Weddingjournalonline.com, the online version of Irelands largest Wedding Magazine - Ireland's Wedding Journal.

10 tips for a Happy Wedding If the fear of what could go wrong is getting your down, read on. WJ has compiled its top tips for carrying off a glitch free day…

 1. Just engaged?           
 
You may want to shout it from the rooftops, but tell the family first. There's nothing like a snubbed mother - ‘I had to hear it from the hairdresser!' - to set the wedding arrangements off on the wrong foot.

 2. That's a date             
Be wary of setting a date that clashes with a major sporting event. It's a brave bride who drags her sports-mad groom and his men away from the bar at half time for a dance.

 3. Just like Camelot     
Rather than number your tables on the seating plan - someone is bound to feel snubbed at being at table 8 rather than table 2 - give them names that reflect your interests or wedding theme.

 4. According to plan    
If your wedding is taking place in unfamiliar territory (such as abroad or in another part of the country from where you live), seriously consider hiring a wedding consultant. If you are not available to look at venues or go to menu samplings you can ask family or friends to go in your place but remember they are not necessarily looking at things with an objective eye. If you can convey your wishes to an experienced wedding planner, her or she can turn your dreams into a reality.

 5. Sure thing               
If you're planning a large, expensive wedding, consider wedding insurance. Policies typically cover non refundable deposits, wedding photographs, attire, gifts, jewellery, damage to rented property and serious disasters that delay a wedding, whether from death or illness or natural disasters.

 6. Midnight feast         
If your wedding reception is during the afternoon or early evening and guests will be drinking long into the night, there's nothing like a late-night feast of bacon baps, chips or thick slices of hot toast served with hot chocolate to help soak up the alcohol.

 7. Picture this              
When choosing your photographer, make sure the photographer who will be turning up on the day is the person who took the sample pictures you fell in love with. An unscrupulous business may show you the best work of someone with 25 years experience and then send a novice out to capture your big day.

 8. Thanks but no thanks 
Learn to say no (nicely) if family members start imposing their ideas. Do things your way, not your mum's or his dad's or the next door lady's. Try not to fall out with anyone but be firm about whose day it is.

 9. Boogie on down      
Take dancing lessons for a couple of months before the wedding. The look on everyone's face when you step up for your first dance and give a rousing rendition of the salsa or rumba will be a picture worth keeping.

10. Time out               
Don't eat, sleep and breathe your wedding. If the six months leading up to it are full of nothing but veils, ribbons, fittings and centrepieces you are heading for a big anti climax afterwards. Make a conscious effort to keep at least one day a week a ‘wedding free zone' when you go out and have fun the way you did before you were engaged.