How to kick start your wedding planning
Photography Credits: Seeking Films
Before we begin to discuss all things wedding planning, we wanted to start by saying congratulations! Getting engaged is such an exciting and momentous time in life and we wanted to make sure you take a moment to let it all sink in before you embark on this project.
Planning a wedding is undoubtedly a complicated task, but we are here to guide you! In my many years of planning over 100 beautiful, one-of-a-kind weddings, I’ve developed a great system that will help wrap your brain around the project as a whole and hopefully make it a little less daunting.
Getting Started
Getting started is often the hardest part. It doesn’t help when everyone is asking you a million and one questions about your dress, wedding colors, signature cocktails, etc. The very best first step we suggest is getting on the same page as your partner. That means discussing your budget, priorities, and the overall feeling you are trying to invoke for your wedding day before you begin to do anything.
Photography Credits: Passion Studios
Money is always a touchy subject, but let’s get real. If you don’t sit down and figure out what you are comfortable spending as a couple, the topic will surely become a sore one later. This is also a good time to determine if you will be paying for the wedding yourselves or if family members will be contributing. Once you have a budget agreed on, it will be a lot easier to make decisions moving forward.
The next level of business should be discussing your priorities as a couple. For some, it is the venue and food and for others it’s the flowers and music. Regardless of your priorities, it is super helpful if you are both able to get on the same page early on in the planning process. I suggest you list out all the different vendors categories you can think of and rate them as 1. A top priority 2. Mid-range priority and 3. Nice to have, but not essential.
Now that you are on the same page with your wedding planning priorities, it's time to talk about the overall vibe. Some couples are going for a lively celebration with a raging dance party whereas others want it to feel cozy and family centric. Choosing 3-5 words that best describe the “vibe” you are aiming for will help so much when you are making decisions throughout the planning process.
Seek the Help of a Professional
Photography Credits: Lauren Dixon Photography
I know... clearly, I am biased because I AM a wedding planner.. but what you may not know is a wedding planner will not only take a lot of work out of the planning, but they may also help you save money with their years of experience in the industry!
Even if you are adamant that you don’t want to hire a planner, I would highly recommend hiring an established wedding planner in your wedding area for a budget or general consulting session. Getting an accurate budget breakdown established at the beginning of the wedding planning process is very important to stay on track. Anyone who offers this service will be able to help you break down your goal budget and show you how much you should be spending on each vendor category. This breakdown will be based on what is realistic in that particular market and also hopefully consider your priorities. A professional wedding consultant should also be able to explain the range of flexibility you have in each category and suggest a few vendors that might be a good fit for you. Not only will you save hours upon hours of research, but you will also be less impulsive with your vendor choices. This big picture will help to ensure that you stay in line within the budget you’ve set for yourselves. If you’re interested in a budget consultation, we’d definitely love to chat with you!
Start Planning
Now that we have that squared away, let’s discuss the order you should approach planning. Whenever we start working with our clients, we break down their tasks into three categories: foundations vendors, design vendors + tasks, and logistics tasks. Approaching them in this order will make the planning process more efficient.
Photography Credit: Chelsea Abril
Foundations Vendors
Foundation vendors typically include the venue, caterer, photographer, videographer, officiant, music, and stylist. My best advice is to start with choosing your venue. Once you find the perfect location, it will set the tone for everything else, including the wedding date. Once you have a venue and a date, I suggest you work your way down the list focusing on one vendor at a time. When you try to do them all at once, it can become very overwhelming and this will often cause things to fall through the cracks. Be sure to read about our other blog posts for more details regarding our best trips to booking these foundation vendors.
Love Letter Weddings Floral
Photography Credits: Kinsey Wilder
Design Vendors
Now that you’ve had some time getting into the swing of planning and you have some of the more important vendors booked, you can start thinking about the “look” of your wedding. Typically, we suggest starting this process by creating a detailed layout and narrowing down some inspiration photos. Pinterest and Instagram will be your best friend in this process! Gather all the inspiration that you love into a folder and as you begin to gather more and more, you often will see a common theme that you are drawn to. The vendors you will want to start booking once you’ve completed those tasks include rentals, florists, graphic designers and artisans to make custom elements.
Our biggest tip is to start determining your layout and rentals before booking flowers. It is important to have a clear idea of the shape and quantity of tables before you begin ordering centerpieces and other rental dependent arrangements. Once those items are booked you can start considering the smaller details and how they will tie everything together.
Logistics Phase
At this point, you should have all of your vendors booked. It is now just a matter of working out the logistics. During this time you will want to create a wedding day timeline, finalize your guest count, create a seating chart, choose special things like songs, readings and people to give a toast. On top of those tasks, you will also need to be finalizing the things that are contingent on the guest count like catering, rentals and flowers. There are always a lot of small tasks during the logistics phase of planning, so I suggest starting this step at least 2 months out from your wedding.
Planning a wedding can seem daunting, but with a solid plan of attack, it is a lot less scary. Hopefully this guide will get you off to a good start! If you feel like you could benefit from a wedding planner or consultant, head on over to our services page to learn more about how we can make wedding planning a whole lot less work for you!
