Know your MUAs from your MOBs, and your OOSs from your TOGs? Brides, you need this quick guide to wedding industry acronyms and abbreviations. Your fabulous suppliers will be very impressed if you throw some of these into your communications with them, and you’ll save a bit of typing time too.
MOB
Not a flash mob, nor a mobile phone, but the very important Mother of the Bride. Similar acronyms exist of course for MOG (not the feline variety, but your mother-in-law to be), and you can probably now guess our lovely FOB and FOG.
OOS
The Order of Service booklet or document, which contains the order of the wedding ceremony including readings, music, and timing of vows and marriage declarations.
TOG
Nothing to do with your duvet thickness, but a much loved abbreviation for your very important wedding photographer. Plural: TOGS, who love this abbreviation themselves.
MUA
Any guesses for this one? Why, Make-Up Artist, of course!
F&B
This is the much used term in the hotel and hospitality industry to describe Food and Beverage. Hotels often have F&B departments and F&B Managers whose job is to oversee the menu preparation and food and drink ordering part of your wedding.
BM and MOH
Two very important people in your wedding day; your trusted Best Man and Maid of Honour.
FS
Your Function Sheet. This is the document which contains all the details of your day including timings, menu and drinks choices, set up requirements, supplier details and more. Your venue might well use a function sheet from the very beginning of your wedding planning to note all of the important details of your conversations as you go along. Usually you will be asked to sign and approve this function sheet (or event schedule as it’s sometimes called) a couple of weeks before your wedding day.
STDs
I know what you’re thinking, but noooo. This acronym refers to Save the Date cards. It is quite customary to send these out to guests as soon as the date for the wedding is confirmed and ahead of any formal invitations.
UKAWP
An acronym for the UK Alliance of Wedding Planners, our leading industry body for wedding planners. It’s a great resource for advice and guidance, and members of the UKAWP helped me compile this feature.
Guest post by Kelly Chandler
Image from Flickr by brett Jordan (CC BY 2.0 license)