Money and Time Management tips:

Get a joint credit card for you and your fiancé that earns you frequent flyer miles. Use this card just for wedding purchases. This will help you keep track of all of your expenses and earn miles for your honeymoon at the same time. The majority of florists, photographers, and reception locations now take credit cards.

Ask your travel agent about "honeymooners" insurance. The cost varies based on your destination but can help safeguard your honeymoon investment from weather disasters, medical emergencies, theft, etc.

Send out a "Save the Date" note to your out-of-town guests in your holiday, birthday, and Valentine's Day cards. This will help save on postage and guarantee people will read this information as they are being wished a happy birthday or happy Valentine's Day.

Create an e-mail distribution list for your bridal party that updates them monthly as details, times, and locations change, keeping them well informed in writing.

Weigh your wedding invitation in its entirety before buying postage. With the addition of various maps and hotel information, invitations may surpass the required weight limits and you, not your guests, will be getting your wedding announcement.

Planning Tips:

Make a master list of all of your guests prior to sending out your wedding invitations. On each of the reply response cards put a small number (in pencil) on the back of the card identifying which response card went to which guest. This will ensure when you receive your response reply cards that you know who sent them back to you. Often people forget to say who they are on the card but that they will attend. This way you know that response reply #7 was Aunt Joan and her husband Tom... who knew?

Worried about the forecast, try www.weatherplanner.com for your up-to-the-minute St. Louis forecast. Just type in your zip code and pray for sunshine!

Make sure you have your calligrapher lined up prior to sending out and ordering your wedding invitations. Weddings come in waves and calligraphers can only handle workloads on a case by case basis. Also, don't forget about the place cards, they too need to be done by a calligrapher.

Tasty Tips and Tidbits:

Create a special "signature drink" in place of champagne and use it at your rehearsal dinner for toasts and well wishes. Name this drink, for example, infamous "Morgan Wedding" drink. Print the ingredients of the drink on the back of each place card as a keepsake for guests. All of your guests will now know what to serve you to drink when you come to dinner to show off your honeymoon pictures.

Put a small star on the back of specific place cards (mother of the groom, favorite aunt) these stars will designate who gets to take the centerpiece flowers home at the end of the evening. This is a nice way to give a gift of thanks to certain special guests.

Use the leftover food from your rehearsal dinner to create box lunches the next day for the groom and groomsmen. Men traditionally drink too much at the rehearsal and forget to eat the next day. For the bridesmaids, we suggest catering high-energy, low-calorie salads and sandwiches to munch on while they are having their makeup and hair done.

Health, Fashion and Life Tips:

Schedule a night each week that you and your fiancé do "non-wedding" things, a time for the two of you to reconnect and remember why you fell in love...

Every bride willingly gives up her garter during the garter toss, but you should remember that you may need two garters - one to throw at the wedding and one to keep as a sentimental souvenir.

A must for the bride: visit your OB-GYN for appropriate antibiotics that may come in handy if that ever-dreaded UTI occurs during the honeymoon. It's better to be safe than sorry when you're in the middle of an island and agony strikes!

Do you have some great tips or bride ideas for brides to be? If so, write the editor of Saint Louis Bride Magazine to share your own hints and information.

This article was contributed by Saint Louis Bride Magazine, working in partnership with Wedding-Club.com. If you have questions or comments about this article, please email their editor at nancy.slade@wheremagazine.com.