Jan Wilson - How to Have an Elegant Wedding for $5,000 or Less: Achieving Beautiful Simplicity Without Mortgaging Your Future

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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We would like to thank Kim, who lovingly critiqued our book and went above and beyond the little sis/daughter call of duty. And to our brides and grooms and wedding professionals, who enthusiastically participated in this book: Thank you for all your ideas and support.

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I would like to thank Gary, my favorite husband, who lent much love, encouragement, and support (he even vacuumed!). I am so lucky to have had you for thirty-five years!

I also want to thank Bethmy daughter, business partner, co-author, and friend. Whats next, honey? Much love, Liebs

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Id like to thank my husband, Jeff, for always believing in me and for continuing to be our greatest fan. I look forward to many more years of wedded bliss with you.

And to my mom, I am so fortunate to have a mother that I enjoy doing so many things with! Thank you for all your love and support, always. You and I planning Jeffs and my dream wedding (on a budget) was the beginning of many great things!

INTRODUCTION

Y OU ARE ENGAGED! What an exciting time! Every couple hopes their wedding will be a beautiful and memorable occasion. You have probably dreamed of your wedding day for many years. Creating a day as special as your dreams requires much planning and organization. We have designed our book to be your guide as you start your planning, to be by your side as you make a number of important decisions along the way and through the end of your special day.

Most couples envision their perfect wedding, but actually planning the big day can seem like quite a daunting task. Perhaps even more overwhelming than the planning is the thought of trying to afford this perfect day without breaking the bank. Everyone would like to achieve the wedding of their dreams, but many fear they cant afford it. We feel dreams can be realized within a reasonable budget, even for under $5,000, through careful planning and prioritizing. Good organization is crucial to the success of a wedding. Not only can it lessen the possibility of costly mistakes, but it can also eliminate the stress and anxiety. Our book will help you be organized and knowledgeable so you can get hitched without a hitch!

W HILE planning Beth and her husband Jeffs wedding, we experienced firsthand that it is possible to have a lovely wedding while remaining on a budget. We spent hours, days, weeks, and months reaching our goal of a simply elegant yet affordable wedding. We were inexperienced ten years ago and would have appreciated a book like this to guide us in a more organized way. The wedding day turned out to be extremely memorable and beautiful. It was everything we had dreamed of. Hey, we thought, we are good at this!

Soon after the wedding, a guest contacted us to ask for advice with her daughters wedding. We were pleased to share what we had learned. We found we had many money-saving and organizing ideas. After successfully assisting them, we formed our motherdaughter weddingcoordinating business and have coordinated dozens of weddings since.

When we planned Beths wedding, we were not aware that wedding coordinators existed. In case you arent sure what a wedding coordinators role is, we assist couples with everything from the beginning stages of planning through waving goodbye to the newly betrothed couple at the end of the big day, and everything in between. Coordinators also give advice and act as a liaison between the bride and the wedding vendors such as the caterer and disc jockey. We often receive requests for our services when the panicked bride realizes thirty days before her wedding that she cannot be both posing for pictures and checking on the caterers at the same time. Thorough communication and organization ahead of time can help eliminate these worries.

We have planned weddings with budgets ranging from shoestring to quite extravagant during the past eight years of being in business, and we have found we really enjoy the challenges a wedding on a small budget brings. We often hear guests say, Everything went so smoothly. It was such a lovely occasion. It is often the wellorchestrated wedding that impresses guests more than how much money was spent. We would like to help you achieve a well-coordinated wedding. Not everyone can afford the luxury of hiring a professional wedding coordinator, so we have written our book to teach you how to have a wedding that appears to have been professionally planned. We are pleased to share our wedding-coordinating strategies with you.

O UR book is designed to be the only book you will need. By following our guidelines, your wedding will run as smoothly as it would if it were professionally coordinated by us. We have arranged the chapters in the order that we feel you should accomplish each step. For instance, it is important to determine your wedding date and location first because style, time of day, and vendor availability will be based on this. It is also more imperative to find a reputable photographer whose work you like than it is to taste cakes. Good photographers are booked well in advance, and you cannot duplicate them, whereas bakeries can create many cakes in one day. Of course, since all weddings are different, all the information in this book will not necessarily apply or appeal to you.

Although you may have already decided on some parts of your wedding, we encourage you to read each clearly marked chapter, as you may learn of some details that you can incorporate into your special event.

Throughout each chapter we share our experiences and expertise. We offer help and ideas on how to achieve what you want within the guidelines of your budget. The sidebars offer our advice, suggestions from professionals, and thoughts from former brides on how to make your wedding day more perfect. We cover tips on choosing your attendants; keeping costs low in all areas; finding the perfect location; selecting music, flowers, and attire; questioning professionals you may hire; deciding what family and friends can help you with; and much more. We also share with you our organization system and remind you at the end of chapters what to do to remain organized. With the help of our time-saving suggestions, rehearsal information, and sample schedules, we can ensure your entire wedding day will go smoothly.