Most people have the luxury of spending months or even years planning their wedding. For any number of reasons having a Wedding in a few short days is an option people need to exercise. Whether troop deployment or a family illness, Weddings sometimes need to happen quicker than anticipated. Here is a simple guide to help you get to to the altar in a couple of weeks and make sure you still have a Wedding you can always remember.
Make Your invitations- With such a short time period, ordering invitations are off the list, so why not make your own. You can head down to your local office supply store. Buy some high quality paper and a cd-rom with templates to add to your computer. Simply find the template that you like the best, fill in your data and print them out. If you don't have a high-quality printer you can save the invitation to a CD and bring it back to your office supply store and have them print the invitations for you. Address the envelopes, stamp and mail.
Wedding Gown- You don't have to settle for an unconventional wedding dress either. I would start by talking to your friends and family and see if anyone would let you borrow theirs for your special day. If this doesn't work or the dress don't fit, head to the local consignment shops and search around. Someone is always trying to sell their Wedding dress, maybe you can find one that is right for you. If you real lucky their might even be a Running of the Brides the weekend before your Wedding
Ceremony Venue- Wherever you choose to have the wedding ceremony -- a church, temple, non-denominational justice of the peace chambers -- make sure you book the date and time you want/need for the wedding. If you need any special equipment, like a chupah (ceremonial canopy) for a Jewish wedding, make certain that it will be available. Ask about prices and see if you can cut a deal considering the short notice. Consider unconventional times, even if their is another wedding planned, see if you can piggy-back it at a later hour.
Book a House- Maybe all the reception venues are booked, especially if it is in the midst of Wedding season. Have it at a relative's house. Chances are that you are getting married in one of your hometowns (if you don't share the same one) or current place of residence. What better way to save money on a banquet hall than by having the reception at the home of someone you know?
Wholesale Florist- search your yellow pages for a local wholesale florist. The two benefits of going wholesale are; they employ large amounts of people which make it possible to arrange large orders in short times, and second they buy everything wholesale so you get huge discounts.
What to serve- Think party planning. Order deli trays, fruit platters, veggie trays and have someone pick them up. You can even arrange them yourself at the reception house. Buy soda and bags of ice, use paper plates, You can even get fancier plates to serve food on. This will make clean-up a great deal easier for whoever gets stuck giving you this gift.
A little help from your friends- Still need music, pictures, and a cake? Ask your friends! Even if none of your friends is a DJ/KJ, photographer, or baker, chances are they know some people who can cut you a deal. If you can't afford a photographer, you probably have a friend who takes awesome pictures. Have them make the memories of your wedding. If there are family photos and such that you want, make sure you let them know. Get someone whom you know is famous for their goodies to make the cake. It may not be the five-tier cake that you dreamed about when you were ten, but it will be special just the same. If you are lucky, you have a friend who specializes in cake decorating who can build your five-tier dream. Use a small boom box for music at the ceremony and just have someone push the buttons. Make CD mixes of the songs you want in the order you want them. Supply the person with a list of what to play when and leave it to them. Have the same person bring the boom box to the reception house so that you can have your wedding party intros, first dance, etc.
Anyways I know it isn't every Bride's dream to be married and plan a wedding in a couple of weeks, but at least with these suggestions you can have a Wedding worth remembering in that short period of time.
--Mickey
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A comment regarding invitations and thank you letters. I have seen that some couples are putting invitations and thank you letters on CDs/DVDs. Having the invitations on discs gives tremendous flexibility with content and creativity. It allows interactive maps of the rehearsal dinners, ceremony and the reception. It can also include information, telephone numbers, photos of the event sites etc. The key thing here is that it is ridiculously inexpensive compared to traditional printing and because invitations on discs are novel, they don't appear cheap.
Sames goes with thank you letters. A thank you letter on a disc allows the couple to add photos to a slide show and add in some music as well. Free downloadable software for slide shows is available on the internet. Thank you discs can include photos, video clips of the wedding, even honeymoon pictures. Labeling both with a Dymo DiscPainter disc printer puts full color photo labels on the discs that give them a professional (read expensive) look.
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