How to Plan Your Wedding so that it goes off Without a Hitch

You have been dreaming about your wedding day your entire life and now you are finally engaged!! Congratulations!! How do you make sure that the day goes flawless so that you can remember it as the best day of your life?

Since I was a wedding planner for 5 years, I have a huge passion for brides pre-planning their day in order to assure that they have an amazing, stress-free wedding. Here are 5 Tips to assure that you have an amazing day filled with great memories that you get to relive for the rest of your life.

#1. Know What Type of Bride that you Are

There are 2 types of brides. There is the one who loves organizing and checking off lists and this is such an exciting process for them. They are just so overjoyed at all the parties, gatherings, and everything wedding. Then, there is the bride who cringes at all of that, and this becomes such a stressful time in her life. Listen, don’t feel guilty if that is you. If you get overwhelmed by the details, hire a Wedding Planner. Planners usually offer various collections in order to meet your specific needs, and they will be like a neutral second BFF or Maid of Honor assisting you to bring this day to life so that you can enjoy your wedding and remember it as an amazing experience.

#2. Get Yourself Set up for Success!

Carve out some time in your schedule on a weekly basis that you are able to dedicate to your planning so that it doesn’t take over your life and your bride/groom quality time together. Ideally, 12 to 18 months of planning time is ideal to spread things out and actually enjoy the process. If you don’t have that much, don’t panic. It will all get done!

Get an organization system that will keep you on top of things. I love accordian file folders. Make different categories on the tabs (ex. Ceremony, reception, photographer, etc.). Once the categories are all labeled, you can put all the different vendors’ marketing materials/flyers that you are considering in there. Once you have reserved these professionals, you can get rid of the ones that you won’t be using so that your folder will be filled with all the people bringing your wedding together: the contracts, receipts, swatches, etc.

#3. Use a Wedding Planning Checklist

There are 200 hours worth of tasks when it comes to wedding planning…it’s really a part time job. It can seem a little daunting at first, but if you are following an all-inclusive Wedding Planning Checklist, you’ll be able to chunk out the process in little categories so that you can take one step at a time.

This way, you will feel more organized, more relaxed and on top of things.  Plus! You won’t have family or friends telling you “why haven’t you done this yet” or “oh, my, you have so much time, why are you doing that now?”. You can plan with confidence. With a detailed Wedding Planning Checklist, you can plan in the correct order, which eliminates that overwhelmed feeling, and makes planning fun again. If you don’t have one yet, make sure to download ours below or use this link: Wedding Planning Checklist

#4. Follow a Budget Grid

Do you know the biggest mistake couples do while wedding planning? They FAIL to prepare a budget! Then they start booking vendors, and have no idea what the tally is.  It’s like going to the store without knowing how much money you have in your account. Please hear me when I say…please prepare a budget before booking one vendor! It adds up quickly, (trust me on this) and before you know it, the budget is all gone.  No one wants to start their relationship in debt. Have a plan. If you prepare the budget, you’ll be able to determine what is important to you, which will affect the way your money is spent.

#5. Hire professionals for the Wedding day

I know sometimes we can get caught up in trying to find the better deal or maybe even having friends do certain things for us to save us a little money. Hey, I totally get it, weddings are expensive, and things can add up so quickly. But I urge you to hire professionals for everything on your wedding day. You only have one shot at this. Professionals do this week in and week out, and they think of a lot of things you wouldn’t think of otherwise.

As a Wedding Planner, I have had brides insist on hiring friends who are not wedding professionals do things for them on their special day, and my craziest ‘wedding planning days’ stories come from this very thing. I have seen so many things go wrong with this. From photographers taking so long with photos that my couple was an hour late for their own reception, to stories that truly are…well, unbelievable! I spent a lot of time putting out unnecessary fires that could have been avoided with a true wedding professional.  Hire pros in their field, I promise that it will make your life so much easier.

#6. Hire Photographers and Videographers who get Your Vision and Understand what is Important to You

If there is anything to invest your money in, it’s vendors who will help you remember this amazing day! Ok, I’m a little biased, LOL. I’m a photographer. But this is what you will be able to look back on and remember this fun, amazing time of your life. So these are the areas you want to devote a healthy budget to.

Your Photographer and Videographer should be a match made in heaven for you. They get you, you jive, and they are people that you don’t mind spending 12 hours with. Make sure that they know what’s important to you so that they can focus on the things that matter most to you as a couple. As a Wedding Photographer, we have couples fill out a shootlist for this very reason as all families and couples have unique situations.

 

Ok, so that’s it!

So Happy Wedding Planning, and I truly hope your wedding goes off without a hitch!

 

Click Here to download our Wedding Planning Checklist!