It’s engagement season and it’s your turn, you’ve said “YASSS!”, sent the proposal video to your entire group chat, called your family, made it Facebook official and spammed everyone’s Insta-feed.
I had one of my clients tell me recently that they sat down and realized they had a wedding to plan but didn’t know where to start. So what did they do? “We looked up: “How to plan a wedding on Youtube”- my mouth dropped. The reason? They hadn’t been to many weddings, but their Youtube search lead them to WeddingWire, which lead them to me, so everything is right in the world now! Here’s a few tips to help you get the ball rolling.
Line up your wedding planning resources
After you’ve decided on a date, it’s time to start researching and for that, you need a couple of good resources to guide you. Wedding Wire is a very popular website that showcases wedding vendors in your area! Everything from beautiful venues, talented photographers, elegant floral designers, rental companies you name it. Snuggle up with a glass of wine, make a list of the vendors you need to hire and create an account on Wedding Wire. Research one category at a time, it can get overwhelming fast, be sure to read reviews and choose 3 vendors per category and reach out to them for info on their services and prices.
Talk Money
You might not realize it but having an idea as to what your ballpark budget is will be extremely helpful. Sit down and talk with your partner about what that number looks like, if it’s realistic and most importantly- do you both agree on it? Today’s wedding’s typically cost more than most couples project so round that number up and over project and try to stay under that. Both of you decide the top 3 most important aspects of your wedding you want to splurge on, for example: food, entertainment and photography. Prioritize those items and whatever remains from your wedding budget can go towards the other areas.
Don’t rush in
It’s crucial that with any potential vendor you are thinking of hiring, have a conversation with them. Emails are great to get facts and service information, but you are hiring a whole person with the service they provide. Their photos look great online, their music sample sounds energetic and upbeat, their flower arrangements are exactly what you are looking for- but do your personalities jive? It’s likely you will be working with this person for months, if you don’t get along or like their system of doing things, if your expectations don’t match the way they do their work, it might not be a good fit. So, schedule a phone call, no matter how tiresome it seems and get to know them!
Have a checklist and follow it
If you decide not to hire a planner to do the leg work for you then you will absolutely need a checklist to help keep you on schedule and on track. There might be items on the list that may or may not apply depending on the type of wedding you’re planning to have but at least have it as a guideline. Here’s a free complete Wedding Planning Check List PDF
Lastly? Stay as organized as possible and if you aren’t organized and get easily confused, overwhelmed or just don’t have the bandwidth in your already busy life? Hire. A. Planner. You can’t put a price on peace of mind.
There are so many moving parts within the services that wedding professionals offer and it can be difficult to know exactly what the value of a service should be when you know nothing about it. So- you need to deepen your knowledge of what these professionals do. It’s not as simple as slapping a cake together the night before, or ordering some flowers to make some table arrangements. In order to truly appreciate the value of a service, you have to understand it. Ask questions! If you don’t understand why the flowers you want are so expensive? Ask. If you don’t realize how much time and money (yes I said money) goes into planning a wedding? ASK. Get a better understanding of the service, what it entails, the amount of time and resources it takes and once you understand that, pricing will make sense.
Tell us what you want! Don’t be “iffy” or constantly change your mind (because that is a huge mistake that will cost you!). Just let us know what you want, what you are thinking, what is your best case scenario, what are back up options and we will do whatever we can to make it happen. And if you don’t know…tell us that too! We are there to work it out and work alongside you, that’s how we support you. I love being able to present options to a couple if they “just don’t know” because at the very least it gives you some ideas to start with. But if you don’t tell us what you want, what your vision is, we can’t give you our best. We can’t streamline our talent and creativity without being pointed in some sort of direction. This is YOUR day, we will make it happen if you just tell us what you want!
When you hire a planner for a partial planning, you sit down together and discuss anywhere from 4 to possibly 6 areas you would like your planner to assist in. Once you’ve decided which areas they will manage, everyone gets to work. Different planners will go about this service differently so it’s good to have clear communication and ensure they understand exactly what it is you expect of them.
hiccups on the day of the wedding but want to plan the entire thing themselves will choose this option. 1-2 months before your wedding day is typically when your planner would step in to tie up loose ends, follow up with vendors and then execute your wedding day so you can completely enjoy it and not have to look after anything.
So what do wedding planners really do you ask? Well I guess it depends: we mediate, negotiate, police, teach you how to dance, and might even use nail polish remover to un-super glue a piece of statue from your palm…okay maybe I am getting a bit dramatic here but let’s focus on the full-planning service they provide .
Wait, before I continue, let me just say that we research EVERYTHING. Just because you don’t see work being done in front of your eyes, doesn’t mean it’s not taking hours of our time. Research is tedious and details must be acquired for every single vendor needed for the wedding.
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