Five Quick Tips with Carley Roney, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheKnot.com

Photo Credit: Daniela Stallinger

I am so excited for today's Five Quick Tips from Carley Roney, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheKnot.com. Carley and her husband David started The Knot after planning their own wedding and seeing a need in the marketplace for online resources for brides. Women like Carley are among my wedding industry role models --  having started with a core business and then truly built it into an empire! TheKnot.com changed the way brides plan weddings, and in addition, it has made it seamless for guests to give couples gifts.  About five years ago, they acquired their biggest competitor, WeddingChannel.com.  They also have expanded their community and now stay relevant to couples after the wedding through their sister sites TheNest.com and TheBump.com.

Without further ado, here are Carley's Five Quick Tips:

1.  Start organized; stay organized. Whether you’re hiring a planner or going DIY, you’ll save yourself a lot of stress if you get off on the right foot.  There are fantastic resources online to manage everything you need from budgets and checklists to guest lists and registry, ensuring no detail goes unturned. My favorite new little gadget is the Scan & Add iPhone app from GiftRegistry360.com, where you can add items from anywhere to one, complete, ultimate registry list that’s all your own!

2.  Bounce ideas off other brides. Hop onto Twitter, Facebook and community message boards to get those creative juices flowing. I know you want to share every intimate detail with your bridesmaids, friends and family, but unfortunately not everyone is as excited to talk about chiavari chairs as you are.  The beauty of message boards is that other brides love this stuff.  They’re going through the exact same things and can be a really supportive sounding board, even if you only need to bitch about your future mother-in-law.  And who doesn’t love making new friends?!

3.  Trust your own intuition. This is your one and only wedding day, and its style should be uniquely yours (and your fiancé’s!). Your families will inevitably want certain things and while you should definitely be open to compromise, keep in mind that your wedding is an expression of yourself as a couple.

4.  Take a moment during the reception to grab your new hubby, step back away from the dance floor and just take it all in. It’s so easy to get caught up in working the room that you forget to simply take pride in the killer party you’ve planned. Even if for a minute or two, it’s worth the memory of seeing everyone enjoy themselves.

5.  Remember what’s most important – your future as husband and wife. My dear friend Marcy Blum has a great motto: “You’re not getting wedding-ed. You’re getting married!” Keep in mind that you are starting a life together, not just planning an event. Brides, be good to your grooms. And grooms, be good to your brides! Some tension between the two of you (and among members of your family) is inevitable due to the sticky subjects that weddings stir up, but don't ever let things get out of control. Remember why you decided to take this leap in the first place!

Carley answered a couple more questions about her wedding....

What was your favorite thing about your wedding?
Dancing, drinking and laughing with our favorite people in the world!

If you could change one thing about your wedding, what would it be?
Hmmmm… advanced planning! David (my husband and co-founder of The Knot) and I originally planned on eloping, but friends convinced us we would be happier having friends and family around. So we decided to go for a traditional wedding. Well, sort of. We were young, naive, know-it-alls, and this led us to pick a wedding day about 25 days from the date we decided to get married. ‘How hard could it possibly be?’ we thought. You pick a place, call a florist, tell your friends and order the food. Done. Let’s just say, the wedding was a bit of a disaster… and that’s actually what sparked our idea for TheKnot.com!

Thank you, Carley, for these fantastic tips!

If you would like to be featured in our Five Quick Tips column, please contact me at info AT amynichols DOT com.