Tips for ensuring your wedding day runs smoothly - Tip 2

You've spent months planning your big day and now it's nearly here.  If you want to make sure that your big day is as fabulous as you've dreamt it will be, follow our hints and tips over the next few months to get some great advice to make sure your wedding day is all you imagined it should be.

Tip 2 - Managing your wedding suppliers in the last week

Every wedding has a vast array of different suppliers to make it happen and with all the excitement in the run up to the wedding it can be easy to neglect them in the last week - here's some tips on how to get the best out of them:

1. Call each one of your suppliers and ensure you are both clear on what your expectations are of them on the wedding day (when they should arrive, who they should ask for, what they will be doing, how long they will be staying etc)
2. Choose someone who can act as a contact point for any suppliers should anything happen on the day (e.g. transport problems, illness).  Ensure that person knows to leave their mobile phone on in case they are called
3. Ensure all bills have been settled for suppliers who need to be paid in advance and that you give the money to a reliable friend or family member for any payments that need to be made on the day (there's nothing worse than a supplier who doesn't turn up or who won't provide services because they haven't been paid!)
4. Pull together a list of all your suppliers, what they are responsible for and contact names and numbers.  Copies should then be given to key members of the wedding party and your venue in case anyone needs to contact them
5. Send an email to each of your suppliers confirming what your expectations are, include a copy of the timing plan you've done (see tip 1) and provide them with the appropriate contact details in case of emergencies for on the wedding day
6. Make a special friend of whoever will be managing your wedding on the day at the venue and ensure they understand what is really important to you.

If you'd like some help ensuring your day runs smoothly you could also consider using a wedding planning - at Hel'sbells we can help in lots of different ways and you don't need to have a massive budget to use us, why not get in touch to find out more?

Tips for ensuring your wedding day runs smoothly - Tip 1

So you've done all the planning and everything's ready.  Now how do you make sure your wedding day runs like clockwork whilst managing to enjoy it at the same time? In the run up to wedding season I thought it would be useful to share some hints and tips to making sure your wedding day is all you imagined it should be.

Tip 1 - Write a timing plan

The first step to making sure your day runs smoothly is to write out a timing plan.  This should be really detailed and should cover the following types of things:

1. What time any suppliers are arriving and where they should be
2. What time all the key parts of your day should start and finish
3. Timings for all key members of the wedding parties e.g. when the groom should be at the venue, when his groomsmen are expected to meet him, what time your bridesmaids should arrive for getting ready
4. Time allocated for any travelling to / between venues
5. Detailed timings for the reception including how long for drinks reception, photos, speeches, time for wedding breakfast, expected timing of cutting cake and the time the venue need to turn around any rooms and when evening guests will be arriving
6. Timings for photographer - when they are expected to be where and how long they will need for photos
7. Timings for yourself - for hair, makeup, getting ready, photos etc

As you can tell, you should literally put down everything you can think of - it will help put your mind at rest that  you have remembered everything whilst allowing you to check you have allocated enough time for all the important part of the day.

Once it is written you should ensure that you give a copy to all your key suppliers - including the venue and ask them to confirm they are happy with it.  You should also give copies to key family and friend members who you trust to ensure the day runs as you want it to.  You need to pick friends who will stick to your plan but not run it with military precision - as at the end of the day it won't matter if timings change slightly!!  Then your ready to just sit back and be the bride for the day - knowing it will run just as you want it to.

If you'd like some help ensuring your day runs smoothly you could also consider using a wedding planning - at Hel'sbells we can help in lots of different ways and you don't need to have a massive budget to use us, why not get in touch to find out more?