Our Wedding Guide
Our Wedding Guide is written by a longtime wedding officiant: clear steps, honest budgets, and ceremony wording you can use. Start with what you need today, and skip what you don't.
Plan step by step Get the checklistFor the season of asking
Christmas and New Year’s are the most popular time of year to get engaged. Here is how to ask, how to share the news, and how to begin your first Christmas together.
Fifteen ways to ask this holiday season, including a twelve-day countdown that ends on Christmas Eve.
Plan the question
Twelve ways to ask as the year turns, and why you should ask just before midnight, not at it.
Ask at the countdown
Who to tell first, a gingerbread house reveal from our family contest, and card wording you can use.
Announce your engagement
Who to tell first, looking after the ring, the one conversation to have, and what can wait.
Start here after the yes
Sixteen ways to celebrate, cozy drinks, easy bites, and everything you need in one place.
Plan the party
Twelve traditions to start together, plus our gingerbread contest and the granddaughter nobody can catch.
Start your ownGetting married this winter? Candlelight, shimmer, snow people and a hot soup bar: see Winter Wedding Tablescapes for tables that feel warm on the coldest day.
See everything for Christmas →
Proposals, announcements, parties, gifts, first traditions and winter weddings, all on one page.
I have had the privilege of officiating at many different kinds of weddings, and everything I learned is in this guide. Here is the most important thing I know: there are really no must-haves when it comes to planning your wedding, except love. The rest is up to you.
More about David David's Take Ask DavidEach one is a complete guide, with supporting articles linked inside.
What to do first, what can wait, and how to make decisions without second-guessing them.
Start here
Every part of the ceremony, from processional to recessional, with example wording.
Build your ceremony
Decide who to invite, then track every invitation and RSVP.
Open the guide
What a wedding really costs, and where you can save.
Open the guide
Tablescapes, flowers, and themes for every season.
Open the guide
Write a toast, plan the engagement party, the rehearsal dinner, and the reception.
Open the guideMany weddings today have become elaborate and expensive. Don’t fall into the trap that you must have something, whatever the something is. Must-haves can cost a lot of money, and they are often based on tradition and expectations. Traditions are fine, and often beautiful. As for expectations? Whose expectations are we talking about? The decisions are yours.
It is easy for wedding planning to become centered around one person. Make room for both of you. Look for the parts of the wedding that matter to each of you, talk about them, and listen to one another. Your wedding is about two lives coming together, and the planning is one of your first chances to create something that reflects you both.
Your wedding is more than a destination. It is a point on a continuum that marks only one day in your life journey. Create it as an experience to be remembered by all and cherished by you.
Read the full welcomeTraditions and expectations · Focusing on the couple · Spirituality and meaning · A journey, not just a day
From the first welcome to the final blessing, find example wording for every part of your ceremony, and learn how to write vows that sound like you.
See the full ceremony script
Vows that sound like you, with an easy way to begin and examples to borrow.
Write your vows
Seven wedding charge examples from an officiant, and how to shape your own.
Read the examples
Who walks when and where everyone stands, with a simple diagram.
See the order
What to say as you exchange rings, from simple to traditional.
Find the wordsPrintable and editable planners, and a book we recommend.
Your guests come because they have been part of your life. This guidebook gives them a way to show it: ring warming, a circle of light, wishing hearts, golden message stones and twenty more ideas, each with what you need, how to set it up, and wording you can print.
See the paperback on AmazonSee the printable on Etsy
For the friend you asked to marry you: everything from "yes" to mailing the license.
See what's inside
Eighteen ceremonies written out from welcome to presentation: civil, Christian, symbolic, and one for love later in life. Choose one and make it yours.
See the paperback on AmazonSee the download on Etsy
A month-by-month plan so nothing gets missed.
See it on Etsy
Track every cost in one place so nothing surprises you.
See it on Etsy
Keep invitations, RSVPs, and meal choices organized.
See it on Etsy
Plain steps and fill-in pages for a toast you can be proud of.
See it on Etsy
My book for engaged couples: a step-by-step plan, ceremony wording you can use, and what long marriages teach.
See the paperback on AmazonSee the Kindle editionSee all printables and planners
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Plain talk from someone who's been there
Each month I take one question brides ask and give you my honest answer, usually with a story or two from along the way.
NewMy sister Sharon and her husband Dennis on what they'd tell a young couple getting married.
Read my take
I came into marriage with a credit card debt. Shannon came with a bedroom suite and a Pontiac. Why the money talk belongs early.
Read my take
The gift list nearly went wrong in our house this year. The five words that set it right.
Read my takeA real wedding
In July 2013 I had the joy of officiating at my son Matthew's wedding to Brittany. The sign at the end of the aisle said it best: “Choose a seat, not a side. We're all family once the knot is tied.” That is what this guide is about.
Photos: Michael Radford Photography
Create your wedding as an experience to be remembered by all and cherished by you.
Start planning