Felicia Albert owns the Countryside Bridal Boutique in Gardnerville. She is a graduate of Le Cordon Rouge Culinary School and has 15 years experience in the hospitality business, and is an active member of the Association of Bridal Consultants (ABC) representing Northern Nevada. As the daughter of a seamstress, she knew it was a golden opportunity to combine her hospitality and fashion-design skills when she bought a local bridal shop. Felicia can provide several different levels of service as a bridal coordinator depending on a couple's budget and how much time the bride has to devote to planning her nuptials.

"People that hire me for full coordination have their own business and don't have time to sit down on the phone and make all these phone calls,” said Albert.

"They give me a schematic of their ideal wedding and I put it all together for them. I then go meet with the client and the vendor that they may consider hiring. I do all the legwork.”

For those such as Yvonne and Sara who want to do much of their own wedding planning, Felicia offers an initial consultation to help a bride and groom set a budget for their wedding as well as a detailed timeline to make sure that everything is arranged, ordered and planned well ahead of time.

Once the budget is set, Felicia provides a list of local vendors who will fit within the budget and will interact well with the bride and whomever is helping her to plan the celebration. Felicia also specializes in "day of" wedding coordination services, which involve final preparations with vendors, the planning and execution of the wedding rehearsal and the overall coordination of the wedding day. Felicia usually spends about eight hours on the day of a wedding she is coordinating, a role which she describes as being, "the mom in the background so Mom doesn't have to work.”

During Sara Cinciala's winter wedding, Felicia did everything from making sure that vendors were doing everything just right to packing away all of Sara and Jeff's presents in the car and making sure that the champagne glasses were safely stowed away as mementos of a very special day.

Yvonne, Sara and Sara's fiancι Jeff decided that the Banquet Pavilion at the Genoa Lakes Golf Course was the right venue for the winter-themed wedding. The facility's elegant furnishings fit with the style and ambiance they wanted for the wedding, and the site could more than accommodate the 160 or so guests they anticipated hosting. Once they had decided on the location, it was time to sample the different options for the main course and appetizer menus. The groom and his family joined the Cincialas for the tasting which was one of Yvonne's favorite parts of planning the wedding. Since they own a local bar and grill, Yvonne and her husband David decided to host an open bar for the wedding.

One consideration for soon to be married couples is whether they wish to be married in a religious setting with a social reception to follow, or if they prefer to have the ceremony and reception at the same location. Either way, remember to coordinate with the minister or officiant before finalizing the date for the ceremony and reception. A wedding coordinator should have an extensive list of religious and secular officiants available to conduct the ceremony. Many wedding venues will also have a good contact list.

Once the January 2nd date was set and the location, food and bar options had been taken care of, Sara, Yvonne and Felicia still had plenty of work ahead of them. Once the menu has been chosen (many caterers and banquet facilities will offer different types of serving settings as well, banquet or buffet settings will have a different price per person than sit-down dinners) the number of invitees should be determined. Considerations include price-per-person as well as the capacity of the ceremony and reception sites. Keep in mind that even if you will be supplying your own wine, many places will charge a corkage fee for opening and pouring the wine.

Inviting friends and family to share in your special day
There are thousands of elegant, simple, even whimsical options for wedding invitations, stationary and other details to make each bride and groom's day unique and memorable. Remember that the invitation will create a first impression on your guests and will help to set the theme and tone of your wedding.

Sara Cinciala decided to be creative and create her own invitations designing them on a personal computer and printing them on a special wedding stationary. You may want to order or create thank you notes that match your invitations in order to share your appreciation for gifts received before, during and after the wedding. While many couples choose to invite only adults to a wedding, the Cincialas decided to include children on their guest list and according to Yvonne, all of the children that attended "had a ball,” at the wedding.

A bride and groom may want to choose a wedding registry to help guests, friends and family select just the right gift for the newlyweds. Recent trends in bridal registries reflect the more casual nature of today's family life. More practical items such as everyday dishes, barbecue grills, CD players and comfortable bedding are replacing five-piece china place settings and fine silver flatware. Stores such as Target, Crate and Barrel and even The Home Depot are becoming popular places for couples to establish a gift registry.

While a wedding site itself can help set the right mood for a wedding, the selection of flowers and a wedding cake help to evoke just the right atmosphere for the event and will create lasting memories for the bride, groom and all the guests. Wedding costs are increasing every year and floral arrangements can account for up to ten percent or more of a wedding budget. There are several options to consider in order to keep from breaking the bank.

First, consider selecting flowers that are "in-season' around the wedding to help keep the cost of bouquets down. Use candles, ribbons, or other items related to the wedding's theme as centerpieces rather than large floral arrangements. Finally, maximize the use of flowers by creating arrangements that can be used for both the ceremony and the reception.

Yvonne and Sara Cinciala used local florist, A Wildflower, for the wedding. Instead of selecting an archway for the couple to be married under, the bride and her mother chose a dramatic arrangement of flowers in oversized vases flanking the couple as they took their vows. Mother and daughter brought the bridesmaid dresses into the florist to get the colors just right.

There are almost as many choices for a wedding cake as there are for floral selections. Flowers and cake are good things to coordinate to help tie together a theme, color or overall evocation of the wedding day. There are selections of cake flavors, fillings, frostings, and of course, decorations. There are tiered cakes, layered cakes and uniquely shaped cakes. Some couples even choose to have multiple cakes such as an elegant bridal cake and a more informal groom's cake. Your cake vendor and wedding coordinator can help you decide what type of cake you want and make sure that there is enough cake to serve all of your guests.

Another important aspect to enhance the ambience of the reception is the selection of music and entertainment. Whether you decide to hire live entertainment or a DJ to coordinate dinner and dancing music, make sure that you spend the time to interview and select the right entertainment for your personal wishes. Make sure that a band or DJ understands and can accommodate everything you want from the song for your first dance to how you wish certain ceremonial events such as the cake cutting, toasts and the "bridal couples" farewell moment to take place. Be sure to coordinate with the wedding site to see if there are any volume or noise ordnance considerations before signing a contract with your entertainment vendor.

The Cincialas were fortunate enough to have an old family friend and professional lensman willing to act as the official wedding photographer. Most couples will not have the luxury of knowing a capable professional photographer who will create a wedding album, so it is very important to select a photographer who shares the same vision as the bridal couple. After all, the photographer is preserving the memories of the wedding for generations to come.
Wedding photographer Lorraine Mogab suggests that couples planning a wedding seek a photographer that they are comfortable with, and that can understand and execute their desires for a memorable album.

"First of all, they need to connect personality-wise with their photographer,” said Mogab, "the vision should be shared between the bride and groom and the photographer.”

Mogab, who owns the Carson City-based Lorraine Photography also suggests that couples interviewing photographers look at complete wedding albums that photographers have done from start to finish rather than just viewing a random collection of that photographer's best work.

"You want to see all aspects of the day,” said Mogab. "What does the posed photography look like? What does the fun photography look like?”

Mogab, who has been doing wedding photography for five years after a career as a photojournalist, meets with a bride and groom initially to get to know them personally and to get an idea of exactly what they want their wedding photos to reflect. If the couple chooses Lorraine as their photographer, she then reviews the entire wedding schedule in a subsequent appointment, making sure that she gets the names of family members and wedding party members and any important information on blended families and other potentially sensitive issues. She also scouts the location of the wedding to find the best shooting angles and light, and to avoid any surprises.

Mogab shoots over 300 images over the course of the wedding and then assembles all of the pictures (minus any that contain unflattering images and closed eyes) into what she calls "storybook albums" that present an unedited overview of all the days events.
Those who wish to preserve their wedding day with sound as well as visual mementos should consider hiring a professional videographer to shoot the entire event.

Eileen Starling and her husband Rolf have been working in the wedding videography industry for 26 years, literally growing up with the business. The finished DVDs that the Starlings produce for a bride and groom are a far cry from the shaky VHS tapes recorded by the bride's second cousin from the 12th row. The Starlings use multiple digital-video cameras (from two to four at the ceremony and two at the reception) and up to six wireless microphones to capture the entire event, including the things the bride and groom never knew happened at their own wedding.

One of the Starling's recent customers asked Eileen, "where was I? I don't remember any of this!”

Once the digital video has been shot, the Starlings edit all of the sights and sounds and create DVDs for the bridal couple and their families. Starling says that wedding videography is fast becoming a must-have service for those planning their nuptials as it preserves the sights and sounds of the wedding for generations to come.

"We have clients that call us after they have kids,” said Starling, "and their kids love it because they never got to see Mom and Dad get married.”

Today's bride has an incredible array of choices when it comes to what she will wear in her wedding. From the "traditional" white satin gown to funky duds related to a theme or destination wedding, many bridal shops and boutiques such as Felicia Albert's Countryside Bridal carry "everything from A to Z.”

Felicia recommends that a bride try on at least five completely different dress styles to decide what looks best on her. The dress should be ordered at least four to five months prior to the wedding.

Most bridal shops want 50% of the gown's cost as a down payment and Felicia says that if a shop wants all the money up front that the bride should ask why. (Felicia cautions against paying any wedding vendors in full prior to the wedding so that if any vendor doesn't perform up to par or does not honor their contract, the bride and groom will have some financial recourse available to them.)

A bride should always leave extra money in the wedding budget (and plenty of time prior to the big day) for the inevitable alterations to the wedding dress. Once the bride has selected her wedding gown, she can then choose what she wants her bridesmaids to wear.

Sara Cinciala's bridesmaids wore dresses from Macy’s department store. According to Felicia Albert, the current trend is for a bride to allow her bridesmaid's a great deal of freedom in selecting their own dresses. "It's not unusual for brides to pick a color and allow bridesmaids to pick out a style that they are comfortable with," said Albert.

Again, make sure to have the bridesmaid's dresses selected at least ten to 14 weeks prior to the wedding and make sure that the bridesmaids pick them up and have any alterations made several weeks before the wedding.

The groom is responsible for selecting the formalwear for his wedding party, including himself, the groomsmen and any other family or attendants that will be part of the groom's party.

Selecting formalwear for a wedding used to be dictated by stringent rules relating to the timing of the ceremony. An evening wedding dictated a certain style while a morning wedding demanded a completely different length and color of jacket.

"Those rules are now pretty much thrown out the window,” says Mark Frady, the owner of Tux Town in Carson City. According to Frady, the important question these days is, "what do the bride and groom want everybody to wear?”

The majority of wedding formalwear is rented from a tuxedo shop, which can cause problems if the groom doesn't do some planning ahead of time. Many groomsmen travel from out of town to attend a wedding and thus there is little time for alterations or ordering replacement items if something doesn't fit or is the wrong style. Frady recommends finding a tuxedo shop that keeps a large amount of inventory on hand so that different sized tuxedo items are readily available before the wedding.

Another potential problem is that many out-of-town groomsmen get measured for their tuxedos at their local formalwear store. While this is a useful service provided by many tux shops for free, groomsmen should remember that a store that is not going to be supplying the actual wedding formalwear has no vested interest in the tuxedo actually fitting. In order to get the best possible measurements, Frady recommends calling ahead and scheduling a fitting with the store manager or owner.

When scheduling a fitting, Frady recommends, "avoid Friday as this is the busiest day, all the tuxedos are going out the door.”

Current tuxedo styles favor two or more buttons and the cummerbund has been all but been replaced by the vest, which now comes in literally thousands of different styles and colors. Designers such as Ralph Lauren, Perry Ellis and Oscar De La Renta each produce upwards of forty new styles a year so grooms have plenty of opportunity to select something unique to outfit their groomsmen in.

After months of planning, don't forget to enjoy the biggest day of your life. There will be many tiny details to fret over, but a wedding eventually emerges as a big picture full of little moments that are as spontaneous as they are indelible and rewarding. Let the wedding professionals do their jobs and enjoy your first day as a new couple.

As her daughter and new son-in-law were packing for a ten-day honeymoon on the island of Kauai, Yvonne Cinciala was getting some much needed rest the day after the wedding.

"I just worried about the whole thing. Are the flowers going to be pretty?”

In the end, "everything was perfect,” said Cinciala, "everybody complemented us on a gorgeous, elegant wedding, and they all had a ball.”