So you have chosen to have a wedding in town. You have been watching all the latest reality shows dreaming of that perfect wedding. Clearly as these shows have demonstrated with $5000.00 and a few friends you should be able to put on a lavish affair. But wait who is that helping the friends and family put this affair together.

It's a wedding coordinator who is directing the picking out of the wedding dress, the location of the wedding, the color pattern of the event. She or He is directing everything these friends are doing. Now how much does that cost, and can I afford one.

That is a generally easy answer, the reality shows that you see have a top-notch wedding coordinator who will run you in the neighborhood of $150 an hour in a rural setting and upwards of $500 in a large city. These ladies and men know their stuff, where to get the best deals on items, what the current trends are for weddings. What the groom should do, what responsibilities everyone in the party has down to the friend who supervises the wedding book.

So again how much for that wedding that you see on the TV show. Making a couple of assumptions, you can easily see that the wedding coordinators on these shows would charge you somewhere in the neighborhood of ($7500 rural $25000 city) if they performed the same service for you that they perform on the television shows. So how do you get this same level of service for pennies on the dollar.

First item on your task list is researching the things that you can do on your own. Visit internet sites such as http://www.bridalblog.info and http://www.travelblogger.com to gather information from other brides and grooms. These sites are indispensable when it comes to understanding what others are doing to trim costs from the wedding. They also give you ideas to use in your wedding and for your honeymoon.

Secondly talk with wedding coordinators in your area and look for day of packages. Many of the coordinators will give you these packages and then perform much more. From personal experience these packages are probably the brides best value and will range from ($250 - $1500) depending on the services that you select. The bride/mother-of-the-bride/and groom can all rest assured that the wedding day will flow smoothly. This will relax the bride to enjoy the day of the wedding and the complete event.

So be frugal and do most of the work yourself. The total coordination package can easily be put together by the Bride and Groom if they plan ahead. Contact your local wedding coordinators and ask them about the day of packages.

Finally enjoy your time planning the wedding it should only come around once in your life.

Charles Cater