If you are getting married in 2012 have you set yourself some New Year resolutions to ensure the wedding is planned and executed beautifully? If not here are my suggestions:

1. Create a realistic budget and stick to it, more advice on creating your budget can be found via an article I wrote for English Wedding

2. Don’t try and do everything yourself, delegate some tasks to family members or friends who would love to be involved leaving you the fun tasks, you can then act as ‘project manager’ for all delegated menial tasks!

3. Involve your fiancé, it’s their wedding too! Talk about the areas of the wedding which are important to each of you and split up the duties.

4. Make a pledge to spend one evening per week NOT talking about the wedding, you don’t want to get to the wedding night with a deathly silence as you no longer know how to communicate to each other.

5. Remember less is more, do you really need favours, cameras, napkin decorations, wine charmsand trivia cards on the table?!

6. Keep your sanity, do you really have to match the favour ribbon to the bridesmaid dresses? Stop trying to match everything, sometimes using similar tones is more effective.

7. Forward plan, check with your suppliers when they need confirmed information from you, i.e. when is the latest date for the table plan to be printed, when do caterers need dietary choices – use this to then work out when invites need to be posted, allow enough time to print labels and get stamps (don’t forget to check with the post office if it is a regular or large stamp).

8. Remember you are not superheroes, if you become frantic at work or family health issues are making it difficult to organise the wedding, get a professional wedding planner in. Most will offer partial planning services so you are still in control. I cover the East Anglia region, please review my website for further details or for planners in different areas try the UKAWP.

9. Don’t be bullied, you may find family, suppliers and venues will try to enforce their opinions on you. Listen to what they are saying but remember it is YOUR wedding, do what you think is right for your wedding.

10. And finally have fun it’s not often you get the chance to plan a fabulous event with all your friends and family present so don’t get too stressed. If you have a budget and sensible timeline of when tasks need completing you can enjoy planning your wedding.

Now that we are in 2011, I wonder how many bride & grooms will make New Year resolutions? If I were to give advice on what resolutions to commit to they would be as follows:

1. Create a realistic budget and stick to it, more advice on creating your budget can be found via an article I wrote for English Wedding
2. Dont try and do everything yourself, delegate some tasks to family members or friends who would love to be involved leaving you the fun tasks, you can then act as ‘project manager’ for all delegated menial tasks!
3. Involve your fiance, it’s their wedding too! Talk about the areas of the wedding which are important to each of you and split up the duties.
4. Make a pledge to spend one evening per week NOT talking about the wedding, you dont want to get to the wedding night with a deathly silence as you no longer know how to communicate to each other.
5. Remember less is more, do you really need favours, cameras, napkin decorations, wine charms and trivia cards on the table?!
6. Keep your sanity, do you really have to match the favour ribbon to the bridesmaid dresses? Stop trying to match everything, sometimes using similar tones is more effective.
7. Forward plan, check with your suppliers when they need confirmed information from you, i.e when is the latest date for the table plan to be printed, when do caterers need dietary choices – use this to then work out when invites need to be posted, allow enough time to print labels and get stamps (dont forget to check with the post office if it is a regular or large stamp).
8. Remember you are not superheroes, if you become frantic at work or family health issues are making it difficult to organise the wedding, get a professional wedding planner in. Most will offer partial planning services so you are still in control. I cover the East Anglia region, please review my website for further details or for planners in different areas try the UKAWP.
9. Dont be bullied, you may find family, suppliers and venues will try to enforce their opinions on you. Listen to what they are saying but remember it is YOUR wedding, do what you think is right for your wedding.
10. And finally have fun it’s not often you get the chance to plan a fabulous event with all your friends and family present so don’t get too stressed. If you have a budget and sensible timeline of when tasks need completing you can enjoy planning your wedding.