It is often said that those that do not plan, plan to fail. So it is with wedding planning. Never mind indifferent relatives, or a hard to please father in law. There are some items on a wedding planning list that must be planned ahead a minimum of six to eighteen months ahead. To repeat that - 6 to 18 months ahead. You know have between 180 to 540 days to plan and execute these vital wedding planning functions.

First and foremost of all your initial responsibilities as a newly engaged couple is to inform your families as well as close friends of your decision. In a traditional manner, the couple will tell or inform the bride's family first. Depending on preferences and custom the groom may ask the bride's father himself for the father's permission or blessing first. Or it may be to both of the bride's parents or even extended family. The next step is to inform the groom's families.

If the families have not met previously or been introduced, traditionally the groom's family arranges a get to together. In addition someone close to the couple will often throw an engagement party. The bride's parents often take responsibility for arranging the engagement party.

Once you make the wedding engagement official, it is best to decide tentatively with both families on the approximate date and a tentative venue of the wedding. The tentative venue - may be a geographic location, an actual physical location or both. Believe or not you now have to all agree on a rough estimate of the number of guests that will attend. Have fun. Involving parents in this process can be a most difficult and tiresome process of negotiations. In the end you may have to lay down the law or throw down the gauntlet. It will seem that every favor done to the parents in the parents will have to be repaid and reciprocated. Somewhere it will have to end. There always be someone who in the process will not be invited to the wedding.