Three Things That Should Be at The Top of Your Wedding To-do List
If you have never planned a wedding, you may have no idea where to start! Wedding planning can be a really daunting task, to say the least. Before you start planning anything, you will want to sit down with your partner and figure out your budget. According to Value Penguin, the average cost of a wedding in California is somewhere between $25,000 – 40,000!
Depending on the size and style of your wedding, your budget can be much less or much more than this. If you anticipate Mom, Dad or another family member chipping in to help cover the cost of your wedding, we would include them in the budget conversation as well. Once you have gotten a good understanding of your budget, you can begin planning all of the important details! Here are a few tips on how to plan your dream wedding.
1. Make A Short List of Wedding Venues
The first step to planning your dream wedding is to find a wedding venue. Your wedding can take place at your home, a park nearby, or at a popular wedding venue in the area. While wedding dates for a wedding taking place at a private residence or park may be widely available, this may not be the case for a popular wedding venue. Especially if you plan on getting married in what is considered “wedding season.” Some venues are booked 6-12 months in advance – so scheduling a time to tour these venues and to see what dates they have available is really important. Make sure to visit at least a handful of wedding venues to compare their availability.
2. Find Your Wedding Photographer
Once you have come up with a list of potential venues and dates, you are going to want to look into wedding photography. You may already have a Wedding Photographer in mind – but you will need to compare their availability with the availability of your wedding venues. Make sure to let potential Wedding Photographers know the dates and venues you are considering. If everything works out perfectly, you can choose your favorite wedding venue and Wedding Photographer.
We recommend planning your wedding in this order. While it may seem counter intuitive to first select a venue and Photographer before you have chosen a date, we believe this is the best route to go. This will save you a lot of disappointment by having your dream venue and not your dream Wedding Photographer. Or having your dream Wedding Photographer and a wedding venue that is just “OK.” Making sure that the available wedding dates of your venue and Wedding Photographer are aligned will keep you on the right track!
3. Finalize Your Wedding Date, Schedule an Engagement Session
Thirdly, we recommend picking a wedding date and then scheduling an engagement session with your Wedding Photographer. Scheduling your engagement portraits can be a much-needed break to celebrate this milestone! Once you have taken your engagement portraits, you can use the images to send out save the date invitations. And they can also be used to create your wedding website. Having professional pictures to send out your save the dates with will be a great touch!
Hopefully, these are some really useful tips to get you started on wedding planning. Remember to start in this order: select your budget -> research venues and Wedding Photographers -> finalize a date -> schedule engagement portraits. This will get you started on planning your dream wedding!
Article Submitted By Community Writer
