Hello my loves,
Happy hump day!
I thought that it might be nice to write a post on my top tips for the newly-engaged brides-to-be out there that are probably feeling a little overwhelmed and excited right now.
I am in no way an expert in wedding planning, however I've thoroughly enjoyed my time wedding planning and hope to share some of my tips with people that may need it.
Tip number 1:
Get yourself a new notebook. I know the first thing that you do is go out and purchase a wedding planner-diary, however I really struggled with those. They include so much stuff and are generally targeted either at Americans, or they are very traditional and expect parents to pay for X, Y and Z etc. My best advice would be to get a plain notebook that you can jot ideas, thoughts, prices, contact details etc down in and not mind scribbling and ruining the pages etc.
Tip number 2:
Have a think about when you'd like to have the big day. If you're lusting to be a summer bride, then make sure that you give yourself enough time to plan and save - it doesn't matter if you book the wedding 2 years away as long as you and the groom are happy with it. We went for April because we'd started planning in the September but wanted a year and a half to plan and save, so the timing just felt right for us. Each to their own.
Tip number 3:
How do you imagine your big day? Do you want a church or do you want the whole day at a seperate venue i.e. hotel/marquee etc?
This will help you think about who you first need to contact. Doing this will lead into everything else, because there's no point in booking any suppliers in case the venue of choice has packages that include different things. For example, the package that Luke & I went with includes so many things - food, drinks, DJ, cake, rooms for the guests, stationary for the tables, table decor etc. (there will be another post about my venues, so I don't want to go into too much detail).
Tip number 4:
I want to do a full post on this, but a great thing that Luke & I did was to sit down and really think about what we wanted to spend. We worked out what we could comfortably save per month and then added up roughly how much that would amount to and that's how our budget started.
Tip number 5:
Once you have your date, venue and budget confirmed, put the feelers out early to any suppliers that you're lusting over. There's nothing worse than leaving things too late and then not being able to employ the supplier because they're already booked for your date.
I hope that these little tips help someone; let me know if they do!
xxx