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You can recruit a wedding planner to help you plan your wedding. You can also take the DIY route, with a little help from friends and family. Taking a hands-on approach to designing your wedding can be a pretty fulfilling experience.

The important thing is to take it one step at a time. Be organized and keep track of your priorities. Involve your husband-to-be. Recruit family and friends to assist you and give you moral support.

Here are some of the things you have to prioritize in planning your wedding:

1. Setting a budget

The first thing to do is to determine how much money to set aside for your wedding. Talk to your spouse-to-be. If you have other contributors, include them in "the talk." Get this potentially uncomfortable part of planning out of the way, so you can immediately get to the fun parts.

2. Getting inspiration

This is one aspect of wedding planning that most brides enjoy the most.

Decide what kind of wedding you want to have. Do you want a formal classic wedding? Or do you want one with a more laid-back and rustic feel?

You can get inspiration for decor ideas, bridal dress styles, color schemes, and other details from a lot of sources including Instagram, Pinterest, and many wedding websites.

3. Drawing up your guest list and entourage

Although you may want to finalize your guest list a bit later, it's important to have a ballpark figure about how big you want your wedding to be. This will help narrow down your venue options.

Decide on your wedding entourage, the people who will be by your side on your big day.

4. Choosing your wedding venue

Set your wedding date. Check out the venue options on top of your list. Book the venue of your choice.

5. Putting up a registry and creating a wedding website

Your guests will want to be kept in the loop about important wedding details. Start your wedding registry. Set up your wedding website.

6. Booking your vendors

If you want to be successful in creating your dream wedding, hire the right people to guarantee that everything goes smoothly on your big day.

7. Sending out "save-the-dates"

You want people close to your hearts to be there with you on your wedding day. Help them mark their calendars by sending out "save-the-dates" as early as possible.

8. Getting your wedding dress ready

It may take a while for you to choose and have the bridal dresses properly tailored. Do this ahead of time.

9. Taking care of the other details

Hammer out the details of your rehearsal dinner, the honeymoon, engagement parties, bridal showers, and other pre-wedding activities.

10. Sending out your invitations

Send out your wedding invitations 6 to 8 weeks prior to the wedding day so your guests will have enough time to send their RSVPs.

11. Preparing your wedding bands

Take time out with your groom-to-be to pick out your wedding bands. They should be comfortable. They should reflect your personal style.

12. Getting your marriage license

Dont forget this essential requirement to getting married!

13. Confirming details with your vendors

Tie up all the loose ends, make the down payments, and give your vendors all the essential details to ensure that everything goes as planned on your wedding day.

14. Getting married

Everything you do finally leads to this special day. Enjoy your wedding. Have an amazing and memorable wedding day!

A wedding is the first time most couples will have to think about, talk about, and plan something big together. To start, you should first imagine the kind of wedding you want. Then, you need to think about how much youre willing to spend for it. What follows is a breakdown of your determined budget and the planned activities during your special day.

When you're trying to decide how to distribute your budget, you should have a sit-down with your partner. Each of you should pick your top 3 priorities for the wedding. Do this separately. And then later on, come together to outline your combined priorities.

Having a memorable wedding reception with great music, good food, and nice ambiance is the most common wedding priority. Music plays an important part in your wedding reception. Thus, hiring a professional to take care of the music is a critical decision. Most choices boil down to either having a band play at your wedding reception, or letting a DJ do his thing and entertain your guests.

If you decide to hire a DJ, you first need to determine how much you're willing to pay for one. Or, you need to identify the percentage of your wedding budget that you're willing to allot for one.

Then find out the price range of DJs in your area. A wedding DJ can cost somewhere from $900 to more than $5,000. The price will depend on various factors such as the type of DJ you want. Are you willing to settle for a basic, bargain DJ? Or are you looking for a wedding specialist?

If your wedding entertainment is important to you, you should be open to shell out some decent amount of cash, and hire the services of a top of the line DJ. A premium price though will guarantee premium experience.

When looking for one, stick to experience and reliability. Top of the line DJs have extensive wedding experience. They know how to customize an experience thats perfect for the couple and their guests. Theyll only offer the best in sound equipment, mixing skills, and knowledge of music.

Final Word

There are various ways to working around your budget, but taking the cheapest option doesnt necessarily translate to money saved. In many cases, the price is an indication of quality. Thus, for a few more dollars, you can give yourself the peace of mind that your entertainment needs are covered. You can face your day stress-free and enjoy it.

A great wedding DJ is not something you can compromise on. Your wedding day is probably the most important day for you. You and your spouse both deserve to start your life together with an amazing celebration!

Entertainment can make or break your wedding reception. The common choices are hiring a band, an ensemble, or a DJ. If you're having trouble deciding why you'll want to opt for a professional DJ, here's a few reasons why you should.

1. Professional DJs can read the crowd and adapt.

DJs are able to tell the mood of the event. They can feel the energy of the room flow. They know just when to play high energy music or when to slow things down. They know how to flow with the needs of your guests and encourage them to take part in festivities at the same time. DJs will keep the party rolling, and your guests entertained throughout the evening.

2. Professional DJs come with professional grade sound systems.

Professional DJs will always come with the best equipment. They'll use high-quality speakers and microphones that produce clear and distortion-free sounds. This is especially important if you're having a large number of guests or having an outdoor celebration. Guests must be able to clearly hear and enjoy the music.

Experienced DJs are also well equipped to handle potential technical issues. They have the technical expertise to troubleshoot and fix a problem before or when it arises. They will, in addition, always have a "Plan B" to ensure minimal disruption or quick repairs. A good wedding DJ will make sure to keep the music playing!

3. Professional DJs come with a massive music selection.

Professional DJs have an extensive music library. They can use these to create different playlists that will fit the event. They will consult with you and talk about specific requests for the event. This ensures that the music played is personalized to your preferences.

DJs will balance playing music that holds special meaning to you as a couple, with music that will ensure that everyone will have an enjoyable time. They can even weave impromptu special requests into the set list seamlessly.

4. Professional DJs create an overall experience.

A good set doesn't only come with great music, but with visual entertainment as well. DJs will have strobe or laser lights, LED, and fog or bubble machines to add texture to your party. The combination of all these ensures that your reception is one fun and memorable experience.

5. Professional DJs give you peace of mind. It's your wedding and you will want to enjoy the day with your friends and family. Hiring a wedding DJ assures that your entertainment is sorted. They have handled numerous events and have quality equipment to use for your event. Knowing this will allow you to let your hair down and enjoy the festivities.

Delicious food and extraordinary entertainment are what guests remember the most about weddings. With a professional DJ at your reception, you're assured of having a wonderful soundtrack playing for the special day.

Being committed to a wedding and marriage entails understanding that it is not going to be a smooth ride,commitment means facing all the challenges that may come your way together and compromising when necessary.

Commitment is not a very “sexy” word or concept but it probably has more to do with making marriages work than anything except common values. It’s not just about reciting marriage vows or having a piece of paper that says “marriage license.” Commitment is important because we act differently when we know that our futures are tied together. You may avoid a prickly conversation if you know the other person will not be around forever. You may move on to another love if your current one has a debilitating accident or simply starts to rub you the wrong way. Commitment means you’ve promised to stay and work it through, not just today but forever.

Sourced from: http://www.foryourmarriage.org/dating-engaged/must-have-conversations/commitment/

So what does it mean to be committed to your marriage?

Each of the partners should work hard to ensure a long and  successful relationship.In a good relationship each partner helps improve the other partner’s weaknesses.This helps each one of them to grow and become successful.

“It means do what it takes to make the relationship successful. That’s what this research is saying. That’s what commitment really means,” Karney said. “In a long-term relationship, both parties cannot always get their way.”

When a couple has a dispute, they have many choices of how to respond, the psychologists said.

“One choice,” Karney said, “is if you dig your heels in, then I can dig my heels in too. I can say, ‘You’re wrong. Listen to me!’ But if this relationship is really important to me, I’m willing to say, ‘I will compromise.’ What is my goal? Is it to win this battle? Is it to preserve the relationship? The behaviors I might engage in to win this conflict are different from those that are best for the relationship. The people who think more about protecting the relationship over the long term are more likely to think this is not that big a problem.”

“When the stakes are high, our relationships are vulnerable,” Bradbury said. “When we’re under a great deal of stress or when there is a high-stakes decision on which you disagree, those are defining moments in a relationship. What our data indicate is that committing to the relationship rather than committing to your own agenda and your own immediate needs is a far better strategy. We’re not saying it’s easy.”

How do you do this when it’s difficult?

“Find ways to compromise, or at least have the conversation that allows you and your partner to see things eye to eye,” Bradbury said. “Often, we don’t have the big conversations that we need in our relationship. The very act of communicating in difficult times can be as important as the outcome of the conversation. Everybody has the opportunity to engage in a conflict, or not, to say, ‘You’re wrong, I’m right.’ When people are in it for the long term, they are often willing to make sacrifices and view themselves as a team. They both are.”

The couples whose marriages lasted were better at this than the couples who divorced, Bradbury and Karney said.

“The people who ended their marriages would have said they were very committed to the marriage,” Bradbury said. “But they did not have the resolve to say, ‘Honey, we need to work on this; it’s going to be hard, but it’s important.’ The successful couples were able to shift their focus away from whether ‘I win’ or ‘you win’ to ‘Are we going to keep this relationship afloat?’ That is the ideal.”

In a marriage, disagreement is inevitable, but conflict is optional — a choice we make, Bradbury and Karney said. When the psychologists give workshops for couples, they encourage them to discuss a source of disagreement. Finding such a topic is rarely, if ever, a problem.

Sourced from: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/here-is-what-real-commitment-to-228064

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