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To hire one or not is an important question for every bride. A wedding planner typically will put together the whole show for you. They either take a percentage of the wedding cost for their fee or an hourly fee. Knowing how much you plan to spend on your wedding will help you decide which type of payment would most work for you. If you plan to pay a percentage of your costs beware the pressure to go over your budget!

The amazing wedding book, Bridal Bargains, by Denise and Alan Fields offers so many suggestions for cutting the costs of your wedding. If you are planning your special day and have never seen this book, you must go buy it, or better yet, save money and check it out at the library. The book gave me some ideas about lovely yet inexpensive flowers for bouquets and table arrangements.

1. Gerbera daisies. These daisies are stunning. They come in the most rich and saturated pinks, reds, oranges, and yellows.

As the initial excitement and delight over getting engaged turns into the somewhat dreary planning phase, the transition can be a bit overwhelming. Everyone loves getting engaged, not everyone loves planning the details. There is so much to do and just getting started can be an ordeal. Here is what I suggest.

1. Start announcing. After you and your fiancé have enjoyed sharing your moment together, start telling people the good news. I found that I really only needed to tell two people: my mom and my best friend, and they did the rest of the announcing.

When all the expenses of your wedding add up and you nearly have a heart attack, or your parents nearly have a stroke, you may end up cutting items. So, do you really need a video of your special day? Many people would consider this an extra and not really necessary. Well, there are, of course, many things to keep in mind.

1. You could have a friend or family member capture the event. If you are not too particular about quality, this could be the way to go. To thank your cousin or friend, give them a gift comparable to an attendant gift. This would be a much cheaper option than a professional, but be sure to check that this person has actually filmed things before so that it isn’t a total disaster.

Everyone knows how outrageously overpriced a wedding dress can be (and for that matter, anything that starts with wedding). But, until you start shopping, you may not realize how expensive the veil can also be. There are some alternatives to buying $300 - $500 veil in your bridal salon.

First of all, who really needs a veil. The concept is a bit antiquated, although many aspects of modern weddings are. The veil was meant to keep the groom from seeing the bride before the ceremony. At the end, when he lifts the veil, it symbolizes his dominance, and his taking of his bride. So, how about skipping the veil? It could be a huge cost saver.

Like anything else in a wedding, photography services can be grossly overdone and terribly expensive. I went to a wedding recently where the photographer was awfully intrusive. After the ceremony, the guests went to the reception and started the party. We didn’t see the happy couple for two hours! They were busy getting a million pictures taken and were hungry and crabby by the time they made it to dinner. Then, during the reception, the photographer set up multiple flashes on tall poles throughout the room. He took pictures throughout the evening and with each one, the flashes went off, momentarily blinding me. And, I happen to know, that my friends paid almost $8,000 for this service!

If you are trying to think of something to make your wedding ceremony special and different, try a tradition from another culture. Asian wedding traditions can be beautiful and meaningful. You could borrow from the following.

In Japan, purple is a traditional wedding color. Use this color in flowers. Purple Irises are gorgeous in the spring.

In China, it is traditional for the bride to wear red, the color of good fortune. If you really want to try something different, wear a bright red wedding dress. They also use loud fireworks to scare off evil spirits. This could be a fun ending to an evening, outdoor ceremony.

I have always dreaded certain parts of weddings.  Certain traditions exist at wedding receptions especially, and nobody really knows why they exist at all.  Here are my most dreaded wedding traditions that we could stand to lose.

1.  The chicken dance.  Who thought up this one?  The music that goes with it is terrible, everyonen looks and feels stupid doing it.  The one plus may be that kids love it.

2.  The hokey pokey.  See number one.

Flowers at a wedding can be crucial. They can help to set the tone or carry out the theme for the event. But, it’s easy to go overboard. You can quickly spend too much money on flowers. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Make sure you know what the color scheme for the wedding will be and how you want the atmosphere to feel. Flowers can look formal or laid-back. They can dominate the reception, or just be an accent. You need to know what you want before you start looking.