Wedding Planning - Help and Advice

Main thing to remember is that this is your wedding and your day. Be prepared to offend somebody along the way! It is hard to please everybody and believe me, everybody will have something to say about where you are having your big day, who you are having as your bridesmaids, what colour the dresses are going to be, what food you are going to have- buffet, sit-down meal.… The list goes on and on! Try and remain positive and calm. You are all working towards the same ultimate goal- the best wedding day for YOU and YOUR PARTNER.

1) Don’t book anything until you have decided what type of wedding you are having

You may want a traditional church wedding or a civil wedding. You may want a theme wedding - medieval, winter wonderland, Vegas-style!! The possibilities are endless nowadays. However, whatever you choose, DO NOT book anywhere until you have decided on the type of wedding you are having. It is not impossible to change your mind, but it may work out expensive! Have a look at our guide to the different types of wedding.

2) Decide on your budget and try to stick to it! 

If paying for you wedding yourself, it is sometimes useful to set up a separate wedding account. This will enable you to keep any money that you wish to use for the wedding separate from your everyday living budget. If getting help from parents (traditionally it is the bride’s parents who pay but things are much more flexible nowadays) it is a good idea to arrange a meeting to discuss who is paying for what and how much they are willing to contribute. Try to stick to your budget as much as possible. Always allow a little extra emergency money just in case an expense arises that you weren’t expecting.

So, you have decided on the type of wedding you are having and you know roughly how much you have to pay for it, what now?

3) Make a List

Sit down with your partner and make a list of all the jobs you need to do. This way, you can tick them off once you have done them.

4) Make a Wedding Calendar

This can simply be a cheap diary. You can use this to make a note of any meetings, dress fittings, visits to the venue, food tasting sessions and of course the dates that any payments or deposits have to be paid.

5) Decide on your guest list

Inevitably, your budget will dictate to some degree the number of people who you can invite. If parents form both sides are contributing try to be sensitive to this. Invite, where possible even numbers from both sides but of course, some families are bigger than others and so this again will have to be taken into consideration. It is nice to ask the parents if there is a particular friend that they would like to invite since don’t forget, seeing their Son/ Daughter get married is a big day fro them also and there may be somebody they would particularly like to enjoy it with. Don’t forget to include yourselves, your parents, best man, bridesmaids, ushers in the numbers. It is of course, naturally assumed these people will come but you must include them in your overall numbers!

6) Invitations

Traditionally, invitations are sent out 6 weeks before the wedding day but this is not so much the case today. If  your wedding date is a long way off but you want to make people aware to keep the date free, you can always send out “save the date” cards in advance of the invitations.

You can always make your own invitations. You can have a look at the samples from a wedding stationers to get an idea of format and wording or have a look at some of our wording suggestions.  You can then customise your own theme for any further cards or orders of services that you may choose to design and make yourself.

It is helpful to include a reply card for your guest to send back and of course, a menu with reply card if the guests have to let you know their dish choices when they send their replies back.

7) Order of Service

You may wish to produce an order of service, with the words of the hymns written out, for a church wedding. A church will provide a hymn book however, so this is a matter of choice, not necessity.

8) Reception

Organising the reception is huge task in itself with the venue, food, wedding decorations, wedding table decorations, table arrangements, speeches, entertainment and more to sort out. We have tried to collate some wedding reception tips that will help you ..

We have lots more advice that will be posted soon so bookmark our site and look again soon !