A wedding is suppose to be a wonderland of dreams and perfect memories that will endure through the hardships of life, no one wants to mis-plan their wedding and no one wants to get so involved in planning the wedding that they have no time to enjoy the ceremony.

I have put together a few steps that will help you plan and have a wedding of your dream within your budget.

1. Establish Your Budget: Everyone wants to spend $100,000 on a dream wedding for their daughters and sons, yet no one wants to give it up. Be realistic, how much will you really spend or can you afford to spend? You must determine this from the very beginning, or else you will be constantly battling yourself and what you are trying to accomplish.

2. Decide Upon the Theme: Are you looking for a wedding at the park or in a ball room? This will matter when planning on decorating and cost effectiveness of what you can afford. For example, a wedding in a park is much cheaper and practical. However, in a nice ball room will be palatial and protected from the elements should rain or something else fall from the sky.

3. Plan Everything down to the guest gift bags: Now that you know the budget you can afford and what you are looking for, plan. Plan like you are doing a $100,000 wedding. Write down what you would need, white tents, tables, chairs, food, photographers, etc.

4. Begin to Price Shop: Now the bargain hunting begins. Now that you have seen prices and planned on certain items that you will need shop around. Tables and chairs are easy and can be found cheaply at many locations, mark the easiest off the list first. Then find a photographer and book them for the occasion way in advance. Now that the most critical things are planned such as location, photographer and hardware. Plan for the small things that can really make a wedding. Gift bags are a nice touch to help everyone remember the ceremony and can be done cheaply. One thing commonly done is to acquire a gift magazine/wedding magazine and see the prices and items and then make them yourselves. With a group of 10-20 you can accomplish such a task in a matter of hours and save hundreds of dollars yet maintaining the prestige of a big expensive wedding.

5. Wedding Planner and Caterer: It should not be up to the bride and groom nor any of the parents to maintain a wedding and make sure that everything goes according to plan, because then someone misses out on all the fun. Either hire a wedding planner or get a close relative that is a good organizer to act as your wedding planner. This will take a lot of stress and complications out of the ordeal.

6. Lastly, never do the food yourself. It is time consuming and not cost effective no matter how much money. A business will properly prepare and ensure good food. No last minute purchases or baking. Then you will also have two or three people to serve the food for everyone. Trust me in this, a few hundred people at a wedding will take at least 45 minutes to and hour to just get them their plates and courses. Many people will spend a greater part of the day cooking and serving while not enjoying the momentous occasion. Don't get stuck again preparing and over-tasking for the wedding, it is a special day that only happens once.

If you plan accordingly and shop online for many goods you can save thousands and afford to have a catered and planned event. For more wedding planning ideas, please visit Dream Wedding Planning for more details.