How to Plan a Wedding in Two Weeks

So, you want to plan a wedding in two weeks. Are you starting to feel crazy yet? Your friends and family have probably told you that you are crazy. Well, I've done it and I did it without a handy "How To" article to guide me, so you are already a step up.

Alright, first of all, there are three essential things that you need to make this process go smoothly.

1. A Laid Back Attitude

Okay, the reality is, you are planning a wedding in two weeks. If you have this dream vision of a wedding in your mind, maybe you need to stop now and take the time to plan it out. I'm not saying that you can't have a beautiful wedding, but if you are going to flip out because the bridesmaid dresses aren't the proper shade of blue, then this isn't for you. You can't be picky.

2. Friends and Family

You don't need a lot of people; just two or three that are willing to help you out. They need to be supportive. They need to be willing to run errands and make decisions for you that you don't have time to make.

3. Trust

You have to put a little bit of trust in the people that are helping you. Let them make decisions. Remember essential item number one? This is really where it comes into play. You have friends and family who are lovingly giving their time up for you and running errands. You can't be everywhere to make the final decisions, so it may be one of them picking out the flowers or even your cake. Trust that these people know and love you and aren't going to ruin your special day. And honestly, unless someone picks a cactus plant for your flowers...chances are slim that they can really go wrong here. Most flowers are pretty. Remember, you can't be picky.

So, you're still here? I didn't scare you off yet? Excellent. The following are suggested steps. Some things can be rearranged to fit your schedule best; others are steps that really need to be done right away because you have a tight time frame here. The final choice is up to you. You know you best. You know what will work for you. My goal is to offer suggestions along the way that will help you keep the costs of your wedding down without sacrificing having a beautiful ceremony/reception. Steps or pieces of steps that you can easily have friends help you with will be starred, like this: **

Step 1-Legal Stuff

Get all your legal paperwork taken care of. You need a marriage license. Go get one. Now! Without this, you can't really get married, so planning everything else really won't do you any good. Call the Courthouse ahead of time if you need to and make sure that you have all the necessary paperwork to obtain your marriage license.

You'll probably need your birth certificates (yours and his), proof of residence(s), and drivers' licenses or some other photo ID(s). If this is anyone's second marriage, copies of divorce papers or death certificates will be needed as well. Some states still require blood tests. It costs a small fee and you will probably need to pay in cash, so have some cash with you.

Make it clear to them that you will need to pick the marriage license up (if they cannot give it to you immediately) and that you don't want them to mail it. Typically, if you ask to wait for it, they can give it to you that day. Ask nicely.

Step 2-Decide on Locations

Some people may feel that step 3 should come next, but I don't really see the point in inviting people when you don't know where to tell them the wedding or reception is going to be. If you do invite them first, you will just have to call them again to update them on information and that is a waste of you very valuable time.

Typically, people have a general idea of the possible locations that they may want to have their wedding/reception. If you have some idea of what you want, go ahead and call those places. Ask them about their availability and prices. You'd be surprised (depending on the time of year) how many venues have open slots of time. They are just going to charge you more for scheduling last minute. You can try to get the price down if you want.

If you really have no ideas for locations, hop online now and look up some places in your area. Ask friends and family if they have any ideas. Start making phones calls. **Assign friends to make phone calls to certain places. They can write down dates and times these locations are available.**

Sometimes, you can get lucky and find a place that is willing to do it for free. If you are a member of a church, you can probably have your wedding and sometimes even your reception there. Be aware though, that because you are only giving two weeks' notice, even they may not have the space available for you to use.

Another option is a friend or family member's house or backyard (if the weather is nice). This option also depends on the amount of people you are going to invite to your wedding.

Ask around, but decide quickly. As soon as you have narrowed it down, go check these places out. What suits your needs? Make a decision. Immediately! Book the location or locations.

Questions You Should Ask When Considering Locations: How much is it going to cost? How much time are you going to have there? Some locations will allot you two hours to come in, set up, have the ceremony, take photos, take everything down, and get out. Is that enough time for you if that is the case? Remember that most wedding ceremonies aren't particularly long, so this is really determined by how much setting up you have to do and how long the photography will take. How many people can be seated here? Can you have your reception here as well? In another room? Or the same room? Would you be able to convert the room you had the ceremony in into a room that could work for your reception? Is there a clean -up crew or are you required to clean it up yourself/hire someone to clean it for you? Are there chairs available there or are you going to have to rent some? What about decorations? (Some places will provide you with decorations).

Step 3-Invitations

Now that you know where your wedding and reception are going to be located, it is time to invite your guests. There are two real options for this.

1. Email

This can be a basic email or you can use an e-card if you don't want to miss out on doing something sweet for your wedding invitations. It you want, you can attach a picture of you and your hubby-to-be in the email. Give the time, location(s), directions (if needed), and make sure that you ask that they respond to you immediately telling you that they received your message and are either coming or not coming to your wedding. Remind them that you are on a short time frame and need to know as soon as possible.

2. Phone

Not everyone uses email and even some people that do, don't check it frequently. You should know your guests well enough to know who is going to get that invitation and who isn't. Anyone that you don't email, you should call or better yet **have your friends call. Make a list of names and phone numbers and divide the list among your friends that are so lovingly helping you out and have them call all of your potential guests.** Again, include time, location(s), directions, and ask that they get back to you as soon as possible. **Better yet, ask them to call one of your friends and ask him/her to keep track of who is coming to your wedding.**

Because this is a wedding that is being planned in two weeks, I would suggest keeping your guest list small and also be aware that it is possible that a lot of your guests may not be able to make it.

Step 4-Obtain a Marriage Officiant and a Photographer

While your super-awesome friends are busy calling all of your guests, now would be a good time to call around for a wedding officiant. Hopefully you have an idea in your head of who you want. If you are a member of a church, call and ask about the pastors there and see if any of them are available to perform your wedding ceremony. Most pastors don't charge you for the ceremony, but in general a small monetary gift to them is pretty much expected.

If you don't belong to a church, the Courthouse probably gave you a list of people that could perform your ceremony. If they didn't, give them a call and ask for some names.

After you have picked your officiant, you may want to meet in person to discuss the ceremony. Some officiants have a standard ceremony that they perform; others include you in the decision of what they will say.

This is a good time to decide on what is going to take place during the ceremony. Do you want to take communion? Light candles? Work it out with your officiant so that you both know what is going to happen. If you haven't decided on vows yet, your officiant may be able to help you with that. If you have, decide whether or not you are going to recite them or if the officiant is going to guide you through them. If the officiant is going to guide you through your vows, he/she will probably need a copy of your vows. Don't panic if you don't have your vows figured out yet, you can always do that a little bit later, but be thinking about it and as soon as you know, make sure you get the details to your officiant.

You want to actually remember this day, so now would be a good time to find a photographer. You do need to decide this a little in advance because they may want to meet with you on or off the location to make sure they take the kind of photos that you want. Make sure you have negotiated the price.

A good option for finding a less expensive photographer that will still take great photos is to search around a local college for students that are good at photography. Make sure you see some of their previous work and ask for some kind of reference to ensure that they actually show up on your wedding day.

Step 5-The Dress, The Tux, The Rings, The Flowers, & The Cake

Don't panic. I know that is a lot of stuff under one step, but is like that because you can pretty much be working on these things all at once. I am going to break it down for you a little bit more. Don't feel overwhelmed. You are doing fine. You have the really hard stuff done. The rest is more fun. I swear.

1. The Dress

Or should I say dresses? Have you thought about it yet? Are you going to have bridesmaids in your wedding? It is totally manageable if you want. I'll start with that and then move on to your dress.

Pick a color. What color do you want the main theme of your wedding to be? My suggestion, to make it super easy on you is to pick a color from David's Bridal or a shop similar to that where they have multiple dresses in all different colors. This way, you can pick a color (we'll say red) and then you can **send your bridesmaids there to pick out their own dresses.** You can specify whether you want the dresses to be long or short and you have picked the color and then you don't have to think about it beyond that. The dresses will be different, but the color will be the same and that is very trendy in weddings right now.

Now, it is time for your dress. Go pick out a dress. Have a budget in mind. I'm sure you have been sneaking peeks online ever since he proposed to you in between all the other crazy things you have had to do. Just go pick out a dress. Again, I would suggest a place like David's Bridal because they can do alterations there. You can put a rush on it. It costs a little bit more, but it will be ready in time for your wedding. This is also the time to pick out shoes, jewelry, your veil, etc.

Okay, so maybe you don't want a fancy, white dress. That's fine. If you have decided that you are getting married on the beach and you want to wear blue jeans, then do that. You just need to figure out what you are going to wear.

2. The Tux

Send your fiancé and his groomsmen to get fitted for tuxes. (You can go if you really want to.) Warn them ahead of time that they will probably be looked at like crazy people when they give the short timeframe. It is even possible, I suppose, that they may be told it can't be done. If so, look elsewhere. It can be done. My husband and I had an excellent experience with Men's Wearhouse.

You've already picked the color for the bridesmaids' dresses, so the groomsmen can get their vests to match.

Again, if you don't want tuxes, that is fine, but now if the time to decide what everyone is going to wear.

3. The Rings

Go ahead and pick out the rings that you want to use in the ceremony. Get them fitted. That was really simple. I'm sure that it will take you longer than that to pick them out though. Have fun. Enjoy this. You are going to wear this ring (hopefully) for the rest of your life.

4. The Flowers

You can go the expensive route and get bouquets made, which will cost you extra because of your limited time frame or you can handpick flowers and make the bouquets yourself. **Let your friends pick the flowers and make the bouquets.** There are a ton of sites online that show you how to make bouquets. It isn't very hard.

Typically, family members (grandparents, parents, siblings) get either a corsage or boutonniere. These can be handmade as well, but aren't as expensive as the bouquets. So, if you are pressed for time, go ahead and just order these. The money spent may be worth avoiding the extra hassle it would be to make all of them because the groom and groomsmen need boutonnieres as well.

5. The Cake

This part should really be called The Cake and The Caterer because I am grouping them together since both of them deal with the reception.

It will be very difficult to get a nice, custom wedding cake in less than two weeks, if not impossible. My suggestion is this. Get a normal, one layer cake with white icing and either make or buy cupcakes. You can buy cupcake tiers that just make the whole thing look beautiful and elegant. It saves you money and still looks great. **Your friends can help make cupcakes.**

The catering part is a little bit harder. Hopefully you thought about this a little bit when considering locations. Some reception sites have their own catering (it's expensive) but if you chose one of those locations, then great, you really don't have to think about this much more than making sure you have finalized the menu items.

If you don't automatically have a catering service, you have a little bit more work to do. You can hire a caterer or you can choose to do something simpler. Fruit and vegetable trays, cheese and crackers, punch, and other small snack foods are great options. You can buy already prepared fruit and vegetable trays. **Have your friends help set up the food.**

Step 6-The Final Details (A Checklist-in no particular order of importance)

1. Finalize your vows. Get them to your officiant.

2. Decide on music for your ceremony and reception. An iPod or other mp3 player is great to put together music for your reception. As for your ceremony, you can have someone come in and play a musical instrument or sing. Or both. You can hire someone or you could ask a talented friend to do it.

3. Figure out transportation. How are you getting to your wedding? The reception? The hotel/airport after?

4. Decorations. I left this off until the very end because it can really go anywhere. **Let your friends do any major decorating.** Although really, it would be best if you kept decorations to a minimum. It will save money and time as well as minimizing stress. Although, if you really want to decorate some, candles are a great way to go. Bows on the chairs or pews can also add a nice touch and you may want to buy or rent an aisle runner.

5. Pack a change of clothes for leaving your reception and for your honeymoon.

6. Book all flights and hotels for your honeymoon.

7. Put together little packs of birdseed or rice to be tossed at you at the end of your reception. **Your friends can put these together.** An easy, fun alternative is to have them blow bubbles. Sparklers are another fun option.

8. Buy a guestbook for all of your guests to sign at your reception.

9. Buy wine for taking communion or any other special items you may need for your ceremony.

10. Take a day off to relax before your big day. Everything will work out.

Step 7-Rehearsal

If you managed to get a location that allows for a rehearsal the day prior to your wedding, then go do a run-through at your actual location. If you couldn't due to time constraints, either find a place that has enough space you can do a run-through or do a talk-through so that everyone knows where they are supposed to be and when. Once you are finished with this, you are set. You are ready for the final step.

Step 8-Get Married

You have reached the final step. You've worked hard the past two weeks to come to this final day, your wedding day. Enjoy it. Relax. Laugh. If things don't go as smoothly as you hoped that they would, it is okay. Tuck away the memories of the good and the bad because one day you will appreciate both. Have fun. This is a special day and those little things won't matter. This is about marrying the person that you love.

Congratulations.