im not really sure where to start or what i should be looking for or what needs to be on my todo list! can anyone help it would be really appreciated & also feel free to tell me your experiences .. the more help and ideas the better! thanks in advance :)
CommentAuthorMyranny
There's a really helpful checklist for brides pinned at the top of the forum which gives sort of a timeline which I found really useful :) Congratulations on your engagement! When are you getting married?
CommentAuthorGlitterfairy
HIya and welcome to the site. Enjoy
As Myranny said, check the checklist above to see what needs doing and where to start.
Our wedding day - 6 October 2012
CommentAuthorFlossie
Hi Charley and welcome! Do you have a date set yet? Venue?
The first thing we did was sit down and work out how much we could realistically save per month to give us an idea of our overall budget. We worked it out as if we were paying for the whole thing ourselves and then any financial help we were offered from then on was an added bonus! x
Happily married
18th June 2016
xx
CommentAuthorBaker2Be
I feel exactly the same way! We have set a budget of £3000 for everything. Picked the date we want but that's about it. Venues in our area are just so expencive and both are familys have high opinions on what we should and shouldnt do. Add to the stress we are trying to save for a deposit on a house and my h2b is finishing up a gas course.
the whole prospect of planning a wedding is daunting
3rd January 2015 I said yes to being your wife
10th September 2016 we will make it official
I agree with every one else, start with a realistic budget, then get you venue book, then every thing else comes after that. If u don't already it's always a good idea to have a date or at least time of year you want to get married that will help the venu give u dates. Good luck! Xx
Started going out with my Gorgeous man 7/11/2010
Got engaged on the 21/9/2013
became mrs Thornton on the 2/8/2015
our wedding day was the best day ever :)!
CommentAuthorFionaS107
I felt that starting with a guest list was the best !!! My Fiance and I have been engaged for a year and initially just bounced ideas around. I then recently have had time to look at venues and because of the huge range it is very difficult to decide. You can cut back on price per head for meals if you want to. The key thing I found was 1. Make the Guest List - figure out who are the core people, who are the secondary. That was you may have 2 numbers to work from, 50 absolutely minimum, and maybe 150 maximum. You can then work from that in regards to venues - look for small and large, and caters - cheap and expensive, and get a quote for the 2 options - 50 ppl which may be some where beautiful and private, and then for 150 which may be in a big hotel and not exclusive use.
Good luck Fee
CommentAuthorDanielleS0709
Have you booked your venue? You should go to a wedding fayre and get ideas. The things you should book first are the things that they can only do one a day of such as band, dj, photographer, videographer, cars etc I also booked my hair and make up early as I knew exactly where i wanted to go and was scared they couldn't take me. Things you can leave for a while is cake, flowers, dresses suits etc
21st May 2016 xxx
CommentAuthorEmily17
Hello. Good luck planning your wedding. I found wedding fayres a great place to start. Get to talk to people and get ideas with no obligation of booking. X
Met in 2009
He proposed Jan 2014
Will become Mrs P 7th October 2017
CommentAuthorclairenina
I felt very overwhelmed and didn't know where to start. I started making lists/spreadsheets, and put ideas down first. Once I had a list (which I added to and deleted things from occasionally), I then added date columns of when I thought things needed to be actioned by. The first thing we did was book the venue, after that we booked the registrar. We then decided on colour scheme. Little by little it came together. Try not to do too much at one, and work through a list. Most of all, enjoy it xx
CommentAuthorAprilS61
Hi Charley.
Do you have a date yet? If not, start from there. Work out a draft guest list for approximate numbers and decide when you'd like to get married, then start looking for venues.
I would definitely suggest looking at the brides checklist at the top of the page.
Mr & Mrs Swan 04/04/15
CommentAuthorSarah D
congratulations!
I started off by planning a month we would like to get married, we thought about saving also as we just bought a house 7 months ago so our savings account is empty lol so we gave ourselves 20 months as that's enough time for us to save, we also set a budget so we had something to work towards. We had already started looking at venues last year and started going to wedding fairs start of January, we fell in love with the venue we have booked. Once we set our date we paid the deposit and have from there booked the band, photographer, videographer and registrar, oh an booked the registrar.
X
Became Mrs Duthie 7th October 2016
CommentAuthorMrsThomson2B
Congratulations on getting engaged.
My advice would be to:
- Work out your budget....This will define exactly what you can afford, then start to apportion this budget to different aspects of your day so for example if you have a budget of £10,000 you might say that you want to spend £3,000 on the venue and catering, £1,000 on the dress and accessories, £500 on 3 bm dresses and accessories, £200 on grooms and best mans outifts, £1,500 on photographer, £300 on cake etc until you have a rough budget totalling your total budget, A tip would be to make your total budget less than what you can actually afford as most brides will go over by around 10%.
- Secondly work out your guest list. The number of guests you have WILL dictate your venue to some degree. create a guest list of the people who you know MUST ABSOLUTLY be at your wedding. This is your minimum guest numbers. remember to add the bridal party on top of that including you and your groom. From here you are now looking for venues that will hold your wedding for that amount of people.
Have a secondry guest list of people you would like there if budget and space allow and then the guests you know will only be coming at night.
- Thirdly find your venue and book in your date. Now this is where things might get a little tricky. If you plan on getting married at a different location to the reception then you will need tobe sure that both venues are avaialbe on that date. If they are quite a way in the future say 18 months, or 2-3 years away then it might not be a problem. but you may have to decide which veune is more important to you if you cant get both on the same date or if you have a certain date in mind. So if you know you want to get married in a church book the church first and then find the reception venue. if you love the reception venue book that first.
I would advise that you do step 2 before step 3 as if you book the venue and then discove you have to cut half your guests off the list you will give yourself a wedding politics nightmare.
Hope that helps a little bit xx
CommentAuthorAprilS61
Mr & Mrs Swan 04/04/15
CommentAuthorMrsThomson2B
bump for the bride who was struggling with what to do next x
CommentAuthorInDreamland
As others have said, have a look at the brides checklist thread at the top of the forum to help get you started.
Married the love of my life on Saturday 11th May 2013 xxx
Had our dream perfect honeymoon in Hawaii!
