them there
• What you plan to accomplish there (more important for videographers and photographers)

• Envision and Select Bridesmaid Dresses
• First think about you ladies' body types and be conscious of what they will and will not feel comfortable in 
• The most stress-free thing to do is select either one dress style and one color for all of the girls or two-three different dress styles that they can choose from.
• We had the MOH in a short halter a-line and the other three girls in the matching short strapless a-line http://www.davidsbridal.com/
• If you let them select their styles and you have more than 3 bridesmaids, it can get confusing and complicated with everyone's opinions getting in the way, so try your best to make the choice for them.

• Book your DJ
• Research first!
• Use recommendations or reviews
• Make sure you're able to provide the DJ with a list of "Must play" songs and "Don't Play" songs (We definitely didn't want the YMCA or the grape vine)
• Our DJ and her husband were awesome, she was our MC and showed our guests to our appetizer table, the guest book, the seating chart and the gift table! https://www.facebook.com/pages/DANCIN-DJs/166843893928 

• Research a cake baker or bakery
• We were lucky that our caterer also did our wedding cake
• We also had a groom's cake, which is a cake designed to reflect your groom's hobbies or likes
• Taste cake flavors ahead of time
• Find a cake topper that reflects you and your soon to be spouse. We used the "Promise" cake topper from Willow Tree
• You can choose to save the top layer of your wedding cake or not, but we decided not to. We were told that it truly tastes awful a year later, so we decided to get a new tiny cake on our one year anniversary.
• Make sure your caterer or baker plans to cut the cake (for warning, most places charge to cut PER SLICE!) and that they plan to
• have dishes
• silverware
• napkins
• and a cake cutting tool (or one of your own) for cake time!
• If you have a design in mind, print or sketch a picture and make sure the baker can accomplish your design before putting money down (They may charge extra depending on how detailed your design is)

Andrew is a Indiana University Hoosier fan so this was his grooms cake!

This probably isn't the best picture to see the flower detail on our cake, but here we are cutting it!

The petals are a deep purple and they were each hand made. The sugar work took the baker around 7 hours!

• Set aside a block of rooms for out of town guests
• Hotels will generally give you and your guests a discount for wanting to stay at their hotel
• You shouldn't have to put any money down to block off rooms
• Make sure to find out the date your guests need to book a room by if they want the group rate
• Visit the hotel first and make sure it's a decent place for your guests to stay, they're trusting your judgement on this one!
• http://www.clarionhotel.com/hotel-columbus-indiana-IN370
• Make sure the room you're getting dressed in on the morning of your wedding is condusive to lots of people. We reserved the bridal suite so there was room to do hair and for all of the girls to get dressed without stepping on each other

• Research someone to do your wedding day hair and makeup
• Bring pictures of hair and make-up styles you like
• Remember to look like yourself as much as possible, you want your future husband to recognize you as you walk down the aisle

Photo Credit: Kate Kerr Photography
My beautiful Momma and I!

• Send out your Save-The-Dates
• If you make labels with your guests' addresses, you can use them for the save-the-dates, invitations, bridal shower invitations, bridal shower thank you cards, response cards and thank you cards! Suuuper helpful! 

• Book your Cake Baker
• Read and re-read your contract!

• Remind Bridesmaids to order their dresses

• Hire Wedding Ceremony Musicians
• We opted to have a recorded song play when I walked down the aisle (Turning Page, by Sleeping At Last) and then we had a pianist for the rest of the ceremony

• Plan the Rehearsal Dinner
• Now, traditionally this is taken care of by the Groom's family
• Schedule the dinner around the time you plan to have wedding rehearsal 
• Talk to the Officiant about a time and date that works for them
• Then contact your bridal party and important guests to inform them of 
• rehearsal time
• date
• location
• rehearsal dinner time
• Rehearsal dinner location
• Find or suggest a location close to the church so your wedding party and family aren't driving all over town

• Finalize your Catering Menu

• Select Your Wedding Invitations and Order them
• There are plenty of over-priced in-store places where you can buy your invitations, but we used http://www.invitationsbydawn.com/index.jsp
• We bought Sep'N'Sends which are invitations that come together on pre-perforated paper. They are inexpensive and all you have to do is perforate and stuff them
• I made hotel reservation cards at my local www.partycity.com and stuffed them into the envelopes of out of town guests.
• Don't overpay!
• Some places will even send you a preview hard copy of your invite before you commit!
• Invitation Lineup
• Outer envelope (this is the one addressed to your family and friends)
• Inner Envelope for the Invitation
• Invitation
• Reception Card
• Response card
• Response card Envelope (with a stamp and your return address already on it)
• Hotel Reservation Information Card

You're doing Great! You're halfway there and hopefully you're feeling at ease with all of the detailed work you're accomplishing! 

Goodnight!