I just celebrated my four year wedding anniversary the other day.  My wedding feels like yesterday and a world away.  In four short years wedding planning in Minnesota has grown, changed, and yet, has stayed the same.  One of the realizations I’ve come to in starting The First Dance is how expensive wedding advertising is for Minnesota wedding endors!  The national sites are overpriced or just plain inaccessible for many smaller Minnesota wedding vendors and the Minnesota print advertising is also tremendously expensive.  Couples complain how expensive their wedding is but you can EASILY spent as much as a couple does for their wedding on simply trying to advertise to the Minnesota wedding planning world.  This isn’t a good thing, folks.  More choices for you are a good thing, particularly for the Minnesota wedding vendors that have a low profit margin so that a $2,000 add is actually hundreds of sales to reclaim the ad cost.

So this brings me to www.go2wed.com and why I’m thrilled to be blogging and helping out.  One thing we have that nobody else has is affordable rates for vendors to advertise which…. drum roll…. means BRIDES AND GROOMS IN MINNESOTA have more options for more wedding vendors than anywhere else.  Particularly in Southern Minnesota , Minnesota wedding vendors finally have a place to share their goods and services to you, the engaged couple wanting as many options as possible.

Because we’re local in Minnesota (and Colorado!) we’re working on very exciting ways to come together, literally, to hang out.  I know how important and fun it is to compare wedding planning notes with other engaged Minnesota couples.  The large websites out there are just not helpful when it comes to regional issues.  For example, I put in my actual wedding budget and number of guests in a national website and the results of what I should spend and in what category had me laughing out loud!!  I had exactly $60 for my hair AND makeup, but had $75 for parents gifts?  If I had a budget that gave me almost no money for hair/makeup I don’t see why I’d be spending more on my parents than my own bridal appearance.  And when I was in New York City getting the Modern Bride Trendsetter award, we spent $60 for 3 deli sandwhiches – so the budgeting out of the east coast based national websites aren’t real useful for us midwestern Minnesotans.

Things are moving fast and furious here on go2wed.com so please check back often.  We’re literally working hourly, daily here making fun updates, coming up with great ideas and wanting to get your feedback.  We have “Fun stuff” on the site now – please check us out and give us your ideas… who knows, you may win free stuff for your ideas or meet potential friends in this transition to married life.

Yours in Minnesota blog land,

Elizabeth

So while I’m in the world of Minnesota wedding planning (since I live here, not Colorado) I have been delighted by the high traffic my site as received for couples seeking out premarital counseling.  Did you know only 44% of engaged couples report going through any form of premarital counseling (the couple could call one meeting with an officiant as premarital counseling)?  And we have research out the wazoo on how it can actually reduce the likelihood of divorce!

But I don’t blame anyone.  My father, a big marriage education, marriage therapist, and a family friend, the owner of PREPARE-Enrich, one of the largest premarital inventories offered around the planet, was someone I knew since I was 10.  And yet when I got engaged I had no idea where to find premarital counseling!  Duh!

I’m working on ways to connect with local Minnesota churches to offer our 2 hour premarital class.  My website is national so I’ll be working with Colorado churches too.  Our First Dance class is all about the family and couple dynamics of wedding planning and the response we’ve had is great!  Even grooms, one who did not even want to be there, got a lot out of what we say in the class.

 So folks – Minnesota couples – check out www.thefirstdance.com for Minnesota premarital counseling options (including the inventory, now available online for only $30), and Colorado couples – also check out the site.  We just have one counselor listed but we also have a telephone option.  There are more Minnesota therapists – including one in Rochester.

And a benefit of the therapists listed as premarital counselors on www.thefirstdance.com is they GET the family and couple stresses you’re under and will help you see how all this wedding planning madness relates directly to the stresses of married life.

Sorry for a heavy blog post! 

-Elizabeth

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