You are engaged! Pop the champagne and dance till you can’t anymore! Because you’re going to get MARRIED! But now starts the hard work, wedding planing. And if you’re anything like I was I’m sure you’re thinking, “How the heck does one even plan a wedding?!?!?” Well through my own trial and error, along with now being in the wedding industry, I’ve got your back! So sit back relax and let’s get this wedding planned in small, manageable chunks!

Find your total budget. Don’t you dare skip to the next step!!! Not before you take care of this one! I know it is tempting because I to refused to plan a budget for our wedding, and things got out of hand… like wildfire. Now, I don’t know if anyone actually likes budgeting (and if you do, oh how I envy you!!!) but it is necessary! This way you can see it all in black and white, have your mini heart attack, and move forward with a plan! Figure out the max you want to spend as a whole including what you have already have saved, what you plan to save, and any additional funds your family will be contributing. You might even call a few vendors at this point, not to book, but to have realistic goals of an average price point so that your budget was not done in vain once you start putting down deposits.

Pick your big THREE. You will have 8,179 things to pick out, but it is important to pick out three things you know are extremely important to you and your fiancé’s wedding day. And those are the things you can splurge on. My husband and I knew photography (shocking I know) the venue, and food were our biggies (We like to eat LOLz). But they don’t have to be yours. If you have a big family and just want to make sure everyone parties till the break of dawn, then an open bar and the best DJ money can buy might be two of your biggies. Or, if you know your goal is minimal stress, you might have a wedding planer be one of your three. Just make sure that you pick three things that are 100% true to you and will make your wedding day better than you ever imagined. And because these things are important and you will be handing out the big bucks for them, chat with more than one vendor about each one, that way you know for sure that it is worth the price tag.

Select a date. I suggest picking a date with enough time between now and then, to make sure most vendors are not already booked. Not only that, but also so that you have time to enjoy and celebrate your engagement! So how far is too far? That is totally up to you. If you know you want a relaxing 3 year engagement, go for it! But I would not recommend starting to actually “book” vendors and making purchases longer than 2 years ahead. 12-9 months is most ideal to start putting down deposits and booking your big vendors. In fact, some vendors will not even allow you to book them longer than a year in advance. There are just too many variables that could happen that far in the future! Not to mention how much wedding trends change and evolve with time. Today, you might think that in 2 years you will want a barn inspired rustic wedding. Then a year later, you fall in love with a blush pink vintage wedding you find on Pinterest. Now you’re drowning in burlap that you don’t even want (Side note- my wedding was all sorts of burlap, like mountains of it, so I am NOT hating on burlap! Just an example loves!). So PIN like crazy but don’t make any concrete plans until you are SURE about them, and the timeline is right!

There you go beautiful bride to be! 3 big steps to get the wedding plans rocking and rolling! Stay tuned for another blog post with the next big steps for planning a wedding, coming next week!!!!

To check out the rest of the blog series, check out the link below!

Week 2