Happy Wedding Wednesday! Let me start off by saying wedding planning is stressful! It literally feels like a full time job and it can be really overwhelming since there is so much to plan! In this post, I want to share everything I learned from planning my wedding and all my wedding planning tips.
Some people already can imagine what their wedding day will look like. They know the colors they want, the theme, the venues they like, and what kind of dress they love. I was not that person. I had no idea what I wanted my wedding to look like. I remember getting stressed out about this, but it is completely okay if you don’t have any idea what you want. You learn so much throughout wedding planning and everything falls into place.
Here are my wedding planning tips:
Create an Inspiration Board
If you’re like me, and your wedding vision is a little all over the place, it helps to create an inspiration board! I went on Pinterest and searched through all different wedding photos and pinned everything that speaks to you. You’ll start noticing similar patterns and themes of what you like. If you don’t have Pinterest, you can also create an inspiration board on The Knot!
After creating my vision board, I knew I wanted a rustic themed wedding with lots of greenery, flowers, fall colors and candles!
Choose a Season
Next, you and your partner should decide what season you want to get married in. Every season is magical in their own way and they all have pros and cons. Carl and I knew we didn’t want to get married in the summer heat and we both love the fall so we decided on a fall wedding. I loved the idea of being surrounded with fall foliage.
If you don’t have a certain season in mind, it’s okay. This gives you plenty of options and flexibility when choosing a wedding date
Get a Planner
Planners are everything to me! I love staying organized and it helps ease my stress when I see everything laid out in front of me. Google Sheets has a “Wedding Planner” template that we used! It has tabs for every single category (i.e. venue, vendors, music, etc) and it was so helpful to have throughout our wedding planning. If you prefer writing things down, there are so many cute wedding planners that you can find!
Decide on a Budget and Guest List
The first step of wedding planning is deciding on an overall budget. Then, divide up your budget on everything you need to purchase for your wedding. Make sure you research pricing in your area to ensure your budget is realistic. When you see everything listed, decide on what’s important to you to splurge and what you can cut costs on.
Then, create your guest list! Before looking at venues, it’s helpful if you have an estimated guest count. Start off by writing all the names of everyone you can think of and then categorize them into groups: close family and friends that must be at your wedding, additional friends and family that you want to invite, and guests that would be nice to have if your budget allows. You should also decide if you want guests to bring a plus one.
Creating a guest list is tough, but creating different categories definitely helps narrow it down. Also – it helps to have someone review your list to make sure you’re not forgetting anyone.
Once your guest list is finalized, start reaching out for addresses.
Look up Venues and Schedule Tours
Once you have an estimated budget and guest list, start researching venues! Reach out to all of the ones you are interested in and ask them to send you wedding package pricing and availability dates. Then, start scheduling venue tours.
Venues get booked pretty quickly so make sure you start looking early! Originally, Carl and I wanted a mid-October wedding. We started looking in August 2019 and we were finding out that a lot of venues were fully booked for September and October 2020. We looked at 10 venues and we were seeing 2-3 every weekend. It seemed crazy at the time, but I’m so glad we did this or else our November 8th wedding probably wouldn’t have been available if we waited any longer!
Too Early Does Not Exist
In my opinion, there is no such thing as too early when wedding planning! I never like doing things at the last minute, so I always made sure I did as much as I can early on. After booking our venue, I went straight to researching vendors since they also get booked up pretty quickly. I also looked at wedding decorations early on to make sure I was getting the best deal and I always looked out for sales. (You can check out all the wedding decorations I used here!) I knew the couple months before the wedding were going to be super busy so I didn’t want to have anything still left to do that could have been done sooner! This really helped ease my stress during wedding planning!
Make To-Do Lists
Throughout wedding planning, I was crazy with my to-do lists. I had a monthly to-do list that was broken out into weekly to-do lists haha! It helped to write everything I had to do each month so I wouldn’t forget anything. And my weekly to-do lists helped make everything more manageable and less overwhelming. You can find many different to-do lists online and The Knot app has a checklist you can follow as well!
Remember that Everything Will Work Out
I know wedding planning can be stressful, but just keep reminding yourself that everything will work out! Don’t stress out on the little things! You are marrying your best friend and that’s the most important thing!
Hope you enjoyed reading about all my wedding planning tips! If you have any questions, always feel free to reach out 🙂 Happy Wedding Planning!
