Where to start with planning a wedding?

Hello and Happy New Year! It’s always such an exciting time in the wedding industry as the festive season brings an influx of enquiries from newly engaged couples. If you’re one of them - congratulations!! I imagine you’ve been drowning in champagne whilst taking every opportunity to flash that left hand at anyone who’ll notice… and so you should!

Photo by Sarah Vivienne Photography

Once the initial celebrations subside though… it’s time for the planning to begin.

So where do you start?

Your Wedding Vision

You may have a pinterest board that’s been in production for the past 5 years just waiting for it’s time to shine! Or maybe you have no idea how you’d like your day to look and feel yet. A great place to start is to sit down together and list the things that you both adore - favourite date night spots, hobbies, colours in your home, food dishes, places you’ve visited. What makes you both ‘you’? Forget wedding logistics for now, and let your creative minds wander!

Guest List

Write down all the people you want to share in your special day, This will give you an idea of numbers which will help with the next steps to come including costs, invites, dietaries etc. Don’t get too caught up in family politics at this stage - a rough idea will do for now!

Budget Plan

Start with a guide expense for each element of your wedding. All these costs should add up to your total wedding budget you have to spend. These are likely to change (up or down) but by keeping this up to date as you book suppliers, you’ll know where you can indulge more or cut costs to ensure you stay within your allocated budget. This can also be used to keep track of your suppliers’ payment schedules as each will have their own terms. Your budget should ultimately be a live document showing you total expected expenditure, current expenditure and remind you which suppliers need paying what and when.

Tip! – Set up calendar notifications to alert you when a supplier needs to be paid.

Timeline

Working back from your wedding date (or ideal month if you haven’t decided yet), make a rough timeline of decisions and actions that need to be made before then, Depending how long your planning process is, you realise that you have time to make decisions that are right for you both so don’t feel pressured into rushing things. However, your timeline will also help set you deadlines to ensure you stay on track so your lead up is stress free.

Tip! - By setting these documents up as separate tabs on one shareable document like GoogleDocs you can access it on multiple devices and ensure you’re both working from the latest version as it automatically updates. This avoids the constant “What version are you looking at?!” queries. You could also include a list of current actions needed and allocate them to help equally share the workload.

Photo by Natalie Lauren Photography

I simply can’t stress enough how much easier and enjoyable the planning process will be if you keep these documents updated. They will keep you on track with your time and budget to stop any feelings of overwhelm clouding the excitement of your wedding lead up. They are your sanity!