Money Advice Expert
Planning a Wedding: It Takes Two
You may have been planning a wedding since you were a little girl. You probably have some idea of how you want it to look. Just remember that your wedding day is also your fiancé's wedding day. He may have ideas about the wedding too. Gone are the days when the men stayed uninvolved. You can still have the wedding of your dreams while making sure he has input in the wedding planning. There are some important things to consider when you are getting ready to be married.
Sit down with your intended and talk about the decorations, the menu, and entertainment. When you are planning how many to invite, what kind of food you want, who the entertainment will be and how everyone will dress, you will need to make a budget. This is good practice for marriage. You don't want to go into your marriage with thousands of dollars of debt hanging over you. Make a budget and stick to the budget. Know how much debt you can reasonably afford to be in. Make sure there are no surprises for either of you.
A good way of compromising is to let him take control over an aspect of the wedding. For example, both of you together will choose the theme. Let him go from there and find a caterer while you pick out the dresses. Let's face it; the dresses are your prerogative by design. He might set up the D.J. or the band while you decide on flowers. You can sit down together to make a guest list and choose wedding invitations. Give him four great ideas for a honeymoon and have him make the final decision or vice-versa.
A smart plan to get these ideas squared away includes enlisting the help of friends and family. Often, family members will be happy to help you out if you ask. Obviously you will want to ask those you know to be reliable. Let him help you choose people to help you, too. Just assigning some of the responsibility to others will take some of the stress of planning a wedding off of both of you.
Planning a wedding together is a good way to learn more about each other and how you will handle situations in the future. Making it "our" day instead of "my" day helps establish how partnership will work for you in marriage. A piece of advice, though: Don't make him do the girly stuff.
