Beach Wedding Tips | Wedding Q&A

Well, hello, lovely humans, and welcome to Engage, a wedding planning podcast for the modern-day couple. I'm your host, Jamie Wolfer, and I truly believe that wedding planning does not need to be complicated or time-consuming. I kind of picture these episodes like jumping on a quick phone call with your wedding planner. You get your answers and you go on your merry way, because sometimes not all of us have an hour to dedicate to listening to super long podcasts or super long intros. So without further ado, let's just jump right on into it. Today's episode is actually an audio recording of one of my most popular YouTube videos. I don't know about you, but sometimes I just need to sit down and be able process through the audio without the distraction of a video. So we decided to take this sweet little nugget and turn it into a podcast for you. I hope you find this helpful, my friends. All right, next question. I'm getting married in the fall of 2025 and we are going for an eclectic and moody theme. Oh, are we inviting Jamie? Again with the third person. I want to have a unique look and I really want to incorporate an embroidered floral veil that reflects our colors. Should I order the veil early to take dress shopping, or find a dress first and buy a veil that complements it later? I would— well, unless you are like married, no pun intended, to a specific veil, I would wait and get the veil after you get the dress. Because you might end up getting a dress that's like, uh, a fingertip length would work better, or you might want one a little bit longer, but you don't really know until you get the dress. So unless you have, this is the veil, no one's gonna change my mind, come for me— unless you have that experience with a specific veil right now, I would just say don't worry about that. Get the dress first and then order the veil later. Sitting here listening to a podcast is all fine and dandy, right? But sometimes you need an actual person to be asking some of these questions to. And you may be sitting there going, you know what, Jamie, actually, yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense. I would love to be able to ask you these questions. Guess what? You need to join the Master Plan. You've heard me talk about it, but do you know why I love it so much? You get over 10 lessons that walk you through planning your wedding with videos and spreadsheets and other detailed resources along the way. Join me and my virtual clients over in the Master Plan and get all your wedding planning questions answered. Literally thousands of couples have gone on this journey with me, and I'd love for you to be next. Check it out at wolferandco.com TMP. That's wolferandco.com TMP. Listen, wedding budgets suck. They're just like the actual worst. And the hardest part for me is that weddings are not cookie cutter. They're not one size fits all. And I think it's important to make sure that you're budgeting according to your priorities. Build a budget that works with your vision, and you'll be on the path to planning a wedding that you really want. So if you want my recommendations for making your perfect budget for you and your partner, head on over to weddingpriorities.com. Um, I rented a house on the beach with the idea of having a beach ceremony and a house/rooftop reception. Charming. I want to have cocktail attire, and for what I'm learning, heels don't go well with the sand. No, they do not. My fiancé said we can have our guests take off their shoes for the wedding and put them back on for the reception. LOL. I don't feel comfortable doing that though. Is that even something that is okay to do? Do you have creative ways to handle this, or should I abandon the beach ceremony and have it on the rooftop instead? So I would say, uh, it's super common. Um, obviously growing up on the coast in California, for me, going barefoot on the beach, super normal. I have attended weddings literally on the sand. You just take your shoes off. The guys keep— some of the guys keep them on, but for the most part, people take their shoes off and send them under their seats and then just wipe their feet off before going inside. That's normal. If you want to tell people that the ceremony is going to be on sand, they can choose their own footwear. Um, so I would leave that up to them. Let them just— I mean, we all know they're adults. You can let them make the decision in this situation. So don't feel like you need to own that or make it perfect for them. And then lastly, I don't think you should do a rooftop ceremony instead because— but depending on how big this rooftop is, I mean, I know there's some pretty big beach houses, but Are you gonna have enough room for the ceremony and the reception to happen on the rooftop, or will you need to perform a flip? Because that's where things get kind of dicey, chaotic, hectic, or you have people sitting at their dinner tables while the ceremonies happen, which I don't recommend. People only have a real— they have kind of short attention spans on weddings, so if they're seated in the same spot for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and dinner they're going to kind of fizz out early. I have an opportunity to go to a lending library of sorts for a wedding gown. Oh, is this what we were talking about earlier, Kathy? Okay, okay, this is— this must be Kathy's question. It's likely that something— it's likely that something I choose will need alterations. If I'm going to have alterations done, what should I look for to minimize the amount of time, effort, and cost when choosing a dress that may need alterations? Better to choose certain fabrics over another, perhaps avoid lace Is it better to find something that is 1 or 2 sizes too big? I guess I'm asking what would make a dress too expensive or impossible to alter in a 2-month time frame. Fantastic questions. We are often encouraged to not go above 2 sizes too big because that— it's just a lot, and then the integrity of the dress shape doesn't stay, if that makes sense. So we're okay to take in a half inch or an inch here or there, but the second we get to like bigger sections and they're having to open up and fix individual— like, all the panels to get it, um, the ratio to work better, that's— that's a different story. So we've heard of people getting something that's like 4 or 5 sizes too big, and then they just create a nightmare for their alteration specialist. I also think that if you go off that guide, you can see what's the most expensive on that. In fact, I'm gonna pull this up because that's actually a good idea for me to have open right now, right? Right. Okay, let me take a look at this. Oh, and also, the gal on the first Paige, um, is my sister-in-law. Isn't she stunning? She's so pretty. I'm not biased, but my brother did good. They just had their second baby. Okay, so there's flat fees, uh, there's common alterations, which you'll find on page 4. Raising the hem, it could adjust based on the type of material. So you'll see chiffon for each layer is average cost $50 to $80. Cut edge, $20 to $70. Lace, $130 to $250. And this is just, again, raising the hem. Satin or silk rolled, the average cost is going to be $70 to $100. So you can see off the bat, lace is going to be the most expensive to raise the hem because you need to maintain that pattern. Adjusting the side seams, again, we got a pretty broad range. Adjusting the size of the skirt or bodice, not as big. Narrowing or reducing the area around the shoulders, adjusting the straps, Adding a bustle— this depends on the number of points and the type of material that you're using. So we have again a $30 to $170 range. Um, custom alterations— yeah, I would say I'm not even going to read through all these because this is going to be a lot, but you can see if you have— you need to insert bra cups, add straps, um, adjust the length of sleeves, adjust the hem, reshape the neckline, change the zipper, we're looking at hundreds of dollars here. So if it's a matter of— I would go down this list that you see on page 5 and 6 and see that, like, does this need beadwork done? Does it need to be pressed and steamed? Does it need a zipper? Does it need straps? Those sorts of things. And that will help you better narrow down, um, what you should be looking for. So it's almost like a, a reverse, a reverse search for this, if that helps. If you are struggling with wedding planning and you have questions and you just need someone to listen and to chat with, come join us in the Master Plan Community over at themasterplanwed.com. I would love to have you in there. Thanks so much for listening. If you haven't done so already, subscribe, jump on over to wherever you're listening to this podcast and leave a 5-star review so we can let the podcast people know that Jamie knows what she's talking about sometimes. And Until next time, bye guys!