The first 5 steps to planning a wedding
It finally happened. The love of your life got down on one knee and asked you to be his forever. You tell everyone you know. You toast to your future. You feel elated and excited and cannot wait to start wedding planning. After savoring the newly engaged feeling, you decide it’s time to start the wedding planning process. You sit down at the computer and your mind goes blank. You think:
“Okay, where do I even start?? Now what do I do?”
If that’s you, no worries. You’ve never gotten married before, why would you know what to do? To help you get started, here is a step by step guide from a professional wedding photographer on how to begin the wedding planning process.
Get on the same page as your Fiance
They say planning a wedding is good practice for getting married. You have to talk about money, family, style, and communicate through a lot of details. Plus, when you announce that you are getting married, suddenly everyone has an opinion and unsolicited advice. You will want to get very clear on what you and your fiance want before you even begin so the two of you are united. Go on a date and set aside time to dream. Give each person a chance to talk about what they are looking for in a wedding. Ask each other what their most important aspects are and what is less important to each person. Write these down and allow this to be the guide that you use to Prioritize wedding choices moving forward.
Have the “Talk”
And by the talk, I mean the money talk. I know it sucks, but it’s super important to be clear on budget on the front end of things. People often underestimate the cost of having a wedding. You can have every intention of it being low key and inexpensive, but the costs add up fast! The last thing you want to do is to get to a month before the wedding, run out of money and have no way to fund things you need. Have an honest conversation with whoever is going to be contributing to the wedding. If it is just you and your future spouse funding the wedding, talk with one another about how much you could reasonably save by the time your wedding season comes around.
If mom and dad are helping with the costs of the wedding, respectfully sit them down and ask how much you can count on. It can be really awkward, so make sure to do it with a tone of curiosity and be clear that it is not an expectation. You simply have to base your decisions off of something and a ballpark number can help you as you move forward. As you work on your wedding budget, it can be hard to tell how much to spend on different aspects of the wedding. Your budget may look different than someone else’s budget because your priorities are different.
Make sure you allot money for the things that you and your fiance decided were important to you. Here are some averages to help you get started:
Wedding Reception Venue: 48% of your budget
Ceremony: 2-3% of your budget
Attire (dress and tux): 8-10%
Flowers: 8-10%
Photography and/or videography: 10-12%
Stationary: 5%
Rings: 5%
Other costs: 10%
Start Looking For Venues
Now that you got all the hard stuff out of the way, the fun begins! Armed with a rough idea of how much you can spend on your venue and will some dates in mind, begin to browse through wedding venues. Use a site like The Knot and check out the ones in the area you want to get married. Look at a wide variety, not just the ones that fit into one category. Sometimes you might be surprised at what is out there. Pick your top 5 and go on a physical tour of them. Ask a lot of questions as you go along and look for any hidden fees or additional charges. Look at the dates that the venues have available and see if they match what you are looking for.
Lock down the date
I always tell couples to book their wedding venue first. The venue type and location will dictate a lot of things that you need to know in order to plan everything else. Most importantly, by choosing a venue first, you are locking in a date. You now have an official point of reference to look to as set up your planning calendar. Most people give themselves 6-12 months to plan a wedding. On average, that is close enough for them to start booking things officially but far enough away that most vendors are still available. If you gave yourself more than 12 months, you are in a good position if you have the venue locked and loaded. If you have less than 6 months, you have less time to get everything done, so you might have to dedicate more time to get the next steps done quickly.
Find your photographer
I know that this sounds super biased because this is coming from a wedding photographer but I truly believe that your next step is to book your photographer and videographer if you are going to have one. Most photographers book out 12 months in advance and there are only so many weekend dates available. Photography and videography is how you are going to remember your day. It goes by in such a blur and you want every moment preserved for you to look back on, so you need to make sure your documentary team is ready to go quickly!
If you want photos that are timeless, bright and joyful and to work with a photographer who is very detail oriented but also likes to kick back and have fun, then I would LOVE to get to know you a little bit better!! Click the button below to send me a message about what you are looking for in a wedding Photographer and we can set up a complimentary consult to get you some more information. Look forward to hearing from you!