If you follow me on Instagram, I’m sure you know by now that I’m getting married this summer! My engagement was this past February and before you start asking, no, I’m not pregnant lol. We just really wanted to have a summer wedding and get married as soon as possible and the idea of waiting until next summer seemed awful. More on that later.
Now that I’ve been in full blown wedding planning mode for a solid 3 months, I thought I’d share some of my initial findings/thoughts for any ladies who are also planning their big day or about to plan or generally just interested! Of course, these are just personal experiences so definitely don’t take this as a fool-proof guide.
Step 1: Have a concept
Obviously the very first thing is to take some time to enjoy your engagement. You’ll literally be on cloud 9 and it’s such a special time that it’d be a shame to start stressing. When you’re ready, spend a few hours with your significant other to talk about the basics. The easiest way to get completely overwhelmed is to have zero idea what you want. I’ll be honest, this was me. Thankfully, I have pretty strong taste and a good understanding of at least what I don’t want. It was also super helpful to have a fiancé who did have a strong vision.
There are literally endless possibilities with weddings in terms of size, place, style etc. so do NOT start doing anything until you’ve thought about the basics. Start with questions like, how many people? (make an invite list asap) when? where? aesthetic? budget? do you care more about having everyone on your list or more about the location & style? Most likely, this will be a tradeoff as each additional person is going to be a large cost. Be realistic about your budget and try your best to stick to this at every stage of the planning as it’s SO easy to forget and blow past it. I know, it’s your wedding and you want it to be the best day of your life and absolutely amazing, but that doesn’t mean you should or need to bankrupt anyone in the process.
Step 2: Get a wedding planner
I don’t think it’s honestly feasible to plan a full blown wedding in 6 months without one but this really depends on the size and scale. Regardless of how long you have, if you have a full-time job, this is just a smart investment and a great way to keep you sane. But be assured this doesn’t mean you won’t have to lift a leg. In fact, almost every aspect will still be managed by you as it’s ultimately your vision. The role of the planner is much more logistical, to bring that vision to life by managing the day-to-day needs, emailing, invoices, and providing their insight from previous weddings etc. The first thing you should communicate to your planner is your budget and vision. It should be their job to fulfill your vision to the max while keeping you within in your budget. Also, be sure to interview several planners and hear from previous couples who have used them. Some charge by percentage while others charge a flat fee. Within each category, there’s also a wide range of pricing. I would absolutely NOT recommend a planner with a commission as this literally incentivizes them to increase your budget at every stage.
Step 3: Start thinking about your dress
From what I understand, there are two types of brides: 1) you have a clear idea of what you want as a dress and struggle mainly in that you can’t seem to find the perfect version of this anywhere or 2) you have no real idea and as a result, everything you try on looks pretty nice. I was definitely in category two. The issue here is, you can literally go on trying dresses forever. There will always be more so bite the bullet after a solid 20-30 dresses as you’ve probably learned what styles work for you and which don’t. Pick one you loved when you first put it on and don’t overthink it.
Generally speaking, part of the reason we chose to have our wedding this year rather than next was also to avoid overthinking. In my opinion, however long you have is how long you’ll be thinking about your wedding. There can always be additional details to add, more dresses to try, more options to consider. For me, an additional year of planning was not in the cards, but to each their own.
xxx
F