I'm Getting Married: Now What Do I Do?

By David Pringle

Thank you for purchasing, I'm Getting Married. Planning a wedding is a huge, exciting, delightful, and sometimes overwhelming task. Are you wondering where to start? Great news! You have chosen an excellent resource.

 

This book is filled with practical, step-by-step information and creative ideas to help you design not only your wedding day but also your wedding ceremony. This information is organized in over 20 chapters. 

 

I'm Getting Married is more than a guide. As well as specific how-to information to help you plan your complete wedding, there are also creative wedding ceremony ideas along with examples of wording that might be used in every element of your wedding ceremony. You will also find unique wedding gift ideas for your wedding party, romantic suggestions that add memorable special touches to enhance your relationship, and suggestions about how to include your wedding guests in the celebration. There is also a bit of information about key participants such as your wedding officiant, master of ceremonies, and those making wedding toasts.

 

My goal is to provide you with practical information, creative ideas, and a bit of practical advice about what to do once you decide to get married. I'm Getting Married, is designed to stimulate a dream, a vision, and a plan to make your ideal wedding a stunning reality.

 

Enjoy!

David

 

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Pringle
• Release date: Nov 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223118688

David Pringle

About me is About Her! The delight of my life is my wife, Shannon. Shannon and I have had an amazing journey of 49 years of married life. If marriage can be such a tremendous experience for me, I want the same for you. It is because of this life experience that I share with you, resources and tips about relationship, self-awareness, and the joy of a real partnership. I was a Wedding Ceremony Officiant In the long ago past, I had the privilege of officiating at a number of weddings. It was a great opportunity to celebrate the joy of relationship, and the beginning of a new chapter in the lives of beautiful people. I always tried to capture the hearts, personalities, and desires of the couple; and to find resources to construct a wedding ceremony that would be a reflection of their individual and shared lives. This was sometimes challenging. There were only pre-packaged, prescribed, routine resources. I wanted to give the couple choices; choices in the selection of every element that comprises a wedding ceremony. In doing so, I developed several options for each element of the ceremony. It is my delight to share these options with you. Weddings bring out Creativity I am a creative person, or at least I like to think I am. I'm Getting Married gives me an opportunity to express my ideas and thoughts, with the hopes that they will generate creativity and imagination in you. Let's see if it works as you explore the content of these pages. A bit more about Shannon and me  We have three extraordinary adult kids, each with an amazing partner. They have created families of their own, and we have the luxury of enjoying eight wonderful grandchildren. I call them the grands. They each bring their own joy, story and remarkable potential. This is the true wealth of a shared lifetime. Thanks again for purchasing, I'm Getting Married or visiting my website for further iinformation: https://www.ourweddingguide.com/ Heartfelt congratulations on your upcoming wedding. Enjoy, David

Book preview

Chapter 1 - I’m Getting Married

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I’m Getting Married

I’m Getting Married will be helpful if you are getting married, planning a wedding, or officiating at a wedding. If you are wondering where to start, please explore each of the following chapters. This book contains what you need to know.

Planning a wedding is a delightful, challenging, and sometimes overwhelming task. Are you wondering where to start? Great news! You have chosen an excellent resource filled with creative ideas and step-by-step information.

I’m Getting Married is your path to creating the perfect wedding experience for you and your guests. This resource will help you dream and provide you with solid action steps to make your fantasy a beautiful reality.

Planning your wedding will be a fun experience

This book will help you dream about the possibilities for your perfect day, and at the same time, guide you through everything from practical necessities to the details that put the finishing touches on the event. Make enjoying yourself your mindset in planning your wedding. There are lots of ways to do this.

Take pictures of anything and everything that goes into planning your wedding. Believe me, it will be fun to look back, and these photographs make great storyboards to display on your wedding day. More about photographs and storyboards later but keep your mobile phone handy.

Celebrate often, with just a simple cupcake to share, a dinner out, or create a milestone calendar that identifies one reason each month to recognize your accomplishments. The point is to embrace the journey. If you focus on the tasks at hand, rather than on the experience, you will miss opportunities to weave your life pattern together. These patterns are the templates on which your life can be built.

Certainly, there will be frustrations, disappointments, and the unexpected. Keep in mind that every crisis, big or small, is an opportunity for change, growth, improvement, creativity, and a better outcome. It is your chance to reshape what was to be, into something even greater. Again, this is part of having a fun mindset.  One way of dealing with frustration and disappointment is through humor. Find a way to poke fun at life’s discouraging moments.

For some the idea of the perfect wedding is all about the location, the attire, or the flowers. For others, it may be the music, the décor, the cake, or the guest list. Inside these pages, you will find ideas about how to create a more complete experience that marks the whole event as yours and sets the tone for a lifetime of love, romance, memories, and dreams to come true.

Throughout this book, you will find very practical information, suggestions, and options from which to choose. You will also find a good bit of relational advice. Your wedding is more than a destination. It is a point on a continuum that marks only one day in your life journey.

Scattered throughout are invitations to look at things from a perspective that may be outside of tradition. To see things differently may at times take you out of your comfort zone. You are encouraged to stay with a point of view that may challenge your thinking. Sometimes, better ideas are born out of what, at first, appears to be unusual or oddly different. Keep an open mind. Sometimes if you put your personal twist on an idea, it becomes a pivotal gem.  

Traditions and Expectations

Many weddings today have become elaborate and expensive. Don’t fall into the trap believing that you must have something, whatever the something is. Must haves can cost a lot of money. They are often based on tradition and in some cases expectations.

Traditions are fine, and often beautiful if you want to use some of your resources to that end. As for expectations? Whose expectations are we talking about? The decisions are yours. Some traditions will impact your finances. Some may impact those of your guests. Marriages involving two different cultures create opportunities to blend and celebrate diversity, different perspectives, and new experiences. 

I once attended, as a guest, a wedding reception that had a few different traditions. One was something called a money dance. Money was tossed toward the newlywed couple as they danced. Sometimes it was single bills, and a couple of times during the evening a basket filled with money was tossed in the air like confetti. The idea was to help the couple get off to a good start financially and to provide a little extra spending money. 

I don’t carry cash. None! I was not prepared for this tradition. There were no expectations for me to participate, but had I known about this tradition, I would have come prepared.

Those unfamiliar with the tradition might find it to be an intrusive ask for money. In reality, it is an opportunity for generosity and an expression of love.

Another tradition or expectation might be an open bar at the reception. This can be expensive for whoever is hosting the celebration.

I have been at weddings where each guest received two tickets for wine or beer. Wine was served at the tables and included with dinner preserving the use of the tickets.

I have also been at wedding receptions where the bar was open, and at receptions where there was no alcohol at all, not even wine with dinner. Again, this is up to you. More on this a bit later.

An alternative might be a specialty coffee bar or a chocolate display. Neither is inexpensive. Even though I love chocolate, I do not favor chocolate fountains. I have yet to see one that is attractive. They are just messy! Is your wedding reception the time when you want to risk both adults and kids, dressed in finery, being inches away from liquid chocolate? If your heart is set on a chocolate fountain, have plenty of wipes nearby as fingers will get sticky. Have a container handy as those wipes will need to be discarded.

There are no must-haves when it comes to planning your wedding except LOVE. You need that.

Well, maybe there are a few more things that are in the must-have category. You must have an agreement with another person to get married. If you want to make it legal, you also must have a license and an officiant who is authorized to perform marriages. And a witness.

That’s it. The rest is optional.

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Who is the focus of the wedding?

Another assumption is that the wedding is all about the bride. In many ways, the wedding IS all about the bride, but there are ways of being more inclusive of your partner. Inclusivity formally begins when two people decide to get married. It takes two! A wedding certainly can be and should be all about the bride, but your wedding, as well as the planning process, can be a lot more inclusive if you want it to be.

Typically, guys do not spend years dreaming about their wedding day. Some girls do, and some just don’t. Therefore, interest in the planning process will vary depending on the person.

Even so, if you want your partner to be excited about your ideas and the wedding day you need to include him or her. Some aspects of the wedding may not be all that exciting. Your partner may say, Whatever you want. That is fine, but at least you asked, and the opportunity to participate was, and should remain, open.

Try to find something about the wedding that your partner is excited about and focus on making that a topic of conversation and consideration.

Your wedding is about the coming together of two lives. The wedding planning process is a good place to ensure that the event is about two people, not just one.

An event or an experience? A destination or a journey?

If we could only look back and see forward. Life is a motion picture, not a snapshot.

Often brides, grooms, and couples focus on the clothes, and that is good because what is worn expresses the personality of the couple and sets the tone for the event. But there is more, a lot more. It is about a journey more than a destination.

A well-thought-through wedding plan will reflect the couple in every aspect of the wedding from the wedding invitations, decorations, music, toasts, and tributes, right through to the threshold of the honeymoon. 

Create your wedding day as an experience to be remembered by all, and one that you will cherish well into the future. In years to come may you look back and say to each other, What a trip.

Of course, there is much more that we leave for you to discover.

We wish you the very best in using I’m Getting Married to create your wedding.

Enjoy!

Chapter 2 - Steps in Planning Your Wedding

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Planning your wedding is about telling the story of your love and life together. If you are wondering about how to go about telling this amazing story, you have come to the right place. I’m Getting Married will help!

This section will help you know what to do first, and then what to do. Each step will suggest when you should begin work on that particular aspect of your wedding. In general, start your entire planning process soon after your engagement.

5 things that early planning helps to ensure:

A less stressful planning process

Time for more creativity

The ability to make intentional changes in the plan that you create as well as address unexpected eventualities over which you have no control

Opportunity to gather the needed