If you are lucky enough to have a friend or a family member who sews, take them with you to shop for your wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses. Sometimes I wonder about the quality of what we are buying. Some of the dresses at these large discount stores are just plain garbage. Many of them have parts of the dress that are glued on. When you buy a white wedding dress, as is directly from the rack, you have to know at least 50 other brides tried on this dress with their makeup on. The problems start when you dry clean the dress prior to the wedding. The dry cleaning solvents will dissolve the glue that is securing the bead work and appliqués on the dress. At one wedding, the beads on the bride’s dress were falling off the dress while the bride was dancing. The bride’s aunt fell and broke her ankle. At another wedding, the strap on a bridesmaid dress broke in the church in front of the priest. The young lady had no bra on. The company who sold the dress settled out of court because the young lady threatened to put it on YouTube.

When you go for your dress fitting, make sure you bring the undergarments and shoes that you will be wearing the day of the wedding. You will be surprised how many women are not wearing the proper size bra. If you just lost some weight, go to a retail store where the sales people know how to fit you properly for a bra. Do not go to a discount store for a bra fitting.

Most wedding dresses sold today are not made in the United States. They are made in other parts of the world where the labor is less expensive. You should order your wedding dress at least 6 months in advance to make sure it is in on time for your wedding. Since 9-11 the world has been an unstable place. US Customs has been known to shut down for reasons of national security. If this happens, you will be stuck without a dress for your wedding. Order your dress early for peace of mind.

Provide a nursery for the wedding ceremony and reception for all those kids that you are afraid might scream or cause a scene. This is better than offending your friends by asking them not to bring their kids.

Include a cool engagement picture in or on your wedding invitation or the “save the date”card.

Create a wedding website and send out a “save the date”card with the site domain name on it. This is a great way to give directions, organize out of town guest and tell your story. Google wedding websites, there are many templates available.

If you don’t want your get-away car to get trashed, buy a car decorating kit for your wedding party. This way they won’t get too creative.

When planning your wedding, remember to choose colors and styles that are timeless. You don’t want to hide that wedding album 10 years from now out of embarrassment.

You may want to place gift baskets in the hotel rooms of your out of town guest. You can fill it with personalized bottles of water, fruit, candy and munchies. Add a special note thanking them for making the long trip to share in your special day.

Starch your veil so that it stays away from your face.

Shop for wedding related products and services during the week instead of the weekend. You will get more one on one attention.

Place a sign at the entrance that reminds your guest to turn off their cell phones.

Many brides today are opting to have their wedding pictures on disk and not purchasing a wedding album. This may be a big mistake. As technology continues to change at a rapid pace, you may not be able to view these images in the future. It is also easy to misplace something as small as a computer disk. The disk can also get damaged. A wedding album does not rely on some sort of technology to be viewed. It will be around for your friends and family to look at now and for your children and grand children in the future.

I don’t know why, but some brides take up to 2 years to complete their wedding album. My own brother doesn’t have any pictures of his wedding. My brother and sister-in-law purchased a house as they were planning the wedding. The house sucked up all their extra cash. The photographer was no longer in business when my sister-in-law was ready to completer her album. I know she regrets it. Please don’t make the same mistake. Make your wedding album and video a priority.

Make sure the children in you wedding party are old enough to get the job done. Kids that are very young are unpredictable. You just don’t know what they will do. If you have a flower girl that gets stage fright and is afraid to go down the isle, I have a proven tip to get you past this moment. Tell the flower girls her aunt in the first row has cookies. She will forget about the audience and go for the cookies.

Everyone has an opinion. You are going to get wedding advice by the truck load from everybody under sun. People by nature are just trying to be helpful and they want you to have a beautiful wedding. Their tastes are going to be different from yours and their idea may just not fit your budget. Listen to what they have to say. Be gracious and thank them for the idea. Then go talk it over with the groom. You may not like their idea, but it may spark another idea or parts of it may be combined with an idea. Remember how you act and react with his family may come back to haunt you for the next 50 years. Choose your words carefully.

A husband and wife team of psychologist from Chicago did a five year study on relationships. One of the things that came out of the study found that brides who take on the Bridezilla persona increase their chances of being divorced in two years by 71%. It is not appropriate to treat your friends, family and wedding professionals in that manor. There is an old expression, “You get more with honey, than you do with vinegar.”

Here is a tip that you will thank me for. Several weeks prior to your wedding break in the shoes you will be wearing the day of your wedding. If you ever had a new pair of shoes that hurt because they were new, you know what I mean. Scuff up the bottom of your shoes outside to keep them from being so slippery.I've seen brides fall on their butt after walking on a newly waxed floor in a catering hall.