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Wedding Planning 101

Wedding planning can be very overwhelming and can cause a lot of tension between you and your family and especially between you and your future husband.  But, I promise, if you follow these guidelines, the tension levels will be reduced dramatically.  Your life doesn’t have to be color coordinated and alphabetized like mine is to keep this organized.  But I will tell you, organization is the best tool you can have!  Go to Staples and buy a BIG binder, decorate the front with pictures or anything you like.  Divide it up into these sections: Ceremony, Reception, Photography, Florist, Entertainment, Attire, Guest List/Favors, and Transportation.  Use this binder to keep your receipts, signed contracts, and pictures of what you want for your big day.  One great buy I made was The Knot’s Ultimate Wedding Planner, available on Amazon.com.  This book is a great tool to have.  It helps with the budgeting, etiquette questions, and it’s fabulous!  I highly recommend it.  ALSO, definitely make sure you start an account on theknot.com.  This is another great tool to have to organize your thoughts, introduce yourself to designers you never even knew existed, work on your checklist, and to help you step by step through the planning process.

-First and foremost, what would you like the overall theme of your wedding to be?  What kind of feel do you want?  Old fashioned?  Contemporary?  Modern chic?  This will be the foundation for the rest of the wedding.

Budget

-What is your budget and who will be paying?  Know what your budget is.  Once you have a rough estimate on your budget, you can start doing your homework and researching venues.  Deciding on a venue needs to be done early in the game, because places book very quickly.  Look at several locations, start a spreadsheet to compare the different price points of each venue.  Some places may say they’re a lot cheaper, however, you may find that they don’t include all that you want or what other places offer at a minimum.  The big ticket items (where you’ll see the price increase greatly) are the food and beverage minimums, room rental fees, and alcohol.  A lot of places have package deals, this can be a good deal, definitely check it out, but also look at the a la carte options as well.  If your guests are not big drinkers, the bottles of wine at the table may not be right for you.  In this time period of researching venues, you will also need to start working on your guest list.  Knowing approximately how many guests you will have may also help cut down your venue list.

-If you have friends that have recently been married, ask them for references.  All of my vendors, my photographer, my florist, my DJ, were all ones referred to me by people I know and love.  Using your friends for references is a great way to cut down on some of the research.  Look at their wedding albums, decide if you like the photographer’s work, and if you think the flowers were well arranged.  When you use a reference, most vendors are willing to cut you a deal.  They may not charge you for things they would normally charge a new client.

Color Scheme

- Decide on your color scheme.  I found that once I picked my colors, the rest of the wedding fell in place.  The invites, the bridesmaids’ dresses, the venue, everything all of a sudden just clicked.

Dress Selection

- Start thinking about what you want your dress to look like.  Cut pictures out.  Go to different bridal boutiques.  It’s never too early to start this process.  Depending on what designer you go with, you may find that there is a long wait for the dress.  One dress I liked was going to take 7 months to order because it was coming from Spain and had to go through customs.  That dress had to be vetoed because I didn’t have 7 months to spare.  Keep in mind, unless you’re having the dress custom made, you will need to get alterations done.  Depending on what needs to be done, this can be a long process as well.

- One thing you have to do with everything throughout this process is to go with your gut.  Your final budget is the main number you work with, you can move the numbers around in the different categories to make certain things work.  Everyone has heard about the PERFECT dress.  You put it on, it feels perfect, looks perfect, and everyone that sees you in it cries.  For me, the moment I walked in our reception venue, I started crying.  It literally took my breath away.  It was perfect!  But, per person, it was on the higher price scale.  So, I cut down my guest list, I moved some numbers, and made it work.  I knew that if I settled for another venue, it wasn’t going to be what I wanted.  Do not settle.  If the venue or dress or whatever you’re looking at and love is completely out of budget and it is impossible to cut down THAT much, look at ways to do it yourself, or find items to bring in to make it feel like the venue you loved, find a seamstress to make the dress.

Honeymoon – don’t leave this one out.

- Deciding on the honeymoon is also a very important step in the first couple months of the planning process.  My fiancé doesn’t have a passport, so, going to Costa Rica on our honeymoon has turned into a much more stressful process than expected.  Tracking down his birth certificate, applying for the passport, and booking the trip in time, has been a very long process.  Plan ahead.  If you know you want to go on an international honeymoon, make sure you have all the necessary paperwork and documents to do so.

- The most important part of this whole thing is to have fun.

Having a sense of humor is an absolute must! Stuff happens! Know you can’t control everything.  Embrace the challenges and remind yourself, at the end of the day, I’m starting this incredible life journey with the love of my life, and those challenges will go completely unnoticed.

Image provided by:  © Mzeeshan | Stock Free Images &Dreamstime Stock Photos