Congratulations if you’re reading this and you’re newly engaged – I’m sure you’re extremely excited so I’m here to help you organise what you need to do next with our 6 steps!
1. Tell all your close family and friends
In person if you are able to or at least on the phone/Skype, I have heard of numerous arguments that have taken place where close family and friends find out when the relationship status on Facebook is changed from ‘In a Relationship’ to ‘Engaged’. This is not the reaction/aggravation you want when you are newly engaged!!
2. Sort out your budget.
This is a really important one, sit down with each other and your family and discuss exactly what you want to spend on your wedding (and try to stick to it!!) Take into consideration these average percentages of your budget:
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Ceremony, Venue, Food and Drink 45%
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Photographer and Videographer 10%
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Flowers 5%
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Bridal party attire, wedding rings, shoes 10%
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Decor and lighting 5%
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Entertainment 5%
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Stationery, Favours, Other Extras 10%
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Wedding Planner 10%
Obviously all couples want to spend different amounts in different aspects so these are the questions you need to start thinking about.
3. Create your guestlist.
Before you speak to any suppliers it really helps to decide who you would like during the day and in the evening as you can then get more exact quotes. This is another one that can (often!) cause arguments in the family.
Decide whether you want a large wedding or a small wedding and go from there. By doing this early on you will be able to gauge the amount of accommodation options you will need for guests who may be travelling to the wedding.
It’s very easy at this stage to get over-excited and invite third cousins, fourth cousins and so on to the day using ‘I saw them 10 years ago at Granny’s 80th’ as an excuse but remember guests = money. There are obviously going to be family members you have to invite even if you don’t see them often but aside from that invite family and friends who you are close with and who you will stay close with going into your marriage.
4. Visit Wedding Shows.
These can be extremely overwhelming at first but if you do it early on in your engagement it can be a great starting point to see different styles and themes you would like your wedding to look like.
Leaving it too late when your wedding is all booked can end in regret as you might see something you prefer and then you won’t be able to get your first deposit back. Here you can speak to suppliers about their prices and packages that they offer.
5. Hire a Wedding Planner.
This is where I can come in. I won’t go into every detail as to why you should hire a wedding planner as you can read them in our other blog post ‘Why Hire a Wedding Planner?’ but remember all those amazing suppliers you saw at the wedding show? We can get you DISCOUNTS and SPECIAL OFFERS which you won’t get if you just book yourselves.
This is obviously based on the fact of repeat business and custom that we give them so before you book any suppliers and sign any contracts, contact us for your free consultation. We will listen to your ideas and budgets and then suggest suppliers that will work perfectly for you. Even if you have a definite supplier in mind you would like to use, we can negotiate and work with them too.
You are still in control of your wedding, you just then have a professional who will make it stress-free, enjoyable and will get you the best prices around.
For example, if you are spending ‘£20,000’ on everything for your wedding without a wedding planner (it can even include honeymoon), we can tend to get all those suppliers prices down about 10-15% which would take the total cost to around ‘£17/18,000’ saving you £2-3000. But, our minimum fee is about that price so the total cost would still be around £20,000 including your discounts.
HOWEVER, included in that final price is a professional who will:
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Arrange and attend all consultations with you (or for you if you can’t make them)
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Work with you for the duration of your engagement
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Keep spreadsheets of payment dates and deposits paid
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Get some extras thrown in from suppliers
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Provide creative ideas and advice
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Organise all the timings for your wedding so all suppliers know the running order of the day
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Always be at the end of a phone call/e-mail when you have any questions and can meet you to talk through anything whenever you want
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Help set up your wedding so your family and friends don’t have to do it
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Be there on the day of the wedding from start to finish to oversee everything and make sure everything runs smoothly
So really, you won’t end up spending much more than you would have done before you hired a wedding planner and you’ve got more included! When I explain it like that I get a lot of people who tend to go ‘Oh yes I didn’t realise that…’
However, don’t worry if you are reading this and you have already booked some aspects of your wedding, we can jump in at any stage and help you plan the rest and also be there on the day of the wedding with our PARTIAL PLANNING packages (and still save you money!).
Similarly, if everything is already planned and especially if you are getting married in a tipi/marquee/outdoors our On-the-Day Management package if perfect for you and we have our SPECIAL OFFER of £899 for weddings in 2016 and extended to 2017/18 if you book a consultation before 28/2/16. See our Wedding Services page for more information on the packages.
6. Find a Venue.
This can be done either before step 5 or after (a lot of couples who come to us already know the venue where they want to get married and thats all they have planned or they come to us before as rather than them looking round 10 venues, we listen to what location/style/decor/numbers you want and recommend only 3/4 that fit perfectly with your requirements).
There are tons of questions to ask a venue and we will address that in another blog post but remember we can do it all for you.
