Wedding Planning Podcast

Dealing with challenging family situations is more or less inevitable at some point throughout the course of planning your wedding.  Today we’re going to power through a candid conversation on dealing with your most challenging family issues & relationship dynamics surrounding the wedding, as submitted this week on Instagram.

A quick warning that NONE of the topics or situations we’re reviewing today are easy, HOWEVER they are manageable when we tackle them head-on with confidence, tact, and compassion.

Throughout the course of today's all-new episode, we'll explore common wedding planning issues surrounding ...

• Celebrating the holidays with both families,
• COVID & politics,
• Money,
• Blended families,
• Alcohol,
• Estranged family & broken relationships,
• Walking down the aisle,
• And of course, good old RELIGION.

I’m hard at work putting together all new shows for 2021, and I would love to learn a bit more about YOU!  To complete a short 30-second listener survey, simply visit www.weddingplanningpodcast.co/survey.  I am so grateful for your time & support of the podcast!

Today's show is brought to you by our valued partners:

• Have you heard of Calm, the app designed to help you ease stress and get the best sleep of your life?  Listeners enjoy 40% off a Calm premium subscription when you visit www.calm.com/wedding
• Check these guys out at Generation Tux and use promo code "WEDPOD" for 10% off the entire groom’s party AND a free groom's tux w/ 5 paid party members.
• Would you LOVE to take advantage of FREE honeymoon planning services for your all-inclusive, cruise, or exotic honeymoon AND get $50 off when you book?  Simply email [email protected] to get started!

Today we have a collection of your top wedding planning questions & concerns from past months that I’ll be sharing in a straight-to-the point Wedding Q&A Show.

Today's featured questions include:

• What's your suggested wedding planning timeline?
• Including family members in the wedding planning process
• What’s more cost effective - cupcakes or sheet cake?
• Decor ideas for reception tables
• Do we have to include vendors in the meal head count to our caterer?
• Tips for choosing a color scheme and wedding theme?
• Could choosing a “non-wedding” dress backfire in a bunch of hidden expenses?
• Do we have to invite ALL the kids to the wedding?
• Do babies and toddlers count for our total guest count?
• Managing upsetting situations with family members
• Should we assign seats for the ceremony?
• Tips for choosing our photographer?
• When should the “first dance” take place?
• Is it bad to have a bridal shower & gift registry if we’re having a destination wedding?
• Ideas for a creative unity ceremony? 

Links mentioned in today's show:

Are you ready to ditch the crushing wedding overwhelm & expense felt by so many engaged couples?  To sign up for a FREE 3-day trial of my revolutionary digital wedding planning package, simply click here.

Would you LOVE to take advantage of FREE honeymoon planning services for your all-inclusive, cruise, or exotic honeymoon AND get $50 off when you book?  Simply email [email protected] to get started!

Do you ever feel like your happiness suffering in these insanely stressful times?  Connect with your Better Help professional counselor today and save 10% off your first month.

Train your loved one to deliver your ceremony like a pro with the Unboring Officiant training package!  Listeners enjoy 50% off when you visit: www.unboringofficiant.com/weddingplanningpodcast

Wedding Planning Timelines >>> www.weddingplanningpodcast.co/timeline

Grab a copy of my book! >>> Wedding Planning Essentials by Kara Lamerato

Self-care in the months before your wedding is a top priority!  Today we're going to review a 12-month beauty & health timeline for you to follow so that you look & feel your absolute BEST on your wedding day.

To be clear, this is NOT a show about fad diets, or "losing weight" for the wedding. 

Tune in for a detailed guide to:

• Various beauty treatments to consider in the year before your wedding,
• EASY and FREE ways to establish healthy habits,
• Everything you need to know about hair & makeup trials,
• Things to consider if doing your own hair & makeup,
• A detailed 12-month timeline for exactly what should happen when, leading all the way up to your wedding day.

Please enjoy these special gifts from today's show sponsors!

Ready to ditch the crushing wedding overwhelm & expense felt by so many engaged couples?  To sign up for a FREE 3-day trial of my revolutionary digital wedding planning package, come visit me inside The VAULT.  There’s no promo code required, and I can’t wait to see you there! 

Enjoy FREE honeymoon planning services AND $50 off when you book with Susan's Travel Services!  Simply email [email protected] to get started.

Check these guys out at Generation Tux and use promo code "WEDPOD" for 10% off the entire groom’s party AND a free groom's tux w/ 5 paid party members.

Couples are RAVING about the Unboring Officiant training package!  Guide your loved one to deliver your ceremony like a pro AND save 50% when you use this link.

Small, intimate weddings have been on the Wedding Planning Podcast trend report for 3 years in a row, and for good reason!  I’ve always been a huge fan of a simple, scaled back celebration ... and in today’s climate, that’s never been more appropriate.

Tune in to today's brand new episode for a complete "micro wedding" blueprint, designed to make planning a breeze.  We'll cover everything you need to know to make your small celebration extra special. 

From your tiny guest list, to invitations, splurge vs. save items, planning a larger reception to follow, and your TOP micro wedding questions - we'll cover it all in this encouraging & lighthearted overview. 

To submit your wedding questions & concerns for future episodes, send me a DM on Instagram @weddingplanningpodcast or visit our website.

Check these guys out at Generation Tux and use promo code "WEDPOD" for 10% off the entire groom’s party AND a free groom's tux w/ 5 paid party members.

Get professional help planning your dream honeymoon for FREE when you email [email protected] . Don't forget to mention the Wedding Planning Podcast for $50 off your booking!

Enjoy all the fun & memories of a photo booth for a fraction of the price!  Details at Booth by Mail, & save 10% with promo code “WPP".

Ready to ditch the crushing wedding overwhelm & expense felt by so many engaged couples?  To sign up for a FREE 3-day trial of my revolutionary digital wedding planning package, visit www.weddingplanningpodcast.co/vault.  There’s no promo code required, and I can’t wait to see you there! 

This week on the Wedding Planning Podcast, we’re reviewing an ultimate guide to everything you need to know about shopping for & booking the perfect wedding venue!

You’ll enjoy a thorough wedding venue Q&A, followed by a step-by-step, guided checklist that takes you from:

• The very beginning of your engagement,
• Through various tips for researching potential venues,
• Critical questions to ask and things to consider,
• All the way through signing a contract with the venue you select.

Resources from today's show:

A helpful Pinterest board can be found here

$5 pashminas to keep your guests cozy (affiliate link)

If you’re newly engaged & early in the venue shopping phase, be sure to check out the complete blog post at www.weddingplanningpodcast.co/wv

Already found & booked the perfect spot? Please share today’s show with a friend who’s newly engaged & looking for some sound advice ;)

PS - Please enjoy these special offers from today's show sponsors!

• Ready to ditch the crushing wedding overwhelm & expense felt by so many engaged couples?  To sign up for a FREE 3-day trial of my revolutionary digital wedding planning package, meet me inside The VAULT!
• Email susan@susanstravelservices for FREE help planning the exotic honeymoon of your dreams, AND get $50 off your booking when you mention the WPP.​
• Enjoy all the fun & memories of a photo booth for a fraction of the price!  Details at Booth by Mail, & save 10% with promo code “WPP".
• Do you feel like your happiness suffering in these insanely stressful times?  Connect with your Better Help professional counselor today and save 10% off your first month.

Today we’re going to chat about when trying to save money on the wedding can totally BACKFIRE. Yikes ... right?

Aside of college educations, new homes and new cars, your wedding likely has one of the biggest price tags you’ve ever paid. You’re spending tens of thousands of dollars - of course you’re trying to save money!

You’re not out there researching the most expensive venue in your area, or ways to spend more money on your invitations. When a potential photographer or caterer gives you a quote for services, you probably don’t say “well that sounds OK, but do you have anything that costs more?”

If you've been listening for a while, I hope you know me well enough now to know that I’m NOT the wedding professional who’s going to tell you NEVER to try to cut this corner, or don’t DARE hire a friend to do x, y, z.

I see this type of messaging a lot. If you do your own wedding day hair and makeup it will totally fail, and you should hire a professional to do it for you. If you skimp on a photographer, you will regret it for the rest of your life.

If you have your cousin make your cake, it will probably be a complete disaster, you should really hire a professional for that. If you take your dress to a neighborhood tailor instead of the big box bridal store where you bought it, it’s going to end up in shreds and you’ll have no dress to wear.

The trouble is, professional service providers in pretty much any industry have an agenda - to sell their product or service.

And whether you hear from a wedding professional on a podcast, read their articles on a blog, or see their posts on Instagram, their position is probably that hiring a professional is THE BEST way to go. "After all", they say, "this is your wedding - you can’t afford to cut corners on the best day of your life."

Well, for lots of this, I call BS. Sure, if you have a wedding budget in the 6-figures, then “hire a professional” is a great option for everything I just listed.

But most of us DON’T have $100,000 to spend on our wedding, so making swaps and saves here and there is a necessary part of planning so that we don’t go thousands of dollars into debt - NEVER a good idea.

Here’s a doozy for you - we hired our wedding photographer off craigslist for $500. True story.

And I’m NOT here to tell you that it was a horrible idea that backfired and you should never trust any wedding photographer who hasn’t shot 500 weddings and costs less than $5000. That’s not me, not my style.

BUT, I’m also not here to tell you that YOU should definitely hire a photographer off craigslist, and it will work out perfectly and there’s no risk involved and you can live happy ever after and sleep soundly knowing that you saved a couple thousand dollars!

To be clear - there’s no right or wrong, one-size-fits all solution to the myriad of wedding decisions you have to make over the next few months.

I’ll always encourage you to use your intuition, and use our weekly time together to review all the options you have available, and select what feels best for you and your unique situation.

I feel so strongly about what we’re talking about today, and I really want to set things up right.

The truth is, sometimes no matter how much research you do, or how many great reviews someone has, or how confident you feel that you’re making the right decision, things can just go wrong. You’ll probably have a wedding backfire, or two, or three over the course of getting everything lined up.

This is part of life, and definitely a part of wedding planning. I wish I could wave a magical wand that would shield you against anything bad happening, but of course - that’s not realistic.

Sooooo, the next best thing to that …

In today's show, let’s explore some common areas of wedding planning where couples to try to cut a corner, save some money, leave something out, and then sadly have it backfire in terms of lost money, lost time, lost sanity - and sometimes all three.

If you find yourselves at a cost-saving opportunity crossroads and you don’t know which way to turn, I have some smart questions to ask yourselves, and potential vendors, that I hope will guide you towards making the best decisions for you and your wedding day.

So when you find yourself wondering, hmmmmm ... should we cut that corner? What are the potential outcomes or pitfalls that might come of it? Hopefully after today’s show, you’ll have some solid answers to some of the most common situations, so that you can make the best decision for you.

For one wedding, that might mean hiring a photographer off craigslist for $500. For another couple, that will NEVER be an option that’s on the table. And you know what? Both sides are totally fine ;)

Full blog post available at www.weddingplanningpodcast.co/wedding-pitfall

Please enjoy these special gifts from today's show sponsors!

• Claim your FREE 3-day trial of my revolutionary digital wedding planning package, The VAULT & ditch the expense and overwhelm felt by so many engaged couples. There’s no promo code required, and I can’t wait to see you there!
• Check these guys out at Generation Tux and use promo code "WEDPOD" for 10% off the entire groom’s party AND a free groom's tux w/ 5 paid party members.
• Enjoy all the fun & memories of a photo booth for a fraction of the price! Details at Booth by Mail, & save 10% with promo code “WPP".
• Would you LOVE to take advantage of FREE honeymoon planning services for your all-inclusive, cruise, or exotic honeymoon AND get $50 off when you book? Simply email [email protected] to get started!

Today let’s sort out some misconceptions and frequently asked questions about wedding planners and day of coordinators.

Our goal is to get really clear on the difference between a wedding planner and a day-of coordinator, and to determine whether or not you really need to hire a professional to help you with your wedding plans.

When I got married, I thought you had to have a wedding planner.  I laugh looking back, because in my mind it was wedding law that to plan anything, you HAD to have a wedding planner. 

Like, I couldn’t even pick up the phone and call caterers for information and quotes, because you had to have your wedding planner do that.  So silly.  Things have come a long way, LOL! 

And not only silly, but a professional planner was completely out of our budget, and, as it turns out, totally unnecessary. 

I wasted a lot of time researching and interviewing planners before I realized that A.) I didn’t HAVE to hire anyone, and B.) John and I had all the tools we needed to plan OUR perfect wedding day.

And side note, shocker - obviously, none of the wedding planners I interviewed ever mentioned to me, hey by the way, did you know that you could actually just do this on your own?  Thankfully I came around to that, but it took lots of wasted effort and stress to get there.

So I will tell you - hey by the way, did you know that you could actually just do this on your own?

Flash forward to today - I literally created the Wedding Planning Podcast so that any engaged couple could tune in and use the episodes and the tools we review in the weekly shows to plan their own wedding - no professional or pricey wedding planner required. 

So spoiler alert before we even dive in - I definitely DO NOT think you have to spend thousands of dollars to hire a professional wedding planner! 

Some alternatives?  Try checking out the sites we mentioned in today's show, including your local Craigslist postings, taskrabbit.com and fiverr.com

I also know that there are countless wonderful wedding planning professionals out there, and for some couples it’s a really smart investment … and we’ll get into all of that that much more in today’s show.

Blog post for today's show, and free "Day Of" Checklist here!

Please enjoy these special offers from today's show sponsors:

Enjoy all the fun & memories of a photo booth for a fraction of the price!  Details at Booth by Mail, & save 10% with promo code “WPP". 

Connect with your Better Help professional counselor and save 10% off your first month.

Enjoy FREE honeymoon planning services from Susan's Travel Services & get a $50 credit when you book with Susan & her team!  Email [email protected] to get started.

Today, please join me for a detailed review of some critical LAST MINUTE wedding details that you’ll want to stay on top of in the weeks & days leading up to your wedding day!

Even if your wedding is still months away, this show is perfect for you to proactively make notes about some of the things you can anticipate in those final weeks before the big day.

Thank you to everyone who sent in your questions on Instagram - I’m going to incorporate as many of those as possible into this first part of the show, and in the second half of today’s show, I’m going to share a personal story about the week before my own wedding.  It’s a cautionary tale for keeping your slate as blank as possible in those final days!

We’re also going to do a deep dive into creating your reception seating chart, which is a last minute task that can cause some huge headaches & stress.

If you have a wedding coming up this fall or winter, you’re starting to feel the heat on getting things wrapped up and organized, like your final RSVP’s, seating chart, final dress fitting, and a million other little details that snowball in those last few weeks.  

A detailed blog post / show recap of everything we reviewed can be found here.

Links to the Pinterest boards mentioned in today’s show:

• Wedding Place Card Table
• Wedding Planning Podcast Checklists

A huge thank you to today’s show sponsors!

• Save 10% on professional counseling services by visiting www.betterhelp.com/wedding with promo code “WEDDING”.

• Check these guys out at Generation Tux and use promo code "WEDPOD" for 10% off the entire groom’s party AND a free groom's tux w/ 5 paid party members.

• Enjoy all the fun & memories of a photo booth for a fraction of the price!  Details at Booth by Mail, & save 10% with promo code “WPP".  

• Would you LOVE to take advantage of FREE honeymoon planning services for your all-inclusive, cruise, or exotic honeymoon AND get $50 off when you book?  Simply email [email protected] to get started!

You’ve done months (maybe even YEARS) of wedding planning & preparation, and the big day is finally almost here!

Last stop?  Rehearsal dinner.

This week we’re reviewing everything you need to know for planning & hosting this extra special night with your family & friends.

We cover everything from the ceremony rehearsal itself to practical tips for hosting your loved ones afterwards.

DETAILED BLOG POST HERE --> www.weddingplanningpodcast.co/rehearsal

Naturally, I have a ton of creative alternatives to taking 50 of your closest friends & family out to eat at a nice restaurant ($$$).  Beyond just saving money, we’ll also cover:

• When to start planning (hint - it might be earlier than you think!)
• Personality-packed options for location and food selection
• Tips for keeping the night on pace and organized
• And meaningful touches that will be remembered beyond the wedding day.

This topic is so dear to me - I remember our rehearsal dinner as one of the most special nights of my life.  We grilled chicken, steak & veggies with our friends & family on the property where we got married, had all the fave drinks flowing, and a curated list of our favorite songs turned way up.  We laughed, talked & celebrated long past sunset, and it was a magical night. 

I wish all the same for you!

xo, Kara

I hope you'll enjoy these special offers from today's show sponsors:

• Enjoy all the fun & memories of a photo booth for a fraction of the price!  Details at Booth by Mail, & save 10% with promo code “WPP".
• Get professional help planning your dream honeymoon for FREE when you email [email protected] . Don't forget to mention the Wedding Planning Podcast for $50 off your booking!
• Connect with your Better Help professional counselor and save 10% off your first month with discount code “WEDDING".

Today’s show is FULL of your questions on wedding day decorations and do it yourself wedding projects that you’re working on.

I’m sharing your questions from Instagram, and if you’d like to get in on future Q&A’s, all you need to do is follow @weddingplanningpodast on IG and keep an eye on the “Stories” feature along the top line where I share question prompts each week. 

You’re also always welcome to contact me directly with a DM, or by visiting wpp.co/contact

We're going to start with your questions about the wedding projects you're working on, and then in the second half of the show we’ll shift into specific questions about wedding day decorations.

A special thank you to today's show sponsors:

• Email susan@susanstravelservices for FREE help planning the exotic honeymoon of your dreams, AND get $50 off your booking when you mention the WPP.
• Enjoy all the fun & memories of a photo booth for a fraction of the price!  Details at Booth by Mail, & save 10% with promo code “WPP".
• Connect with your Better Help professional counselor and save 10% off your first month with discount code “WEDDING".