My husband and I got married in September ‘16 and it was one of the best days of our lives so far. My heart for this blog series is to create a space to share some of the things that I learned about wedding planning. I'll be looking at the different things to think about or organise, and will share some of the experiences we had.
I must say at this point that I am not a Wedding Planner, but I do have lots of experience of events planning, as well as the life experience of planning our own one. I feel like we learnt a lot, and I’d love to be able to put that to good use. If you’re currently in the process of planning a wedding - or think you might be soon! - then I hope this is helpful for you.
The posts I'll be doing are: Your Relationship, Budgeting, Picking The Date, Bridesmaids & Groomsmen, Decorations & Flowers, Venue, Invitations, Photographer, The Dress, Food, Music, Logistics, Hen Do & Stag Party, On The Day.
The first thing that I think is really important for every couple to do - once you’ve had some fun celebrating your engagement with friends and family! - is to both think of a list of your top priorities for the wedding day. For example:
- Guests - A couple of close friends? Just family? Everyone you've ever met?
- Budget - £500 / £10,000 / £30,000?
- Location - Where you grew up? Where you live now? Abroad?
- Photographs / Wedding Video - Photos of the whole day? Engagement shoot? Professional or keen relative with a camera?
- Food & Drink - Are you looking forward to a huge banquet followed by a knees up? Or is something a bit less lavish more your style?
- Type of Service - Church / registry office / country house / beach?
- Style of the Day - Formal/ traditional or informal/ relaxed?
- Look of the day - How important to you are the decorations / flowers / clothes / make up / hair? Will you buy decorations or are your creative fingers itching to start making your own?
- Music - Traditional / contemporary / live / DJ / playlist on iPod?
These priorities and expectations that you might not even realise you have for the day, will inform things like your budget (how much to allocate to each area) and will also help you and your partner to go into wedding planning on the same page.
Are you wanting a huge, traditional wedding in a grand country home with everyone there from your mum to the postman? Or are you wanting a secluded wedding on a beach in Mauritius with just your 2 best friends to witness it?
I remember when my husband and I shared our list of priorities, we’d both put celebrating with our friends and family at the top of our lists, which meant we would be having a fairly large wedding.
Being Christians, it was also really important to both of us that we got married in our church. For us, the wedding ceremony, where we would make vows to one another before God, was absolutely the most important part of the day.
We also wanted to be able to treasure the memories of our engagement and wedding day for many years to come, so we wanted to have a great photographer. We asked our photographer to do an engagement shoot with us; to remember that time of our lives and to help us get used to having our photos taken before the big day!
What about you? What are your priorities or expectations for the day?
And are there any other areas of planning a wedding that you'd like to know about?
Lisa x
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