When you first get engaged you’re so excited to start planning all the things you’ve dreamed of for years! But slowly it starts to become overwhelming. Where do you start? How soon is too soon to plan and how late is too late? This blog post goes over a few things just to get you started and headed in the right direction. Planning should be fun! So let’s keep it that way with these simple wedding planning tips!

STEP ONE: DREAM A LITTLE

Begin your wedding planning by scrolling through Pinterest and pinning some ideas or looks you’d love for your own wedding. What colors do you like? Are you drawn to a particular style? Do you have a theme you want to go with? Even pull out a notebook and start jotting down ideas if you prefer pen and paper.

Then write down what’s most important to you about your wedding day. Is celebrating with family most important? Maybe you’re most looking forward to dancing at the end of the night. Figuring out what your priorities are really helps when deciding what to put most of your budget towards. If memories with family and your new spouse are most important, then spending more on a good photographer or videographer is something to consider. Or if you most love the dancing portion of the night, make sure you hire a great DJ to keep the dance floor crowded.

STEP TWO: DECIDE ON A BUDGET

Budgeting for a wedding can be hard when you have no clue what a typical vendor charges. My recommendation is to set a total spending limit and include a bit of a buffer. That way there’s room if you forget to add in something or a vendor costs more than you were expecting. For example, the average wedding in Wisconsin costs about $27,800. So let’s say that’s the amount you have to spend. Then I’d recommend budgeting out about $25,000 with a $2,800 buffer just in case.

STEP THREE: CHOOSE YOUR WEDDING PARTY

Another wedding planning tips is to choose your wedding party early on in the planning process. First of all, it’s nice to have a go-to group of people to help you in your planning process. But it can also be courteous to your wedding party to give them as much notice as possible so they can start saving up for things like their wedding day attire and bachelorette/bachelor parties. 

When choosing your wedding party I’d advice you to pick people that genuinely care about you AND your partner. You want people who will support you not just during your wedding but also your marriage. And also pick people who you’re actually close to. Choose friends you’ve had for years, not ones you’re drifting away from. Pick people that you can truly see yourself being close to for years to come. You don’t want to look back at your wedding photos in 10-20 years and see them filled with people you included simply to avoid hurt feelings.

STEP FOUR: GET A ROUGH ESTIMATE ON YOUR GUEST COUNT

Your guest count is going to determine how big of a venue you’ll need, so t’s important to get at least a rough estimate of how many people you’re planning to invite. It doesn’t have to be exact yet but when you choose a venue you’ll want to make sure it will seat all your guests comfortably. And it will give you an estimate of how many tables and chairs you’ll need to rent. In addition, it’ll help you determine how much you’ll need to budget out for catering since most caterers work on a per-plate basis. Once you know how many people you’re planning to invite, it’s safe to estimate that only 75-80% will actually attend.

STEP FIVE: CHOOSE A VENUE/ PICK A DATE

I put choosing a venue and picking a date under the same point because often the date you’ll choose will depend on the venue’s availability as some venues can book out as far as 2 years in advance. So typically I’d recommend choosing a month or season you’d like to get married in and then researching some venues to tour. Once you pick a venue you can pick a date they have open.

STEP SIX: FIND YOUR VENDORS

The rule of thumb for deciding when you need to start looking for a certain vendor is to consider how many weddings can they do in one day and how important is it that you get the best of that kind of vendor? What I mean by this is that most photographers can only shoot one wedding a day (some even limit themselves to one wedding a weekend) so specific weekends book up fast. So hiring a photographer sooner rather than later can be important to make sure you get the one you want.

However, many bakeries can make multiple cakes for one day, meaning they won’t book up quite as fast so you’ll have a bit more time to book them out. Again though, keep in mind that the longer you wait the more likely the vendor you want is going to be booked up. Most of the big vendors book up a year out. Vendors like your wedding planner, photographer, caterer, etc.

HAPPY WEDDING PLANNING!

I hope this helps you get started planning one of the best days of your life! I know this time can feel overwhelming but remember to enjoy it as well. You’re engaged! That’s so exciting and it’s possible to enjoy this process If you keep in mind what’s most important to you: getting married. So happy wedding planning! And check out my other blog posts for more wedding planning tips.