A Practical Guide to Planning Your Wedding

A Practical Guide to Planning Your Wedding

Your wedding is your day, simple. And to be perfectly honest, when it comes to planning your big day there aren't many hard and fast rules that apply these days (except for the legal ones, of course!). Some couples might find this liberating and exciting whereas others might consider it completely daunting - where do you sit? While wedding budgets can be flexible and themes and traditional wedding tropes are an individual choice, luckily for those that are feeling a bit overwhelmed there are some wedding touchpoints that you might like to hit during the wedding planning process to ensure a smooth and stress-free experience. Here’s our practical guide to planning your dream wedding.

Organisation

First things first, organisation is KEY. If you’re not a naturally organised person, then you will need to get tools and processes in place to make sure you don’t immediately feel totally overwhelmed! If the budget allows, you might want to consider hiring a professional wedding planner. However, if you’re working to a tight budget or you just want to stay in control of your plans, then luckily for you, there is a whole world of wedding planning apps and websites out there to help you on your way to your big day. These days it’s totally possible to plan your own wedding and have the celebration of your dreams!

Timing

Make sure you practically have enough time to plan your wedding - a longer time frame is always beneficial if possible, particularly if you're planning a destination wedding or a multi-day celebration with a variety of wedding events. You might be restricted by the time of year or your dream venue’s availability, and that is totally fine. Just make sure you and your partner choose a wedding date that gives you enough time to plan and action everything you need to before the big day.

Wedding Budgeting

One of the biggest contributing factors to your celebration is ultimately going to be your wedding budget. However generous or modest, the sooner you tackle this and get a realistic budget in place by crunching those numbers, the better. If you're fortunate enough to have family members who are contributing to your wedding celebration, it's a good idea to have an honest conversation with them about what they’re comfortable spending and when. If you’re footing the bill then you will need to consider how much you already have in your wedding fund and how much more you can stash away before the wedding. We’d always recommend building in a 10% buffer for unexpected expenses that will inevitably arise, too - you don't want to get caught short!

Vendor Research

If you’re having a theme or concept for your wedding day, now is a great time to nail down your style/end vision. This will impact many other decisions you need to make during your planning journey and which wedding vendors you end up working with. There’s no point considering a cool hotel wedding venue if you’ve always dreamed of a magical woodland wedding!

Your wedding suppliers are the professional team that will bring your wedding vision to life, and you are probably going to be working quite closely with them. It’s great to meet in person if possible, or at least schedule calls to get to know them and start building a relationship. But remember, whilst they’re the experts, you need to be able to trust them to execute your dream day, so follow your gut instincts!

Wedding Attire

Finding the perfect wedding attire for both you and your wedding party can be enjoyable and stressful in equal measures, and organising your bridesmaid dresses can be tricky if you don't all live in close proximity. An easy way around this is to give your bridal party and groomsmen a colour palette and let them choose their own wedding outfits (with your approval, of course)!

Your Wedding Guest List

You may already have a good idea of your guest number, although this will largely depend on your venue, budget, and when you decide to get married. Some of the biggest things to consider when it comes to guests are: how large is your wedding party? Are you inviting children? Are you allowing plus ones? Who needs accommodation? Do you need to consider accessibility for disabled/elderly guests? Once you have your wedding guest list sorted it’s time to send your wedding invitations.

Build your Wedding Website

Save time, money, and resources by creating your own personalised wedding website through Say I do. Here, you can send beautiful bespoke digital invitations, collate the RSVPs as they come rolling in, and include every single detail that your guests will need to know in relation to your big day. From key timings to accommodation information, to itineraries, you can even link your gift registry here too. With a bit of careful planning you can (fingers crossed) avoid those endless emails and text messages from guests! Everything they could possibly need to know is kept in one place, which is easily accessible and simple to use.

There are MANY other things to consider when planning a wedding, from choosing your food and drink to picking the perfect wedding dress, but you don’t need our help for those! That said, if you are someone that appreciates a friendly prompt here and there you can always use our free custom checklist!

Just remember to stay organised, ask for help when you need it, and for the sake of your own sanity, don't forget to schedule in some quality time for you and your partner away from all the admin. The wedding planning journey can be all-consuming and rather stressful, so trust us when we say that a little break here or there will be much needed and greatly appreciated!