Wedding Etiquette and Wedding Timeline Expertise
Observing wedding etiquette in an era of free-form wedding events isn't easy. And adhering to your wedding timeline when guests fail to RSVP can be a challenge, especially when you’re planning an expensive destination wedding, or using a personal wedding website for planning a wedding checklist you can count on without losing sleep. But despite technology, planning a wedding is still a personal affair with people-management problems. In addition to guests’ ignorance of wedding etiquette, these include opinionated family members, out-of-control wedding cost, and a church wedding officiant or a hotel’s wedding planner coordinator whose idea of proper wedding etiquette may differ from yours. When planning your own destination wedding, or even a wedding at home, having wedding planner training is a big advantage, and assigning wedding coordinator duties to voluneteers you can trust is essential. But executing a foolproof wedding timeline, dealing a difficult wedding officiant or a disappointing wedding vendor, and clearly communicating expected wedding etiquette to guests who don’t have a clue is more easily done by a professional with wedding planner certification. A wedding website is not substitute for the experience that professional wedding planners bring to the wedding timeline, wedding etiquette, and wedding diplomacy challenges that may arise in the process of planning your wedding. Whether you’re planning a destination wedding with 500 guests or getting married at home, wedding planning careers are built on solving your problems before they occur, and reducing your wedding stress.
Finding Your Way in Today's Post-Wedding Etiquette World
In a sense, every wedding is a destination wedding. The wedding timeline, wedding checklist, and wedding website are vehicles to a pre-determined end: the moment when the wedding officiant affirms the couple’s new relationship and the lifelong celebration begins. In most cultures, weddings are multi-generational affairs. Increasingly, they are multi-ethnic as well. Among recent wedding trends, one of the most promising is a product of multiculturalism: ‘hybrid’ weddings where the church wedding officiant may be Christian, the wedding ceremony may contain Jewish elements, and the wedding reception may feature Indian music and food. The rules of wedding etiquette, the roles of the wedding officiant and planner, and the languages used on today’s multicultural wedding website are changing. In a post-wedding etiquette world, so is the knowledge required to succeed in the profession of wedding consulting. Whether you’re considering a ‘hybrid’ or destination wedding for yourself, planning a multicultural wedding for your first multi-ethnic clients, or diversifying your wedding business, you need more than a wedding timeline. You need generous guidance from one of the most thoughtful certified wedding planners working in America today.
Course Video Tutorial: 'An Award-Winning Planner Teaches the Wedding Planning Process II' (31:42)
Wendy Harrop, CPWP, the founder of It's Your Day, is just the right person to give your wedding event planner career a boost. Since founding her Bay Area wedding planning business in 1991, she's demonstrated a unique ability to implement every wedding timeline with precision and solve every problem with diplomacy. Whether getting married at home, in a destination wedding at a large hotel, or in wine country, Wendy’s happy clients often become her friends for life. Reflecting her California roots, outdoor venues are her passion, ‘hybrid’ weddings are a specialty, and multiculturalism is her motto. In this course video tutorial, Wendy teaches wedding planners, wedding vendors, and couples getting married how to execute a wedding timeline, manage your guests’ wedding etiquette and your wedding website, and understand the changing roles of the wedding planner and wedding officiant. The tutorial is the second in a two-part series and includes a detailed engagement-to-honeymoon wedding timeline, adaptable to any situation, along with highlights of a destination wedding produced by Wendy at San Francisco's historic Palace Hotel.
Learn 12 essential elements of the wedding planning process:
- How to execute a 12-month wedding timeline for any wedding weekend
- Who should attend the rehearsal dinner and why
- When the day-after brunch makes perfect wedding etiquette sense
- How to plan recreational events that grooms may want for their guests
- When to make the strategic decision to have a destination wedding
- Destination wedding planning considerations to cover every contingency
- What to consider when choosing a church or temple for the ceremony
- Qualifications and expectations of a non-religious wedding officiant
- How to analyze and master the wedding website universe
- Wedding planner service packages, pricing, and payment terms
- The answer to the wedding etiquette question about tipping on the wedding day
- A month-by-month and minute-by-minute checklist for every situation
