Wedding planning is complex. We’ve been engaged now a month, and are about a month behind in our planning.
The first step seems to be a challenging one, turning off Season One of Prison Break, determining where to begin. Since cost, location, destination, date and size all impact each other; it is daunting to try to pick one to start, knowing the ripple effect it will have across other major areas of the wedding planning.
We decided to start with size, and sent out emails to both of our parents to start getting a ballpark head-count of how many people we are talking at the wedding. My mom quickly sent back her list, and my dad is working on his. Selena’s dad is having a bit of difficulty coming up with names… literally. Many friends of the Kang family do not go by an English name, and my Excel spreadsheet isn’t equipped for typing in Chinese (nor are Selena or I equipped to translate back what we would have just typed).
Once we overcome this minor language barrier, we’ll turn our lists over to our new wedding planner that Selena found for us. Our planner is doing a great job helping us through the process, listing and organizing the guests, recommending wedding locations, and keeping an active to-do list of wedding planning events so we can continually see how far behind we already are. Our wedding planner is TheKnot.com.
Honestly, I don’t know how people planned weddings before the Internet, and specifically before this site came into prominence. I work for a website (The Motley Fool – fool.com) that is trying to corner its industry’s online market, and despite being around for many years longer, we are still striving to achieve what TheKnot has already accomplished. They completely dominate online wedding planning, and I, for one, am so grateful to have this resource to help us get underway.
Still no date yet, still no place yet. Check back for more updates…
(Note: I’m not sure why this article is often displaying no comments, that simply isn’t true, click the Comments link below to see all the comments posted)
I feel for you guys…now that Bobby and I’s wedding is almost here I can’t imagine starting over again because all I want right now is to get it over with. Neither one of us want to think about another wedding detail ever again! But, if you guys need help or advice, feel free to ask. It will keep you sane to have people help you. Trust me!!!
Size is the best place to start. That will determine location.
Because our budget was so restricted, we went with location first and then had to decide who to invite. We had to miss a few people on the invite list, but we ended up with a great event.
You guys are on the knot? Me too! There are local boards for your area, and many other boards where you guys can post questions. The knotties are so helpful! Good luck.
gatlinburg tennessee baby. no family, no friends, locks of jack daniels
What I want to know is what kind of booze are you going to have. C’mon this is the important thing
You could always just follow my motto:
All good weddings begin and end with a chocolate fountain.
Wheeeeeee!!!!!
Pick up a copy of Unique Meeting, Wedding, and Party Places in Greater Washington, which has information on all sorts of cool non-traditional venues in the area. It’s divided by capacity. Very useful!
We found our place in Unique Places. It really is the best resource for finding a location. What we did find out was that there is a dearth of places in DC that hold 100- 150 people. 60 people is great. 300 people great. 100 people – sucky.
Anyone local have a copy of this book they can lend to us? I checked on Amazon and it says 4-6 weeks to deliver. That’s a lot of downtime, not planning the wedding; however, upside, that’s ample time to catch up on three seasons of “Entourage”.
Being an event planner has its privileges – my desk came complete with a copy of the book tucked into one of its drawers. I’ll send it to work with Neal tomorrow.
Jeff and I have discovered IF we ever were to get married in this lifetime, that we would have about 100 people just counting family. I imagine you guys must have a similar scenario going on… seeing as half of our situations involve the same monstrous Robleto/Danaher superclan! And clearly it just keeps on growing… rapidly at this point… like rabbits… who grow a lot. Someday perhaps you will laugh meniacally at my pain… and so for now I simply offer: good luck! : )