Congratulations on your engagement and welcome to the world of wedding planning! If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the decisions you’ve got to make, I don’t blame you. However, if you’re making wedding planning decisions in the right order, you’ll stay sane and you won’t be as stressed. Take a listen to this episode, where I break down the correct order to choose your wedding suppliers (spoiler: there are a few things you’ve got to do before you even start booking!).
Related: Your 12 Month Wedding Planning Checklist
Episode breakdown
Choose the type of wedding you want
Before choosing any wedding suppliers, you need to know what type of wedding you want:
Because how can you book a venue, decide on decor or create Save The Dates if you don’t know what type of wedding you want? Here are some questions that’ll help you decide:
- Do we want a big wedding or something more intimate?
- Are we going for something traditional or a little bit different?
- What type of ceremony do we want?
- Are we paying using savings or taking out a loan, or are we expecting contributions from friends or family?
- Are we set on a weekend wedding or are we open to something different?
Set a date and then start planning
Here are some things to consider:
- The time of year you want to get married
- How long you want to be engaged for
- Any dates that are special to you (such as your anniversary)
- Your venue (you could set a date and then find a venue that’s available, or find your dream venue and see which dates they have)
Guest list
Create a rough guest list so you have an idea of how many guests you want to invite, ie how much space your wedding venue needs to have.
Tip: don’t send save the dates until you’ve got your venue booked in! You might find a dream wedding venue that isn’t available on your ideal date, so you change dates! You may also find a wedding venue that’s perfect but has a slightly smaller capacity so you need to tweak your guest list. You can’t uninvite people!
Budget
This doesn’t need to be finalised but it’s very helpful to have an idea of how much money you’ve got to spend so you know which suppliers you can afford!
The big hitters
Now that you know the type of wedding you want to have, when you want to get married, how many guests you can invite and what your budget is, you can start finding the ‘big hitters’.
- Your wedding venue
- Entertainment
- Planner
- Photographer
- Videographer
- Stationery (for save the dates)
- Outfits
- Celebrant/solemniser (so you can get the legal bit started)
