A wedding takes a lot to organise, so the sooner you can get things sorted the better! There are so many little details that go into planning a wedding, so you need to make sure that you tackle them as soon as possible. Here are some of the things that you should get organised at the very start of the mammoth task that is wedding planning!
The Venue
One of the first things that you should think about organising is the venue. This is where it is all going to happen, and you need to make sure that you get just the right place. Will you need a separate venue for the ceremony and reception? Many people who want a traditional church wedding will then need to find somewhere else to hold their reception. Others might want to get married in the same venue – whether the room is being reset between the ceremony and the party or you are moving to a new room within the venue itself.
The venue is one of the most important parts of a wedding so it needs to be locked down as soon as possible. It can dictate so many other aspects of the big day. For example, you need to book it for a day, so that will confirm the deadline for all your other aspects of organisation. It will also give you an upper limit for a guestlist as venues have a certain capacity that they can’t exceed.
On top of these, the wedding venue might set a theme for the celebration. If you get married in a grand old cinema, an Old Hollywood theme might be appropriate. Getting married in an orangery could give you a garden party theme. If you already have a theme in mind, you should try to find a wedding venue that will match this vision.
Wedding Party
Who amongst your friends and family will stand beside you on your big day? Your maid of honour and best man can be incredibly important when it comes to wedding planning. If you and your partner can’t organise something yourselves, you can turn to these two to look into it instead.
They will also be responsible for planning your stag and hen parties, and might even have a surprise or two up their sleeves for the wedding reception. The sooner you can decide who they will be, the sooner they can get to planning. It also might give you some more time to smooth out any irate feelings from people who thought that these roles should have gone to them.
You do need to decide who will be in the wider wedding party too. The bridesmaids and groomsmen will all have their roles to play on the big day, and they can provide some much-needed support during the stresses of wedding planning. Nowadays, a lot more goes into choosing your wedding party than just asking your friends to be a part of your big day. Take a look at these bridesmaid proposal ideas – they might give you some inspiration into what you can do when asking your friends to stand by your side on the biggest day of your life. Looking through bridesmaid proposal ideas can really show them how much they mean to you, and how much you appreciate their friendship!
Colour Scheme
As with the venue, the colour scheme will set the rest of the wedding. It can dictate everything from the colour of the bridesmaids’ dresses to the invitations you send to guests. The sooner you can settle on colours the better. Try to limit this to no more than two. Ideally, you want a main colour and then an accent that complements it well. This gives you a little variation and means that you can mix it up when it comes to picking decorations and other details.
There are many ways to settle on the right colour scheme for your big day. Some simply go with their favourite colours. Others might go with something that fits in with the time of year. Winter weddings can involve silver or blue, or even a rich burgundy. Spring weddings are more likely to have pastel colours like mint, lilac or a light pink.
The colour scheme could even tie into the theme in some way. For example, if you were to go with that Old Hollywood theme, you might decide to pick red and gold as your colour scheme. There are so many different choices out there for you to settle on. Deciding early means that you will be able to go ahead and begin to choose important details like flowers as soon as possible.
Honeymoon
With so much to plan for a wedding, it can sometimes feel a little like you are putting everything to one side too early if you choose to focus on your honeymoon instead! However, there is good reason to book this on the early side. Though it is a special occasion, it is still a holiday at the end of the day. This means that the later you leave it, the more expensive it will be to book overall.
Have you got an idea as to where you would like to go? After all the stresses of wedding planning, it can be nice to just go somewhere hot and relax on a sun lounger for a week. Booking somewhere like the Caribbean or the Greek islands might be the perfect choice.
If you have an activity in mind for your honeymoon, you also need to make sure that you book it as quickly as you can. You might have dreams of cruising Croatia from onboard a yacht or heading out on a South African safari, but if you leave it too late, you might not be able to find an opportunity to do so.
Guestlist
No one wants to think about it, but you need to finalise the guestlist as soon as possible. If anything, it means that you can get the invitations out as soon as possible, allowing your guests to start organising travel and their own outfits.
Finalising the guestlist is important as you need to make sure that you are not going over the capacity of your venue. Your venue could have a total cap of 200. Taking yourself and your partner out of the equation, you have 198 seats to fill and you will be shocked at how quickly they fill up.
This is also important to consider in terms of feeding guests at your wedding. This can mean that you have to sort out allergies and dietary requirements, so the sooner you can pass this information to your caterers the better. Don’t forget about extra plates for your photographer and DJ or wedding band! They should be fed as part of their night’s work too!
Planning a wedding has a lot more to it than people might think, so you need to ensure that you have all the bases covered as soon as you can. The above points are things that you should try to determine as soon as possible, as they can dictate many other parts of the wedding too. Jump in and start planning your wedding now – you have to start at some point and there really is no time like the present!
