How to Plan a Wedding

Learning how to plan a wedding isn’t as simple as some people think. Most people go through life thinking that a wedding pretty much takes care of itself. After all, you are in love, you have picked a date, and you have a general idea of where and when the wedding will take place. What else do you need to know?

 

Throughout this site are a number of articles that will get you started in learning how to plan a wedding that you will never forget. 

Latest Wedding Article

 

When you first start to research how to plan a wedding, the process can seem overwhelming.  After all, there are a lot of steps, a lot of money at stake, and the memories (and photos) of this event will be extremely important for your whole life.  The most important thing in how to plan a wedding is to break up the entire process into smaller projects.

 

The Budget

 

Absolutely the first and most important thing related to how to plan a wedding is in creating your budget.  The wedding budget should start with a total amount to be spent, and then be broken into the major categories so you will see how much can be spent on each component of the event.  Typically your wedding budget will be divided as follows:

 

  1.   Reception Food and Drink – 50%
  2.   Bride’s Attire – 10%
  3.   Photography – 10%
  4.   Music – 10%
  5.   Flowers – 10%
  6.   Invitations – 4%
  7.   Miscellaneous – 6%

 

The Calendar

 

Once you have determined your wedding budget, the next step in how to plan a wedding is planning the milestones that you need to achieve leading up to the date you have selected.  Buy or create a calendar that you will use solely for the wedding and make sure you update and check it often.

 

The Ceremony

 

As you plan out your wedding ceremony, you will want to organize all of the details in one place.  Write down things like the specific order of the processional, any scripture or other meaningful passages you would like to have recited, music selections, decoration notes, and the order of the ceremony components themselves.

 

Attire

 

No guide on how to plan a wedding would be complete without mentioning attire.  It is very important to write down all of the details for any item of clothing you are considering for yourself or your wedding party.  As you go through this process, you will amass a huge collection of fabric samples, pieces of ribbon, and pictures of wedding and bridesmaids dresses.  You will want to know the price, sizes available, as well as the address and phone number of the store that carries each particular item so you can finalize the details when you have made your selections.

Flowers

 

Flowers are an extremely important part of any wedding, and keeping track of the details of your floral decorations are key to staying within budget.  Create a folder for all of the research you do when interviewing florists, checking prices, looking at do it yourself options, etc…

 

The Reception

 

When learning how to plan a wedding, you will find that the reception takes most of your time and effort.  Besides being the biggest single expense in your overall wedding budget, the reception is where your guests will spend the most time with you and where you will be focusing most of your hosting efforts.  You will need to find a location for the reception, establish and hire the services that will be provided, decide on decorations, and work out logistics of traveling from the ceremony site to the reception.

 

Food Service

 

Regardless of whether your reception will be highly formal or informal, you will need to provide your guests with refreshments.  Start planning early, especially if you will be using a sought after caterer during peak wedding season.  Caterers get booked up months in advance, especially for weekend weddings in a popular month like June.

 

Photography and Videography

 

Your wedding is one of the most important and memorable events of your life.  Capture those precious moments permanently by hiring a great photographer and/or videographer.  In planning the wedding photography you will want to write down specific photos you want captured, as well as a general list of preferences.

As you can see, if you want to know how to plan a wedding that goes off as smoothly as possible, there is a great deal of project management involved.  If you don’t feel like you can handle each of these components yourself and can afford it, you should definitely consider hiring a professional wedding planner.  These professionals have a great deal of experience with each component of planning a wedding, as well as strong connections with the local vendors and service providers.

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