You’ve just become engaged to the love of your life and you’re eager to prepare your planning – the best day of your life must run smoothly and you don’t want to forget a thing. Depending on the type of wedding you’re dreaming of, whether that’s a small ceremony or a big do – it’s essential to start with a checklist to ensure that the day will run smoothly and not a thing is forgotten. Planning can be challenging enough without forgetting or dismissing significant factors. This guide offers simple steps to ensure that stress, pressure on relationships and embarrassment is avoided as well as the importance of sticking to a budget.
The following points will all bound together to make the day special.
1. Inspiration and setting your wedding vision
You may not necessarily know what sort of day you’d like so it’s important to consider all possibilities from potential themes right down to colour coordination. Within the early stages, it’s just a matter of looking and observing – you may already have your dream wedding in mind but there’s no harm in looking into alternative possibilities.
>>Read more about the top five wedding dress stores in Exeter. These could help you gain some real inspiration on to what you’d like.
There are a number of ways to browse the sort of wedding you’d like, the best places to start could be bridal magazines which are informative and specific or websites like Pinterest to search and save a range of images which don’t need to be strictly bridal. As ideas could change, you could even produce a physical mood board to make adjustments throughout the planning process if you’re not keen on doing things digitally. A Moodboard is a collection of images to gathered in one place to inspire and refer back to throughout the planning process. Getting a feel for what you both like together as a couple is a good place to start.
2. Setting your budget
Once you’re feeling further inspired and as though you’re getting that little bit closer to finding the dress of your dreams, it can be easy to dismiss one of the main factors – the cost. Although your wedding day is naturally one of the biggest days of your life, it is a good idea to figure out your financial contribution as a couple before you begin purchasing any items. Base the budget on any family contributions along with your own, once you have an idea of what you’re working with, further planning can go ahead.
3. The guest list
Start with the decisions of bridesmaids, the maid of honour and the best man, these may be a definite or you may prefer not to have any at all. Getting the guest list sorted early on is a good move as it could potentially be more time consuming than you think. This could be planned before or after the venue decision is made, remember to think about plus ones and children of friends and family. The best way to do start off is to work through family members and mutual friends as a couple. It’s important that the invitations are sent out a good few months before the ceremony to gain insight to who can attend and who may not be able to.
4. Your venue
Mixing a sunny white sands holiday with your special day could be the ultimate dream, or you could be seeking an elegant and classic British affair. The venue of the big day is one of the most significant points to consider when planning a wedding. Pynes House is an endlessly romantic country house based in Devon and an ever-popular choice when it comes to ceremonies due to the captivating views and stunning woodland.
5. Guest invitations and stationery
Stationery and invitations are essentials to a wedding that can often be overlooked. Depending on your theme and how you visualise the big day. There are a number of designs and themes you could go with – from vintage, traditional, shabby chic or contemporary, these could depend on the particular season of which you are tying the knot.
6. Catering for guests after the ceremony
Discover the best banquet for your budget by deciding first and foremost what kind of food you’d like to have. There are hundreds of options, you can discover some exquisite food and drink ideas here. Many factors could influence this decision, including the time of the year of the event. Link to your theme and decide if you’d like a traditional sit-down meal or something less filling like an afternoon tea buffet. From this decision, you can then decide on options for vegetarian/vegan purposes and any allergies that guests may have. If you decide to go for the meal, begin with starter choices through to main and followed by dessert options.
7. Entertainment
Whether you’re leaning towards a band, a solo artist or a DJ, music is a huge part of the day from the moment you’re up and getting ready for the big day. The first dance is perhaps the main music factor, but decisions must be made right through to the wedding reception. You could start off with preparing your wedding music through listening to playlists and testing different sounds, a relaxation playlist could be a good start as you’re preparing your bridal look, the mixture of nerves and excitement can easily be settled with a selection of your favourite songs. Some couples have a personal, lyrically appropriate love song and some discover or stumble upon them together to find what suits them best.
Check out our wedding music tips for more information on considering and selecting the best songs to make your day special and personal.
8. The essentials
After all, of the above have been thought about, planned and decided, the following essentials may be smaller factors however, they are not less important.
- The cake
- Photography
- Flowers; will these be colour themed and will the bridesmaids match?
- Wedding favours; these are individual items for each of your guests as a personalised souvenir of your perfect day. These could be anything from candles to engraved wine glasses. A number of examples can be found here and there options to spend a minimal or larger amount on these.
Planning your special day is never going to be an easy job, organisation therefore, is key and it can also be incredibly enjoyable and rewarding . Keeping a timescale while referring back to the checklist is another crucial point. For example, a date to send out the invitations and a date you’d like RSVP’s back – from this you can contact those who may not have reached back to you. There’s always the option to hire a professional wedding planner although if you’d like to keep it personal, remember not to get lost in the stress of it too much, after all – it’s all about the love and the feeling that you both get as a couple throughout the entire day.
Contact Pynes House if you’d like to discuss bookings or you can read more about our venue here.