wedding plan
You’re engaged! Congratulations! Now what?
This is the question I’ve asked myself after my husband and I talked about getting married. Like I said before, we didn’t get engaged, we went straight to talking about getting married.
The first thing you should do, if you have the budget, is to look for wedding planners, because they are the best thing that can happen to you for the wedding, second to your husband of course LOL! If you hire a really good wedding planner, that person will help you through everything you need to do, up to the day of the wedding.
If you are like me who didn’t have the budget for a wedding planner, here is a list of things you need to plan for. This is based on my personal experience, I am not an expert on this subject, but this is the list I made for myself when I planned our wedding.
Location
This is different from the wedding venue, this is basically the geographical location I am talking about. Is it a local wedding? Out of town? Out of the country? Destination wedding, maybe? Decide on the location first, then you can start planning the dates and choosing the venue.
Wedding venue or wedding date? Which comes first?
Set a date first, then look for a venue online. Separate your search for a wedding ceremony, and a wedding reception, although some hotels have a garden area where ceremonies are done. If you see a venue that you like, book an appointment with the manager to take a look at it. If you go there without having a date set, it’ll be a waste of time because you won‘t be able to reserve it, even if you really, really love the venue. Then when you finally decide on the wedding date, the venue might not be available anymore.
Set a few tentative dates. Your date should be a little bit flexible at this point in time, because what if the wedding venue you love is not available at that date, then maybe try the week before and after?
Pastor, Priest or Officiant
This depends on your religion, if you have any. Sometimes when the bride and groom don’t have any religious affiliations, they choose someone really close to them and they ask that person to become an officiant, instead of getting someone from the city hall.
Wedding rings
Either customized, or from the store. IF you have the budget, opt for a customized one, there are still cheaper prices for customized rings, depending on the metal, and stones you are putting. For me and my husband, we have a titanium ring, very simple. I actually don’t wear mine anymore, after I gave birth, my fingers never returned to their original size hahaha. When we went back home to the Philippines, we got matching ring tattoos instead.
Wedding Dress and Shoes
Start looking for a wedding dress really early in your planning stage. It takes a long time to decide. Plus, the bridal store needs ample time to order, and do fittings and adjustments. As for the shoes, maybe it’s your something borrowed if you have a friend with the same shoe size? There are different wedding shoe styles out there, I will doing that in a different blog post.
Number of guests
Once you decide on the wedding date and venue, you now have to figure out how many guests you are inviting. The venue usually dictates this number, because there is always a maximum number of people allowed per wedding venue.
Let’s say you are allowed to have 100 guests. subtract yourself, the groom, and the wedding party, and start your list with your closest family members from both sides, your friends, other relatives, and lastly, your closest coworkers. I put coworkers last because believe it or not, I’ve been invited to the wedding of my coworker once, and I only started working there for 3 months. Why I was invited? I don’t really know. Make sure when you invite coworkers, that you’ve been working with them for a long, long time, and that you also have a personal relationship, not just at work. Otherwise, what’s the point? Well again, if you have a big budget and if you want to, you can invite whoever you want.
God parents
Only choose people whom you believe will be there for you and the groom anytime you need marriage advice. Someone who will offer practical solutions and heartfelt advice to any problem you might encounter in the future as married couple. Some people have tons of Godparents, I think it’s due to the fact that the family pressured them into getting the other Aunts and Uncles so they won’t feel left out. It happens in every wedding, especially in Filipino weddings. LOL
Maid of Honor and bridesmaids
Choose the Maid of honor first, and then decide on the bridesmaids. How many should you have? Depends on how many close friends you have or want to include. I have a whole blog about that. Read HERE.
After you’ve decided on the Maid of Honor and bridesmaids, how do you tell them? Do you tell them individually? Do you take them all out to dinner, and announce their participation? Personally, I think you should ask them first individually if they want to be a bridesmaid, or maid of honor.
Groomsmen and Best man
Of course, this is something your groom-to-be must decide, not you. But you need to know how many groomsmen he’s getting to be able to match to how many bridesmaids you are having.
Motif or theme
What is the color of your wedding? This depends on the season you are getting married. Make sure the color blends well with the season. For example, if it’s winter, it’s either blue, silver or beige. If it’s in the fall, you can do maroons, browns, red, and etc. You should decide on this one at this point because every other aspect of the wedding items you need to get will depend on this color.
Invitations
DIY or ordered. If you are ordering, there’s always a package deal that includes the Save the Dates, invitations, thank you cards, place cards, etc.
Menu
The decision for this one usually depends on the wedding reception venue, because most of the time, especially at hotels, they have an in-house caterer, and you just have to choose the menus from there. If you are allowed to bring a 3rd party caterer, then you have to look at some local caterers online. They usually have their menus posted on their website, to kinda give you an idea how much it is per head and what you’re getting out of it. Then you can book an appointment with them to try some of their food and customize your menu.
Is your dinner going to be buffet style, family style, or a seated 3 or 4 course meal?
Flowers
Find yourself a good, but cheap florist. There are so many out there. If you do not have enough budget for every bouquet and flower arrangements, just order one bridal bouquet for yourself and then find a place where you can buy bulk flowers and you can make the rest of the bouquets for the bridesmaids, flower girls (if you have any), centerpieces and other flower arrangements you might need. There are so many tutorials online offering to teach you how to make beautiful bouquets and professional looking flower arrangements.
Decor
The décor will largely depend on your wedding motif, that is why I put higher up on the list. Play around with the colors, don’t just stick to one color, find other colors that you can coordinate with the motif. Make sure they are cohesive though.
Are you buying all the décor or DIY’ing it? IS that a word? Anyway, after you find a florist or a place to buy bulk flowers, then you can plan on how to distribute those around your venue and tables to make the wedding venue look nice. Here are some décor items you should think about:
Centerpiece (flowers or whatever you plan on doing)
table cloths (the venue usually provides them but if you want your own nicer one, you can rent or buy )
table napkins and napkin rings
table lighting (candles, small lanterns, lamps, fairy lights, etc)
extra venue lighting( lanterns Edison string lights)
some signages
table numbers and place cards (sometimes they come as a package when you order invitations)
Optional
Bridesmaids gifts
Some brides give their bridesmaids a special gift as a token of appreciation for all the help they offered during the whole wedding process. Doesn’t have to be expensive, just anything special for everyone, maybe matching bracelets or something else to commemorate the day? I got a really fancy charm bracelet from one of my best friends when she got married and I was a bridesmaid. If you can’t afford to give individual gifts, just take them all out to dinner or have a fun girl’s night out.
