Wedding Advice Archive

BIG congratulations to the couples who just got engaged! Here are your top to-do’s (after you call every person you know to spread the good news):

1. Decide on the date or month of your wedding – If you are set on a particular date and it is a Saturday in May-September, you will have a more difficult time finding the perfect venue that isn’t already booked. If you have some flexibility with the date, you will have more options available to you.

2.  Budget – If you will be working within a certain budget, determine the overall estimate before looking at venues and booking vendors.

3.  Schedule an appointment at StudioWed to help get you started in the right direction. We have extensive knowledge of  wedding venues and vendors across the state to get your planning process started. If  you need more assistance with venues and budgets, now is the time to hire your wedding planner. An experienced wedding planner is a huge asset while you are looking at venues. Decor ideas, logistics and price crunching by an experienced professional will help you find the venue that best fits your style, budget and your vision.

4. We would love the opportunity to meet with you, hear about your wedding ideas and see how we might be able to assist in creating your dream wedding day. Give us a call today at 303.455.0969 or email us at denver@studiowed.net.

Aside from the fabulous flowers, great food and other wedding details, we don’t want to forget one of the most important aspects of the wedding, the marriage license.

A Colorado marriage license may be issued in any county and used in any county in the State of Colorado. However, the license must be used within 30 days from the date of issue. The license is issued the day it is applied for and may be used immediately. The fee for a marriage license is $30 and must be paid with cash.

Both male and female applicants must appear in person to complete and sign the marriage application. If one party cannot appear due to illness, is out of state, or incarcerated, he or she must obtain an ABSENTEE APPLICATION from the Clerk and Recorder’s office. The party applying must bring the absentee application along with identification for the absent party. Applicants need not be residents of Colorado. ABSENTEE APPLICATIONS MUST BE NOTARIZED.

If either party has finalized a divorce within 30 days of applying for the marriage license, the final decree must be produced. This decree must be signed by the judge or court referee. If the divorce has been final more than 30 days, divorce information must be given regarding date of divorce, place of divorce and court in which the divorce was finalized.

A marriage may be solemnized by a judge of a court of record, a public official whose powers include solemnization of marriages, or in accordance with any mode of solemnization recognized by any religious denomination or Indian nation or tribe. As of August 1993, a couple can solemnize their own marriage without any type of officiant. That’s right, you can perform your own wedding ceremony without an officiant in Colorado and it is legal. You can read more about wedding and marriage license requirements on the City of Denver website.

“All of my unconscious fears were in my face about letting go of the current identity. A lot of the thoughts that came up were fear-based and false, so I had to work to let them go.” – Alanis Morissette from her Interview

Alanis Morissette, as millions of fans well-know, is a most extraordinary musician and human being. She possesses that rare combination of strength and humility that allows her songs to shine the light of consciousness and offer a lifeline of hope without being dogmatic. Her commitment to her personal growth is evident; her commitment to the healing of the planet is inspiring. And for her, there’s no difference between the two, as she says in the interview: “Evolution and the growth of love are synonymous.”

The core of my work with transitions is about helping people heal the fear voices and faulty beliefs that interfere with their ability to evolve in love. We live in a culture that tries to sidestep or deny the inexorable presence of change. We move quickly, talk quickly, work quickly, and keep busy to avoid to grief, fear, disorientation, and loneliness that live inside every conscious life transition. For in order to step into the new life – whether it’s a new city, a new job, a marriage, parenthood, or retirement – we must be willing to let go of the old lifestyle and identity. Alanis speaks to this process in the above quote, as well as in many of her songs. The dovetailing of her work and mine will be the topics of the next seven posts.  You can read the read of the post  and listen to my interview with Alanis Morrisette at Conscious Wedding Blog.

By Sheryl Paul, Author of The Conscious Bride

I’m a bit in awe of fear. I don’t meant that I bow down to it anymore, but I’m continually amazed at how creative and convincing its voice can be, especially when we’re caught in its grasp and working hard to loosen the fingers that keep us stuck. Once we reveal Fear’s illusion (and I capitalize it to convey that it really is like a character in our psyche), I actually feel a little sorry for this part that has to work so hard to keep us separate from love and truth and joy. It’s like the end of the “The Wizard of Oz” when the curtains are pulled back and the great voice of Oz turns out to be a vulnerable little man. Fear talks a good talk but once we expose its lies, it shrinks to its actual puny size and slinks away.

Over the weekend I received a lovely email from a woman who wrote to thank me for my Conscious Weddings work. When she initially contacted me in April she had written (with her permission):

A few weeks after I got engaged I found your book and found it so helpful and comforting. While I’ve been working through the doubts and fears, they have resurfaced now that we have less than three months to the wedding. Taking this as a sign that I still had work to do, I’ve begun the journaling technique you suggested. I write down my fears and then write to find reasons that those fears are irrational or rational. I have not found a reason that the fear that is concrete. But I am still very anxious and am having trouble trusting myself.

My biggest fear is that I will have doubts the day of the wedding and be scared to walk down the aisle. How can I learn to trust that this is the last phase of the process and not think that this is a sign that I shouldn’t marry? Do you have any advice on this “day of wedding” fear?  Click here to read the rest of this post and response on the Conscious Transitions blog.