Planning a wedding- The 5 First Steps
Congratulations you’re engaged! It’s time to celebrate and enjoy all the moments leading up to your wedding day! I’m sure you’ve heard that planning a wedding can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be! I have been in your shoes and there are so many pieces of advice out there. Then throw on top all the advice from family and friends. It’s hard to know where to start. After having planned our own wedding and now having photographed weddings, it’s clear that these are the tips that come up the most. I’m hoping that laying out these steps help make planning your wedding fun and give you memories that will last a lifetime.
Planning a Wedding Day steps!
Set your Budget
Before you set out on your planning journey, you really need to figure out the budget. This will allow you to better understand what vendors you’ll be able to include on your wedding day.
To start budgeting, you’ll need to find out where all your wedding day contributions will be coming from and have conversations about what that amount is going to be. You may even have some family that’s willing to pay for a certain part of the wedding as a gift to you! It’s important that you and your partner have a conversation about what you want to spend on your wedding and stick to it.
You do not have to go into debt for a wedding, but you do need to be realistic as to what weddings cost in Massachusetts. Also, the big wedding websites do not provide a very accurate analysis of what weddings cost in certain areas. So be prepared to have sticker shock, if you’re solely relying on their information.
Now you’ll be able to narrow down how much you want allocate to each of your wedding vendors.
Prioritizing Vendors
Next it’s time to do some prioritizing! This is different for every couple and family, depending on what you’re envisioning for your wedding day!
Prioritizing vendors means you can divide up your budget so it goes to what’s most important to you as a couple. The top of the list are the things you want to spend the most money on and then the bottom is where you’ll need to make cuts if you’re over budget.
Start with a list of all the things that you want at your wedding. From here you will prioritize the wedding day vendors that are most important to you both! Here’s a sample list…
Planning a Wedding Vendor List:
- Wedding Venue
- Wedding Planner
- Caterer
- Photographer
- DJ or Band
- Officiant
- Stationary
- Florist
- Hair and Makeup
- Day of Coordinator
- Videography
- Wedding Bands
- Tux Rental
- Dress
- Bridal Party Clothing
- Favors
- Centerpieces
- Transportation for Couple
- Transportation for Guests
- Hotels or Accommodations
- Decor Rentals
- Baker
- Photo Booth
- Live Wedding Painting
- Uplighting
Your wedding vendors will appreciate if you’re forth coming with the budget! It allows us to provide you with information right away or let you know we’ll be out of budget, so there’s less back and forth or surprises!
Initial Details
When planning a wedding, there are 3 details you might want have an idea or feelings about before you start reaching out to vendors.
1. Vision- Did you have a vision in mind for the day? Rustic, Modern, Beach? If not, maybe start creating a vision board and see what details are all similar. This one thing alone will give you an idea on the venue you might want, the photographer’s style you’re looking for as well as see if some of the vendors of importance on your list will even fit into the vision of the day.
2. Dates- Pick a date, but prepare to be flexible! Popular dates can go up to a year in advance at venues. You might be better off with a season or specific month, so give you more options.
3. Number of guests- This does not have to be set in stone as you’re doing you preliminary searching, but it’s great starting point. You’re going to want to have a ballpark number when planning a wedding so you can see if a location for both ceremony and the reception can accommodate you.
Plan the Wedding Yourself or Hire a Wedding Planner?
Now here’s the fun part of planning a wedding! You’re ready to start finding all the vendors for your big day! You have a decision to make, do you want to do all the wedding planning yourself or would you like the help of a wedding planner?
Reasons why a wedding planner might be a good choice for you:
1. The have vendors they have vetted and love to work with! This will save you the trouble of researching vendors. If one doesn’t peak your interest, they have channels to find one that fits your style.
2. They will do a majority of the correspondence for you! They can check availability and make sure it’s in budget. From there you’ll most likely want to still meet or talk to the vendor to make sure YOU get along with them, but it takes a lot of the back and forth out of the equation!
3. Depending on the type of planning you book with them, they can help on the wedding day with the set up, breakdown, and coordinating the vendors to be in certain places at the right time.
If you choose not to hire someone for full wedding planning, I usually suggest a Day of Coordinator. They help to take many items of the plate of your friends and family, so everyone can simply enjoy the day!
Book your Venue!
It’s time to book your venue!! If you’ve done your homework and narrowed down the initial details, this step will be much less overwhelming. I have spoken to many couples when they come meet with me and we chat about their venue search. For some it was easy- proximity or style. For others it was much more difficult because they weren’t even sure of the vision for their wedding.
Thoughts on booking your wedding venue:
What style are you looking for – modern, country club, rustic, barn, beach, historic?
Does the ceremony location at the venue matter?
Proximity to airports, lodging, ceremony, getting ready location? Think traffic on the wedding day!
Date availability- are you set on a specific date or are you flexible?
Don’t be afraid to ask for off season pricing and/or midweek pricing! Some of the best weddings in the last few years have been during the week!
Make sure if has an indoor option for your ceremony!
Not sure on a venue? Check out Massachusetts Wedding Venues! There are a couple bonus Rhode Island ones as well 🙂
Plan as a couple!
This is such an amazing time in your life as a couple! You’re becoming a family! Enjoy it together and plan together. You two are the most important pieces. It’s your memories of the day that matter! Everyone else will have their opinions, but this is your special day.
Talk to each other about what is most important to you both. From what type of ceremony, who you want to enjoy it with and any fun things you want to incorporate! Talking about the parts of the day will hopefully help you stick to a budget, because you’re not adding on at the end. It will ensure the day remains about you both, because you’re incorporating what you want most. Also, it’ll help make decisions easier because you already have the idea or vision in your head!