What is the best advice you'd give someone who is wedding planning?

Remember that you can't please everyone all the time - including yourself. Keep your own expectations realistic. Your wedding is going to be beautiful, but it's never going to be perfect.

And start practicing the phrase "That's a lovely suggestion, I'll have to give it some thought." Because everyone you talk to is going to have harebrained suggestions and bossy opinions about your wedding.

As far as practical advice, think about what organization techniques work best for you. Do you need to write everything on a calendar? Make a huge to-do list? Put stuff in a binder? Use the techniques that have proven most helpful to you at school/work and apply them to wedding planning.

1. Hire a wedding planner. I'm pretty cheap but that was the best thing I could've done. We did it for only the ceremony, but I wish I'd had her the whole day (whole process, even).

2. The book Bridal Bargains helped me tremendously! It made the process much simpler.

3. Hire out as many of the parts of the wedding as possible. If it's purchased by a vendor, then there's less flakiness (as opposed to friends).

4. Make a top five list for what you want for your wedding. Have your betrothed do the same. Then you will be able to see some places where you can compromise. My list was something like: to get married in a church, to wear a wedding dress and veil, to have a wedding cake, to have a friend marry us, to have my family there.

5. Don't make your own invitations. Or at least don't hand write them. I did. Wow. That was a lot of work.

6. Include friends in making favors and decorating and as much other wedding-type stuff you can. It is a nice memory for you and for the people involved (something I didn't do and wish I had).

7. Pick a theme. This simplifies things a bit. The theme can be a color, or have a color connected with it. The colors you choose can vary in shade through the whole wedding.

8. Know up front that something will go horribly wrong. This is where a great wedding coordinator can really come in handy.

9. Know that 75 percent of the "yeses" will actually show. Emergencies happen. Life happens.

10. There are two parts to the wedding: ceremony and reception. Then there are pieces of each of these. There is the invitation choice. The program choice (or none?). There is the type of wedding (formal, casual). There is the location. There is the officiant, the bridal party, what everyone is going to wear, your dress, the seating arrangements. Then there is the music before the wedding, the music for the entrances, the music during (if any) and the music leaving. There is what is said during the ceremony and the vows. Do you want any special ceremony touches? Is there anything that you would like to do that's unusual?

There is the reception: location, time of day, type of food served (if any), drinks served (if any), dessert (or cake), type of meal served (or none). Then there is if any of the bouquet toss things are happening if you would like them.

Then there is the photography and the flowers, if any.

There are pieces for all of these things.

There are lots of people on Yahoo answers who are happy to help you make your choices for each detail, if you need it. :)

Best of luck!

Be ORGANIZED. Get a binder, have a divider for each individual aspect of planning, and use that as the place to hold all ideas, all vendor meetings, all receipts and contracts, a guest list, a seating chart, a record of who gave you what gift (and whether you've sent the thank you yet or not!), copies of the registries, etc. etc. It might seem crazy, but the more organized and ahead-of-the-game you are, the happier your vendors are going to be.

Use this time as a chance to unite your families: include your future-mom-in-law in some aspects (Especially if she doesn't have any daughters of her own!): because you both love the same person, there's no reason why you cannot try to forge a friendship with her.

Also, make sure to pepper in dates with your fiance throughout: when wedding planning stops being fun, you guys are doing something incorrectly: so take a break, remember how much you are in love, and then start again!

Do not live, breath and talk about your wedding as nobody really wants to hear it for the next year or so. Most brides set themselves up for a let down the day after their wedding because they have obsessed over every detail for over a year prior.

Just because the wedding industry states that you "need" this and you "need that" does not mean that you do. Weddings are big business and you are pushed to spend, spend and spend some more. Do not fall into that trap as young brides who do not know any better are a great target and are often brainwashed into needing all of the extras by the bridal industry. No offense to young brides, really.

Chose your bridal party carefully. Keep it small and the drama will be small.

Be reasonable with your requests of your family and bridal attendants. The economy is having a hardship and people are feeling the financial crunch at every angle, so be kind to their wallets.

Please, please do not ask the question if it is tacky to ask for money as wedding gifts. Know this now: yes, it is very tacky. Now you know.

When selecting a dress, bring only one or two people so you are not confused with everyone opinion because it will just frustrate you. Go pre-shopping alone (at a store or on-line) to determine what YOU like in advance of trying on any dresses.

Decide, on your own, with your fiance, what you want and expect from your wedding day and then stick to your original plan and do not discuss every detail with everyone who will want to sway your choices to their taste and opinions. This is one day you can have whatever you want and can afford, do not allow other people to interject what they want for you.

I am listing some sites for wedding checklists. I always suggest that you read all, mark off what you know you definetly don't want and make a master checklist and an extra copy in case you misplace the original. I suggest getting a regular three ring binder (cute color or design) mine has pastel polka dots, and use regular notebook paper in it to take to florists, etc. Buy a three hole punch for papers that do not have holes and keep everything in this book. A three ring pen/pencil holder for plenty of pens and some of those pocket folders for small receipts, etc. Keep notebook paper and pens by every phone, so you can write down any phone messages.

http://www.wedding-planning-guide.net/wedding_plan...

http://www.weddingwire.com/wedding/UserMyChecklist

http://www.frugalbride.com/weddingplanningchecklis...

http://www.weddingmapper.com/plan on this one you put in where you live and date of wedding and it will list vendors in your area

http://www.theknot.com/

The one for the knot has lots of good stuff a wedding palette organizer for colors, and a floral fabricator

Also, I invested in the book "Wedding Etiquette" by Emily Post's great, great grand daughter in law. It is a big help on the do's and don't of wedding ettiquette.

Hope these help and keep posting, this is a good site, lots of good answerers and lots of brides.

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!

relax. dont make a huge deal. the best part of getting married , is getting married! to the one you love. The wedding day is great, but its just a celebration. So just relax, and enjoy.

Practical tip: write down a checklist of all the things you need to do for the day, and tick them off once they're done. Have fun!

Just had my wedding last saturday and let me tell u wedding planning is a lot of fun and a lot of stress... start early and check out prices! dont wait for the last minute to do things. Include your fiance... remember this is his day too! have fun!

Don't forget that this is about starting the rest of your life with the person you are marrying, not the color of the napkins. Enjoy the details and make it a special day, but don't let a drive for perfection (or a slight flaw in your day) spoil it.

I've been married for 9 years.

1: Don't sweat the small stuff

2: Stick with your budget

3: Don't be a bridezilla.

4: Have as much fun as possible.

Keep it fun and easy. There is no reason for it to be stressful AT ALL. Planning should be fun.