Your wedding is definitely one of the best days in your life to celebrate your union with your fiancée, close friends and family members. However, planning a wedding isn’t a walk in the park, and can actually be stressful. While it’s not easy to find two ways regarding wedding planning, there are a few tricks to lessen the pressure.
Planning a wedding — whether big or small — calls for significant decisions which are often associated with an increase in budget. And with an average wedding cost of $29,000 in the United States, you don’t want to get into debt while getting married. Luckily for you, this guide by our experts will help you with the steps on how to plan a wedding from venues and budgeting to vendors and much more.
Without further ado let’s dive in!
10 Practical Wedding Planning Steps
Below are 10 practical ways on how to plan a wedding:
Step 1: Conjure up an image of your wedding
The first thing that you need to do as you make plans for your wedding is to first visualize how you’d want your special day to look and feel like. At this point, think about the venue or location of your wedding, the easiest states to get married, the number of people you wish to invite, how big you want your bridal party to be, and just about anything you’d want on this special day.
At this point, all you will be doing is thinking how small or grand you want your wedding to be so that you figure out your wedding budget. In fact, this is the best time to come with a wedding checklist, primarily to ensure you don’t go overboard with your plans.
Step 2: Figure out an ideal wedding date
As you make plans for your wedding, at all times, remember that the people you wish to invite also have their own business to attend to. In this case, you don’t want to fix a date that most of your invited guest will find not ideal for them.
Additionally, don’t have your wedding on special holidays such as thanksgiving or Christmas Day, as most of your invites may fail to attend. Also, remember that if you’re on a budget and don’t wish to spend more, avoid holding the ceremony during peak seasons.
Step 3: Come up with a realistic and well thought of budget
There’s nothing really impressive as going overboard with your wedding only to end up in debt. If you aren’t aware yet, you can hold a memorable wedding on a $5,000 budget.
Of course, when planning to host your wedding ceremony on a budget, you’ll have to sacrifice some things such as a huge guest list, or hosting the event at an expensive location.
During wedding budgeting, you can scale down wedding DJ costs by hiring a band as opposed to a wedding DJ or have a nice playlist in the background. Additionally, the same applies with wedding photographers, you can slash the cost by opting for photos only instead of videos, asking a friend who can help you, and receiving digital photos instead of printed.
Step 4: Dedicate time to find the perfect wedding venue
As you are busy making plans for your wedding, you’ll notice that among other things, the venue or location you choose to host the event will consume a significant part of your time. But regardless of the time, you’ll want to make your wedding day special and memorable, and there’s nothing wrong in taking time to find the perfect location.
Wedding venues have been known for setting the tone of the whole celebration as it helps in shaping everything from what your guests will experience, atmosphere, and even the décor (you may have to come with your own décor to some venues you choose).
While grand places comes with a huge venue booking fee, it does mean tying the knot in a cheap wedding venue such as a barn is any less spectacular. It all comes down to the couple’s preference’s which may also be affected by factors such as budget.
Step 5: Think of your ideal design and style
While you necessarily don’t require a theme for your wedding, it makes sense to have one, however simple it might be. A wedding theme can resonate with the two of you as a couple and you can eloquently display it to your guests. With the appropriate setting and preparation, you may make it as understated or prominent the way you want.
The style and design that you wish to have affect how long it takes to plan a wedding. You’ll be surprised to find more than 50 themes available, with each having a different timeline in wedding planning. The design will mostly depend on your likes and preferences.
Step 6: Have the right wedding equipment and resources
We live in an era of improved technology where you can take advantage of several online resources to help you in planning for an unforgettable wedding.
Make sure that you have Pinterest, for instance, to help you find wedding planning tricks and tips. Think of wedding websites, Google Drive, supplier directories, signage, guest management, wedding magazines and blogs, excel spreadsheet to save information of your guests and vendors.
With wedding resources, you’ll end up saving too much time that you can dedicate to doing other activities crucial for your big day.
Step 7: Your wedding guest list doesn’t have to be too large, plus factor in the wedding etiquette
This is where most couples fail when planning for their wedding, something that ended up stretching their budgets beyond they initially planned for financially. Your drunk uncle, a friend that you longer talk to or your parents’ friends don’t need to be invited if you don’t feel like doing so.
Apart from your wedding guest list, make sure that you are aware of the wedding etiquette. While there’s no right or wrong wedding etiquette as such, you need to know what needs to be done at what time and by whom. In most cases, though, the wedding etiquette follows traditions, varying from one culture to the next.
Step 8: Plan for the actual ceremony and the wedding reception thereafter
On your wedding day, you don’t want to have your guests not knowing what follows what. Make sure that they are aware of the full program that includes the drinks, wedding breakfast, and the evening reception.
As you plan for the actual ceremony and the reception that follows, make sure that everybody is aware of what they are supposed to do, to ensure that your ceremony and reception that follows doesn’t end up in a disaster.
Again, you don’t have to break the bank to ensure your guests are well fed as you can easily find several wedding food ideas on a budget.
Step 9: Remember to seek for assistance where needed and delegate some duties
Planning for a wedding is a tiresome undertaking, and to ensure that you don’t experience some burnout, you may want to delegate some of the duties, especially to your bridal party or the vendors.
You can have some members of your bridal party handle decorations, others to take care of preparing invitation cards, or others helping usher in the guests as they arrive. When you delegate duties, everything moves fast, meaning you’ll be full of energy on your big day.
Step 10: On the big day, breathe, relax, and have a blast!
While it’s normal to feel somewhat anxious on your big day, all you need to do is to come with a positive mindset to celebrate your day. Make sure to get some good sleep a day before your wedding, step out feeling glamorous, and enjoy your day with close family and friends.
Final Remarks
Planning a wedding can seem overwhelming, but it will undoubtedly be one of the most wonderful and unforgettable moments of your life. Hiring experts is a brilliant approach to relieve some of the burden, primarily if your budget permits it.
Hiring a wedding coordinator will give you room to step back from the planning process more time to enjoy the event. And once the plan is in place, your primary objective should be to enjoy the entire event. Breathe, appreciate everyone who came out to offer their love and support, and welcome this wonderful new chapter in your life.
