The key to planning your perfect wedding is by being organised from the start. If you begin your preparations by being organised, chances are, you will keep this up.

There are hundreds of appointments to be made and people to speak to so you need to be effective with the time you set aside for wedding planning.

You need to begin booking people as early as possible. Some venues are booked up months or even years in advance, so don’t leave this any longer than you have to. Finalise a date for your wedding and start booking your suppliers immediately; from the caterers to the photographers. That way, you will end up with your first choice rather than your third or fourth.

Once you have booked the suppliers, you need to be able to give them an idea of what you want from your wedding. Don’t just leave them to it or give them all different briefs, resulting in a mismatched theme. Decide on colour schemes and themes from the start so that you can give each of your suppliers a detailed brief to achieve the perfectly coordinated day.

These themes and colour schemes will also help you to decide on the wedding stationery that you will be sending out to guests and this too, needs to be organised early on so that you can send out your save the date cards before people start to book their holidays.

For a small piece of card with someone’s name written on it, wedding place cards really do cause a lot of fuss. But that it because these wedding place cards are so much more than this.

The place cards are often what many guests will keep as a souvenir of your big day. Also, they are the first things that a lot of guests will notice as they sit down together to celebrate your union.

So it is very important that you put a lot of thought into your place cards and choose some that reflect your wedding day as well as your style as a couple.

Much like the rest of the wedding ceremony, a lot of people choose for the wedding place cards to be fairly formal. But there is also the option to have more fun and less serious wedding place cards.

As with your wedding stationery, the choice of style is completely up to you as a couple. But don’t be fooled into thinking that the wedding place cards do not matter. They are very important additions to the day and ones that will be remembered and often kept for a long time. So put some thought into that small piece of card and make the right decision.

The chief bridesmaid holds a lot of responsibility and can be a real help when it comes to organising the big day. For this reason, the chief bridesmaid needs to be someone trustworthy, organised and willing to help.
You will have been chosen for your organisational skills and your ability to stay calm under pressure, so it’s important that you live up to these expectations.

As soon as you have been asked to be a chief bridesmaid, you should start getting involved in the wedding preparations. It may be that the bride is really organised, but you still need lend a helping hand or a little bit of support.

Take the tedious tasks away from the bride and offer to send out the save the date cards and keep track of which guests are coming. You could even tackle the wedding table plan with her so that she has someone to bounce her ideas off.

Of course, a lot of your duties will be fun and pleasurable too; for example, the trip to the wedding dress shops can be a lovely way to spend some time with the future bride.

But the key to being the best chief bridesmaid is simply by always being there. Be a helping hand every step of the way and ensure that the wedding preparations are stress free for the bride to be.