Beautiful wedding ceremonies never happen by accident. The best weddings are also the best-planned weddings. The amount of effort that goes into planning a wedding can be monumental and overwhelming, but the experience doesn’t have to be stressful. Follow these tips for making sure your wedding is as great as your love for your partner.

On the day of the wedding, make sure that you show your parents and the parents of your future husband or wife a lot of attention. This is their big day too, as they are finally getting to see the child they love so much get married after many years of waiting.

If you are planning on having designer dresses or gowns for your bridesmaids, consider purchasing them as their bridal party gift. Many bridesmaids find it expensive and taxing on their income to pay for such extravagant attire that they will only wear once. If you choose to have such a pricey item, make sure you don’t put pressure on them to pay for it.

When planning an outdoor wedding, always have a backup plan. Try choosing a venue that has an indoor area available for your wedding if it decides to rain that day. You could also consider having tents just in case you experience bad weather. When using a tent during rain, it is not ideal for when you have heavy rain as the ground beneath the tent will become wet and your guests will have to walk in it.

Whether or not to invite children to your wedding is a delicate choice to have to make. You don’t want to offend your guests by saying they must come childless, or forcing them to find a babysitter. At the same time, you don’t want kids tearing around your reception or disrupting the ceremony. If you want to have kids there, give them something else to do or another room to play in.

Designer candles, jewel-encrusted candelabras, and crystal decor can add up quickly when multiple tables are used for the wedding reception or rehearsal dinner. To save money, purchase large, unscented pillar candles of varying sizes. You can then use adornments and embellishments from bulk craft supply stores, such as stick-on colored crystals or textured, sheer ribbons to tie around each of the pillars.

Almost essential to a wedding is a photographer. No wedding is complete without a pictorial representation thereof. Don’t you want to save those memories for a lifetime, and be able to years from now look at them and remember all the blissful feelings you had that day? By hiring a photographer you make this possible.

If your heart is set on a destination wedding, talk to a travel agent to see if you can get a deal for everyone who is attending at a group rate. They are likely to have planned many wedding trips before yours, and will know exactly how to get the best deals possible.

Yes, planning a wedding is a huge task, akin to planning a theater production or a big sports event, but the above tips should help you keep the complications to a minimum. That, of course, will help you enjoy that magical day even more, which is the best way to start a marriage.