Wedding Planing

[Doggymummy86]

Hey ladies 💐
I wanna know your top Wedding planners with a step by step guide as to when Things should be Getting done etc.
I can’t seem to find a half decent planner - I seem to work better If I write everything down and it’s one place. I’m new to all this so would be good to know where to start etc.

👰 🤵

Hi I think in normal circumstances it depends how far in advance you are planning as to when things need to be done. I.e at the minute its unlikely you will be getting married in a few months time. I started planning about 14 months before wedding.
I started with:-

1. A date, (if you haven't already)
2. Number of guests as this could affect your -
3. Venue - is it church or registry office followed by reception. Or everything all in one place?
4. Catering if required and not provided by venue.
5. If you require any accommodation/ transport for yourselves or guests I would do this ASAP.
6. Registrar if required can only be booked in my area exactly 12 months in advance.

I did the above as soon as I set a date. Other than the registrar had to wait a couple of months for that booking.

I made a list of when the balances were due to be paid.

Then everything else really depends on your preference i.e if theres a fantastic local band you'd like for the evening reception and they get booked up quick I'd contact them ASAP.

Over the next few months I got quotes for photographers, cars, professional hair and make up, flowers, booked and paid deposit when I found a supplier I liked and was happy with.

Dresses may take up to 6 months to be made to measure, and then possibly time for alterations.

The men's suits needed to be ordered 8 weeks before.

Bought our rings about 9 months in advance as they were in the sale, same with my shoes.

If everyone is local I'd send invites out between 4-6 months.

However depends on when your wedding is, ie school holidays if there is the possibility people could book holidays you could send out save the dates as soon as you can or send invites out earlier.

Make sure you leave enough time for RSVPs, your venue will require final numbers and probably payment 2-4 weeks in advance.

Congratulations, happy planning and enjoy your day

I really liked the planner app from WedBox but there are various websites which are designed for quote requesting and tracking that also have a "to do" list, like Hitched, UKBride, that sort of thing. You might also like the Guides For Brides planner which, when you first set it up asks you for a few basic details and generates a checklist from that.

However, I would warn that it is really easy to be sidetracked by these sites and to be bamboozled into thinking the extortionate prices are normal. Every venue or vendor listed has to pay to advertise on there, so there's a kind of price bias inherent in the listings. Be ready for a lot of googling. All the checklists also make assumptions about budget (like "choose your florist" or "book the band") and it's too easy to be drawn in. I say this because we were sucked in, had quotes for professional cakes, large venues, the lot. We decided that wasn't what we wanted for our day and drastically scaled back and are much happier for it.

To start, we made an list together of everything we could think of that any wedding needs (wants!) which was everything from the more obvious things like the venue, down to the less obvious things like stamps for the invitations and the petrol cost. We then made our best guess for what we thought each item would cost and then added it up. After much swearing, we then went back through the list and struck out the things we agreed we didn't want to spend on (special car, favours etc) and added it up again. Etc.

My core advice is: start with budget. Everything else comes after. Even the guestlist.

My core advice is: start with budget. Everything else comes after. Even the guestlist ...this advice is the best advice.

I thoroughly recommend setting up a spreadsheet & including a budget for each thing AND having a column for budget, what has been paid and what is left to pay so you don't get caught out. I colour coded it so, for example everything in black needs doing, green done, orange done but needs paying etc

Also highly recommend splitting up the jobs between you and your partner. So you each have a task and give your partner a clear deadline because it won't get done.

Oh the the BEST advice I have ever read. On the day of the wedding make sure the groom has a spare white shirt just in case of spills and stains. I know it sounds like a baby but really you want him to be looking fine and a bit of red wine could be a disaster.

Thank you so much ladies - I like the idea about the spare shirt ! My other half is a mucky pup so this is brilliant. I’ve wrote everything down on bits of paper and it’ll be transferred to a colour coded folder (slightly ocd :) ) but there’s some good ideas which I have taken note off

💐