How To Plan A Wedding

Make Sure You Have A Plan B In Place

However much you dont want to think it, something could go wrong on the day. This could be anything from a problem with the catering to rain . Plan alternatives for each scenario and account for anything that might not go to plan so youre not left stressed out and panicking on the big day. Additionally, you should invest in wedding insurance, and check what circumstances are covered under your policy.

Set Your Wedding Budget & Stick To It:

Before you get into the fun stuff, you need to tackle your finances first. Thats why this is our #1 Wedding Budget Tip! Your wedding budget will guide all of your decisions about your wedding. Setting a wedding budget that makes you feel comfortable will only help to guide you to make the best decisions you can make, while also not going into debt. Make the time to crunch those numbers and get a realistic figure before you move into any further planning.

Research Meet & Book Wedding Vendors:

Your wedding date, venue and location, budget, and style are all important factors to know as you contact more wedding professionals. Theyre all some of the first questions you will be asked, and its helpful to be able to answer them. We recommend booking vendors who can only work one wedding on a particular date first. So, have a game plan in mind for pros such as your photographer, videographer, caterer, florist, band or DJ, and day of wedding planner . Once you have decided on those pros, start to consider other details, like stationery, transportation, etc.

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How To Plan Your Wedding

This article was co-authored by Hope Mirlis. Hope Mirlis is a registered Wedding Officiant, an Ordained Non-Denominational Minister, and a Certified Yoga Instructor specializing in pre-wedding mental health. She is the Founder of A More Perfect Union, a premarital counseling business. She has worked as a counselor and officiant for over eight years and has helped hundreds of couples strengthen their relationships. She has a MFA in Dramatic Arts from the University of California, Davis.There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 84% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 467,079 times.

A wedding is a fun and joyful occasion, and the planning process is full of excitement and anticipation. With some time, patience, and a little flexibility, you can create a beautiful and memorable day for you and your future spouse! Planning a wedding is complicated, so youll need to do some in-depth research as you go. In the meantime, there are a few basic steps you can take to get started. Start by setting a firm budget, then work with your partner to set a date and put together your guest list. Once thats done, you can start hammering out the many little details that go into making a wedding.

Set Clear Priorities For Everyone

When a client sees a to-do list for all of their wedding planning tasks, its easy to feel overwhelmed by everything on their plate. Make it effortless for your clients to visualize how everything will get done by establishing priorities so they know exactly what needs to be accomplished, as well as the tasks that can wait for later. At the same time, those priorities will help to keep you on track as you navigate this extremely busy season. When youre on your game, your clients will feel prepared and unruffled by the long road that lies ahead.

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Give Your Bridal Party Fashion Freedom

Take advantage of the mix-and-match dress trend by giving your ladies the color palette/event style you’ve chosen, along with the freedom to pick their own ensemble. Your bridal party will appreciate your flexibilityand they’ll feel better about spending money on an outfit they’ll likely wear again!

Ether & Smith | Ace Hotel and Swim Club

Choose Your Wedding Suppliers

This is probably the biggest step of our wedding planning guide, since it covers everything from photographers to caterers and florists.

Start by making a list of all the suppliers youre going to need to hire. Your wedding venue may already have a list of recommended suppliers which is a great place to start, but make sure you widen your search if you want something a little different before you book and pay deposits.

Itll help to visit the Hitched supplier section where you can find everything from traditional wedding suppliers to more unusual vendors like Prosecco vans, food trucks and flower walls.

Here are your main suppliers to look for:

• How to Choose Your Wedding Flowers

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Stone Fox Bride: Love Lust And Wedding Planning For The Wild At Heart

Courtesy of Amazon

Consider this the wedding planning bible for nontraditional brides. Written by the founder of the cool-girl bridal brand Stone Fox Bride, this totem offers advice on throwing an event thats more Bianca Jagger than Cinderella, and features personal essays thatll encourage you to stay true to yourself through the wilds of wedding planning.

Fte: The Wedding Experience

Event designer Jung Lee is practically synonymous with high-profile parties and out-of-this-world weddings. Here, she shares all of her party-planning secrets and will lead you through the process, from engagement to I do. Youll also find 150 inspirational photos thatll give you some seriously stunning ideas.

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For A Registry That’s As Easy For Guests As It Is For You: Amazon

Amazon

If you’ve been saving items to an , it will be easier than ever to get started on the mega e-tailer’s registry site. You can expect to see familiar houseware staples , plus spruced-up sections like a list of the top 100 most popular items, curated lifestyle collections , and “boutiques” for products by Jonathan Adler, Michael C. Fina, and the MoMA Design Store . It’s also a gift for your guests since most just have to log in to shop.

For The Couple Who Doesn’t Know Where To Start: Weddingwire

WeddingWire

This venue and vendor database is a one-stop-shop, with more than 250,000 local listings and 3 million reviews by real newlyweds. So if you’re clueless about where to wed and whom to hire, do a quick search and narrow results by type, location, price, and rating. When you’re done with the big-ticket items, you’ll find checklists, budget templates, and etiquette tips.

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Who Can Help You To Plan Your Wedding Day

No one can plan a wedding completely on their own. It is crucial to rely on your support team to help make your wedding day come to life. It is totally fair and also somewhat expected for you to ask someone to lend a helping hand.

• Your partner

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Wedding planning should be an equal balance between both partners, but more often than not one partner is more willing to take on wedding planning tasks than the other. Even if one partner takes the lead it is certainly reasonable to ask your partner to pitch in and help. Asking your partner for opinions and thoughts might seem easier said than done so one good strategy is to ask your partner if there are any aspects of the wedding that they would like to take the lead on and then let them run with it. Not everyone cares about the seating chart or the type of favor that will be given so if your partner is not into a specific wedding planning area just take it.

• Bridesmaids

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There are tons of ways you can ask your bridesmaid to help with the wedding planning process. Of course, you will need their help on the wedding day to make sure the day runs smoothly but you can also enlist them early in the process. A few perfect tasks for your bridesmaids are assembling favors, planning the bridal shower and bachelorette party, stamp invitations and also help shop for your wedding gown.

• Bridal Box Subscription

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• Your future family

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Anonymous quiz

Be Selective With The Guest List

Sorting the guest list early is important so you can then focus on finding the perfect venue that will cater for your chosen number of guests. Costs per head will most likely be your biggest expense, so dont be guilttripped into inviting people you dont want to come. Its the biggest and hardest decision in the whole planning process, but it has to be yours and your h2bs decision only.

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Think Twice Before Hiring Family & Friends

Someone who’s emotionally invested in your wedding lacks the objective judgment that’s necessary to handle the process smoothly. “I try to steer clear of the recommendation of using family or friends,” Lisa says. “It never works out like you want, and you are strapped with the emotion of trying to express dislike or needs. It’s hard enough expressing wants and needs using a professional for the work, let alone a family or friend.”

Fill Out Your Wedding Website

• Set up your registry whether thats at a store like Bloomingdales or on a digital resource like Zola and add that information to your website.
• Set up hotel blocks and transportation to and from your venue, if necessary, so you can add that info to your website.
• Additionally, configure your website so it captures R.S.V.P.s digitally, which cuts down on both paper and your stress.

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The One Fab Day Wedding Checklist And Planning Timeline

The list is a basic timeline based on a 12 month engagement and planning time, running through the typical timeframes for researching and booking different elements. Although each wedding is different – we’ve shown brides who have organised their whole wedding in just 10 weeks, others take two years – this planning checklist has general guidelines that will be helpful to every couple. You can also get our three-month planning guide here.

Read through our handy guide, then download your own free printable at the bottom of the page, highlight which ones apply to you, your other half and your wedding, and can tick off the tasks as you go .

Photo by Sarah Folega via One Fab Day

Don’t Forget The Rehearsal Dinner Details

Tida Svy

Much like other pre-wedding festivities, the rehearsal dinner may or may not be hosted by someone other than you. Regardless of the fact, you will need to partake in the planning process. Much like for the wedding, the rehearsal dinner will need a venue, guest list, catering selection, and invitations. If you are having a destination wedding or wedding weekend, this can either be tied into the welcome party or remain completely separate.

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Ask Your Friends And Family For Advice

If blogs and books are getting boring, you always have your friends and family who are probably dying to talk wedding with you. Remember that your friends and family can be a great resource for you whether theyre offering advice on wedding dresses and menu items or simply just working as a sounding board for your ideas.

Wedding Planning Mistakes To Avoid

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There is lots of information and advice on how to plan your perfect wedding day. But there is also some good advice on what not to do when planning your wedding. By knowing some of the major mistakes to avoid when planning you can feel relaxed and confident that your wedding day will be perfect!

10 Donts When Planning Your Wedding:

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The Rest Of The Checklist

• Pick a wedding planner. Do you need one? No. But if your budget allows for one and/or you cant be bothered with minutia, its worth the cost. If you can be bothered with minutia, consider booking a day-of or week-of planner, who can handle last-minute details and hiccups.
• Find an officiant. And make sure they are legally ordained.
• Set up your wedding website as a makeshift save-the-date. In fact, you can do this instead of sending a save-the-date card. Jennifer Taylor, a wedding planner atA Taylored Affair, suggests usingSquarespace,The Knot,Minted orRiley & Grey to create a website.
• Lock down your photographer and caterer. Even if youre meh on these vendors, book them at least nine months before your wedding. If you have your third-choice florist, who cares? Ms. Keene says. But if you cant get a caterer because theyre all booked, thats a problem. The smaller things, like your florist and cake, can come together later.

Take a timeout: Work your way throughWine Folly together to feel like you could be featured in the next edition of SOMM. Or just share a bottle of your favorite wine.

Think Big Picture First

When beginning to plan a wedding, there are some macro level questions that you can start to answer before you get into the details. Do you want a big wedding or a micro wedding with family only? Destination wedding or backyard, DIY feel? Figuring out the answer to these questions will help you down the line when you have to start thinking about food, seating, transportation. Also, you want to make sure that you and your significant other are on the same page. Which brings me to my next point.

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