Your Guide to the First Steps in Wedding Planning
You’re engaged — congrats! Now what?
The first few weeks and months of engagement can be an overwhelming (but exciting!) time if you’re planning a wedding. Where do you start?! We’re here to give you a complete breakdown of the first few things you should focus on in your wedding planning process.
Create a Preliminary Budget
Before you book any vendors, you should understand your general budget. This will likely change as you get further along in the process, but knowing the amount you’re comfortable spending will be important as you consider initial planning steps.
Hire Your Planner
If you’re looking to work with a full service planner, you should book them before any other vendor. From there, they can help you research venues, compare pricing, analyze contracts, and find the venue and vendors that will fit your priorities and budget.
Create a Preliminary Guest List
Before you pick out your venue, you’ll need to know what size you’re looking for and how much you can spend per person. Start by creating a preliminary guest list of friends and family that you’d like to invite. Typically, 20% of invitees will decline but you know your guests best so make sure you have an understanding of how many people will actually attend. Destination weddings have a higher decline rate.
Book Your Venue
Once you have your budget set, a guest list curated, and your planner booked, you’re in a great place to book your venue. For a traditional wedding, you can go a few routes:
A raw space venue: these will cost less up front for the venue rental because you’re typically just renting out the physical space. The costs add up later, however, when you bring in rentals, catering, decor, and all your other vendors.
A full service venue: these might give you some sticker shock when you get a quote, but that quote will typically include the venue, food, alcohol, and rentals, so it’s a very all-encompassing price. Booking a full service venue usually means less work for you because the venue covers so much.
A restaurant venue: restaurant weddings are a great option for couples on a tighter budget or those who want something less traditional. You can buy out a restaurant that will handle food, alcohol, and furniture for usually less money than a full service venue (plus, the food is always delicious and service is on point!).
Once you get through these intial four steps in planning, you’re in a great place! From there, you can move on to booking vendors like your photographer, florist, DJ or band, beauty, and any other vendors you’d like for your day. Happy planning!
