wedding favors

By Dr. Taffy Wagner, CEPF, WedNet Specialist Blogger on Wedding Money, http://www.DebtAtTheAltar.com

That title got your attention didn’t it! Hold on to your seat because I am going to change it up for you. I am well aware that you are the shopper in the relationship and your fiancé does not know it. So NSF for you means Not So Fast. That means you do not go to the store every day or even every two or three days. But you go at least once a week and each time you go, you shop.

Lean in close – you are a SHOPPER! Even if you tried to play by the NSF rules, you are a shopper. In that regard because you like to shop even prior to marriage, you need to establish some boundaries for shopping. Sure you do because you are more than likely a shopper that will give in to peer pressure. Think about it. How many times have you been out with your girlfriends and had not planned on buying anything, but once they started buying you felt that urge to buy as well?

Or how many times have you gotten sales flyers in the mail and that led you to stop what you were doing and go to the mall or that particular store? Prior to receiving the sale flyer you did not have a reason to go to the store. I know what happened, when you opened the flyer there were several items that called out to you. You could not disappoint them and you put them out of their misery and went and purchased them.

If you are a shopper and have not shared this with your fiancé, I encourage you to have this discussion prior to walking down the aisle. Money challenges can have an ugly affect on marriage. This will make a difference in who manages the money and other financial decisions that should be made prior to marriage.

wedding favors

By Jimmy Horner, WedNet Specialist Blogger on Groom Issues, The Man Registry, http://www.themanregistry.com

This is one of the most important items that the groom is typically at the forefront of planning. It is, for most couples, a trip of a lifetime that can be made spectacular with a little additional planning and foresight. There are some easy questions you can ask yourselves to get started:

• What is the destination you are looking for, beach, cruise, overseas, the mountains?
• What is your budget?
• How long can the two of you be gone for?
• Do you want all-inclusive?
• Do you want to go somewhere new or familiar to you?
• Do you want a more leisurely or more active honeymoon?

These are great questions that you and your fiancée should discuss during the very initial stages of honeymoon planning. Start with deciding on a budget and then on a timeframe. The honeymoon is typically paid for by the groom or his family, but with most things in wedding tradition this can easily be changed. Other ideas for budgeting are splitting the costs between the bride, groom, brides family, grooms family, or even with friends through help of a registry set up for your honeymoon. It is becoming common for a couple to ask for cash for there honeymoon as there wedding gift. Whatever you decide, remember you only get one shot at your honeymoon, so make it count.

wedding favors

By Mireya Navarro, WedNet Specialist Blogger on Green Wedding, Author of “Green Wedding: Planning Your Eco-friendly Celebration”, http://www.mireyanavarro.com

The invitation to my first wedding of the 2009 season arrived promptly – by email. It was in an attachment, with a beautiful peacock motif, and it did its job by telling me “when” and “where.”

The emailed invitation is fast becoming a popular green option for those couples who want to save both trees and money. And wedding websites are all the rage for all forms of other paperless wedding communication, including directions to the venue and registry information. Brides and grooms who go paperless tell me they do so because they are concerned about the natural forests that are replaced by tree farms for paper production and about the mass amounts of energy that go into turning trees into paper, among other issues.

I didn’t mind my emailed invitation at all, but some guests – and etiquette experts –  find the electronic way too impersonal. Luckily, environmentally-minded couples who prefer the traditional paper invitation will find that many stationery companies have stepped up to meet the demands of green consumers by offering recycled products at competitive prices.

When shopping around for environmentally friendly alternatives to the paper invitation, look for:

• Paper with the most recycled content, preferably 100 percent post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper, (which means paper that’s already gone one round with consumers, like the paper tossed in recycling bins at the office.)
• Chlorine-free paper or paper not bleached with chlorine or chlorine derivatives.
• Vegetable-based inks such as those made with soy oil.

wedding favors

By Barbara Waltz, an industry expert and one of the founders of a well known insurance blog.

While we are all familiar with common forms of insurance like auto or life and understand what they entail, many people are less familiar with wedding insurance. As you might expect, wedding insurance covers your wedding if something goes wrong. While that may sound a bit vague, it is somewhat intended to be that way. Wedding insurance is somewhat unique in the sense that you can adjust what is covered and to what amount of money. If you were looking to have the rings covered or the rental tuxedos that is entirely possible. It is also possible to cover the entire wedding being canceled due to natural disasters or a death/illness in the family. 

The question many people have is “how much does this cost and what will it pay out?” , well again that is based on the level of coverage that you choose to take on.  It is possible to get a policy that costs around $100 or it could run up to $500 and the payout would vary somewhere between $5,000 and $50,000 (which of course scales based on how much is paid).   Most couples choose to only insure a few choice things but others may want to cover the whole ceremony and reception. 

One thing that should be noted when dealing with wedding insurance is to make sure that you fully understand what you are signing off on.  While many people assume it works the same way as other insurances, it does have some areas that are pretty specific and if you attempt to make a claim it may be turned down.  For example, if it is windy with a slight drizzle and you had planned to have an outdoor reception or ceremony it would not be covered, but if there was a hurricane and people were forced to evacuate you would be.

Whether or not wedding insurance is for you is entirely up to you. While it is not uncommon to get it, it is not done by every couple and depends entirely on your personal situation.

wedding favors

By Dr. Taffy Wagner, CEPF, WedNet Specialist Blogger on Wedding Money,

http://www.DebtAtTheAltar.com

Have you ever thought love and money go together? It is true money and marriage goes hand-in-hand. For example, as you are planning your wedding, you talk about the cost of florists, caterers, wedding dress, tuxedos and more. That is one aspect of money. A second aspect of money that you could look at is venue, size of the party and honeymoon. While addressing the first two areas there is yet a third area that needs to be looked at which can literally clinch the talk of money and marriage go hand-in-hand. I am talking about the "DAY AFTER" the wedding and the beginning of your marriage.

What happens after the honeymoon – you return to your new home with your spouse and you have bills. What does it take to pay the bills? MONEY! Have you discussed what each of your individual finances are that you are bringing into the marriage? I know money is that "taboo" subject. Do not let it stay a taboo subject because, in my opinion, there is nothing like financial secrets to tear a marriage down.

You don’t have to take my word. You can literally type in the search engines "engaged couples" and "money" or either "marriage" and "money". You will see story after story and article after article where couples are arguing about money, finances are impacting marriages and more. Or let’s make it even a little closer to home. How many couples do you know personally that are having some heated discussions because of finances? What does that tell you? First and foremost that money was not discussed nearly enough in marriage and now it is being discussed out of panic. Second, it is your responsibility and no one else’s to make sure you know the facts prior to walking down the aisle. Only you and your future spouse will truly know what is happening with your finances. Do not doubt for a second that money in marriage go hand-in-hand. When you and your spouse can openly discuss finances, the financial stress disappears. Don’t deny your marriage the opportunity to have financial happiness over financial stress.

wedding favors

By Daniel Sheehan (WedNet Specialist Blogger for Photography): A Beautiful Day Photography, http://www.abeautifuldayphotography.com

Gathering together some vital information beforehand is the most important thing to do before you consider hiring a wedding photographer. A major concern expressed by many of the brides I have been hearing from this past year is keeping within a strict budget. If you are a bride attempting to keep the photography budget down, you need gather some background facts on which to base your decision.

After studying wedding websites and magazines to get as much information as they can before approaching a photographer, many brides put together a long list of questions thought to be helpful. Most photographers will be able to answer all of them making it not so easy to pick the right one.

When you contact a wedding photographer the first thing to remember to do is to ask about their style of photography. “What is the style of your wedding photography?” Talk a little with them about the images they have made and are showing on their website before you get around to asking about the price. I really hate it when the first question I get from a prospective client is “How much do you charge?” It is upsetting to have my photographic vision and creativity treated as if it were a commodity like a gallon of milk. The last thing you should do is begin a conversation with a photographer by asking “How much?” You will make him more interested in making a deal with you if they think that you are familiar with their work and are really interested in it. If they are very good and their fee is high, when you ask them to negotiate their fee downwards because of the tight economy, they might be more flexible in coming down to meet your budget.

I do not want you to get the impression that every cheap photographer is bad. Just be aware that if you are a on a tight budget, as so many brides are this year, finding a really good wedding photographer who will give you what you want for less than $2,000, it is mandatory that you really do your homework beforehand, be prepared to compromise on any of the extras you might be thinking about, and have a great deal of luck.

Lets say you want to get at a minimum, a photographer who will give you at least six hours of coverage, a proof web gallery or proof magazine, web based slideshow and all of the images on a disc with a release of copyright so you can go and get your own prints made yourself at a cheap lab. This is will be a quest but doable if you keep a sharp eye out.

The second question to ask when you meet with a prospective photographer who is offering to work in that affordable price range is: “How long have you been shooting weddings?”. If they have a website or show you a portfolio consisting of at best average photos and claim to have shot more than 100 weddings over the past five years an alarm bell should be going off in you head.

The third question is: “Please can you show me a web gallery or proof book of all the photos from just one wedding?” If they refuse or are reluctant to produce one, then you have a good reason to move on to the next photographer on your list.  Any photographer with that much experience should be confident enough to show you all of the photos from a recent wedding if you ask, not just a few select shots from a number of different weddings. See what they say when you ask to see a proof book or disc of a whole wedding. If they produce one for you and it is full of great images then you can get around to asking the budget sensitive question.  “How much do you charge for your basic package?”

If they fit your budget then you have just found the right photographer. If they are much higher than your budget, then ask them if they would be willing to work with you to get the price down and tell them exactly how much you have budgeted for photography. Maybe by cutting back a little on the amount of time of coverage or just getting the photos on a disc instead of a whole bunch of prints or album, they would be willing to go ahead and work with you.

If the photos are not that great, just kind of average looking, you might still want to book with them. If they are young, they may just be starting out, are getting better with every wedding and are charging a budget price to get more experience. Maybe they are doing it part time or are still attending school and are learning photography. This is probably the best-case scenario for a budget photographer. Perhaps they have assisted someone a number of times and now feel confident to go out on their own. They just might be able to give you what you are looking for at a low price.

The ones to avoid in this price range are the photographers who will show you lots of albums and proof books and have been working professionally for quite a long time, and all of their work looks average to poor quality. They will surely produce the same quality of images for you if you hire them. And you will deserve what you get if you do hire someone just on price. There is an old quote by John Ruskin, a British art critic author, poet and artist that I am reminded of;  “I have no quarrel with the man whose prices are lower, for he knows better than anyone else in the world what his product is worth.”