Second wedding but feeling lost

Hi Tina! I'm so happy you're reaching out I think you'll find the community really helpful for this because there's no one way to do things and it's really all about seeing your options and the community is great for feedback I think you already got quite good advice in here, I'm also sharing with you a few discussions you could find helpful:

How To Start Planning Your Wedding

Checklist: Things to Do 12 months before the wedding

DIYs for your wedding! Share your pictures!

What step are you at in your preparations?

Thank you everyone for the great advise

Hi Tina, welcome! One thing to remember is it's your day and there is no right or wrong way! I love planning events so I didn't hire anyone and I'm loving it! Well....Except for the price of everything! Lol Save the dates I'm doing by email then sending out wedding invites. I enjoy DIY to a certain degree....the girls here have been great with ideas and it's inspired me. My newest project is making place card holders out of cork!!!!! There are alot of great checklists on wedding wire and online. But you really need to step back and decide what type of day you want , then use the lists to help you achieve that ! Don't feel like you have to do or buy everything those lists indicate. Good luck! And we are here if you need us!

Hi Tina! Welcome to the community and congrats on your upcoming wedding! Valerie and Chelsea had some great ideas! We are definitely very supportive of DIY! Save the Dates are not required like they said but they are helpful if you have a lot of out of town guests or are doing a destination wedding. (We had a couple friends getting married around the same time too so it was good to have everyone's dates so we could plan around it.) Also, if you're doing engagement photos, they're a great way to incoroporate them! Our was a destination wedding (coming from the US to Canada) so we sent out Save the Dates a year before to give people time to save up for a flight and get a passport.

The great thing about weddings is that it really is whatever you and your FH want! Weddings have become much more personalized and representative of the couple. We decided to go with a theme of "Our Story" because I love reading and my husband has a background in screen writing. We wanted it to be very "us" so we tried to make things personal. Our centerpieces were vintage books, like Val said and we had an aisle runner made out of book pages. Our invitations looked like books and we had paper flowers throughout. Our escort cards were old pictures of us and our guests and then on the back it had their table number which they all really liked. So it's really whatever you both want and what works for you!

A great place to start is to sit down with your fiance and you both write down what your top 3 priorities are for the wedding (food, music, photography, videography, dress, decor, etc) and use that to help build your budget. Also, making a general guest list so you have an idea of how many people will help you decide what size venue you'll need and whatnot.

What are you looking to do differently for this wedding? How does your FH envision the wedding? Can't wait to hear more!

You don't need save the dates really. I have out of town guests that are across the world so for me I have them but like Valerie said you don't really need them unless you have a destination wedding. For decor I got lucky and picked a venue that is a banquet hall so they have a whole storage room plus some closets filled with decorations to choose from and we get to use it all for free! If you don't have that luxury DIY projects are super popular and if you like being creative then it works out perfectly and you can save a lot of money! I have a couple small DIY projects since I am not super crafty like Valerie is but it is saving a lot of money!

You're most welcome!

I think most of us are DIYing centerpieces. Mine are outside the norm and I'm making customized board games. But it is so easy to make vases with flowers or Samtam had books tied with ribbon (it was so pretty!). Anything goes. If you want some sort of glass container with flowers or whatever, check out local wedding buy and sell groups on Facebook You can get some great deals (no one wants 20 glass bowls after their wedding HAHA)!!

Both served dinner and buffet are very popular. Honestly the best thing I did was watch a bunch of episodes of Four Weddings (mostly airs on TLC and Slice), and you get a feel for how people are judging things from a guest perspective. I wanted a seated dinner because I noticed the number one thing people complained about was that buffet lines were long and the food was cold by the time they got back to their table. But that is absolutely not always the case! So either is completely acceptable. Open bar is the best!!! FH and I barely drink, but I love an open bar! So it was important for me to give that to my guests.

Have you picked out a venue yet? Do you know what city you're getting married in?

Thank you! Not sure what I am thinking about for my tables. Want to DIY most of my stuff just not sure if that was in. What is the norm a served dinner or buffet? We are having a open bar as a lot of our guest are traveling and staying in hotels.

Hey Tina, welcome to the community!

Save the dates are really only needed if you have a destination wedding, otherwise your VIPs will likely already know your date and can make travel arrangements if need be.

We all love DIY in here. Almost all of my decor is DIY (excluding the arch I rented for the ceremony).

It all comes down to your budget and what is important to you and your FH (future husband). As long as you keep your guests experience in mind (ie feeding them at meal times, providing drinks, not inconveniencing them for your sake) then anything else is more or less your choice.

Is there any specific area you were looking for help with? We'd love to help!