A Practical Guide to Planning Your Wedding

Your wedding is your day, simple. And to be perfectly honest, there aren't many rules that apply these days (except for the legal ones!). Some couples might find this liberating and exciting whereas others may consider it completely daunting - where do you sit? While budgets can be flexible and themes and traditional wedding tropes are an individual choice, there are some wedding touchpoints that you might like to hit during your wedding planning journey to ensure a smooth and stress-free process. Here’s our practical guide to planning your 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. But if you’re working to a tight budget or you just want to stay in control of your plans it’s totally possible to do it DIY and still plan the wedding of your dreams!

Timing

Make sure you practically have enough time to plan your wedding - a longer time frame is always beneficial if possible. 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 have enough time to plan and action everything you need to before the big day.

Budgeting

One of the biggest contributing factors to your wedding is ultimately your budget. However generous or modest, the sooner you tackle this the better. If family members are contributing have an honest conversation with them about what they’re comfortable spending and when. If you’re footing the bill you need to consider how much savings you already have, 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.

Vendor Research

If you’re having a theme or concept for your wedding, 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 woodland wedding! Your wedding suppliers are the professional team that will bring your 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 so that you can get to know them and start building a relationship. But remember, they’re the experts, you need to be able to trust in them to execute your dream day so follow your gut!

Guest Management

You might already have a good idea of your guest number although this will largely depend on your venue, budget and possibly when you decide to get married. Some of the biggest things to consider when it comes to guests are: 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 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. You can (fingers crossed) avoid those endless emails and text messages from guests! Everything they could possibly need to know is stored here 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! 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 remember to schedule in some quality time for you and your partner. Planning a wedding is stressful and trust us - a little break here or there will be much needed and greatly appreciated!