Latest news with #weddingplanning
Washington Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Carolyn Hax: Embarrassing, off-script officiant steals couple's thoughtful show
Dear Carolyn: I got married several months ago. My spouse and I put a ton of time, energy and thought into the planning, and the weekend itself was all we had hoped. The only hiccup was that our officiant went off the rails a bit, making off-color jokes, emphasizing our flaws, sharing intimacies we had shared in confidence with them and adding embellishments that weren't true.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The 5 Most Important Decisions You Need to Make as You Start Wedding Planning
Before you start making appointments or booking vendors, follow this expert-backed advice. After getting engaged, it may feel tempting to immediately start browsing venues, shopping for your ceremony look, and considering color palettes. However, it's important to take a moment to pause. 'Before the mood boards and gown appointments, before the tastings and playlists, the first month of wedding planning is where the real foundation is laid,' says Tionna M. Van Gundy, the CEO and founder of Wedicity. 'Whether a couple has six, 12, or 24 months, those early decisions influence everything that follows.' Some of the choices you make during this time period may change: Guest lists get shuffled to make room for new friends, budgets go up (and sometimes down), your aesthetic goes from timeless black and white to a color-forward approach. But others, like your major must-haves, your planning team, and your venue are less easy (and likely) to the Expert Tionna M. Van Gundy is the CEO and founder of Wedicity. Chanda Daniels is a luxury wedding planner. Sarah Brehant is a wedding planner and the founder of Sarah Brehant Events. Lisa Jaroscak is the owner of and lead planner at Elegante most successful couples take a holistic approach that allows the decisions on this list—the who, what, where, when, and how—to inform each other as they begin to build the groundwork for their big day. 'The early days of wedding planning can feel overwhelming, but they're also full of possibility,' says Van Gundy. 'These first five decisions form the framework of everything to come, and when made with clarity and intention, they set the tone for a celebration that is not only beautiful, but deeply personal and well-executed. The magic is in the details, but it starts with the right foundation.' Below, the experts break down the five critical choices to make in the first few months of wedding planning. Read on for everything you need to know. Related: The 8 Most Common Wedding-Planning Questions Couples Ask, According to Experts The Number of Guests Though the final list of names you use to create an escort display may differ from the one you make in the earliest stages of your planning process, you need to begin with a basic idea of how many people you plan to host—whether that's 10, 100, or 500 'Your guest count is the single most important decision you'll make in the early stages,' says Chanda Daniels, a luxury wedding planner. 'It impacts nearly every aspect of your wedding venue—capacity, catering, rentals, and your overall budget. Many items are priced per person, so knowing how many guests you're inviting is essential.' Without at least a rough idea of how many people you plan to invite, you can't move forward with other key decisions. 'Your list, even in its roughest form, is the driving force behind capacity, layout, catering cost, and the overall guest experience,' says Van Gundy. 'Before falling in love with a venue or crafting your dinner menu, you need a guest count range. The difference between a 75-person wedding and a 200-person affair is vast, logistically, financially, and emotionally. From seating charts to invitation counts, this number is a cornerstone of planning and can impact the overall investment and how the event is experienced.' The Budget Before you can start daydreaming about floral installations or welcome baskets, you need to determine your budget. 'This is the foundation of everything else,' says Sarah Brehant, the founder of Sarah Brehant Events. 'If you don't know your ballpark (even if it's a wide one), it's like shopping without knowing your credit limit—stressful and confusing. We lovingly call this the unsexy phase of wedding planning — budgets, spreadsheets, guest counts. It's not the Pinterest-worthy part, but it's absolutely essential to building the day you're dreaming of without the chaos.' The other critical part of your budget conversation is who will be contributing to your wedding fund—and how: Maybe your in-laws want to pay for the photographer, or you have a godmother willing to write a blank check. 'This is not always an easy conversation to have, but it is an important one to make sure everyone is on the same page,' says Lisa Jaroscak, the owner and lead planner at Elegante Events. Your guest list and budget will work in tandem as you move through the rest of the process. 'Establishing a realistic budget is crucial, especially if this is your first time planning a wedding,' says Daniels, who recommends consulting with a planner to align your per-guest cost with your budget. 'A planner that works with higher budgets will have deep industry knowledge and can provide a realistic per-person cost based on your location and expectations,' she says. 'Once you understand the average cost per guest, revisit your guest list; you may need to adjust it to match your ideal budget. Having this clarity is essential before touring venues or hiring your core vendors.' The Look and Feel Clarifying the type of wedding you want to have is another key during the early stages of the planning process. 'Destination versus local, intimate versus the-more-the-merrier, onsite ceremony versus offsite ceremony—this decision will really impact how your planning process moves forward and sets that tone for what the mutual goals are for the vision of the celebration,' says Jaroscak. Brehant encourages each partner to write down their top three must-haves, and then compare their wishes to define shared priorities. 'That conversation is more valuable than any Pinterest board,' she says. 'A wedding isn't just a checklist—it's a reflection of your values and vibe. If creating a visually stunning space and an unforgettable guest experience are top priorities, that should drive where your budget and energy go.' A clear vision can also help you properly scale your spending, allowing for last-minute changes and spur-of-the-moment adds. 'Think about whether you want a single-day celebration or a full wedding weekend,' says Daniels. 'If you choose the latter, create a separate budget for pre- and post-wedding events, like welcome dinners or farewell brunches. This helps prevent unexpected costs, and ensures every experience is well-planned.' The Planner An experienced planner can become an invaluable part of all of these discussions, helping you dive into realistic cost breakdowns, define the design aesthetics you find most appealing, and determine a timeline. 'From securing the right venue to balancing competing priorities, a planner is a guiding hand through every layer of the process,' says Van Gundy. 'The earlier they're involved, the more value they bring, from negotiating contracts to aligning the aesthetic thread that runs through the entire celebration.' While this might feel like an unnecessary expense to couples worried about their overall spending, incorporating an expert's wisdom can pay off in the long run. When interviewing planners, look for someone who understands your vision—and your finances. 'Review their portfolio to see if they've produced weddings that match the aesthetic you're drawn to—it's important to work with a creative person who can execute your vision authentically without forcing them into a design style that isn't their own,' says Daniels. 'And use this rule when selecting your other creative partners as well.' However, avoid anyone who tries to upsell you: 'As your planner, my job is to help you avoid the financial detours that don't serve your vision,' says Brehant. 'This is also why finding a planner you trust early on is everything. You need someone who can help you make smart, grounded decisions now—so the fun, creative stuff down the line actually works and doesn't derail your vision (or your budget).' Whether you choose to work with a planner or not, this is also the time to think about who else in your life you want involved in the planning process (your brother: yes; your know-it-all aunt, maybe not). 'Be cautious about who you invite into your planning circle, as sometimes having too many people involved can mean a lot of opinions, confusion, and frustration,' says Jaroscak. 'It is a lot easier to add people as you go versus having too many cooks in the kitchen. Keep your planning circle core to who supports you in being happy, and the key-decision makers.' The Date and Location After your planner, your venue is the first major wedding commitment you'll make—and one that defines nearly all your future decisions, from how many musicians you can hire for your band to where you'll post for newlywed portraits. 'Venues book up fast, especially for popular dates,' says Brehant. 'Once you book it, you have a concrete date and can finally start reaching out to vendors with real information. While the rest of the planning process doesn't need to start until 10 to 12 months out, the venue process usually needs to begin ASAP in order to have the best options.' While it's not impossible to change your mind about a venue during the process, you're likely to incur a number of added costs associated with breaking your contract. 'Consider more than just aesthetics: Think through flow, weather contingency plans, what's included in the rental, and how it aligns with your guest count and vision,' says Van Gundy. 'Ask yourselves not just what you want the wedding to look like, but how you want it to feel. That feeling, joyful, romantic, bold, classic, is what guests will remember most.' Up Next: What Does Full-Service Wedding Planning Really Mean? Read the original article on Brides Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
They planned their wedding. They weren't even engaged yet.
Katelin Morales and her partner, Jeff Beqiri, began wedding planning in February 2024. The Philadelphia-based couple booked flights to Peru to meet with a wedding planner, look at venues and start to lock in vendors for their destination wedding. Now there was just one thing left for Beqiri to do: propose. 'I knew that I needed a long runway for the type of wedding that I want. And my fiancé wanted more time to buy the ring that he wanted to buy me,' Morales, a 33-year-old lawyer, tells Yahoo. 'So we had the wedding planner, the venue, the photographer and also the videographer booked all before we got engaged.' The pair met on an app in May 2023, and their timeline quickly fell into place. 'We both said that we were dating with the intention of marriage,' Morales says. 'We were official two weeks after we met, and by July, we were saying, 'I love you.' Pretty organically, we were talking about marriage.' They decided to get a head start on wedding planning without waiting for the formality of Beqiri getting on one knee. They're in good company. Planning nuptials before an official proposal is a trend that's been gaining momentum over the last few years, now inching toward common practice. A 2024 survey by the wedding planning website Zola found that a majority of couples were doing some ideating about their wedding day, like creating a mood board or curating a registry, prior to a formal engagement. But the smaller percentage of those who went so far as to decide on a wedding date, book a venue and start a wedding website (where friends and family can check out wedding details) more than doubled by 2025. Here, couples discuss why they decided to tackle the 'I do' before the 'Will you marry me?' — and how it saved them from extra wedding stress. Why plan early A few factors played into Morales's decision to plan early. 'I knew it was going to be a destination wedding and I wanted to give people a full year's notice of when we were getting married,' she says. 'We also had a conversation about kids very early. … We would like to have our first kid when I'm 34, so we wanted the wedding in early 2026.' Then there's her job as a bankruptcy lawyer. 'The workload ebbs and flows a lot. There are months when I can't even go to a dinner,' she says. 'I wanted to make sure that there would be enough downtime in my job to take advantage of for planning, instead of having to do everything in the six months before my wedding when I can't control work.' Having ample time for wedding planning was her main concern. And with that under her control, she could leave the timing of her engagement up to Beqiri. Devin Short felt similarly. The 29-year-old, who lives in Westchester, N.Y., tells Yahoo that both she and her then-boyfriend Nick had already set their sights on a particular wedding venue in Florida, which she was anxious to secure. 'The venue is notoriously booked out in advance, and the place is special to us,' says Short. So, when she was sure by July 2022 that her partner was preparing a proposal — 'I knew he had asked my dad for his blessing and that the ring had been ordered' — she gave the place a call. 'I called to inquire about the next year, and they only had one date left in December,' she says. 'I really wanted a Florida-in-Christmas moment, so I asked for a contract.' Short and her mom immediately started working on getting more details of the big day together. Nick was aware of it, but not yet involved — he was busy putting together a proposal, after all. Once the venue was set, Short booked a wedding planner, as well as a photographer and videographer. 'I waited to pick our band because that was his one request,' she says. Both Short and Morales's priorities were in line with others who have gotten a head start, according to the 2025 Global Wedding Market Report by Think Splendid, a wedding consulting firm. Among 53,493 newlyweds who were polled, 31% started looking at venues before getting engaged, while 32% and 18% started the same process with photographers and wedding planners, respectively. Jenny McDonough, a Colorado-based planner and founder of Stargazed Weddings, tells Yahoo that getting a call from a couple that isn't yet engaged isn't out of the ordinary. 'People want to make sure that they get their preferred date, their preferred venue and their preferred photographer. And they have friends telling them that it books up quickly,' she says. Hence, most of those who get a head start on planning are specific about what they want. With less time comes less choice, in most cases, which is exactly what Caroline, 30, (who asked to keep her last name private) from New Jersey wanted to avoid. She and her now-husband Brendan had a particular date in mind for their wedding long before he proposed. 'We wanted our wedding to be on my grandparents' anniversary,' says Caroline, who planned to honor her family by getting married in their native Ireland. 'I also wanted my other grandmother to be at our legal ceremony [in the United States]. She was older, so we were racing a bit against the clock. … She was able to be there to witness before she passed away, which I'm extremely grateful for. Planning ahead of time gave me that sentimental moment.' 'Where's the ring?' Morales calls herself an 'open book' with family and friends, so when she and Beqiri discussed their February 2026 wedding two years ahead (and 10 months before they were even engaged), she shared the news. Her family was skeptical. 'I don't see a ring on your finger,' was the response she got from relatives who were wary of Morales being hurt. 'I had previously been in a seven-year relationship that didn't end up in a marriage, so they didn't want me to go through that again.' She was confident that this was different. 'I knew it was going to happen, I didn't feel any trepidation about any of it,' says Morales. 'It was just a matter of when, not if.' She attended a few wedding-related pop-ups and spoke openly about wedding planning in front of co-workers. 'People would be like, 'Where's your ring?' So I would find myself saying, 'Oh, it's getting cleaned,' even though I didn't have it yet,' she says. 'It can be kind of embarrassing when you go somewhere talking about your wedding and they don't see a ring on your finger. That's the first place that your eyes go.' However, that hasn't been a problem since Beqiri pulled off a surprise proposal to Morales last December. 'I definitely was surprised, and that was important to him,' she says. 'Although I knew it was going to happen, I didn't know the circumstances, when it would happen or what the ring would look like.' And better yet, the couple feels that they've been better able to enjoy the start of their engagement era because their plans for next year are already set. 'Most couples are planning right after they get engaged, and we had already done that stuff,' she says. 'Despite people being skeptical, at the end of the day, I was right. It turned out exactly how I said it [would], and it gave me more faith in myself and us as a couple too.' No stress or ruined surprises Caroline also says that the surprise of her early 2024 engagement wasn't ruined by wedding planning for six months prior. 'I let him plan [the proposal] on his own time,' she says. And data suggests that proposals aren't quite the surprise they're built up to be, anyway. Zola found that 53% of couples getting married in 2025 have shopped for rings with their partners, while 70% have discussed when they would be getting engaged. Asking 'Will you marry me?' is more of a formality. 'Even with all the planning, Nick managed to surprise the f*** out of me when he eventually did propose,' says Short. 'So it was a win-win because I was prepared, but also caught off-guard.' She has nothing but good things to say about planning early for her big day. 'I didn't stress about not having anything done, I had all my choices or preferences for vendors. I felt so in control from start to finish,' she says. 'It was the best choice ever.'
The National
6 days ago
- Business
- The National
From wedding planning to online shopping, ChatGPT agent can do it all
OpenAI has introduced a new tool on its ChatGPT platform to offer more support to users, such as doing the heavy lifting for wedding planning or online shopping. The feature, ChatGPT agent, is capable of "handling complex tasks from start to finish", San Francisco-based OpenAI said on Thursday. In other words, it can process long, detailed queries and return results in the same manner – and then some. The new tool has accelerated the generative artificial intelligence race. It is the latest of OpenAI's tools as the company seeks to and assert its dominance in the crowded field, distinguishing itself from major companies such as Microsoft, Google, Anthropic and Elon Musk's Grok, as well as upstarts including DeepSeek and Qwen. What can ChatGPT agent do? In a detailed video, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and his team flaunted ChatGPT agent's capabilities, with Mr Altman pointing out that "people wanted a unified agent that could go off" on its own. ChatGPT agent, according to OpenAI, can handle even the most complex, long and detailed tasks. As an example, Mr Altman's team asked ChatGPT to plan a wedding, complete with suggestions for five outfits that matched the theme, gifts under $500 and hotel options on After seven seconds, ChatGPT agent replied that it was looking into it, in addition to more queries. In this case, it wanted to know the exact date of the wedding, which was not mentioned earlier. It resulted in detailed suggestions and options in response to the request. While this is not surprising, the highlight is that it did not miss a beat and answered everything in the query. How does it work? ChatGPT agent uses its "own computer", a suite of tools that includes a visual browser that interacts with the internet through a graphical-user interface, a text-based browser for simpler reasoning-based web queries, a terminal and direct API access. It is also capable of connecting to apps including Gmail and developer platform Github, so ChatGPT can find information that is relevant to queries and use them in responses, OpenAI said. In addition, users can take over the visual browser by logging in on a website, giving them full control and having ChatGPT go deeper in its "research and task execution". "Giving ChatGPT these different avenues for accessing and interacting with web information means it can choose the optimal path to most efficiently perform tasks," OpenAI added. Is ChatGPT agent free? Users can activate ChatGPT agent by clicking on the tools button under ChatGPT's prompt line and selecting "agent". However, you can only use it if you are subscribed to ChatGPT's paid tiers – Pro, Plus or Team, which cost $20, $200, and $25 or $30 a month, respectively. This was to be expected, because advanced tools normally are not available for free. The introduction of ChatGPT agent began on Thursday, with Pro users getting first the crack at it. The Plus and Team tiers will gain access to it "over the next few days", while Enterprise and Education users will have to wait. However, it still will not be available for the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Not risk-free This is the first time users can ask ChatGPT to take action on the internet and doing so introduces new risks, "particularly because ChatGPT agent can work directly with your data, whether it's information accessed through connectors or websites that you have logged it into via takeover mode", OpenAI said. "ChatGPT agent's expanded tools and broader user reach mean its overall risk profile is higher," it added. A key safeguard in ChatGPT agent is that it limits access to certain tasks, from personal actions such as sending emails, which require user oversight, to more sensitive, "high-risk tasks" including bank transfers, which ChatGPT agent would refuse to do. In any case, such tasks potentially or do involve personal and confidential user data that, in theory, could be misused. "Overall, we expect continued improvements to ChatGPT agent's efficiency, depth and versatility over time, including more seamless interactions as we continue to adjust the amount of oversight required from the user to make it more useful while ensuring it's safe to use," OpenAI said.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
They planned their wedding. They weren't even engaged yet.
"People would be like, 'Where's your ring?'" Katelin Morales and her partner, Jeff Beqiri, began wedding planning in February 2024. The Philadelphia-based couple booked flights to Peru to meet with a wedding planner, look at venues and start to lock in vendors for their destination wedding. Now there was just one thing left for Beqiri to do: propose. 'I knew that I needed a long runway for the type of wedding that I want. And my fiancé wanted more time to buy the ring that he wanted to buy me,' Morales, a 33-year-old lawyer, tells Yahoo. 'So we had the wedding planner, the venue, the photographer and also the videographer booked all before we got engaged.' The pair met on an app in May 2023, and their timeline quickly fell into place. 'We both said that we were dating with the intention of marriage,' Morales says. 'We were official two weeks after we met, and by July, we were saying, 'I love you.' Pretty organically, we were talking about marriage.' They decided to get a head start on wedding planning without waiting for the formality of Beqiri getting on one knee. They're in good company. Planning nuptials before an official proposal is a trend that's been gaining momentum over the last few years, now inching toward common practice. A 2024 survey by the wedding planning website Zola found that a majority of couples were doing some ideating about their wedding day, like creating a mood board or curating a registry, prior to a formal engagement. But the smaller percentage of those who went so far as to decide on a wedding date, book a venue and start a wedding website (where friends and family can check out wedding details) more than doubled by 2025. Here, couples discuss why they decided to tackle the 'I do' before the 'Will you marry me?' — and how it saved them from extra wedding stress. Why plan early A few factors played into Morales's decision to plan early. 'I knew it was going to be a destination wedding and I wanted to give people a full year's notice of when we were getting married,' she says. 'We also had a conversation about kids very early. … We would like to have our first kid when I'm 34, so we wanted the wedding in early 2026.' Then there's her job as a bankruptcy lawyer. 'The workload ebbs and flows a lot. There are months when I can't even go to a dinner,' she says. 'I wanted to make sure that there would be enough downtime in my job to take advantage of for planning, instead of having to do everything in the six months before my wedding when I can't control work.' Having ample time for wedding planning was her main concern. And with that under her control, she could leave the timing of her engagement up to Beqiri. Devin Short felt similarly. The 29-year-old, who lives in Westchester, N.Y., tells Yahoo that both she and her then-boyfriend Nick had already set their sights on a particular wedding venue in Florida, which she was anxious to secure. 'The venue is notoriously booked out in advance, and the place is special to us,' says Short. So, when she was sure by July 2022 that her partner was preparing a proposal — 'I knew he had asked my dad for his blessing and that the ring had been ordered' — she gave the place a call. 'I called to inquire about the next year, and they only had one date left in December,' she says. 'I really wanted a Florida-in-Christmas moment, so I asked for a contract.' Short and her mom immediately started working on getting more details of the big day together. Nick was aware of it, but not yet involved — he was busy putting together a proposal, after all. Once the venue was set, Short booked a wedding planner, as well as a photographer and videographer. 'I waited to pick our band because that was his one request,' she says. Both Short and Morales's priorities were in line with others who have gotten a head start, according to the 2025 Global Wedding Market Report by Think Splendid, a wedding consulting firm. Among 53,493 newlyweds who were polled, 31% started looking at venues before getting engaged, while 32% and 18% started the same process with photographers and wedding planners, respectively. Jenny McDonough, a Colorado-based planner and founder of Stargazed Weddings, tells Yahoo that getting a call from a couple that isn't yet engaged isn't out of the ordinary. 'People want to make sure that they get their preferred date, their preferred venue and their preferred photographer. And they have friends telling them that it books up quickly,' she says. Hence, most of those who get a head start on planning are specific about what they want. With less time comes less choice, in most cases, which is exactly what Caroline, 30, (who asked to keep her last name private) from New Jersey wanted to avoid. She and her now-husband Brendan had a particular date in mind for their wedding long before he proposed. 'We wanted our wedding to be on my grandparents' anniversary,' says Caroline, who planned to honor her family by getting married in their native Ireland. 'I also wanted my other grandmother to be at our legal ceremony [in the United States]. She was older, so we were racing a bit against the clock. … She was able to be there to witness before she passed away, which I'm extremely grateful for. Planning ahead of time gave me that sentimental moment.' 'Where's the ring?' Morales calls herself an 'open book' with family and friends, so when she and Beqiri discussed their February 2026 wedding two years ahead (and 10 months before they were even engaged), she shared the news. Her family was skeptical. 'I don't see a ring on your finger,' was the response she got from relatives who were wary of Morales being hurt. 'I had previously been in a seven-year relationship that didn't end up in a marriage, so they didn't want me to go through that again.' She was confident that this was different. 'I knew it was going to happen, I didn't feel any trepidation about any of it,' says Morales. 'It was just a matter of when, not if.' She attended a few wedding-related pop-ups and spoke openly about wedding planning in front of co-workers. 'People would be like, 'Where's your ring?' So I would find myself saying, 'Oh, it's getting cleaned,' even though I didn't have it yet,' she says. 'It can be kind of embarrassing when you go somewhere talking about your wedding and they don't see a ring on your finger. That's the first place that your eyes go.' However, that hasn't been a problem since Beqiri pulled off a surprise proposal to Morales last December. 'I definitely was surprised, and that was important to him,' she says. 'Although I knew it was going to happen, I didn't know the circumstances, when it would happen or what the ring would look like.' And better yet, the couple feels that they've been better able to enjoy the start of their engagement era because their plans for next year are already set. 'Most couples are planning right after they get engaged, and we had already done that stuff,' she says. 'Despite people being skeptical, at the end of the day, I was right. It turned out exactly how I said it [would], and it gave me more faith in myself and us as a couple too.' No stress or ruined surprises Caroline also says that the surprise of her early 2024 engagement wasn't ruined by wedding planning for six months prior. 'I let him plan [the proposal] on his own time,' she says. And data suggests that proposals aren't quite the surprise they're built up to be, anyway. Zola found that 53% of couples getting married in 2025 have shopped for rings with their partners, while 70% have discussed when they would be getting engaged. Asking 'Will you marry me?' is more of a formality. 'Even with all the planning, Nick managed to surprise the f*** out of me when he eventually did propose,' says Short. 'So it was a win-win because I was prepared, but also caught off-guard.' She has nothing but good things to say about planning early for her big day. 'I didn't stress about not having anything done, I had all my choices or preferences for vendors. I felt so in control from start to finish,' she says. 'It was the best choice ever.' Solve the daily Crossword
