Everything You Need to Know About Planning a Wedding

Ok, let’s start with a caveat. This might not be everything you need to know about planning a wedding, that would basically be a massive textbook and take you a month to read! Treat this more as the most important things you need to know about when planning a wedding. Because let’s be honest, every wedding is different; from timescales, to seasons to individual styles and tastes, but some elements remain the same and that is what we’ll be touching on here.

The first thing to note when discussing where to start when planning your wedding is to keep in mind that there is no right or wrong way to plan your big day. There may be stressful times sprinkled here and there, but if you’re both organised and remain planning as a team, your dream wedding will end up being arranged perfectly for you. Here at Say I do we have made this slightly overwhelming task a little more manageable by creating a run down of the key things you should know about before kick starting the planning of your special day.

Plan your wedding budget and treat it as gospel

We all know that weddings can be one of the most expensive events of your life, so making a budget (and trying to stick to it) is hands down the best way to start your wedding plans. It is always worthwhile holding back 10% of the budget as a contingency fund. Unexpected costs and last minute wants can easily creep up along the way, so having that extra 10% as a backup will really help keep costs from spiralling out of control. It is always important to keep things realistic too; undoubtedly that romantic castle getaway would be the DREAM, but maybe your hard-earned cash is needed or could be better spent in other areas of your life and that is totally ok.

Choose your wedding date and get organised

It may sound obvious but start planning with a wedding date in mind. Of course this might not be the date but having at least a year, or even better a month in mind will help you get a better idea of how long you have to plan the big day and how much money you might need.

Once you have researched and secured your perfect venue the countdown begins and you can get properly stuck into those exciting wedding plans! Writing lists, accepting help and keeping calm is the best way to start because being organised from day one will help enormously, as will breaking those often overwhelming plans into manageable chunks. No one wants a bride or groomzilla on their hands now, do they?

Start researching your vendors

Cool, covetable wedding vendors are fairly easy to find these days thanks to the improvement of technology, especially social media for businesses. Not only can you hunt for vendors on Google but also utilising platforms such Instagram and Pinterest could help you find the perfect wedding vendors for your special day.

Make sure you check out their websites, read their reviews and find out all that you can about their services so that you can gain all the information you need before reaching out and / or paying a deposit.

This is also a great time to consider if you are opting for a themed wedding and / or refining the style of celebration you want to create as this will help you to choose vendors who fit a certain vibe.

Finally, remember to keep your budget in mind when researching wedding costs - in fact, keep regularly checking in on the figures all the way through to ensure you’re staying within budget.

Plan the guest list

Whether your wedding will be a big beautiful bash or a small intimate gathering, the earlier you plan the guest list the better. Having a rough number in mind will help when you visit venues, when you’re discussing catering options and guest accommodation too.

Create your wedding website

Perhaps you are planning on sending out traditional paper invitations - lovely idea! But just to let you know that at Say I do we offer a free wedding website set up where everything you could possibly need to plan or arrange around your invitations and guest list can be in one place – genius!

We would generally recommend creating your wedding website around 6 months before the big day. Curate your guest lists, make your own personalised save the dates, follow up with beautiful curated digital wedding invitations (including RSVPs) and keep everything here, safely in one place.

Customise your wedding website with the key information; your wedding date, location, and a run down of the days itself. You can also include accommodation information and an FAQ page to avoid the same questions being asked over and over again. Don’t forget to add a bit of personalised fun in too with some pictures of you both and maybe your engagement story too? Such a fun detail that your guests will LOVE to hear about.

Basically, having a wedding website will make the whole process of planning your big day as stress free as possible, which is exactly what engaged couples need during such an exciting (and admin-heavy) time of your life!

As we said in the intro, there is so much more to say about planning; from choosing seating plans to whether you really need to send save the dates, but for more in depth planning features simply head to the Say I do blog and dive in.

The more important thing to remember though is to stay level headed and embrace making your wedding day as special to you both as possible. This is YOUR day, and it should be plotted and planned to fit your budget and creative ideas, not anyone else’s.