6 Things Your Dream Wedding Needs

Your wedding should be the perfect day for you and your love to celebrate and join two lives and families together. Whether you want it to be intimate or explosive, trend-setting or traditional, you deserve to have the day you’ve been dreaming about. 

We sat down with Cindy Stephens, Twin Creeks’ Director of Weddings and Events, to get her thoughts on the top things every great wedding needs. With over 15 years in wedding and special event planning, Cindy has brought hundreds of dream weddings to life. Here’s what she had to say.

1. An event that tells your story

Your wedding should be a unique and memorable way to continue the story you and your spouse-to-be have been writing since you met. Meaningful songs, close family ties, first date memories, shared interests, and inside jokes can come together to create a truly memorable celebration.  

It’s a wedding planner’s job to work with you to determine how these seemingly small details can come together to design a wedding that is one-of-a-kind. For example, you might wish to honor a family member or friend during your ceremony or reception. Or you might want ideas for how to weave your love of the lake into small touches throughout your ceremony. These are the kinds of exciting challenges I love. 

2. A venue that makes it easy on you

You have a lot to do in the weeks and months leading up to your wedding, and you shouldn’t have to do it alone. Consider choosing a venue that can make it easy and stress-free. It can be a lot of work trying to find different locations for your ceremony and reception, all the seating and place settings you’ll need, catering, and staff to set up and take down after the event. Rather than begging friends to help and then scrambling at the last minute, selecting a venue that takes care of everything for you will never be a decision you regret. 

Besides the location for your ceremony and reception, consider what other types of spaces you may need, such as a location for your rehearsal dinner, a bridal suite for before and after the wedding, accommodations for wedding guests traveling in, wedding weekend activities, etc. 

3. A style that reflects your taste

Your style. Your taste. Not someone else’s. So many times, brides want to make others happy or follow a trend they don’t even really like. It’s your wedding, so don’t feel like you have to adhere to a specific set of rules that someone else thinks you should. Sure, you may ask for and want others’ input, but remember it’s your day to celebrate your union. 

It can be tricky to go with your own ideas when you have well-meaning loved ones involved in the planning. This is an excellent task for your wedding planner, who can help navigate the conversations - and the personalities involved by keeping the focus on you and your fiance.

4. The right priorities

As with designing a wedding style that fits your personal tastes, it’s also helpful to make a list of your priorities. At the top of that list, you’ll probably want to “marrying my fiance!” because at the end of the day, getting married to your soul mate and celebrating with the people you love is what’s most important. Everything else can fall into place behind it. 

Continue listing things that are important to you, including must-haves and nice-to-haves. Having a list of the most important experiences or services you want to include in your wedding can help you make decisions faster and more successfully throughout the entire process. This clarity can help you not just in planning but also in budgeting for your special day. 

5. A unique email and wedding website

With so many details to keep track of for your wedding, it’s a good idea to create a new dedicated email address for you to use when planning. This way, you’ll be able to have one place to manage important messages, contracts, and other wedding-specific communications. Use that email address for setting up your wedding website. 

According to Cindy, your wedding website is a must. You need one central place where you can share important details about your upcoming wedding with your guests. You can also add your registry, frequently asked questions, and take RSVPs online without worrying about chasing down RSVPs that “should be in the mail.” 

Our Twin Creeks brides and couples receive a free online portal with all their wedding details and ready-to-use graphics to help make communicating with guests even easier. These include information about lake rentals, directions, things to do, and other information necessary to ensure guests know everything they need to when attending your wedding.   

6. An onsite coordinator you can trust to manage the details

Many people think wedding planning ends once all the decisions are made, and nothing can be further from the truth. In addition to helping you manage deadlines and vendors leading up to your event, it’s a good idea to have a professional to handle the day-of onsite coordination. You’ll need someone trained to manage wedding day timelines, decorations, vendors, and event staff for the smoothest ceremony and reception. The last thing you need is to have to worry about a vendor who needs directions, where everyone should be standing for the best pictures, or how to operate the sound system to play your music.   

Our Twin Creeks Events team is passionate about delivering flawless weddings, world-class receptions, and creating wedding experiences that last a lifetime. Let us help you design your dream wedding today. https://www.twincreekstfl.com/weddings