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wedding advice

Why you Need a Wedding Planner

by Isabela Abuan
written by Isabela Abuan

Are you going to hire a wedding planner for your upcoming wedding? If you are getting married, the thought of hiring someone to work on your wedding may seem daunting—but there are many reasons why hiring a wedding organizer is incredibly beneficial for your wedding. The following are 5 primary reasons why you should definitely hire a wedding planner to handle your upcoming big event.

If you do hire a wedding planner, make sure you also purchase a complimentary organizer such as a wedding planner notebook to help keep everything in one place.

They can help with the budget and schedule

Juggling your wedding budget and schedule can get difficult, especially if you’ve never organized an event on this scale before. A wedding planner will have experience and knowledge in handling even the most complex of schedules, and they will be able to keep meticulous track of the budget as well.

They will deal with the stressful responsibilities

Planning a wedding is incredibly stressful—and it’s usually done on top of a full time job and other responsibilities. A wedding planner will be able to take the burden of those wedding responsibilities from your shoulders, allowing you to be more relaxed and less stressed in the months, weeks and days leading up to your wedding day.

They have connections and insider knowledge

When it comes to getting the best deals, venues and vendors, a wedding organizer can use their personal connections and insider knowledge to make sure that you are getting the best of the best. A professional planner will be able to use their networking skills to make sure everything at your wedding—from the flowers to the bar service—is the best that it can be.

They can offer advice on problems and dilemmas

Problems will always pop up during wedding planning, and handling them on your own is not only stressful but time-consuming and difficult. A professional planner will be able to use their years of experience and knowledge in the industry to offer solutions to various dilemmas, whether it’s a problem with the food vendors or you’re simply unable to decide which DJ to go with for your reception. 

They can help you the day of the wedding

The day of your wedding is exciting, beautiful—and incredibly stressful. That is where the work of a professional planner truly shines. A professional planner for your wedding will be there on hand to help you out; they can do everything from make sure that the vendors are in place, that decorations and food has arrived on time, and even manage day-of tasks such as wrangling the photographer and making sure that everything is going according to plan.

If you are ready for your wedding to go off without a hitch, contact a professional wedding organizer as soon as possible. When you feel the burden of wedding planning lift from your shoulders, you’ll wonder how you ever thought you’d do without a wedding planner!

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How to Choose the Right Food Service for Your Wedding

by SandandLeaves
written by SandandLeaves

One of the most important things guests remember from a wedding is the food. As a result, it is also one of the most common things couples stress about before the big day. You’re probably here reading this article because you’re now facing the same dilemma as them: how do you know which food service to pick? Is there a way to figure out which one is perfect for your wedding? To answer your question, below are some food services and the corresponding reasons why a couple such as you and your partner would want to pick them for your wedding:

Buffet Style

One of the most common food services for weddings is actually a buffet. A buffet is basically this “eat all you can” where different dishes are lined up on long tables manned by servers. In a buffet, hiring servers ensures a faster line and a more proportionate distribution of the food among the guests. On some weddings, however, the guests are also left to serve themselves. Besides the variety of food, an advantage in choosing a buffet is then the less number of staff you need to hire because guests themselves go to the food instead of the other way around. On the other hand, a disadvantage is the larger quantities of food you may have to prepare because guests are free to avail of second helpings. Moreover, lines may become long and slow. This is also why some tend to view buffets as “tacky” or lacking elegance. Nevertheless, it’s a good option to consider if you want to save money on catering staff costs!

Plated Style

This is the classic sit-down dinner with the guests just waiting for the staff to serve their food. An example of the sequence of food served would be first, the salad course, followed by the entrée, then the dessert and lastly, the beverage. Without the variety offered by the buffet, a plated dinner may require you to present choices to your guests beforehand to ask them what they would like to be served on the wedding day. This is usually done by way of the invitations where the guests can send back their preferences and tell you any allergies they may have. This traditional wedding reception style offers the advantage of being simple and straightforward. It would also ensure that no food would be wasted because everyone is already accounted for and the portions of food are already estimated well by the caterer. Furthermore, everyone would be served food at the same time so the guests would be more comfortable. The disadvantage of the plated meal style, however, would be the higher bill for the wait staff and the turnaround time for each meal.

Family Style

In the family style, different dishes are already placed at the center of each table in the reception along with the utensils. This food service style serves to replicate the idea of “family” and friends coming together, hence the name. So in this scenario, guests pass the food around in the table and help themselves to whatever dish they want. A pro of this wedding reception style would be the more casual and relaxed atmosphere between the guests which would also encourage more conversation between them. Basically, it provides for a more intimate ambiance which may align with your wedding theme. A disadvantage is that there is no way to control how much each guest gets so some may end up getting too full and others left too hungry. Other cons include food that might be wasted and the mess from leaving the guests to tend to themselves.

Cocktail Style

Cocktail style is basically a ‘stand up’ reception where guests aren’t seated so food is either served to them or is available in stations (or food trucks for some adventurous couples). In this style, guests also have the freedom to choose from a selection of food and they wouldn’t have to wait for the next round of meals like in the plated style. Aside from this, other advantages include guests being able to choose when they’ll eat and can spread it out through the night. As for you and your partner, one pro is being able to personalize the stations/food trucks according to what you want. Hors d’oeuvres (or light snacks and appetizers) served by the wait staff is also a common option for couples who want to add a touch of elegance to the cocktail style. This can be expensive, however, because appetizers like salmon sliders or braised lamb meatballs are labor intensive and cost more. Another evident disadvantage is guests not getting fed well because there is no guarantee that food gets to them.

Food Cart

In recent years, one additional option for food service that has become more popular for weddings is the use of food carts. Aside from the catering, some couples choose to hire coffee or dessert carts which bring in a touch of creativity on the array of food options for the guests. Of course, a common example for these food carts would be ice cream. But, more creative food carts for weddings include those with cotton candy, takoyaki, sandwiches, churros, nachos, among many others which really send the message that you want your guests to enjoy on your wedding night. Definitely, this is something you can consider if you have an additional budget for food and if you and your partner are foodies who would like the guests to try something you love!

To end this short list of food services you can choose from, one thing you can also consider in your decision is the overall look or feel of your wedding. Sometimes, thinking about the bigger picture helps you decide on the smaller things and keeps your vision for the wedding intact. If you still find yourself torn between options, try making a pros and cons list to see which really fits both your budget and wedding theme.

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What to do if you and your fiancé can’t agree on wedding decisions

by SandandLeaves
written by SandandLeaves

No doubt, planning a wedding is going to be stressful. What’s going to be more challenging is that, evidently, you’re not the only one involved in the planning process. You might find yourself in an argument with your partner about who gets included in the guest list, who sits next to whom, which color the napkin should be, where the reception should be, among many other things. Definitely, it’s all a big tangled ball of decisions which you have to begin slowly untangling one by one as a team.

Now, what’s important is that way ahead of those unpleasant disagreements you’ll be prepared on how to resolve conflicts you’ll encounter while planning. Here are then some tips you can follow to achieve that peaceful wedding planning you want:

Compromise

Of course, this is the first step on the list. Planning with another person means being open to the idea that it is not only your opinions that will be considered in the entirety of the wedding. Much like your marriage, the planning is a team effort. It’s a partnership, a joint effort, which entails that you’ll have to accept another person’s ideas and take those into consideration in order to meet them half way.

One instance you can apply this is actually setting the budget for your wedding and planning how to achieve that budget. Aside from allocating funds for the catering, the cake, the band, and etc., you’ll soon see that there are expenses which need not be made like additional funds for that Louboutin wedding shoes or that seemingly “million-dollar” wedding dress. If you really want to use an expensive wedding dress, it should only be fair to your partner if you pay for that additional amount on top of the budget you have set for the dress. Another example is if you both want to include a large number of people for the guest list. You both might have to cut down your list of guests to be fair to each other or to both decide to cross off something else on your expense list in exchange for inviting more people.

Communicate

It’s important to also let your partner know about the things that may be bothering you about the wedding. Assuming that they know everything without you having to tell them can be one of the most surefire ways you end up getting into an argument. So, despite the stress you may have been carrying for a number of days already, really try to talk to your partner calmly and explain what it is that you need to resolve as a couple. It may be the overbearing in-laws, the feeling of being alone and tired in the planning, or even just the sheer amount of tasks that are yet to be accomplished.

Learn to delegate and trust in your partner so that you are able to effectively divide the list of things to do before your wedding day. Communication to other people like your family can also help since you are able to let go of some of the tasks and assign them to your family members like the invitations. This will help you as a couple because you are able to focus more on the aspects of the wedding that are more important to you and ease out any tensions between the both of you. Lastly, in all of these dealings involving communication in the wedding process, learn to be assertive by being self-confident in your needs and wants but at the same time being considerate and not overly aggressive.

Chill

Always try to keep your cool. It is easy to lash out especially if you don’t get the response you desire from your partner. Always remember that it is not easy to take back what has already been spoken and that whenever someone talks, you don’t really have to immediately come up with an equally snarky reply. Carry each other along by being understanding of each other’s position and always process everything first without doing anything rash. This way it might be easier for apologies to come from both of you and for both of you to also come up with a solution to your issues. 

Celebrate

Never forget why you are doing all of these in the first place. No argument over the smallest of details is ever worth getting into a big fight with your fiancé. This is all for the celebration of your love for each other and so, ask yourself, what good would it do if you forget that love in the process? Your wedding is about you as a couple and during the planning process what often drives couples like you and your partner into the most massive of fights is listening to the demands of the guests who want to control how your wedding goes. It is then at those very moments that you exercise your rights as the to-be-wedded couple and actually pick what makes both of you happy, not the guests. Learn to put your foot down when needed and take little breaks just to feel happy about accomplishing tasks for the day. Always remind you and your partner who you are doing it for and that, no matter what, at the end of the day, it is still YOUR wedding day and that YOU get to decide.

 

All in all, because of the many things that are involved in planning a wedding, the smallest of things could also cause the biggest disagreements. Tensions and conflicts are really unavoidable especially that wedding planning is not an easy endeavor. However, by being aware that these can happen, you are already one step ahead of these conflicts and you can actually still do something to avoid them or to resolve them when they happen. So, for peaceful planning, always remember to: Compromise, Communicate, Chill, and Celebrate. 1,2,3 Inhale, 1,2,3 Exhale! You got this!

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