When you decided to get married, it could well have been the most exciting moment of your life. You are facing a new world, that of a married individual, and there will be other considerations now besides yours. There will now be someone in your life you can snuggle up to in the cold winter nights, and blame when things get a little awry. So naturally, you would want the celebration of your wedding to be perfect.
Here are several tips on planning your wedding:
Decide on the kind of wedding you want as early as possible. Garden wedding, to be flowerful? Church, but which? Beach wedding, for a change? You can think up more ideas for a perfect wedding if you have a longer time between the decision and the wedding date.
Select the most important parts of the wedding as soon as you can: venue, reception, sponsors and the like. By doing so you can plan more carefully and thoroughly on them and their participation in the ceremonies.
You need not wear a designer dress if your budget does not allow it; silk or polyester will look just as good in the photos. Or consider renting your gown. After all, if you do not wish to wear your mother’s wedding dress, your future daughter might feel the same. You can save on the expenses to boot.
Plan your budget. After you stole, begged or borrowed additional funds from rich uncles and doting grandmothers to come up with a total, list down your expense items and what you can allocate for each. Be realistic about the figures, and leave something for contingency expenses. There are always some things you will have forgotten to list down or items you overlooked, so allot something for them.
Keep to your plans and budget, no matter the jitters. You will always have doubts on the venue, cake, food and drinks, flowers and decorations and every little thing besides, as your wedding date draws near. It is normal and common. Alter your plans only if new conditions demand you must do so, or your budget allows. Reception venue contracts always have options for an upgrade but never downgrade, because of these jitters.
Request assistance from relatives, friends and colleagues. They may have expertise you can use to lessen the physical burden of planning and organizing. It is not absolutely necessary that you do everything yourself. Delegate some jobs but be on top of them always, reserving the last decision on anything major.
Cut corners and find ways to save on the lesser aspects of the wedding so you can devote more funds on the important ones. You can make the guest favors as your centerpiece, for instance, and save on flowers. Or use silk flowers for decorations you can use again in your new home.
There are many ways you can make your wedding memorable without being too expensive. You just need to plan and decide on its various components.
But, if you can afford it, no law stops you from splurging. After all, a wedding only comes once in life. That is, most of the time.
This was a guest post by John from EEF Venues, providing conference centres in Warwickshire, London and Bristol.