Wedding ahead: How you can save thousands even while splurging

When you think of life’s big expenses, what comes to mind? College, for one. A home, a car, certainly retirement. And if you are planning to get married, or have children who are, a wedding ranks high on that list as well. And it should be — according to The Knot’s Real Wedding Survey, the average wedding in 2008 cost $29,334.

That’s right, almost $30,000! That’s more than a down payment on many houses, more than four years of college tuition at a public institution, even more than a perfectly reliable — or heck, even a flashy — car. But a wedding certainly doesn’t have to cost that much.

I’ve been to lovely weddings that probably had a budget of $10,000, and equally lovely weddings that likely topped $50,000.

What did they have in common? Heart. Soul. Creativity.

When it comes to planning a wedding on a budget, the key is knowing where to skimp and where to splurge. It’s a hard line to toe, but here are some tips to get you started:

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The Keys to a Successful Wedding

The Keys to a Successful Wedding

1. What are your top priorities?
The keys to a successful wedding is to figure out what is
most important to you, and how you want your wedding
to be remembered. To find this out, simply describe your
wedding in just 3 words. Next think about the 3 words you picked,
prioritize them, and then think about kind of wedding vendor
you need to make it happen.
Before you look at the example below pick the 3 words in your head
to describe your wedding.

Just for fun see if the words in the example match your words.

Example: Here are 3 words you may have thought about, with the type of vendors
you’ll need to choose  to make it happen. If  one of your words was….

Beautiful = Locate right Venue, The perfect Dress, Flowers, good Photographer, decor etc.
Fun = Quality entertainment DJ/MC or Band or both.
Classy = Venue again, formal wear, very good DJ/MC.
Lets add one more just for kicks,
Stress Free = A very good professional coordinator, and a great DJ/MC.

Notice a pattern?

Fun, of course, your reception is the entertainment part of the wedding.
Your Disc Jockey is responsible to make it happen.

Classy, It’s easy to make a wedding look classy, however a poor quality
DJ/MC that is unfamiliar with wedding etiquette can be offensive.

Stress Free, Keep in mind, the DJ you do choose will be the one that’s representing
you on the microphone for the first time in front you and your guests on one of
the biggest days of your life, imagine your stress level if your DJ is bad and offensive.

2. Recruit the right team; Hire the right group of vendors that know
how to work well together. By hiring good professional vendors that know
their role, your wedding will flow smoothly. The director of the wedding should
be the Master of Ceremonies. A real MC has the training & experience to
keep your guests entertained & informed through out the night.

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D.I.Y. DJ for Your Wedding

D.I.Y. DJ For Your  Wedding

In today’s economy many brides are cutting back on hiring
professional vendors for their wedding and doing things
themselves, or having friends help out to try and save some
money. I understand times are tuff, but if you think you’re
going to save money by playing your own music for you’re
wedding, you may want to reconsider.

Sure you may have a laptop or iPod with thousands of songs,
but there is much more you will need to buy or rent to produce
sound for a reception.

First you will need the right program in your computer to9-bride-online2
play your music seamlessly throughout the night.
Price; $10 for a cheap program to hundreds for the better
programs. Your music need to be amplified through loud
speakers so you will also need some pro audio equipment.
2 speakers, amplifier, speaker wires, & for any
announcements you will need a microphone. If you have an
iPod you will need one more and a mixing board.

For decent gear you may pay an estimate of around $500, up to
$1,000 if you want to add lighting for dancing.
This does not include delivery, set up or break down. Now
that you got what you need to play your music, next would be to
program the music perfectly through the transitions unless you
plan on sitting behind your computer all night.

Make sure you pull out any of music with explicit lyrics,
you don’t want to offend anyone.
Start with cocktail hour into dinner hour, all the formal
music, Introductions, first dance, parents dances, cake cut,
garter & bouquet. Make sure to make announcements for each
event so your guests will know what’s taking place.

If you want your guests to dance, be sure to have all types
of dancing music from the 50’s to today’s top 40 since all wedding
receptions have diverse crowds. If you’re not sure what your
guests will like to dance to, you may want to ask for requests
before the wedding. You may need to purchase more music to
please your guests. You will also need to come with a
timeline for your events so that you can inform your guests and
make sure your reception flows smoothly. You will need to have
another person introduce you into the room and announce
the toasts & your first dance along with the parents
dances.

You could get your cousin or uncle to do this and hope he’s
not too drunk by this time. If the dancing isn’t going well
for whatever reason, your guests may get board, & leave
earlier then expected.

Mark Sanchez

Professional Mobile Entertainment

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