- avaleuer
- Apr 16, 2020
- 3 min read
I decided I want to blog a bit about my wedding planning experience. Since I want to go into event planning, I want to give some helpful advice to soon-to-be brides, and I plan to start planning weddings soon!
After getting engaged, there is so much excitement and it can be a crazy time. It can feel overwhelming when 2 seconds after you get engaged, everyone you know is asking if you’ve set a date and what your plans are for the wedding.
I’m the type of person to think wayyy ahead, so I did things a bit different than other brides. I knew my dream venue and photographer were booking out over a year and a half in advance. My fiance and I didn’t want a super long engagement. So, we already had a date set, a budget, a venue booked, and a photographer booked, about 3 months before we even got engaged.
That does sound crazy, but many venues and venders book 1-2 years in advance, and I hear that more and more brides are having to do this. The positive side was that after we got engaged, we didn’t have to rush to book things. We got to relax and enjoy the engagement, and when people asked if we’d set a date, we already had one! Easy! We had a super fun engagement party with our friends and family that was stress-free. This could have also been solved with a longer engagement, but it wasn’t something that either of us were interested in.
From my experience, I do have one regret and one piece of advice for all couples getting engaged! Before doing any research, planning, or booking, I would highly recommend sitting with your partner and outlining your vision and expectations for your wedding day.
When talking about the wedding, my fiance and I were running into some disagreements with planning. We both had completely different pictures in our minds about how envisioned our big day. We had been exposed to very different weddings and were not on the same page. He was expecting us to book a party bus that would take us to a local bar before our reception. I was expecting a limo to take us to the cocktail hour at our reception venue. He would have been okay with our reception being in the backyard, but I had my dream venue stuck in my head. So I would 100% recommend talking with your fiance about exactly what you want, and talking about you expectations, even if they feel obvious to you.
After you have a solid vision together that you both agree on, the next step will be creating a budget. You will run into a ton of trouble if you start booking things without a budget in place. This is a super important step that I will write more about later!
The next step is booking venues for your ceremony and reception. Some couples plan their ceremony and reception at one location, and some couples plan for two locations.
After that, I booked my photographer, florist, and caterer. I reached out to different venders and got price quotes so that I could create a budget. I didn’t commit to a venue without knowing how much money I would have to be spending on food, flowers, photography, decorations, and everything else. I chose to book the most important things to me first, and things that would book out the quickest. It is also a great tip to put the most money into the things that are most important to you, and to cut back on the things that aren’t your top priority.
I will write more specifically about booking different venues and venders, and other wedding tips soon!
Sincerely, Ava Rains
