Planning a wedding is no small feat, so don’t worry if you are feeling unsure about where to start – feeling unsure is really normal! Read on for our simple steps to start planning your wedding.
Before you do anything though, enjoy being engaged! Lap up this amazing time with your partner, it really is so special so take some time to really soak it up!
Once you are ready to start getting into the planning side, grab yourself a book, or a google doc, or some central place that you can make notes, jot ideas down and keep track of things. It will be a huge help later on when you have lots of details to sort through.
Keep in mind, when you are at the start, you don’t really know what you don’t know – and when you are trying to think of your wedding overall, it can feel massive and overwhelming! You might be worried about overlooking things or wondering how on earth things will come together. But before you put your head in your hands or throw your phone out the window in sheer frustration after looking at thousands of images on Instagram and Pinterest, stop and take a breath!
Because most people start where you are now, most people feel unsure, and confused and overwhelmed at some point in planning their wedding. But it doesn’t have to be like that the whole way through. You can actually enjoy this process and not pull your hair out or fall out with those closest to you.
Simple Steps to Start Planning Your Wedding
Before you get into the nitty gritty details, grab your partner and head off to one of your favourite cafes, restaurants, head out for a walk, or just dedicate some time at home to really talk.
If you’ve been to a wedding in the past, separately or together, cast your minds back – think about the aspects of those weddings that you really liked or didn’t like? Was there something that stood out to you about that wedding? Chat about everything and anything that comes into your mind about what your wedding might look like – what area you’ll get married in, how big it will be, time of year you would like to get married, how formal or traditional you want the day to be. You never know, you may have differing opinions or things may come up that you haven’t even considered.
Working out what you don’t want is just as important!
Chances are you have never planned a wedding before, so when you think about how you want your wedding to be, it can be super overwhelming! It’s a process of elimination for your wedding to start taking shape. If you aren’t a sand and sea type of person, a beach wedding is not going to float your boat! Often, it’s not until you start chatting and trying to visualise something that you’ll realise what you don’t want for your day. This is good as it will help get you on the right path for your planning and your beautiful wedding will slowly start to be created!
At this point, it can be good to consider your budget too as this plays a key part in how your wedding will unfold. That in itself is a whole different conversation, so go check out our blog on wedding budgeting here.
What Is Really Important to You Both?
Once you have had initial discussions, it’s time to work out your top priorities for your day. These priorities are going to give your planning direction and shape. There’s no set number of priorities that you need, it could be as few as two or as many as ten. Its truly up to you both. But each priority is something that both of you agree are non-negotiables for your day. It could be anything from a band, a particular photographer, the style of food, the beverages, the dress, anything really. It will be entirely unique and different for each couple.
Once you have narrowed down your priorities, this should help you navigate your way through wedding planning a bit easier. These priorities will show you where to focus your time and budget towards your wedding. Of course there will be areas that you will need to plan outside your priorities, but you’ll get a really good blue print of the areas that you want to dedicate your efforts to.
Deciding what to include or exclude for your wedding?
Your priorities come in to play so much here. Spend even just a few minutes perusing social media and you’ll soon see the possibilities of things you could include in your wedding are endless! You could go on and on (and that budget too!) But you likely don’t want to, so when you are in the position of what to include and what to forgo, come back to your priorities and really consider if something is really worthwhile. Will it add significantly to your wedding? If you aren’t sure, take some more time to think about it.
If you hit the overwhelm stage and feel like it’s all got too much, your priorities can also help here too. Take some time out and then revisit your priorities and remember what was important to you when you set out with planning your wedding. This will hopefully give you clarity and a sense of calm. Most importantly, take it one thing at a time. There are lots of decisions to be made, but you can take your time a little and focus on one aspect.
Remember, you don’t have to do it all for your wedding to be amazing, you just need to focus on what’s important to the two of you, do those well, and your day will be incredible.
Need more help? Check out our other blog posts here or download our wedding information here. Thanks for reading, we’d love to hear how your wedding planning is going, drop us a comment below!