Each year, millions of couples wed, and millions of relationships – involving brides, grooms, families, and friends-are undermined by power struggles, fights, and stress before the large event arrives. Often overrun by others’ demands, couples may be too exhausted to experience the outpouring of love meant for them. Now savvy brides and grooms can turn to The Smart Couple’s Guide to the Wedding of Your Dreams for a new and personally empowering perspective. Written specifically for the couple, this book encourages and supports both the bride and groom in exploring their deepest dreams for what they want throughout their entire wedding journey–from engagement through the honeymoon. Illustrated by nearly 150 real-life wedding stories contributed by brides, grooms, and couples–some that took place in small backyards, some on mountain tops; one at $600, another at more than a million–each chapter walks you through easy, practical steps that help you mak (more…)

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This practical companion to The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World acts as a stand-alone guide to the nuts and bolts of planning a wedding. The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner is where the bride and groom can record wedding ideas, create budget guidelines, check items off their to-do list, generate the guest list, store contact information for their wedding vendors, and get tips and advice on the best way to plan their huge day. Chapter by chapter, the planner walks the bridal couple through each major step: for example, choosing the reception site, picking a photographer, and deciding on a menu. Author Carley Roney and the editors of The Knot Web site have talked with both wedding professionals and hundreds of thousands of brides and grooms, and have a good idea of the necessary ingredients for a successful wedding. Most helpful and thorough are each chapter’s “Questions to Ask” checklists and the “Knot Knowledge” tips, which (more…)

As you go about planning activities for the wedding, keep in mind other factors too. Will there kids be attending and will the children be participating in the activities? If you have older guests, perhaps activities can be adapted so that they can also participate.

Some of the most popular activities include pre-wedding outings for the girls, including a group manicure or pedicure. This is great fun for ladies who are close to the bride (and certainly this could include men if they like manicures and want to go with the ladies) head and a nail salon and nails. This can be relaxingfor many women and provide a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle of the wedding weekend. Men can chooseto play golf or a game of tennis while this happens.

Many brides and grooms canselect to provide structured activities the night before the wedding. If the wedding is on a Saturday evening, for example, they mayselect to provide a Friday activity. Although traditionally, wedding activities center around bachelor and Bachelorette parties, a group stag party or as it is affectionately referred to as a Stag & Doe can be great fun and a terrific way to include all members of brides and grooms families for a less formal pre-wedding get together. You can go to a restaurant for an evening of fun and games, but make sure to limit the drinking and carousing as this might not sit well with some family members.

A fun activity that can be done immediately before marriage is to have someonebegin a gift basket. This can include a themed gift basket that is meant as an “advice for young people” and could be initiated by the godfather or godmother or Bridesmaid and Best Man. The way it works is that a Largegift basket is started by having it dropped off at your guest’s homes, each person must put something in the basket from things they have in their home. Once full, someone can be responsible for arranging the items in the basket together, wrapping everything to make it beautiful and bring it to the bride and groom.

Whatever activity you choose, be sure to take into account]the needs of your guests and special needs they may have. You will find that pre-wedding activities can be one of the best and most fun day of your wedding.

First of all, if children are invited to the wedding, take into consideration their ages. If the children are toddlers up to about age 12, your best option is to provide a separate room for them with childcare and a make a number of activities available to them.

If the children will be in a separate room at the reception, you can provide a coloring table, perhaps a TV with an appropriate movie  and board games. That could probably be enough for the duration of the wedding reception. Be aware of a few things: there should be a ratio of at least 1 adult for every 5 kids if the children are toddlers, or 1 adult to every 10 children if the children are older. Don’t expect the children to take up the activities on their own, but rather tell the childcare provider to get the kids involved in the activities by doing them him or herself.

What if the children will be part of the reception festivities? What activities can be geared specifically to kids at the reception?  You can certainly plan a coloring table at the back of the reception hall or room. There, you can provide loads of paper, coloring books, markers and crayons. Paints are not recommended, for obvious reasons, andMothers will thank you if you remember to supply the kids with washable markers and crayons only.

Another popular option for kid friendly weddings  is to have paid entertainment on hand just for the children. This can take place in a separate room or toward the back of the reception room. You can hire a clown or a balloon artist. You can have someone braid the children’s hair and provide temporary tattoos. If there is a separate room available, you can even hire a children’s musician to come and entertain the kids. The options are endless.

As you may have guessed, a child friendly Wedding Reception can take a lot of planning, and will undoubtedly force you to rethink your budget. That said, ifyou take into account the joy that you will bring the kids and the many thanks from the parents, it will be one of the best things that you could do for your guests.

One of the most obvious is a breakfast the day following the wedding reception with your close friends and family. This is a time for everyone to touch base with each other, check in on how everyone did and perhaps share memories of the night before.  You can meet your friends and family at a relatives house or restaurant.

One popular tradition for a post wedding party is to have the bride and groom open the previous night’s presents the day after the wedding.  This can be a simple gathering of friends and family or you can turn the present opening into an all-out activity, where each item is opened, demonstrated or displayed and discussed in great detail.  You might even Considermaking a game out of the present opening. Everyone has to guess what’s in each gift prior to its being opened. (Of course, people cannot guess on their on gifts.) Someone can be in charge of keeping a tally and whoever gets the most right, wins a small prize.

How about planing a scrapbook party after the wedding. You won’t have photos back from the photographer, but you can scrapbook many other wedding events, such as pre-wedding events like manicures, parties or candid photos taken by wedding guests at the reception. More than being focused on the photos, this activity gives the ladies a chance toreflect on the events of the wedding, laugh at all the fun ties and journal.

Some brides and grooms plan activities the day after the wedding that are designed to help everyone calm down, relax and unwind after what has likely been a busy weekend. In this light, you can plan a picnic at the park and bring along games to play. You might pack a football, a volleyball net or items to play baseball. You might bring along water guns or a dartboard. Whatever it is, the idea here’s to have some fun and blow off steam.

Post Wedding parties are a great way to getting all set for your honeymoon. It often helps wind down the wedding celebrations in a way that lets everyone gently move onto the next phase of your wedding without the crash and burn that often happens on the wedding day. Plan something fun and you’ll have wonderful memories to share for the rest of your life.

One way to make wedding music fun is to plan fun activities around the music that’ll add an element of fun to your wedding. Keep in mind that often, the DJ or Stage Band can provide you with many great ideas, and are often responsible for much of the music fun, but that shouldn’t stop you from coming up with your own ideas.

Possibly the most fun wedding music game is the adult version of musical chairs. The traditional rules of musical chairs isn’t appropriate for a wedding, because people may get injured, or accidentally spill beverages. Instead, use a napkin that and send it around the table, when the music stops, the person holding the napkin either gets a prize, or needs to do something sill, like a dance or a song.  Some brides and grooms like to play musical chairs in order to give away the table centerpiece, which many guests like to take home. This is one great way to give out the centerpiece to your guests.

Another fun Wedding game is  “name that tune”. This is a game that is best for a smaller, intimate wedding where everyone knows the bride and groom well. Prior to the wedding, whoever is planning the wedding should get a list of favorite songs of both the bride and groom. Create a CD of those songs, and then create a game of “name that tune”. Guests can be divided into teams and then be played just a small snippet of each song.

After guests hear that first snippet, they can then “bid” on how swiftly they can name the tune. So one group might[ state they can name the tune in 10 seconds, while the other group might state 5 seconds. Once one group has bowed out, the other group will then have to “name that tune”. This is a fun game that gets everyone involved and which the bride and groom are particularly delighted by.

Depending on the style of the wedding,there are severalfun games you can play to get the bride and groom out on the dance floor. Now, if this is a veryBigand very elegant wedding, this option might not work since there is certain decorum to maintain, but for a casual, fun, family-centered wedding some of these games can be fun.

You could also be adventurous and make up your own wedding music games, but make sure that the games can be played by all participants, and that it doesn’t involve physical activity that may lead to an accident. Be creative and have fun with your wedding music, your guests will thank you for it.

The wedding dance is also the time where the anticipation of months and years of preparation culminates, effectively centering the two of you in a harmonious moment.  Your wedding dance is the one time during your wedding reception that you and your spouse are truly together within the crowd. All eyes may be on you both but this is your moment together and no one else in the room should matter at this moment. Your wedding dance is one of the few memories of your wedding that you will have forever.

For some, especially the men, the wedding dance can be of and in itself a point of discomfort. This is in part due to some people’s discomfort with dancing, making that occasion a disconcerting one. It’s for this reason that many couples are now taking wedding dance lessons in order to make sure that nothing goes wrong during their wedding dance. Many teachers oftenrecommendthat you use the shoes you will be wearing for your wedding as well as a skirt that’s very similar to your wedding dress in order to actually get an honest feel for how you’ll be dancing on your wedding day. It is astonishing how much of a difference the height of your shoes and the length of your skirt or train can make when it comes to dancing. These classes are very important for couples that truly want to have the fairy tale wedding experience though not necessarily practical for couples that are already working at the end of their budget constraints.Although most couples opt to taking dance lessons at a dance school, due to time constraints, many chooseto buy instructional DVDs to help them dance. It would be great fun to practice your wedding dance together before the large night and it is a great way to have fun together as a couple even after the massive night.

For the more spontaneous and courageous, you can always just wing it by picking  a song you both love, a dance you like and have fun without worrying about getting it perfect. You are beginning your new life together as a couple and who really needs the pressure of dancing perfect, right? It is also your day and that’s one thing that far too few brides really realize when getting caught up in the pressure of creating the perfect wedding within a limited budget.

Whichever method you choose, try your best to have fun and make your wedding dance the special moment that it is. It will bring you many years of great pleasure knowing that you and your significant other have shared this important moment, to symbolize your love of one another.