ABC for a wedding in the time of Recession

I am not too late. Only two years to go. What? Too much? I don't think so, neither Carley Roney does think that way. In her book (The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner: Worksheets, Checklists, Etiquette, Calendars, and Answers to Frequently Asked Questions) she describes and dictate the steps for planning a perfect wedding or something very close to your wedding vision. And my wedding has to be the most cool, funny, formal and informal at the same time, easy but elaborate, expensive yet cheap, with a lot of guests, on time to come and understanding when it's time to go. And since I grew up sailing, I'd love to incorporate the water, and salt and sand into my wedding. That means a hot beach, a pier and a boat - a charter boat - maybe a yacht - a luxury boat, but an icebreaker, a fishing boat or a pontoon could do as well.
Pippo, my fi, thinks different. I'm afraid he's right this time, but one could dream of a fantabolous wedding, couldn't she?
Right now I've already got an avatar and a blog on The Knot.com and a wedding range of colors on dyw (dress your wedding) on Davids Bridal.com, as you can see aside. Still I'm a bit confused by now. Shall we start from the basics?.

The ABC for a wedding in the time of Recession:

• A... Art: Wedding Light 1.0
• B... Body: the Body of the bride
  
• C... Check list: Check, Cheques, what the Heck?
  

A. Art: Wedding Light 1.0

The ABC for a wedding in the time of Recession

A like Art

THE ART OF WEDDING
Think big. Dreams don't cost much. Ask yourself what will be memorable in your wedding. The location, your bride gown, the jewels, the food and beverages, the printings, too, the boat you rent, the music played, a group of cool bride maids and your groom's friends. I'd say anything could do in a day like that. But believe it or not a fantastic wedding it's not a matter of money but only of time, and time somehow is money. In the book The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner: Worksheets, Checklists, Etiquette, Calendars, and Answers to Frequently Asked Questions Carley Roney traces in a wedding vision worksheet the series of steps to take in one year, while Carley Roney again in The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World: The Ultimate Source of Ideas, Advice, and Relief for the Bride and Groom and Those Who Love Them. teaches you how and where you could save money. But you shouldn't go that far buying all those books, maybe you could have a look at the Amazon's smart feature "Look inside the Book", I myself am abusing it, but it's worth of. Listen to what Denise Fields is saying in Bridal Bargains, 9th Edition: Secrets to Throwing a Fantastic Wedding on a Realistic Budget, it's brilliant: "The wedding industry isn't as innocent as it looks. You might think that the wedding industry is a collection of sweet old ladies whose only desire is to help young couples in love, but the reality is quite opposite. Instead think of the bridal biz as a group of cut-throat merchants, who in some cases would anything for a sale...". To be wise it's easier today with internet and if you search Google with this phrase: "wedding gown forum" you'll found a big support from real people on the best way to save with your dress, but specialized sites like The knot could give you a lot of support on themeing your wedding and for free.
The more time you will devote to the personal organization of the event, the more your dreams would get real, no matter how big they are, and have the wow effect you are longing to. There's only a case which will make things very expensive and it is when you want someone else to do it for you, when you put your dreams in the hand of a professional. In fact, in that case, you are doing anything else but hiring someone else's time and experience, that at certain extent it's a matter of time as well. In such a case you'll pay a really a big amount of money and, on my experience, you'll get a 20 per cent of what you have on your mind. So, start to plan, look at other's wedding, research internet the keyword is "cheap" followed by anything you want: linen centerpieces, receptions, dishes, chairs and get what you need at the best price, there's not sense on wasting money. and you can do great things with your creativity and a reasonable amount of money.

• B... Body: The Body of the Bride
• C... Check list: Check, Cheques, what the Heck?
  

B. Body : The body of the bride

The ABC for a wedding in the time of Recession

B like Body

In fact it's fitness and athletics, or better how to fit in a size 6 bride gown and ability to run on a beach, but we can't miss it only for a matter of the starting letter. It's vital and you can't miss it to take it in serious consideration, especially when all the day long you'll have to climb on the boat, jump down the boat, run happily on the beach, hug and be lifted high by the groom. Remember to get to a shape you'll consider appropriate for the photo to show from here to 20 years in the future and off course do it before you start shopping for the bride gown. Notice that now the trend in wedding photography is TTD which stands for Trash The Dress or better since doesn't make sense to have a bulky wedding dress in the armchair for a life, it's better to put in the bin the day after the wedding. I know, that sounds like a scandal, but it's not if you look at the results. At least it will push you not to waste that much money buying it. Trash the dress or not I would like to see you climbing on a greasy truck or running on the shore with 10 kgs more. Nevertheless try not to get killed by a diet too drastic, it's unadvisable to go less than your actual Basal Metabolic Rate - the amount of calories you need in a day -. Instead give you enough time to loose weight naturally with a sport activity: Carley Roney on her book The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner sets the final wedding dress fitting one month before. And that's plenty of time if you start preparing at least one year before. Try to save money and cut down the expenses for the Gym and the personal trainer, jogging three times a week could give you a 1500 calories cut.Think of preparing for a special sport event, plan your training sessions and you won't fail.

The ABC for a wedding in the time of Recession:

• A... Art: Wedding Light 1.0
• C... Check list: Check, Cheques, what the Heck?
  

C. Check, Cheque, what the Heck?

The ABC for a wedding in the time of Recession

C like Check List

The wedding checklist puts you on the road to your wedding day. Complete a detailed plan and be sure not to leave behind anything. And more, a detailed checklist will keep you safe from hidden expenses, a plague that strikes on many wedding couples, and your foot glued to the ground and careful to avoid any oddity.

Now, you don't want to buy books like Priceless Weddings for Under $5,000, never mind. I hope you won't bother to run a research on the Web, there are many sites that offers costs-free accounts and provide full check-lists very helpful in organizing a wedding and helping you not to go beyond your budget. I did both reading books and researching the Web but what is still taking me wide-awaken at night is how much the voice “occurrence”, will affect my budget. Are you smiling?. Don't. Don't underevaluate the extra expenses; they could be some more of a surprise and you'd better taking apart some of the money for any occurrence, a lot, be sure: from the extras for overtime to caterers and photographers, to tips and other a thousand costs that you wouldn't have ever thought about. Any oddity could be a "nice" surprise chunk of cash. And, listening to the just married women crowding forums around the web, that experience is quite common . Now if you let professionals to help and advice you on evaluating how much an item could affect the entire budget, since the average cost of a 150-person wedding is 25,000 $, more in an urban area, a basic breakdown of what you can expect to pay is:

• Reception: 48%-50%

• Ceremony: 2%-3%

• Attire: 8%-10%

• Flowers: 8%-10%

• Entertainment/Music: 8%-10%

• Photography/Videography: 10%-12%

• Stationery: 2%-3%

• Wedding Rings: 2%-3%

• Parking/Transportation: 2%-3%

• Gifts: 2%-3%

• Miscellaneous: 8%

• "just-in-case" fund 5%.

(data from The Knot.com)

If you can't afford it, Pippo, my loved FI, a true professional expedients maker, has his recipe for our Wedding in the Time of recession.

Pippo's low-cost wedding budget:

• Reception: refectory of the local Church, the same where we'll have the ceremony, flowers, using what the preceding couple left, catering from parents at the chant: “we eat what we can deliver”; rings offered by mum and dad, tips to volunteer cleaners and music from the church's PC: 2%;

• Gifts, if we are referring to the favours, Pippo and I have a 10 years old collection almost in mint condition: 0%;

• Stationery, we don't need it, with the account online and blog he subscribed from the work's computer: 0%;

• Photography/Videography, that's smart of him, he thinks to distribute some disposable cameras and everybody will shoot us all the day long: 2%;

• Attire, second hand market or Chinese ebayers: 3%.(note I am to get into an extra small to increase the choice on the second hand market)
  

That stands for 1,750$!.

In two years I'm still in time either to convince him, to leave him or to love him more.

The ABC for a wedding in the time of Recession:

• A... Art: Wedding Light 1.0
• B... Body: The Body of the Bride