Whether you’re planning for your dream day or just want to understand the process in more detail, the topic of weddings is always an exciting one. For most couples, it marks one of the best days of their lives – a time filled with love and emotion spent with all their favorite people.
In this article, you’ll learn all about what goes into making a day to remember in ten simple steps.
1. The Proposal
The most fundamental part of a wedding is the proposal that comes before it. It sets the stage for all that follows, and if you’re at the point of planning your own proposal, there are a few elements to bear in mind.
First off is the ring, so here are 10 questions to ask when buying an engagement ring if you’re struggling to decide. Then, you have the location (which is just as important as the ring). Usually, a place of significance is chosen, such as where the couple shared their first kiss, or the restaurant they ate at on their first date.
2. The Engagement Period
Once someone’s said ‘yes’, the buzz of the engagement begins. Before any concrete plans are made for a wedding, the couple usually takes some time away to enjoy the afterglow. They might decide to go on holiday or simply plan a weekend away.
It’s also a time to discuss the future. Discussion is pretty light at this time, and there aren’t any concrete plans made, but it’s a period full of excitement as the couple considers their future together on a deeper level.
3. Understanding Budget
If you’re reading this and you’re planning on getting married yourself, there will come a point when you need to talk about money.
Weddings are expensive, make no doubt about it, and you’ll need to plan things out carefully if you hope to execute your ideal plan. Where you get your funds from will depend on your specific situation: most people save themselves, while some are also lucky enough to have friends and family help them out.
4. Wedding Themes
These days, weddings come in many different shapes and sizes. There’s always the traditional, more formal approach, but many opt for bohemian, beach, art deco, and other aesthetic styles.
Of course, there are also people’s religion and culture to take into account, as there are dozens of different types of weddings on that basis, too.
5. Choosing the Venue
Choosing the venue can be one of the most challenging parts of all, as again, there are many different types to pick from. There’s everything from traditional church weddings to Hawaiian beach locations, and what’s chosen will depend on the personal style of the bride and groom and the area of the world they wish to marry in.
If you’re currently planning your own wedding, you’ll want to factor this in as early as possible, because popular venues book up very quickly.
6. Wedding Clothes
Choosing what to wear represents one of the most important parts of the wedding, and it can certainly be a bit of a minefield. Whether it’s the bride, groom, or other key participants, getting everyone to look smart and uniform can be a real challenge.
Dressing people for a wedding usually requires multiple fitting sessions at a tailor’s or wedding clothing store, and before that, everything has to be planned out as a whole to ensure everyone’s clothes are in keeping with the theme of the day.
7. The Invitations
Many people stress over crafting the perfect wedding invitations, but they’re really not that complicated. All you need to include is a basic greeting that politely invites the recipient to the wedding, and key elements like the date, time, venue, and theme.
Invitations are usually personalized with a special font, which is sometimes embossed, alongside a picture of the couple in the center. They can fold out like a card or, for brevity’s sake, be focused onto a single A5 page.
8. Calling on the Right Professionals
Planning the perfect wedding requires the help of many different professionals. First up, there’s the wedding photographer, who is responsible for memorializing the day with carefully snapped pictures of the happy couple on their special day. Then, there are caterers and bakers, there to ensure the spread is up to a professional standard.
You’ve also got other individuals like the wedding planner, makeup artists, hairstylists, florists, and more, and of course, the friends and family will also usually be called in for an extra pair of hands for this, that, or the other.
If you’re currently planning a wedding, just make sure to do your research on every person you bring on; the wrong person can spell disaster for the big day, and you need to have everyone working seamlessly together.
9. Planning Out the Smaller Details
Once the big things are out of the way, it’s often the smaller, almost imperceptible details that really bring the wedding alive.
These could be things like entertainers, special music playlists, and optimizing color coordination. Every little detail matters, and wedding planners can be particularly helpful here as they have a keen eye for detail.
10. Final Touches
The final touches of a wedding mostly relate to making sure everything’s organized. The main thing to do is to ensure everyone knows what they’re doing at what time and where – and that goes for both the professionals you’ve hired and the key guests.
If you’re planning a wedding and have a wedding planner, this would be the time to go through everything with them one last time to check it’s all ship shape.
Plan Your Perfect Day
You should now have a good idea of what’s involved in planning a wedding from start to finish. There’s a lot going on, so if you’re currently planning your own wedding, just remember to take things one step at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed. Most importantly, enjoy the process and relax into it, as this is a time to treasure.
