Congratulations! You are engaged now and can’t wait to start planning your wedding day. But wait, you don’t know how to plan your wedding, because you’ve never done it before!
This is something every bride and groom can experience and you don’t need to panic. Here, we will be giving you some advices which you can use for your wedding day, too. It is true this is the first time you are getting married, but we all know you’ve been actually planning it all those years, even before meeting your future husband, is that right?
GET MOVING NOW!
You still have one year to finish everything, so you think you can take it easy and spread it to the year? No, this would be the worst mistake of your life!
You will go crazy for the last few months, if you don’t start planning early. We don’t mean to finish everything months before your wedding, but we advise you to finish the big tasks earlier, and leave the small details to the last months.
BUDGET
You need to know how much you can spend on your wedding day. This will give you and idea of overall, but be sure there will always be extras you’ve never thought of before and you will be exceeding your budget limit if you don’t slice them to categories. Write everything down; wedding dress, wedding cake, wedding planner, wedding invitations, even the smallest details such as your tiara, your wedding shoes, your wedding bouquet… You must keep every detail in your mind to prevent too many extras to arise later on!
WEDDING DRESS AND ACCESSORIES
If you have a clear idea of how your wedding dress will be, then you can start asking for quotes by sending e-mails to your favorite brands. Make a price list including every quote in the list and keep this next to you while deciding on which shops to visit first. A wedding gown can be bought 8-12 months prior to the wedding. Don’t ever make the mistake of leaving it to the final tasks and order it in the last 3-4 months! Wedding industry is a busy industry and your favorite designer/shop owner may not be able to prepare your wedding dress in such short notice. Besides that, you should always leave some time for any issues both caused by you and your designer. If you have plenty of time to fix the issues, you will never be stressed out before your wedding day.
Accessories can be bought from the same shop, so you may want to search for them at this stage of planning, too.
INVITATION
We always suggest you to order your invitations 6-8 months prior to your wedding day. Leaving it to the last few months would be a big mistake. Invitations can be designed in approx. 2-3 business days and printing takes about 6-7 days. If you are ordering from abroad, then add some 4 weeks to this timeline, too. Again, leave yourself some time for any issues such as typos and a few days for assembling if your order needs assembly.
Besides all, you and your guests will need some time to deliver all the invitations, replying back with RSVP cards and etc.
WEDDING PLANNER
If you have a separate budget for a wedding planner, then go for it! Wedding planning is her/his daily job, but you have some other things to do during the day for sure! Your wedding planner will reduce the stress and help you pay attention to the smallest details that you didn’t even think of.
WEDDING VENUE
We all know most of the venues are reserved about 1 years prior to weddings and this may sound crazy, but they have a very strict schedule as they generally operate only on weekends and they have a few rooms/gardens they can offer their clients. Once all the rooms/gardens are reserved by someone else, you will have no chance of reserving that venue of your dreams!
WEDDING SHOES
We believe this is one of the most important things, even though it is always underestimated by many brides. You will walk on those shoes all day long, so you will surely need a very comfortable pair of shoes for your wedding day. Buying a pair and giving no importance to your comfort would be the biggest mistake. It is important you have a fabulous pair of wedding shoes of course, but more importantly, you should feel comfortable in those shoes to be able to dance all night long!
WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
One of the most important things about a wedding day is the wedding photographer, because whatever you prepare for your wedding day – a beautiful wedding gown, a perfect pair of shoes, a pretty floral tiara, a fantastic music band… – they will not be remembered unless they are captured by a good wedding photographer.
Make an appointment with a few of your favorite professional wedding photographers or at least make a skype call if they are far from where you live, but make sure you get to know them before booking your day. Again, you will need to book your wedding photographerabout 9-12 months prior to your wedding.
HONEYMOON YAAAY!
Whether it is a summer vacation in Bali or a winter honeymoon in Alps, book your hotel and flights at least 6-8 months before. Flight rates might increase when the date gets closer and hotel rooms might not be available and you may need to go for another hotel which you wouldn’t prefer otherwise!
LAST FEW MONTHS
Small details like wedding cake, wedding day stationery, food, music and selection of songs can be done 3-4 months prior to wedding. We suggest you to finalize every detail about 1 month prior, as you will need some extra time to stress out and get ready for your wedding day emotionally.
Are you excited already? Grab a piece of paper and a pen to start your wedding planning today! Don’t forget to visit our wedding blogfor more ideas.
