Choosing wedding reception music for your first dance? Any one of these titles would be great: I Got You Babe, Sonny and Cher Don’t Know Much, Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville I Finally Found Someone, Barbra Streisand and Bryan Adams Tonight I Celebrate my Love, Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson You and I – Eddie Rabbitt & Crystal Gayle Endless Love – Lionel Richie/Diana Ross

Romantic Pop Singles for First Dance

If you’re looking for a top 40 hit for your first dance, try one of these—they span three decades and various styles and would all be perfect music for your reception:

Can I Have This Dance? Anne Murray
Valentine, Martina McBride
Wonderful Tonight, Eric Clapton
I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You, Savage Garden
Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, Aerosmith
You Are So Beautiful To Me, Joe Cocker
Ice Cream – Sara McLachlan
In Your Eyes – Peter Gabriel
For the First Time – Kenny Loggins

Country Singles

Any country love song would work well for a wedding (and goodness knows there are hundreds of them!), but here are some popular choices:

Cross My Heart, George Strait
I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, Kenny Chesney
When You Say Nothing At All – Allison Krause/Keith Whitley
Shameless – Garth Brooks
How Do I Live – Trisha Yearwood
Still the One – Shania Twain

Oldies but Goodies for the First Dance

Do you want a classic song to play for your first dance? Check out these suggestions from artists like Frank Sinatra:

Unforgettable, Nat King Cole (and Natalie Cole)
The Way You Look Tonight, Frank Sinatra
At Last!, Etta James
What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong
Unchained Melody – Righteous Brothers
It Had to Be You – Harry Connick Jr (and others)
Fly Me to the Moon – Frank Sinatra
Come Rain or Come Shine – Billie Holliday

Listen to Music

An afternoon activity that would provide lighthearted fun and competitiveness between the two sides of the bridal party could include a “sand castle building” competition at your local beach. This unique and exciting activity would provide a great opportunity for everyone to meet and get to know one another and express their creative side along the way. Additional activities that could be included in the day’s itinerary could include a game of beach volleyball and a bonfire. However, if you intend to build a fire on a public beach it is often a good idea to check with your city council to discover if any special permits are necessary prior to hosting your event.

Taking time to locate beach themed wedding attendant gifts for each member of your wedding party is actually easier than you might think; many online and retail wedding planning outlets have unique and creative wedding party favors to give to your friends and family on this special day.

If you have little money for a wedding, you can still have a beautiful wedding and enjoy a little get together with friends and family.

Small and Intimate Weddings

If you are trying to save money on your wedding, you can have a small and intimate wedding for family and friends without spending a lot of money. You could have an outdoors wedding in your backyard or in a park. As long as the ceremony is preformed and you are married, you do not need anything special. You can have a fry out and some other foods for a dinner after the ceremony and save a great deal of money. There are always people willing to make a side dish for the reception.

Save Money by Eloping

You can combine the wedding and the honeymoon by eloping. This saves money on everything associated with the wedding. You could go to Las Vegas and marry while enjoying some good times at the casinos and the shows, or you could go to a ski resort to marry at a justice of the piece and then have the rest of the time for fun. There are many places to marry and then enjoy a honeymoon without spending so much money. However, when you get home, you might want to have an open reception for all your friends, which can cost less money than a formal reception.

Have a Reception

Many couples are finding that eloping and enjoying the honeymoon are a way to save money and then just have a causal cook out for friends and family when they return home. You could spend less then one thousand dollars having you wedding in this order. When you return home with pictures, you can have a backyard BBQ and invite everyone. You can prepare the foods yourself and the cost will only be for the foods. Entertainment could be a stereo in the background. People are going to spend more time talking than they are listening to music anyways.

If you are planning a wedding and money is an issue, you can elope, enjoy the honeymoon and then have a casual reception where you and some friends make all the foods. You could also have a park ceremony and a BBQ afterwards for the reception. Getting married does not have to cost you a fortune and put you in debt right away when you start your life together. Do what makes you happy and your friends and family will be happy as well. Friends and family are going to save money as well since they will not have to buy new clothes, get babysitters or even help pay for the wedding.

Budget

Before you plan for anything, make sure to fix just how much your budget for the wedding is. Weddings are a costly affair, so don’t just leave this open-ended, or you might find yourself having a lavish wedding only to wake up penniless the next day. Set the budget so you will know what options are available for you. Try to give room for any additional costs that you haven’t planned for.

Guest List

Even if you want to invite just about everyone in the world to join you in your special day, you will need to be practical and choosing which of your acquaintances will actually receive an invitation for your wedding day. If you have a limited budget, try to keep your guest list small by inviting only your family and your closest friends.

Entourage

You will also need to determine who the entourage is, especially who the maid of honor and best man will be, since they will play a huge role in the wedding.

Theme

If you want to have a themed wedding, you will also need to determine this early on so you will know what to shop for and what to tell your guests.

Clothes

You not only need to shop for the bride’s gown and the groom’s tux, you will also need to think about what your entourage will be wearing. It’s best to have this fixed as early as possible. You will also need to give yourself extra time in case any alterations will be made.

Venues

You will need to determine if the venue that you want to have your wedding at is available on your wedding date. If you are planning to have a church wedding, you will also need to check whether the ministers are also free on that day.

Transportation

You can’t go to your wedding venue on foot! Make sure you hire a transportation service to get you to the venue and/or the reception area.

Stylists

Remember: the bride has to look good on her wedding day! A hair and makeup stylist will also need to be hired for the bride and her entourage to make sure that they look great on the big day.

Invitations

You will need to scout around for a good printer who will be producing your invitations, even months before the wedding. That way, you will be able to remedy any problems with the invites early on. Make sure that all the relevant details are already listed in the invitations!

Caterer

As they say, the one thing that people will remember in weddings is the food, so make sure you get a good caterer. Try to go to tasting sessions so you can have an idea on what kind of food the caterers serve. Don’t forget the cake!

Music

Whether you’re planning to hire a wedding singer, a band, or a DJ, you will need to make sure that your wedding will have music to liven the mood. You can also come up with a music list if you want certain songs to be played on your wedding.

Wedding Photographer

Of course, you will want to have lasting souvenirs of your wedding day. Hire a wedding photographer whose style and personality is in sync with yours to prevent any problems from popping up with regards to your wedding photos.

Wedding Registry

Don’t forget to sign up to a wedding registry to make it easier for you and your guests to figure out what gifts to get!

Honeymoon

This needs to be fixed as early as possible, especially if you plan to travel to a distant place to have your honeymoon. You will also need to fix all of the other requirements that need to go with this, such as your passports, visas, plane tickets, and such.

Good wedding preparations are integral if you want to be stress-free on your big day. Good luck and congratulations on the wedding!

Every bride has lots of things to think about when she’s planning her wedding, but so many tend to forget about taking care of themselves on the day of their wedding. And it’s important that those small, but mighty, details not escape even the most well prepared bride!

What should be at the top of every bride’s list on the day of her wedding is to relax and enjoy it! Whether you’ve been working with a wedding consultant or have done all the planning and preparation on your own, it’s now the big day and you deserve to have at least as much fun as any of your guests.

Here are five simple, but practical tips to help pave the way to truly enjoying your wedding day:

Making Up is (Not) Hard to Do

Create a wedding day make-up bag two weeks before the wedding. Do a complete test of your wedding-day look (make-up, hairdo and shoes), for as long as you expect to have it together that day, so you’ll know if it will “go the distance.”

Put together a little make-up bag for touch ups that you can take along with you the day of the wedding to keep you looking your best. And on the big day, have a friend, bridesmaid, or family member hang onto it or stash it somewhere handy so you can get to it when you need it. Be sure to use waterproof mascara, and don’t forget to pack the hairspray!

Hint

When purchasing your make-up, see if you can persuade the sales gal at the cosmetic counter into giving you samples of everything you’re buying (they’ve got ‘em, you know they do). They won’t take up much room and it will be more than enough for the day!

Wedding Day “Emergency” Kit

Create an emergency kit for those unexpected emergencies just like the back-up, make-up bag for touch ups (say that three times fast!). Consider an “emergency kit” filled with items you may need on your wedding day. Fill a small bag with items such as a travel size sewing kit (you’d be amazed at the magic tricks just one safety pin can perform), clear nail polish (for panty hose/stocking runs), an extra set of panty hose or stockings, throat lozenges, and aspirin. Other ideas for the “emergency kit” include tissues, breath mints, tampons, hand cream, and band-aids.

Hint

Most of these items can be found in the travel size bins in your local drug store.

Food for Thought

Start your wedding day with healthy and filling nourishment. Since most brides don’t get to enjoy the meal served at the reception, you really should consider having something to eat before the wedding, no matter how worried you are about how the dress fits! While food may be the last thing on your mind on your wedding day, it’s nonetheless important that you start the day with some healthy and filling nourishment. It’s going to be a long (and wonderful) day and you’ll want to have plenty of energy so you can keep dancing and socializing for hours!

Hint #1

Stash a power bar snack in your purse or “emergency kit.”

Hint #2

Pre-arrange for there to be something to eat at your honeymoon hotel (believe it or not, most couples are starving after the wedding day festivities and will want to re-fuel before the wedding night festivities!)

If the Shoe Fits

Kick off the heels & settle into a more comfortable shoe; you know those stunning, sexy, strappy, ultra-high heels that work perfectly with your wedding gown? They’ll be great for the ceremony and for the formal pictures, but if you’re planning to kick up your heels at the reception, you’ll be better off kicking off the heels and settling into something more comfortable. So get a pretty, more practical pair of shoes that you can change into to keep your dogs from “barking” the entire week after the wedding!

Hint #1

It’s not a bad idea to practice walking in the shoes you’ll be wearing during the ceremony. Take a test run in the shoes and the wedding gown and get used to both.

Hint #2

Kenneth Cole reaction makes a snappy little flat, beaded thong that is heavenly comfy, inexpensive and just fancy enough to go with your gown. I’ve got a pair in bronze and black (and they come in white as well) that I carry with me everywhere. Not a bad gift for your bridesmaids either!

Point it Out to a “Point Person”

Keep track of time with an itinerary and a point person. Whether you’ve worked with a wedding consultant or carefully planned everything yourself, you should have an itinerary for the big day. Make copies, give them to a few good friends and/or close family members, then choose someone to be the “point person” who will make sure things are running smoothly and reasonably on time. You will be able to rest easily knowing at least one of your deputies will keep track of the time while you’re busy greeting those out-of-town guests and brand new in-laws whose names you can’t quite remember!

Your selection of a ceremony site will be influenced by the formality of your wedding, the season of the year, the number of guests expected and your religious affiliation. The ceremony location is the place where you make those lifelong promises and commitments. The memories forever etched of that one spot, wearing the most beautiful dress, with your friends and family fondly observing. Begin your search for a ceremony site as soon as you have selected the date for your wedding.

The following are just a few options on the types of ceremony locations: church, cathedral, chapel, temple, synagogue, a private home, garden, courthouse, hotel, country club, hall, park, museum, yacht, winery, a field, the beach, casino, hot air balloon, art gallery, bed and breakfast, college/university chapel, anywhere!

The ceremony site usually charges a fee to rent the facility. In a place of worship, this fee may include the use of the sanctuary, wedding coordinator, organist, custodian, changing room for the bridal party, and miscellaneous items such as kneeling cushions, aisle runner, unity candle, sound system and candelabra. There may be restrictions on the placement of floral arrangements, secular or sacred music selections as well as time of ceremony. Make sure you ask about restrictions or guidelines regarding photography, videography, decorations, candles, rice, bird-seed or rose petal-tossing. Be sure to ask for specific rules and regulations and what the site fee includes prior to booking a facility.

While having a ceremony outdoors is a wonderful way for you to showcase your event, there are some special considerations that are important to plan for. First, make sure your officiant is willing to perform the ceremony at your chosen location–some members of the clergy will only perform wedding ceremonies within a house of worship. Be sure to find out whether there are any user restrictions, permits, or conflicting activities and events with your chosen date and time. Other logistics to consider include whether or not there is ample accessibility, electricity, parking, as well as restrooms on site. Remember to select a quiet spot that is away from the traffic. Nearly everything must be brought in such as chairs for your guests and a sound system. You are encouraged to have an alternate ceremony site in case of inclement weather.

In a museum or gallery, your wedding will be surrounded by beautiful objects. You can choose sites that display works that match your personal preferences, whether you enjoy the modern, classical, naturalistic or abstract. A wedding at home gives you the opportunity to recite your vows in a place that is near and dear to your heart. Though it will require that you have enough room to accommodate your guest list, a home wedding will definitely have a personal touch that no other location offers.

A ceremony in the home is indeed entertaining on a grand scale and the preparation may be more than you anticipate. Organization and delegation of responsibilities are essential. You can probably rent everything you need through a rental agency.

When renting a ceremony location, make sure the contract specifies all aspects of renting or using the location: arrival times, departure times, equipment that can be used, clean-up responsibilities, parking facility use, etc.

Remember the marriage license. Don’t forget to bring the marriage-license packet to the wedding! Assign this task to a trusted friend or family member. A ceremony is not legal and complete without this.