You are now six months away from the big day. At this point you might feel like you have all the major vendors booked and can take a little break from the planning. Not so much. You may ask “who am I missing” or you may say “I’ve got this” but believe me there are still a few vendors to hire and a big handful of things to do! I still believe strongly in getting tasks completed earlier than later. You will enjoy the two weeks prior to your event so much more and be in the moment instead of after the fact feeling like you don’t know what just happened. Here are the next two vendors in line.

Officiant

The officiant is a very important vendor for your event for one main reason, its your wedding day! You can’t get married without an officiant. Right? Lately there is a trend of couples having their friends marry them by getting ordained on line. So, this doesn’t make sense to me. Unless your friend is a pastor or officiant, you will see the pitfalls happening right in front of you while you are standing at the alter, side by side with your soon to be spouse and your friend is in a panic not knowing what to do next! I have seen this happen so many times (but not all the time) and the biggest issues are:

• The person is typically nervous because it is his/her first wedding • He or she will read verbatim from a pamphlet that has no personal content • They don’t speak clearly and closely into the mic • They may forget one part of the ceremony that could be very important to the bride and groom.

I DJ’d a wedding and the officiant was a friend. He totally forgot the sand ceremony they had especially made for their wedding. The bride was so upset after the ceremony I didn’t think she would recover. We managed to add it in at the reception and all was good again! Now that was almost disastrous! My all time favorite officiant is Barbara Laughrey. She is the best of the best and will create a ceremony that is very personal to the couple.

Wedding Cake, Cup Cake, and Dessert Bar

The cake/dessert is important. It is one of the showpieces at the reception. I can’t begin to tell you how many folks take a picture of the wedding cake or dessert display before the cake cutting ceremony. There are so many things to choose from when it comes to your dessert. Anything goes these days. If I could give you my best advice on cakes, please, by all means schedule a tasting. The design may be absolutely beautiful but you want it to be delicious too.

Written by Lisa Capitanelli Kasberg