Couples getting married in Washington DC typically take around 13 months to plan their weddings. October is the most popular month to tie the knot in the District, with most couples having a 13-person sales team, 115 wedding guests, and nine of their closest friends in their wedding party. If you want to extend your wedding budget, the date you choose will have a major impact on the total cost. The most affordable months for a wedding in Washington, DC are November, January, February and March. This means that you can avoid the holiday weeks of New Year and Valentine's Day.
Make sure to order your cake at least one month before your date as most bakers need a month or more to make their wedding cake. June is traditionally the most popular month for weddings. This custom dates back more than 2,000 years ago when the ancient Romans named the month after their goddess of marriage and childbirth, Juno. It was believed that couples who married during this month would be blessed with happiness and prosperity. If you have any family or cultural customs that have special meaning or traditions that you both want to pass on to future generations, don't be afraid to incorporate them into your wedding day festivities.
If you are planning a destination wedding, this can be linked to the welcome party or be completely separate. The two factors that will most influence the cost of your wedding are holidays and weather. Even if you don't hire a full-time wedding planner, hiring a professional to handle the day-to-day details can make a huge difference. Save-the-date cards should be sent nine months before the wedding date for destination weddings and four to six months before for local nuptials. When it comes to designing your wedding, you can choose a concept such as specific colors, seasonal inspiration or style, or even a real theme like the Roaring Twenties or the elegance of a festival. Registration information should appear on the wedding website or in an invitation insert but never on the invitation itself.
As your wedding date approaches, contact the venue to find out when vendors can arrive to organize it. For couples who are planning their own wedding without a professional planner or coordinator, traditional guides such as The Wedding Book offer plenty of information and advice from experts including tips and tricks and even examples of deadlines and checklists. To avoid receiving endless emails and texts from guests, create a simple website where they can check all the details. Start researching and gathering all necessary documents early on but keep in mind that marriage licenses are usually only valid for a couple of months and destination weddings usually have their own stipulations so plan accordingly. By then, the local wet season was over in most places so celebrants used to rely on a dry, comfortable climate which must have been especially appreciated by the bride whose intricate hairstyle featured six locks wrapped in flowers. Talk with your partner to decide what size wedding party is best for both of you taking into account all expenses that come with this special responsibility.
