Wedding Tips and Etiquettes

Wedding planning is a long, expensive and meticulous process; this is because a wedding has a lot of elements and it involves a lot people with different roles and personalities such as the suppliers, the bridal party and the guests. During wedding preparation and the wedding itself, some brides lost their composure and grace because they are so stressed and unable not handle unforeseen events very well; the wedding industry termed them as “bridezillas”. Since all women simply want to have perfect and happy wedding, bridezillas should not have existed. However, some women are not aware, trapped into too many details and press out of time which make them do things that are not lady-like. Below are some tips on how to handle the different elements and people involved in the wedding to enable brides-to-be to prevent undesirable events and be aware with the basic wedding protocol (or etiquette) in the process. Hopefully, this will help lessen if not eliminate bridezillas:

Handing Suppliers

• Since wedding has many wedding elements, you will coordinate with numerous about of people to mount it; the more people you talk to, the higher the probability of miscommunication to occur. Hence, minimize the number of suppliers you are talking to by looking for a supplier that can provide you with most of your wedding needs. For example, some caterers have packages which include the wedding cake, the Champaign for the wedding toast ceremony, doves for the kissing ceremony, table centerpieces and bridal car aside from the linens, chair ribbons, plates, glasses and table napkins they usually offer. To make your wedding unique, you can just upgrade specific wedding elements such as the wedding cake and table centerpieces if you want to add on to their standard concepts or align them with your wedding theme or motifs. If you choose a one stop wedding supplier, you will just discuss and coordinate a few number people which make wedding planning and meeting schedules manageable and less complicated. Furthermore, you will a better bargaining power since your total cost will be higher compared to their other clients who just ask their services for a specific wedding element (E.g. catering).
  
  
• Read all suppliers’ contract before you sign them. If you have additional requirements not included in their standard contract, ask your suppliers to draft a separate contract indicating commitments of both parties in the extra requirements.



• Discuss schedule of payments with each suppliers and try to alternate supplier payment then every month at least 8 months before your wedding. As much as possible finish all payments 1 month before the wedding so you will have time to come up with extra cash for additional tips for exceptional suppliers services.



• It is customary to give tips to certain vendors (like the waiters) for their services. However, if you feel that you were able to negotiate and haggle for the best price and the were able to provide exceptional service to you and your guests, feel free to give your musicians, hair and make-up artists and wedding coordinators as least additional 15% of their contract price as gratuity or tip.




Below are specific tips in handling suppliers of the different wedding elements for your reference

• Caterers
• Florists
• Photographers and Videographers

Taking Care of the Bridesmaids

• Do not make your bridal party (especially your bridesmaids) look like wedding decorations. As much as possible consider try to provide dresses with that they can wear after the wedding. Hence, consider their body types when choosing their dresses or better yet, allow them to wear different styles to match their body types; just be specific with the colors and length to achieve bridal party uniformity.
  
  
• Provide your bridesmaids matching purses or clutches; aside from being perfect gifts for them, these will look nice in the photos.
  
  
• Have a sample of swatches of bridesmaid dresses before ordering the bridesmaids flowers; take the swatches to the florist when choosing which flowers will complement the dress best.
  
  
• Ask your designer to provide you with extra fabric scraps and use them to wrap your bridesmaids’ bouquet handles; this ensures your bridesmaid bouquets (despite of your chose of flowers) are match with their dresses.
  
  
• For picture perfect look, advice your bridesmaids to wear the shoes of the same color and instruct on what hairstyles to wear.
  
  
• Send a card and thank you gifts to your bridesmaids on top of the usual thank you notes and wedding favors you give to the guests. They deserve more from you considering that they make efforts and find time to be as presentable as they can be on your wedding day.