3) Budgetize: Put together a real budget for your event. What funds do you have available? What extra funds will be accessible by the wedding date? What funds and contributions will you be able to count on from your family? You do not want to begin your married life with a huge debt from your wedding, so be realistic about where your funds will come from. You should now have a good idea of what money you can comfortably afford to spend for this event. Now comes the reality check, you may need to make some major changes to fit everything into the budget. Things like cutting the guest list, cutting out the limousine, or maybe postponing the honeymoon till next spring. But we’ll get to that a little later. Next…

4) Research: Before you spend one penny on anything, and I mean anything, you need to do your homework. Start with the most important item on your list and go down the list in order of importance. Find out three or four real quotes on price for everything on your list. Most importantly, make sure that you understand everything included in the price quoted. If the venue gives you a quote, ask what is included. If the caterer gives you a quote, you need to understand what is included, how much, and for how long. Do they have tables and chairs and how many? Do they have china, silverware, and linens? Or is that extra? Don’t give anyone a deposit until you have a good ballpark price on everything on your top-ten list. Remember to shop, shop, shop around. Once you have done your research, list everything out by price, and then add it all up. This figure will now give you a realistic budget. It is also imperative that you take a look at anything that needs to be included in this budget that was not included before and add that in at this time as well. This is the reality of what the wedding you want may cost. Now you need to determine if this is within your reach or if we need to begin to trim your expectations.

5) Decide: It is now time to come down to earth and look at where you stand. If you feel that you have plenty of money in the budget for everything you want, great, let’s start planning. If it appears that you will come up short, we will need to go back to step one, make adjustments, and work our way back down the list. Many times cutting back may just mean that instead of Gold Chivari chairs, you need to settle for white folding plastic instead. Or instead of layered linens with toppers, you may need to be happy with single-layer linen. These are places that can be cut back and nobody will ever know you cut. This may be painful for some of you, but you may find that it really puts things into perspective, gives you parameters, and makes some decisions easier. Most important, once you have set up your very realistic budget, stick to it.

Nancy Hoffmann-Allison is a Certified Professional Wedding Planner, the instructor for The Wedding Planning Institute’s How to Become a Wedding Planner certification course at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas, and the founder of Allison’s Events, a full-service, award-winning wedding and event consultation and design company.

Nancy Hoffmann-Allison has turned a lifelong love of art and cooking into a successful business that began as Hoffman & Company Catering and then evolved into Allison’s Events, a full service wedding and event consulting and design company that has won awards from The Knot Magazine, Austin Wedding Day Magazine, and the International Special Events Society of Austin, Texas. After studying Art and Art History at the University of Arkansas, Nancy began her career by learning banquet and club management while working for Hilton Hotels.

Turning that experience and her mother and grandmother’s cooking lessons into Hoffmann & Company Catering in 1989, Nancy spent most of the next two decades planning, designing, cooking, and presenting her catering menus at thousands of events. Along the way, she mentored students from local high schools and culinary arts schools. Many of her employees started their careers as her apprentices.

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As a Certified Wedding Planner in a tough economy, diversifying your revenue streams is often a necessity of survival. Beyond expanding your services menu to include multiple service level packages and ala carte offerings, sometimes you need to plan outside the proverbial box. Think: pet weddings.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

On that measure, America is doing just fine. According to the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association, we are spending over $43 billion dollars on our pets this year. Of that, $3.2 billion is being spent on services outside the initial pet purchase, food, supplies, and veterinary care.

While not an exclusive American province, pet weddings are gaining traction in our culture as a way to celebrate our love for our four-legged friends. Puptials, as they are often called, have been held to raise money for animal shelters, staged to attempt world records, hosted at famous luxury hotels, or planned to simply find a play date.

Pet wedding officiants range from the Reverend Tyker, a miniature schnauzer ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church, to human officiants providing “heartfelt, tail waggin’, light-hearted ceremonies with personalized puptial vows”.

A 2006 survey by the American Kennel Club reports that one-third of women and nearly one-fourth of men would date their dog if it were human. This love we have for our pets is evolving beyond including them in our own wedding celebrations to holding ceremonies for the dogs themselves.

As a CWP delving into the world of animal matrimony, there are several resources you can tap to deliver the dream. When planning a puptial service, keep in mind the special dietary needs of the betrothed. Wedding attire will also present a challenge, although pet tuxedo sizing charts and pet wedding dress up programs can help. To capture the memories, be sure to consult a seasoned pet wedding photographer.

Whatever your quadruped client’s desires, you can find a service provider to help you plan the best pet wedding possible. It may not be one of the most expensive, such as the 1996 union of two rare “diamond-eyed” cats named Phet and Ploy that cost over $16,000 and was attended by 500 guests. It may not be one of the largest, such as the hundreds of pet owners in Bangkok, Thailand hitching an impressive variety of animals together just before Valentine’s Day.

But with some research, creativity, and a respectful understanding of Immanuel Kant’s assertion that we can judge the heart of a person by their treatment of animals, you can help your client and their pets realize their wedding dreams.

As a Certified Wedding Planner in a faltering economy, you are going to be challenged by most bridal clients to perform miracles. More and more couples are asking for you to deliver the moon and stars on very down-to-earth budgets. Some of your potential clients are taking matters into their own hands and planning their weddings themselves. Your job is to provide creative and cost-efficient solutions that deliver the dream while respecting the budget.

There are dozens of Internet resources that will allow you and your client to identify areas in which you can save money while providing the wedding goods and services desired. Entire websites are dedicated to low budget weddings, bridal gowns, invitations, and DIY options. Your value to the budget-minded betrothed lies in your ability to cut through the clutter of cost-cutting advice and help your client find the best local choices that fit their needs.

As in the best of times, your research and knowledge of your local market are keys to your success in tough times. Your ability to locate the best quality and prices for the invitations, wedding cake, decorations, photography, venues, or honeymoon in your area will directly impact your business’ bottom line in this financial environment.

Brush up on your bartering skills, invest some time in developing your budget mindset, and communicate with your clients how their existing connections and relationships can be turned into wedding day gold. Otherwise, the results for you may be fewer clients and the results for the bride and groom may be nothing short of disastrous.

For the International Certified Wedding Planner, the world is your canvas. But with financial markets struggling, there are signs the traditionally recession-resistant wedding industry may be starting to feel the strain domestically and globally.

While many sources, including the latest State of the Industry Report published by The Wedding Report, indicate the wedding market is steady, we are seeing evidence that the credit crunch and overall financial fears are causing many international couples to scale back their planning.

For instance, the Hawaiian wedding industry is reporting a drop in Japanese couples travelling to the islands for their nuptials. Meanwhile, the Filipino tourism industry is competing with Japanese traditional and non-traditional venues for that business.

Other industry news is more optimistic. In Australia, the local wedding industry is described as buoyant. In India, on the heels of a 25 to 30% annual growth rate, optimism for the wedding market is spurring the creation of an around-the-clock Hindi wedding channel. The Wedding Services Guild in Spain is holding the first Wedding and Celebrations exhibition in the southeast coastal town of Orihuela. Tours, France recently hosted forty young Chinese couples for their dream weddings.

Even in these tumultuous times, the Certified Wedding Planner is a well placed to succeed in the international market. With a U.S. domestic market estimated by The Wedding Report to reach well over $400M in wedding planner feeds this year and growing interest in the business of wedding planning overseas, the creative and diligent planner can succeed anywhere she or he desires.

Same-sex marriage has been legalized by the Connecticut Supreme Court. As with earlier rulings, the decision was split, 4-3, reflecting the ongoing battle between the forces pushing to allow gay couples the right to marry and the forces pushing to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Connecticut joins California and Massachusetts as the only states where same-sex marriage is legal. Even so, next month’s elections feature votes in California, Florida, and Arizona on state constitutional amendments that would define marriage as only between a man and a woman and thereby make same-sex marriages illegal.

At the same time gay marriage was being legalized in another American state, a similar measure was reportedly rejected in Portugal and accepted in Ecuador. While the issue of gay marriage rights isn’t holding the same prominence in headlines as in past election seasons, it continues to be a hot button issue around the world for those most affected by its competing resolutions.

For the Certified Wedding Planner, the decision in Connecticut, as did similar rulings in California and Massachusetts, will most likely lead to an upswing in business with gay couples wanting to celebrate their unions and make their commitment to each other official.

Each month, researchers at The Wedding Report, Inc. compile the top 10 wedding consumer and industry trends from consumer and vendor feedback. Today, we highlight the latest trends and how they have evolved from previous months.

In keeping with the economic concerns everywhere, couples are continuing to set lower budgets and stretch their money using do-it-yourself solutions to wedding decorations and services. These include utilizing buffet meals, amateur photographers, mp3 players, and off-peak wedding times and settings.

Here is the list of overall September Trends. Keep these in mind as you are working with bridal client prospects who are concerned not just with the details of their wedding plans, but also with the size of their wedding budget.

1. Holding weddings on off-peak days, times, and months is more common

2. Budgets are shrinking and couples are looking for bargains

3. Do-it-yourself projects are replacing wedding products and services

4. Using iPods and mp3 players for music is trendy

5. Outdoor weddings are very popular

6. Couples and guests prefer buffet reception dinners over sit-down meals

7. Photography is more often done by amateurs, friends, or family members

8. Brides are spending less on wedding gowns

9. Bright, bold colors are fashionable

10. Destination weddings are becoming more popular

You can download the full report PDF for free at www.TheWeddingReport.com by setting up a free subscription. This resource also offers paid subscriptions that allow access to very detailed statistic and trend information that can be invaluable for the Certified Wedding Planner.

Planning a wedding can be stressful even for an experienced Certified Wedding Planner. With the current economic state of affairs, many brides are choosing the do-it-yourself approach to planning their nuptials. While we strongly recommend every bride at least consult a professional planner to get their plans on track, many feel they have more time than money. Unfortunately, this often leads to mistakes and undue stress leading up to their most important day.

As a Certified Wedding Planner, it is your job to let your bridal client prospects know the benefits of your services versus the costs of going it alone. One way you can ease the concerns of the DIY bride is by offering free advice on the overall planning process.

Tia Albright of WeddingChannel.com has written articles giving advice to brides on how to reduce their stress level during the wedding planning process. Her articles can be found on theknot.com and South Carolina’s TheState.com. These helpful tips can be used to introduce potential clients to the knowledge and value you have as a Certified Wedding Planner.

Take Ms. Albright’s advice, add your own wedding stress busters, and create a handout or Web page that you can use to show your prospects that you understand what they are going through.