5 Tips to Planning a Wedding

            Hey peeps! I want to take a moment today to say Happy Anniversary to my beloved Hubby! I can’t believe that we are at 5 years already! It is truly amazing! You’ll remember last month I wrote about our technical anniversary. But today is the date we really celebrate. And who could argue with us when you look at the photos!

Everyone who has been married will understand when I say a wedding is stressful. I mean the planning and execution alone is a nightmare sometimes; then you have the relatives fighting about seating and who to invite and not invite. Luckily, Hubby and I have always kind of gone our own way about things and our wedding was no different.

 

We got married just short of me being in South Africa for 3 months. It was 5 days before Hubby’s 21^st birthday and a month shy of my 20^th. We weren’t in it for the fancy. At the time, I think there is a part of us that would have skipped the whole ceremony thing altogether considering we were already married! However, very few people knew that fact and we were keeping up the charade.

All in all, it went without a hitch (see what I did there!) and we did it ourselves! Yep, peeps, we planned the wedding ourselves with the help of a few friends and family. Today I bring you my top 5 tips for planning your own wedding!

1)    Find a planner: no, not a person…a written planner. Something you can keep track of all your ideas and that will keep you on track. You can find tons of these online for free. Just Google printable wedding planners. The idea is that it will give you the basics. You know music, outfits, food, etc. It isn’t going to detail everything but it will help you! You can even take a couple and create your own! A couple of my favourites are:

       Sample Word

       Elnovato

2)    Pick a theme: yes, I say to do this before you do anything else! Once you have a theme to base things around it will go much easier. No, I am not talking your favourite sports team or TV show (unless your into that kind of thing). This is more like a color scheme and the feel you want at your wedding. Ours was easy; we got married on the beach so we carried that through. The difference was that I wanted red in our colors. It was difficult at times to make this work, but we pulled it off. Find your colors and theme and then work from there.

3)    Brainstorm and create lists: Again, you might be thinking shouldn’t we start with the nitty gritty first. NO! Today, it’s so much easier with Pinterest and Google to get ideas. Start looking up things. Sort them into boards if on Pinterest or save photos from Google into folders. Brainstorm for a couple of weeks (if you can). The more time you spend just letting ideas flow the easier planning will be. You can later sort through what you want and don’t want to do. For now, save everything that interests you! File it based on things like wedding photos, ceremony, and reception. You can get more detailed in areas for example like reception. Sort ideas into table décor, food, first dance, etc.

4)    Work out a budget: I know you probably think you should have done this sooner. But I don’t agree. I feel that if you work out your budget before you start brainstorming you limit your creativity! You can actually achieve a lot on limited budgets if you really attempt to do it. Decide what is your overall spending limit and break it down again into different areas. Allocate a certain amount into the outfits, photography, ceremony and reception. Some areas will overlap if for instance you decide the same DJ can play your wedding march and handle the reception. And as in all my budgeting tips, leave yourself some wiggle room! Don’t get so detailed that you have exactly down to the dollar budgeted in every category.

If you decide you want to spend $1000 in outfits, you can say okay $400 goes to the dress (remember this is just example figures-don’t take my amounts literally!) and $200 to the suit and $100 to the flower girl and that leaves you with $300 if maybe you find a necklace you just HAVE to have etc.

5)    DIY where you can: I know sometimes it seems like the wedding is already SO much. But really, you might be impressed what you and family can accomplish! I designed my own dress. I wanted something original and that suited my personality. I found someone who then could make it for me. I saved almost 80% of what I saw for the cheapest wedding dresses!

As well, our invitations were homemade as well as our centrepieces on our tables. Remember I said Hubby’s 21^st b-day was just around the corner. We decided to host his party during the reception as well. Our centrepieces were hangover kits. They turned out pretty nifty too!

You will be surprised how much money you can save when you start considering making decorations yourself! Pinterest is loaded with ideas! Not only that, it gives your wedding more character. We had SO much fun creating things for the wedding; everything from chocolate to decorations. We did it together and loved every moment! Give it a try!

Another item that was DIY

I think you get the picture. I know these tips don’t break down what to do when you and your loved one doesn’t agree on your entrance song, but maybe they will take some pressure off and bring some fun back into the process!

Lastly, I know I said 5 but here is a tip for free: enjoy it! If you aren’t enjoying it, I feel you’re not getting your money’s worth! Don’t let other people tell you how your wedding must go! Don’t let someone tell you that isn’t how it is supposed to be. Enjoy yourself and the process of planning the wedding!

Do you have any wedding planning tips? Anything you learnt the hard way?

Our wedding song.....

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XOXxx

Shana Danae..