Weddings Redefined

Stories and advice from Bernadette Smith, visionary owner of 14 Stories, the nation's first firm specializing in creating legal LGBT weddings. Our weddings are unique, personal, beautiful and still, historical. We have offices in Boston and New York.

Wedding Planning in 15 Steps

Bernadette Coveney Smith - Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Most people who find this website are engaged and planning a gay wedding in New York, Boston or somewhere else – and most people really don’t know how to begin! Here’s the cheat sheet for you, a quick list of what to do, and in what order. 

If you really want to keep things easy, download our free app,Gay Wedding Confidential or buy our book of the same name! Both have all these tools in more detail.

1. Make your guest list and stick to it. Create guest list policies. Figure out if you are having attendants. 

2. Figure out how much you can afford to spend and where the money is coming from. Then revisit the guest list and trim if necessary. 

3. Have a conversation with your partner about the non-negotiables that each of you may have about your overall wedding vision. For someone it may be a beach ceremony. For the other it may be getting married by a rabbi like my brides in the photo above, who wanted both. And so forth. Know each of your non-negotiables. 

4. Hire a gay wedding planner to take care of the rest of these steps for you! Of course…and this is why. 

5. Find a gay-friendly wedding venue that meets your criteria for non-negotiables, guest count and budget. 

6. Shop for your wedding outfits and for your wedding party, also, if applicable. 

7. Block hotel rooms near your wedding for out of town guests. 

8. Make a wedding website and send out save the date cards. 

9. Hire all the gay-friendly wedding professionals who only do one wedding per day (photographer, officiant, band, DJ, etc) 

10. Spend time thinking about colors, themes, design, layout, flow, personal details like favors, etc.

11. Hire the gay-friendly wedding professionals who do more than one wedding per day (florist, cake maker, caterer etc) 

12. Send out invitations, collect responses and figure out where everyone is seated. 

13. Create a very detailed wedding day schedule and send it to everyone you’ve hired to be involved with your wedding. 

14. Have a rehearsal! 

15. Get married!

Did you just get engaged over the holidays?

(photo by Kat Hempel)

Comment (2) | Subscribe to this Blog | Contact Us | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink | Copyright 2004-2012 14 Stories


Bookmark and Share
Trackback Link
http://14stories.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=5344&PostID=215313&A=Trackback
Trackbacks
Post has no trackbacks.
Comments
guest list management commented on 09-Jan-2012 06:41 AM
Nice blog and i am really impressed by the idea. all the steps you have mentioned in the list should be followed on time for perfect wedding.
Michael Sage Schindler commented on 14-May-2012 02:07 PM
Fantastic information for couples to have. Having provided entertainment for our first gay couple a few weeks back, I can say what a pleasure it is to entertain at these events. We had done a lesbian civil service ceremony many years back but this was
the first wedding. For any gay or lesbian couple looking for expertice or ideas for your wedding I’d be happy to impart some great tips to you. Just hit me at http://www.lsny.net or email me at lsnyent@gmail.com. To see more on our gay wedding please go to
our blog at http://lsnyevents.wordpress.com/ – the current top blog talks about the wedding. And there is some video as well. We are pleased to welcome the GLBT community in NJ and NY to call us. Michael Sage Schindler LSNY Events.
Post a Comment




Captcha Image

Boston Web Designer