Planning where to start!

My hubby to be and I are recently engaged and are wondering where to start with planning.Any tips please?

Hi, welcome to Hitched & congratulations!!

Have you got an idea of budget or a venue yet?  They are normally a good place to begin, everything else can roll from there :) 

Your budget is the first place to start as you know then what you are working towards. Then you need to set your date and find your venue. Once you have these it usually a good idea to set your colour scheme or theme so you know what kind of colours you are working towards and then you are off and running as everything else works round these three things I would say.

Congratulations by the way and make sure that you have fun planning,

Thank you both, we've got a rough idea - hopefully planning to get married in 2012.  getting a few ideas at the moment.

Welcome to Hitched! I am quite new myself, but getting married in July! I've only just starting planning properly too.

x

Hiya

congrats!!!!

Like people said the first thing is to set a rough budget (boring bit) and then more fun start to look at venues and see where you like (and where you can afford!). This can take a while so focus on that, best to book early then you have more time for planning. I dont want to scare you but we didnt realise how expensive everything wedding wise was so just be prepared!

Once venue is booked - check with your registrar they are available on that day first - then u can do all the fun stuff like colour schemes !

Bridal mags r expensive but fun, I think Cosmopolitan Bride is one of the best!

Enjoy the planning!

S x

Huge congratulations and welcome to hitched!

Thanks for the warm welcome

Welcome to hitched!! You'll find all the help you'll need here!

Echoing what others have said, you can't make any decisions until you know your budget.  There are two ways to start

1) Work out how much everything is going to cost. This would involved having a rough idea of the number of guests and how much you will spending on their food, drink, venue etc. You will need to get some brochures/quotes from venues to work this out. Get an idea from websites about average costs (hitched has a good budget planner!). Total everything up and then work out how long it will take to save the money, including any contributions from savings and other people. This will then give you the date for your wedding. Eg, if you need to save £10,000 and you can save £500 per month between you, you know you it will take you 20 months to save enough money.

2) Set a date. You then work out how much you can save each month up until the wedding and include any other financial contributions. Eg, the wedding is in 16 months x £500 saving per month= £8000 + £5000 contribution from parents + £5000 savings =£18,000.  You then work out a budget for all the aspects of your wedding ensuring you don't go over.

Try and take off 10% off your budget so if your budget is £20k, take off £2k as a contingency and try and get your wedding within £18k. This way if you do have any unexpected payments (which invariably happens!) you won't have to be dissapointed by not having enough for it. If you find you don't go into your contingency, you have some money left after the wedding which you can spend on your honeymoon or use towards something for your home.

Another thing you need to decide on at the beginnng is who will be in your wedding party. You will need to decide if they will be contributing towards their outfits or if you will be paying for everything. If you would like them to contribute, you need to make this clear to them from the outset and not 'surprise' them further down the line.

Once you have worked out your budgets, think about the style of wedding you would like. This will dictate the style of venue you choose (also dependent on budget). So a modern chic wedding would be suited to a boutique style hotel, a country wedding would be better in a converted barn, vintage/shabby chic theme works well in a  country hotel, summer fete would be great in a marquee/garden, fairytale in a castle.  Once you've chosen your venue you can think about your colour scheme. Make sure your theme works well with your reception room. If you have a red and gold coloured room (curtains, chairs, walls and carpets) putting bright pink and lime green theme would look awful. Always work with the venue's colours as this is where your guests will be spending most of their time. If it's a neutral theme, you have pick of the crop!

Once you have some ideas of what you would like, start collecting pictures from the internet and magazines and put together a mood board (can be A4, doesn't need to be big, but for my clients I usually do A2) so that you can see what works well together and to get an overall picture of how your wedding will look. Use this mood board to show to your suppliers, so they can see straight away what you are wanting to achieve.

You then need to start researching your suppliers. A great way to do this is by visiting wedding fairs (season is now!). It's a great way of comparing different suppliers against each other (especially photographers) and to see examples of their work. You could also try and negotiate a discount if you say you will book on the day!!! Alternatively the best way of choosing your suppliers is from recommendations either from friends or from forums liked hitched.

Then it comes down to details........

So, that in a nutshell is how you start your planning.  The most important thing is to remember to try and enjoy it and don't let other people make your decisions for you. Stick to your guns!

HTH (Hope that helps)

Good luck and enjoy!

Ruth

x

Congratulations and welcome to hitched!