This is a guest post by Mike, one of the guys at Groom Groove, a site recently featured in the New York Times that dishes wedding information and advice for grooms, the best man and groomsmen, from a guy’s perspective.
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Modern grooms are getting more involved in wedding planning. (Yes, even your own.) Below are some wedding planning tasks that got me stoked when I got married, and might have the same effect on your fiancé. Aside from the short list below, the trick is to help your guy understand the duties of the groom. He’ll find lots of options that will allow him to tap into his creativity and get involved.
The mystery honeymoon
My wife and I are a match because of a mutual love of international travel. (The year before our wedding, we backpacked through Central America.) For our honeymoon, we opted for a relaxing lay-on-the-beach vacation, with a twist. My wife agreed to my idea of keeping our honeymoon plans a total surprise for her until we got to the airport. I told her only what to bring, and not where we were going. (And they say marriage is about trust – try a mysto honeymoon locale!) I picked the destination, booked the flights and accommodation, and planned the honeymoon activities. It was a great vacation, and the added mystery definitely spiced it up.
An education in wedding food options
I don’t consider myself a foodie, by any stretch. But as it turns out, I really enjoyed trying out the tasting menus from prospective reception venues. My fiancée and I turned each tasting into a “date” (Dating each other…remember that!?). The chef we chose picked out locally-grown carrots, tomatoes and other veggies from our local greenmarket on the morning of our wedding. (I was pretty ignorant as to how far most of the food we eat actually travels, and the benefit to the environment of going local.) In addition, it was my responsibility to plan a relaxing rehearsal dinner. In our case, I made shorts and flip flops mandatory, and coupled it with bite-sized international cuisine. It was the best party I’ve ever organized, and it was great to put my stamp on it.
Let him tap his inner design skills
I wielded a tabletop paper cutter to help make our homemade wedding invitations, and they were pretty cool. Regular readers at Brooklyn Bride will know that wedding invitations don’t need to have frilly fonts and pink paper, as these truly awesome save-the-dates demonstrate. Creative type or not, your fiancé will appreciate save-the-dates or invitations that aren’t from the Victorian age. I’d bet he’ll create a cool design.
We’ve been playing with cars since we were two years old
I took care of the wedding transportation for our wedding – which consisted of renting a trolley bus for our guests bringing them from the wedding site to the reception venue. At GroomGroove.com, we frequently hear of guys finding cool antique cars, BMWs or horses and carriages. Your man will actually enjoy dealing with the how, when and where of getting around, assuming you won’t be using your feet.
Just as Brooklyn Bride is all about modern weddings, in a modern wedding your groom will get in the groove if you point him in the right direction. You’ll be glad you did.
Thanks so much Mike for stopping by Brooklyn Bride today…I’m sure some of the groom stalkers here appreciated the male point of view!
Hey guys…I’ll be away next week in hot steamy Las Vegas, but don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging. Audrey from Parcel Post will be taking over the blog with some amazing posts to keep you inspired! See you when I get back!