Planning a Wedding; First Steps

1: Setting a date


Image from Madison Metropolitan School District

Argh, how are you supposed to pick just one day out of 365 in a year?! How do you even pick a year? Of course, when you're first engaged, it's a very exciting feeling and you just want to get married tomorrow. However, it's best to sit down and think about how much time you need to plan & save. One of you needs to be stubborn and sensible, like I was even though I felt like I was trying to drag it out as long as I can. I'm not! Jim wants to get married in 2014. Ideally, so do I, but we have barely any savings so it's just not viable. 2015 it is. So, picking the day. We sat down last night and spoke about what we wanted. We definitely want a barbecue, which will be outdoors. So, obviously that's the season sorted. Summer. Summer in England is still a bit risky, but we're willing to take it. Now to pick a month. I let Jim do that one! He mentioned that he'd been talking to my dad that afternoon and a Thursday in June would be cheaper than a Friday/Saturday in another month. Boom! 2 in 1, the day and the month. 4 dates to pick from. I just picked the soonest which is the 4th. Date done: Thursday 4th June 2015.

2: Budget.


Image from hitched.co.uk

Ah, the dreaded budget conversation. I could tell Jim didn't want to go through it, but we had to so I made him. We put a budget against each part of the wedding and made sure we went higher as a lot of it is just guess work. Example: Catering. Every website we looked at was 'contact us for bespoke quotes today'. I can tell I'm already going to get sick of that phrase. Vendors - bride & grooms need estimates, people! Jim seemed shocked at the cost of some things and I think he realised why I wasn't bothered about getting a lovely wedding car (minimum price £350. I don't think so). I'd rather spend more money on the photographer and honeymoon. It took us about an hour, but we did it. Now we've got to try and stay under it.

3: Guestlist


Image from bridesupnorth.co.uk

The guest list part annoys me. Having to include family at the family that you never see (and know that you will never see them after the wedding) is frustrating, but it's not worth the arguments. We're not having kids at the ceremony but will include them at the reception if they want. Jim missed out a few of his family so we'll have to sort that out later! Almost there.

Does anyone wish to share any tips or problems they faced when doing these?