Engaged? Now To Start Planning the Wedding

Are you newly engaged?

Firstly congratulations to you both, wonderful news especially after the last year and a half we have all had to adapt to, it’s great to see some light at the end of the tunnel and for life to go back to some sort of normality. After your finished celebrating it’s time to get to the wedding planning. The question is looming…. How do I plan a wedding right? There is so much to do and plan it can be quite overwhelming at some stages.

We’ve compiled a list of things that you will need to do to have the best wedding of all time.

1.  Ask yourself what kind of wedding do you want? Some girls know this answer right away and for others, it can be difficult to figure out the exact type of wedding day you want. Do you want a big wedding with hundreds of your friends family and neighbours or do you want a small casual wedding with only your nearest and dearest? Would you like to elope to some tropical island with just you and your partner? The choice is yours at the end of the day so you need to decide what suits you best before you make your decision. Will it be summer or winter, inside or outside, a civil ceremony or church wedding. Think of the tone you would like also, will it be rustic, vintage, classic, romantic, or a combination of the above. To narrow this down so you can then plan the rest of your details around this. 
2. What’s the budget? Sit down with your groom-to-be and have a hard conversation about cash. You both need to be on the same page when it comes to finances for the wedding. TheGiftShop.ie shared that over 43% of people surveyed stated that they found it very difficult to stay within their budget originally set by them. As each year passes the Irish couples seem to be spending more and more on their big day. Since 2018 the figures have gone up thousands each year. This survey consisted of over 1,400 people and the majority of them had planned to get married in 2020. The budget you have for the wedding might be the deciding factor for the type of wedding that is available to you. For example your not going to have a wedding with 400 guests on a 10 thousand budget. Saying that you can achieve a big wedding on a smaller budget if you are willing to compromise on some details and features of your wedding. The most important thing at this stage is that you are being realistic about the whole thing and what is possible to save before the wedding.
3. Time to decide the wedding guest list now. This is an important stage in the wedding process as it determines so much of your day. The number of guests can affect the view that is available to you and even the church should that be the route that you’re going down. Don’t get carried away with a massive list of everyone plus their dog. Think of who it is you want to celebrate your big day with and go from there. Are you going to invite your workmates to the full wedding or just the afters? Ask your mother, father, and in-laws in case they want to invite Gerry and Mary from down the road as they most likely will have a list of people that they want to go to, you might have bever even met these people before.  
4. Once all the nitty-gritty details above have been ironed out, it’s now time to start some research on your vendors and get booking. So by this stage we now know, what type of wedding we want, how many are coming and how much money we have to spend on the big day. This is the time to get the wedding planning off the ground and get those dates booked in advance. A great tip is to compile a wedding planner spreadsheet. This is a handy step that will allow you to gather all the vendors you are looking into and have been referred to. Start by calling them and checking availability and prices, you can then update your excel with all the information that you find out to make your final decision. Most brides start to plan 12-24 months out from their wedding date, this might seem like a long time but trust me time flys and before you know it the date will be here. This is why planning ahead and in good time will take the stress out of it and allow you to celebrate your wedding day in peace. 
5. A question to also ask will I be “Including Children in My Wedding. The old-age question of how do I include children in my wedding. Deciding whether or not to include kids on your wedding day can be a tricky decision for both you and your partner. Find out here what we think about it. 

To finalise, remember your day will be special as it’s the day you get to marry your best friend, your soulmate. So enjoy the engaged life and celebrations for a little bit of time before you plunge yourself into the world of wedding planning.