by Samuel Johnson

Created on: March 08, 2008

The wedding. It's a day we all look forward to in our lives. It's one of the few experiences that has the power to either validate or completely discredit the way we have been living our lives and what we have done up to that point.

Most men have a bad reputation for being uninvolved in the wedding process beyond providing flowers and saying " i do ". The truth of the matter is that most men are as excited as their wives to be about the wedding day unless they only happen to be there by way of a shotgun wielding father jabbing them in the back with the business end of a twelve gauge in which case their willing participation is neither relevant or considered.

For the men who do want to be there and believe that their wedding day should be the most amazing day of theirs and their wives lives, here are some tips for planning the big day.

1) Don't rush it. Set a day in the future that will allow you and your spouse to be to book the church, chapel or other location that you both want that can make your marriage ceremony a memorable, magical, special experience you will both always remember. Be patient if it might take a while for the location to become available because not only does it give you plenty of time to plan the other aspects of your wedding, but you have been together up to this point, waiting a little longer for the perfect spot wont harm things.

2) Write your guest list and commit to it. Weddings are by their nature an expensive, formal event and a wide variety of accommodations must be made ready for and contingencies taken into consideration. One of the most important things your guest list will affect is your wedding reception menu. It should include a both beef and chicken menu choice as well as a vegetarian option for those who do not eat meat. Give yourself and your fiancee a set number of guests and lock it in stone.

3) Make sure you're there for her, guys. We might not be this way but a large percentage of women spend their entire lives planning their wedding to be perfect, and as a good friend of mine says; we, the grooms are only a last minute detail. Listen to your fiancee and consider her opinions carefully before you make a recommendation to her about the wedding. Not only can poorly thought out suggestions cause friction between the two of you but it can genuinely hurt her feelings. Asking her to marry you may have been difficult but it was more difficult for her to say yes.

4) I cannot stress this enough. COMMUNICATE COMMUNICATE COMMUNICATE! She might have been planning her wedding from the time she was a toddler leafing through her mothers photo albums of wedding pictured as her grandfather sat in a recliner cleaning his twelve-gauge but she wants the ceremony to be perfect for both of you and wants to feel like you're involved in the experience. She is going to want it to reflect both of you.

5) My last and final tip, remember the five P's: Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Have a backup plan and a backup for the backup plan.

When taken into consideration, all of these tips will help you to become a more active partner with you're fiancee in the planning of your wedding. It will allow the two of you to become closer and will make your wedding a much more intimate experience if it reflects both of your personalities.

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