Wedding Planning: Where to Start

First off, congratulations on getting engaged!!! Now that the excitement and newness has worn off, you have to start wedding planning. I promise it doesn’t have to be super stressful despite all the things to plan, coordinate, and the vendors to book for your day!

If you’re interested in eloping, click here for How to Plan Your Dream Elopement: Advice from Someone Who Eloped.

Wedding Planning Tip #1: Choose a Location and a Date/Timeframe

Choosing the Ideal Location when Wedding Planning

The first part of wedding planning is choosing a general location and a date or timeframe (season, month, etc.)!

As far as locations, you have a few different ideas to consider:

– Get married in the current city or town you live in right now. Maybe you’re both in love with where you live, most of your loved ones are nearby, and/or you want your wedding photos to reflect this season of life.

– Plan a Destination Wedding whether it’s your favorite vacation spot together or a totally new location. If you both have a love for traveling, consider having a destination wedding in a different city, state, or country. You can also go straight into your honeymoon after your wedding day!

– Get married somewhere nostalgic within your relationship like in the city where you first met each other or the beach you got engaged on.

– You could get married in the childhood hometown where one or both of you grew up.

– Plan a wedding in a location that allows you to do your favorite activities during your wedding weekend. If you love hiking and mountains, go to your favorite or a new National Park. Go to a place that will allow you to ski or go snowshoeing if you want to include it within your wedding weekend. If a beach day is more ideal to celebrate your big day, go to the coast.

Choosing a Wedding Date

On top of a location, have a date or a general timeframe in mind when you begin reaching out to vendors. A few things to ask yourself:

• Is a specific date (or even a specific month or a time of year) important to you? Or are you flexible date-wise?
• How long do you want your engagement to last? Six months, a year, a few years?
• What kind of weather do you want on your wedding day? Of course, the weather is the one thing you can’t control!! But if you’re wanting a winter wonderland wedding, look into the months at your preferred location that have the highest chance of snowfall. If you’re wanting an ideal 75 degree weather, maybe a December wedding isn’t the move. Alternatively, choose a location and a late spring/summer date where a beach day would be fun! And so on.

Wedding Planning Tip #2: Figure Out a Budget

Make sure both partners are both on the same page about what your wedding budget is!! Open communication is important!

If it’s an option, ask family if they’re able to help out and how much they’re willing to put towards your wedding. Alternatively, some families instead may have a specific vendor they’re willing to cover (i.e. an open bar, the photographer you’ve chosen, etc.). Be open with how family is wanting to help out, but keep in mind that it is also not mandatory for your family to help out.

Figuring out a budget and creating a guest list goes hand in hand with one another….

Tip #3: Create a Guest List

Start creating a guest list. Think of all the people you want to be there to celebrate on your wedding day: parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends from work/college/high school/etc. Are plus one’s going to be invited? What about children?

Keep in mind that when considering your budget, make sure to also include the amount of guests you’re expecting within your budget! This also includes plus ones and children. Typically the more guests you have, the higher the costs for particular vendors. For example, certain locations/venues might have a limit on how many guests are allowed, caterers typically charge based on how many guests planned to be present, etc. It just depends!

Tip #4: Hire The Vendors

After you have your budget, figure out what vendors are most important to you for your wedding. You only get one wedding day so make sure to properly vet your wedding vendors to have a beautiful wedding day that goes smoothly.

Here’s a list of how you should prioritize booking your vendors and check off on your list as you continue your planning! Even if you’re having a smaller wedding or eloping, this checklist could still be beneficial in helping you plan:

The Very First Few Vendors to Book:

-Venue(s)/permits — Make sure to factor in if your ceremony and reception are in separate locations, and if one/both of those locations are on public land, in a national or state park, etc.
-Wedding Planner
-Photographer (heyyyy – reach out to me here)
-Videographer

Next Group of Vendors to Book:

-Wedding Attire
-Florist
-Caterer
-Makeup Artist
-Hair Stylist
-DJ
-Rental Decor
-Stationary

The Next Group After That:

-Officiant
-Jeweler
-Transportation
-Cake or Desserts
-Musicians

Reach out to vendors as soon as you figure out a location and general timeframe. While being flexible is helpful if you have a dream vendor you want to work with, the more vendors you reach out to, the more important it is for you to figure out a specific date!

Where to Find Wedding Vendors:

• Word of mouth: ask friends, family, or even another wedding vendor who they would recommend
• Wedding Vendor Websites such as Zola, The Knot, or Wedding Wire
• Facebook groups: there are all sorts of wedding groups to join – try searching “[state] wedding”, “[city] wedding”, “Destination Wedding”, etc.
• Instagram: search “[city or state] [vendor]”; or look through your venue’s followers (or photographer or….) or scroll their recent photos to see the vendors they have tagged
• Pinterest: search for the vendor you’re looking for and see if anything pops up with what you’re envisioning
• Use Google: google key words for what you’re looking for along with the name of that vendor (i.e. “film photographer in [state]” or “peony wedding bouquet in [city]”, etc.)
• Wedding Expo’s: most cities have wedding expo’s for couples to meet a variety of wedding vendors face-to-face and learn more about their services.

Stay Organized with Your Wedding Vendors

In keeping track of your budget AND your vendors, stay organized!!! You can create a checklist, a Google Doc, an Excel sheet – whatever you need to do to stay organized and keep track of everything!! There’s also so many physical wedding planning notebooks and/or online options to stay organized with everything (check out this one or this one!).

For vendors, make sure to keep track of:

• The vendors you have hired and put a deposit down for
• Contracts you’ve signed with vendors
• The total cost of each vendor
• When the remaining payments are due for each vendor
• Receipts

Read the Vendor Contracts

Reading the vendor contracts is extremely important!!! Contracts should include the date, location, times, the total cost, deposits, additional fees, colors, and quantities. All of this information must be in the contract because if it is not, or if there is a typo, you will not be protected if the written info is incorrect. (psst – if you’re a fellow wedding vendor and/or small business owner, here is an affiliate link to The Legal Paige to get legally legit contracts to use for your own business).

Contracts are meant to protect the vendor AND you. Be aware of extreme cancellation policies, if the terms are one-sided, and what happens if either party cancels (not just the client). If a vendor does not offer a contract, they are not a professional.

Wedding Planning Tip #5: Create a Wedding Website and Registry

Once you have a date and a location, create a wedding website to avoid getting endless questions from your guests. Have all the important information on it such as dates, times, locations and addresses, dress code, transportation and lodging, a day-of itinerary, a link to your registry, and any health/safety requirements.

In addition to a wedding website, also start creating a wedding registry. Even if you’re wanting cash over physical items, I would still encourage you to create a wedding registry. Some guests (especially the older generation) prefers to give a physical gift. You may as well create a list of items that you actually want! Alternatively, a nicer way to say “cash preferred” is to say a “Honeymoon fund” or a “Downpayment on a House fund”. Ultimately, you can use that cash however you want though.

Additional Wedding Planning Tips

There’s a lot more that goes into planning a wedding, but hopefully this is helpful to begin! Check out these additional blog posts where I share more wedding tips:

• 5 Reasons to Have an Engagement Shoot
• Should I Do a First Look at My Wedding?
• 12 Ways to Have a Unique Wedding