So you’re engaged to be wed and your heart still flutters with the remembrance of that romantic proposal, you get lost in hindsight with daydreaming about planning the coming months, and you can’t stop staring at that new item on your hand that states your love from every angle. New words like “fiancé” are a new addition to your vocabulary and you’ll find pretty much any excuse to inform others and address each other at any given moment. Dialogue opens up with streams of “Congratulations” and “Best Wishes”, pouring in from every direction and everyone you bump into wants to treat you to a glass of wine or a celebratory bottle of champagne. It goes without saying that you couldn’t be more excited to move into a new stage of your life with the one you love, so here are a few ways you can plan that perfect and special day.

The average couple is engaged for a total of 13 months. This is considered a great timeframe that works for most couples to achieve their dream wedding. After the initial engagement, it is advised to wait about three weeks before jumping into planning the wedding. Not only does this give the bride and groom to be plenty of time to revel in the engagement, but it’s not too long so that the start of planning doesn’t lose its momentum. Once you’re ready to start the planning, start by coming up with a realistic budget and an estimated guest count, then begin researching your favourite venues. Do this at your own pace, this could take a fair few months, to get it right. A lot of factors in choosing the perfect venue may depend on where you’re marrying, it’s unlikely that all venues will be booked up at the same time as your proposed wedding date but checking way in advance is the best way to minimise problems with booking at the best prices.

The only big responsibility for the Bride and Groom is to get married, of course, but there is a multitude of planning decisions to make first. Ideally, both the bride and groom should work together on these decisions to share the workload and to make sure both parties are happy with the ideas. Here are a few common things to consider:

• Set A Realistic, Safe Budget
• Choose The Date, Venue, Style and Any Other After Party Locations
• Meet With The Ceremony Officiant To Discuss Ceremonial or Registration Details
• Coordinate All Of The Invitations and Photographer, Flowers etc.
• Shop For Each Others Wedding Bands
• By Choice: Plan The Wedding Vows
• Thank-You Notes For Any Wedding Gifts.

In most cases, the bride and groom each handle certain details on their own, including each parties making sure that their side of the family are included within the guest list.

Again from a traditional sense, the bride chooses the bridesmaids and maid of honour. She would also make plans to host a meal and give her attendants thank-you gifts. Bridesmaid gifts are also another common item that is considered along with choosing a gift for the groom.

The groom would need to choose his groomsmen and the best man, including picking their ceremonial attire. He would, along with the bride, buy thank-you gifts for his groomsmen and for his bride. He would also have to arrange and pay for the registration of the marriage license and the practising officiant’s fee. Sometimes the responsibility will also fall to the groom if there are reservations needed at a local hotel for out-of-town guests, who are attending the wedding.

Picking The Maid Of Honour

So what is included with the status of a maid of honour? The maid of honour’s’ duties’ include helping plan the bachelorette party, making sure the bridesmaids dresses are ordered correctly and in a timely fashion, serving as the first point person on the wedding day, giving a speech at the reception, being a model wedding guest ensuring invitees are on time, including, reserving travel and hotel with the room block early and if needed, so much more.

Who Is Responsible For Putting Together The Bridal Shower?

For the majority of times, this duty will be split amongst a few people in the bridal party. I can be the mother of the bride and the groom, any sisters of the bride and the groom, or even extended family member such as the aunts of the bride and groom. All family members, if capable, should have the first opportunity to take the responsibility of planning this. If no one can take responsibility in the planning then the maid of honour will do it. When this happens It’s important that the maid-of-honour keeps in contact with the bride and the bride’s family members about this early on in the wedding planning process. This way, everyone knows who is doing what and when the shower is to reduce any confusion or double booking any other events.

Here are some final ideas on what other ‘Traditional’ Roles & Responsibilities might need thinking about when planning a dream wedding:

• Bride’s Parents
• Groom’s Parents
• Flower Girl
• Ring Bearer
• Photographer

There is plenty of information that you can obtain online which can elaborate on the number of responsibilities that is needed to successfully fill these roles. Depending on your religious views and other family factors, these roles may be limited or extended down to the wishes of the parties that are to be wed.

After months of planning, and the big day is finally here, Both you, your partner and the families have worked hard to help achieve all the steps to planning your perfect wedding. Staying calm and enjoying your special day, last but not least is the ceremony.

Here are standard steps that are taken in the ceremonial reception of a marriage:

• The Procession
• The Officiant’s Opening Remarks
• The Officiant Addresses the Couple
• The Exchange of Vows
• The Ring Exchange
• The Pronouncement of Marriage
• The Kiss
• The Closing Remarks
• The Recessional

Once the ceremony is over, many choose to host a celebration party for the families to further create lifelong memories from the joining of the two families, shortly followed by the honeymoon.

What ideas did you come up with that helped a smooth perfect day for you and your partner to wed? Give everyone a little inspiration and comment about your plans or experiences in the comments below!

A close-up magician might sound like a peculiar choice for entertainment at a party or event. Though it seems unorthodox, many people are now opting for innovative entertainment options, and a magician is an idea outside the box and always bound to produce an interesting and fun evening.

Many people initially think that hiring a magician for parties or events is something to be seen as hackneyed or gimmicky, or even childish. While a good magician can certainly create memorable parties for children there is nothing to prevent them from having a broader clientele. Magicians can perform mind-boggling illusions and keep people talking for hours after they’ve finished their tricks, so why not add that element of mystique and have everyone remembering your wedding party as something quite literally magical?

A magician can cover a variety of different functions, such as being wedding entertainment, to doing corporate gigs and cabaret halls, remember, the best magicians are always proficient and adaptable. Whether you want some simple card tricks to impress your crowd and give them a laugh, or you want to introduce some more intriguing mind-reading routines to really keep your guests guessing you’ll find it all. You can even incorporate your magician into your wedding photography for some really unique and exciting images of your special day.

When it comes to finding a magician you want to get the best results based on their reputation for creating an enjoyable and fascinating routine, along with the variety of performances and venues they can accommodate. Magic requires skill too and so book a high-quality magician to ensure an unforgettable night.

The Essential Sleight Of Hand They Use

Close up magicians have a lot of tricks and methods at their disposal for your wedding performance, and the most reliable and common of these is sleight of hand. This is a classification of manual dexterity that is seen as being incremental to magic entertainment and the art of conjuring and performing tricks.

Sleight of hand has many aspects to it and is often confused as being a form of magic itself due to its close connection with magic tricks. It is not in itself a form of magic but if you are looking for a high-quality magician then they will be certain to have a good mastery of sleight of hand.

This is a fundamental of the magician’s trade generally and due to the small intimate nature of close up, or ‘micro’, magic it is essential to pick someone who is adept at sleight of hand to impress groups. Close up magic does not just engage and amaze though, it is often used to dispel accusations of ‘planted’ audience members collaborating in tricks, or the use of gimmicks. Sleight of hand benefits from being performed in front of small groups of people as this allows them to suspend their belief for the magic performance happening just a few feet in front of them.

Sleight of hand uses physical dexterity and impeccable timing in order to capture a truly magical feel for performances and someone who can use all of these to their advantage is someone you want for your events.