Assuming you are recently engaged, congratulations! Getting engaged is such an exciting time, especially to share with your friends and family. Once all of that excitement passes though, you and your partner may be overwhelmed with the wedding planning process, and that is where we come in.
It’s a stereotype that the groom doesn’t help the bride, and that she does all of the wedding planning on her own. Maybe that is your guy’s decision, and if so that’s fine! Whatever works best for both of you. But maybe you, the groom, want to help and try to take some stress off of your bride but don’t know where to even start, we want to help. We are going to create a list of the best wedding planning resources that are focused around a wedding planning topic or aspect that the groom can do pretty much solo, without the help of the bride.
Groomsmen
There are a lot of things that are involved with the groomsmen that should be taken care of by the groom himself and not the bride. For starters, selecting your groomsmen and asking them to be there on the big day is a task that should be completed by the groom. They are there for him.
Another important aspect of the groomsmen is their attire for the day. What are they wearing? What color? Tie or bow tie? Pattern? Jacket? So many little details that are essential to the big day. The Black Tux is a great resource to help with deciding what to wear and even who should wear what, if you and your bride haven’t already made that decision.
Wedding Wire is also a great resource for helping you decide what your groomsmen should or shouldn’t wear on the big day. There are a lot of things to consider and these resources kind of help you piece together all of the loose detailed ends to ensure your groomsmen are looking their absolute best.A second task with your groomsmen is their wedding party favors. These are such an important detail that sometimes is overlooked or not given much thought. Showing your groomsmen how much, you appreciate their support and them being there for you is so important. You need to ensure you give their gifts a lot of thought so they can get a personal and meaningful gift. A great resource for gift ideas is Groomsmen Gift Source. They have so many great groomsmen gift ideas that you can either get inspiration from or even purchase directly from their website.
Invites & RSVP’s
Now the invites and RSVP’s are definitely something the bride is going to want to be involved with when it comes to the design of the physical items that are going to be mailed to all of your guests. However, things like helping her package them, fill them out, keep track of who is sending back their RSVP’s is something you, as the groom, can totally manage. Martha Stewart Weddings is a great resource for helping keep track of who sent them back and then who still hasn’t answered yet. It gives great tips on how to make that process overall easier. You can also create your own list on Microsoft Excel if you feel the drive to be creative. Helping with something like this can be a huge help in the long run.
The Spruce is another great resource for your wedding invites and RSVP needs. Trying to make sure that people do actually respond to your RSVP and let you know if they are coming can be difficult. This resource gives some great tips and tricks to help you get as many RSVP responses as possible.
And for the invitees, how about a guest book for them to sign, and for you to keep as a souvenir of your wedding day? Look at some fun ideas here on WhiskeyMade`s piece on Wedding Guest Book Alternatives.
Food & Drinks
Planning your reception can be very overwhelming but if you try and break it down into different tasks it can be less intimidating. One of those aspects can be the food and beverage for the reception. Most choose to get a caterer for the reception and if so then you and your bride can choose the menu together, this typically involves going to the catering location and trying out different menu options. However, if you and your bride decide to have a bar but want to provide your own drinks instead of having an open bar, then you need to decide what exactly you want to serve at your wedding. This can be a lot of fun, coming up with different drink ideas, creating a bar menu for your big day.
A great resource for drink ideas for your wedding is MN Bride. They have fun and creative drink ideas as well as provide advice or tips on which are best. Typically, if you and your bride already have the drinks you know you want to serve then you can go to My Bar and make a drink menu from those liquors! This puts a fun twist on your bar menu, and you can even create a wedding drink special for all of your guests to enjoy.
When it comes to your wedding menu, that is typically something you and the bride decide together. You both want to ensure the other person is happy with the menu options. There may be something that is tradition for one of you and your families and so you want to ensure to respect that and your partner and try your hardest to pick items that make you both happy.
Invitation List
Trying to decide who to invite can be a sticky situation. Deciding the budget for the wedding is typically one of the first steps. Once a budget is put into place then you can decide how many people you can afford to invite. These decisions need to be made together, but once you have a general idea, then you should start and create your own list. Maybe you and your partner decided to do 50% your guests and the other half theirs. Whatever ratio you two decided it’s best to go head and start a list. Even just a rough draft of who you want to be there on your big day. Eventually your partner is going to start asking you who you want to invite and so its super helpful for you both to have that list so you can plan and decide together your overall guest list. Some great resources for deciding who should be on the guest list is Wedding Happy.
We hope you found this overall helpful and will take these resources and help your partner in planning your guy’s dream wedding.
