Wedding planning has never been more complicated, even for simple weddings. The possibilities open to brides and grooms has never been greater, long gone are the days where you either got married in a church or a registry office, as long as it’s licensed you can pretty much now get married anywhere.
Having so many options open to you makes things a ton more stressful, as not only are you planning your dream day for you, there’s also a need to consider your guests.
During my wedding planning process everything I seemed to read said ‘wow your guests’ which drove me mental. If you didn’t have guests to think about (or ‘wow’), would you go to the same effort if it was just a celebration for two? Probably not.
Wedding planning: tips for keeping organised
Lists & Spreadsheets
Lists and spreadsheets were integral to my own wedding planning. To plan my wedding I had spreadsheets for:
- Costs that my husband and I checked in on and updated weekly to ensure we kept on track. We assigned budgets to each element of our day and adjusted accordingly.
- Guest list split into day and evening lists with full contact details. This helped for sending out invitations and thank you cards after the wedding.
- Wedding planning schedule had two tabs/sheets –one with contact information for everyone involved in the wedding from family, bridal party and suppliers. And a tab with the day’s timings on so everyone knows where you are and where they should be throughout the day. This wedding schedule was sent to everyone (family, bridal party and suppliers) so we were all on the same page.
I also had access to Office OneNote at work and used it to help with wedding planning. As you will see from the image below, I had fifteen pages dedicated to various wedding planning elements.
My ‘Wedding checklist’ was a top level overview of all the components of the day, and the ‘timings’ list broke down all my tasks month by month, week by week, day by day leading all the way up to the day before my wedding.
Tasks included everything from purchasing the rings, to emailing various suppliers about certain things, creative tasks, and organising legal aspects. I even included ‘attend family dinner & relax’ on the night before the wedding.
I promise you we had a really simple day but with anything involving people and people management, it’s hard work and takes meticulous organisation to get everything done on time.
It’s also important to remember there are things to do after the wedding as well such as write thank you notes. And if you’re changing your name, a list for all the accounts and places you need to update those details helps keep you organised.
Delegate
As soon as you announce your engagement you’ll likely have people come forward offering their services to help with wedding planning. My advice is to take up their offers where possible and it can be for the smallest things but if it takes one thing off your own list, then it’s one less thing for you to worry about.
Also, often people will suggest things you hadn’t thought about or can advise on a different way of approaching something so it’s a really good opportunity to get people involved.
Every great event needs an ideas board (or several) and it’s a really fun element of wedding planning. You can use the internet, magazines and even the weddings of family and friends that you’ve attended to source inspiration. It’s also something you can keep coming back to throughout the wedding planning process.
Wedding planning: staying within budget
I think it’s important to remember when thinking about budget during wedding planning, that while your wedding day is the most special day of your life, it is just a day. So often it’s the things that cost the least (if anything) that turn out to be the most priceless.
Pull in resources
Do you have a friend who’s a florist? A sister who is a hair stylist in the making? An uncle with a passion for collecting classic cars? Use them! I was fortunate that my Mum is a dab hand a cake making and I had a friend who had just completed a professional makeup artistry course.
Weigh up your Options
There are definite pros and cons to hiring a venue that routinely hosts weddings and has a list of their own trusted suppliers, and a venue which is quite literally a blank canvas and so you have to do and manage everything yourself.
Ultimately it comes down to what you want but I would say don’t shy away from the blank canvas venues. If you are good at organising, this can be a real money saver against a venue that makes you pay £10,000 just for hiring the place before anything else.
Work out your budget, then work backwards
Don’t waste time, energy and sometimes money by asking a supplier to pull together a proposal if you haven’t talked costs. Make sure everyone’s expectations are managed by being realistic about your budget for that certain service up front – that way you don’t get nasty surprises.
What other wedding planning top tips would you add?
Until next time x
