How to Have a Holly Jolly Christmas Wedding

So you're getting married and you want to have a Christmas wedding. It sounds like a wonderful, happy time! And it can be, with a little thought, and a lot of preparation. So make your list, and check it twice.

A wedding at any time of the year entails a lot of planning and preparation. To have a wedding during the busiest holiday of the year will require a lot of planning and nerves of steel. But it can be done. Just hope that Old Man Winter doesn't decide to crash the wedding. Oh, and you'd better put Mother Nature at the top of the guest list. You really don't want to make her mad.

Always keep in mind that because holidays are such a busy time, you may not get a favorable response from some of your family and friends. But if a Christmas Day or Christmas Eve wedding is what you've always dreamed of, then go for it. The most important people will get there, one way or another. If you want Christmas Eve to be your wedding day, then schedule the wedding for early in the day or afternoon. That way they can attend your wedding and still be home for Christmas Eve. The opposite is true if Christmas Day is the Big Day. Then it would be better to have the wedding in the afternoon or early evening. Presents will have been exchanged and meals eaten.

Start your list and keep it handy. Write the most important details down and start working on them as early as possible. Say six months or more ahead, maybe. I'm not kidding. It takes a lot of time to organize a wedding. So do the where, when, and who thing first. That's the location, the day and time, and who will be in the wedding party. Then you can start adding the other details such as flowers, cake, dress, etc. Not necessarily in that order.

The location of the wedding is always a major decision. If you choose a church, make sure their services won't interfer with your time schedule. And remember many places book up during the holidays, so reserve the location for the wedding and the reception well ahead.

Send out invitations as early as you can. Ask for a response. That way you can get an idea of how many people will be attending. I say an idea because there will always be a few unexpected guests or cancellations.

While you are waiting to get some responses back, tackle the job of finding the perfect dress, picking out a cake, and deciding on what types of flowers you want. You will also need to make sure you have a reliable photographer. Make as many of these decisions as early as you possibly can. This will help ease the worries and keep things running smoothly. Schedule them and check back several times to be sure there have been no changes.

Once you get responses back from the majority of your invitations, start planning the menu. If you possibly can afford it, I highly recommend hiring someone to cater the reception. Not having to worry about preparing so much food will be like having Santa's helpers around.

Decorating the location of the wedding and the reception can be done the day before if it won't interfer with any other activities. If you have to wait until the last minute, ask family and friends to join in. Just pick someone to be the head elf and let him dictate orders to all the other elves.

Even if you plan every detail, something usually goes wrong. Someone's tux gets lost, or something gets broken. Just remember, when you start down that aisle, every eye in the room will be on you, the bride. No one will even notice if one of the best men's tux doesn't exactly match the others or a flower is missing. All they will see is the beautiful vision drifting down the aisle as softly as the snowflakes falling outside.