So you're engaged and you're either starting out or right in the middle of planning your big day!
Family and friends are telling you what to do, your fiance isn't showing much interest and right now your Pinterest boards are displaying so many wonderful ideas that the thought of making a decision and choosing something feels like you may have a stroke!
We are here to help, speaking from personal experience, this is what got us through the minefield of ideas and options let alone our own indecisive natures (yes it took us 6 MONTHS to choose a venue)
Planning a wedding takes a lot of thought, careful preparation, detailed scheduling and many conversations with your fiance, family and friends to get a great understanding of what your wedding will be like.
What's my tip you say? Do a brain dump! Trust me, keep reading!
What you need
- quiet room
- pen
- notepad or a few pieces of paper
- 10 to 20 minutes
Then follow these steps
1. Find a quiet space
Take your pen and paper to a quiet room and get comfortable. Make sure you have no distraction, leave your phone in another room.
2. Write down everything that comes to mind
With your wedding in mind, start writing every single thought and idea you have about the wedding day itself, the planning before hand and through to your honeymoon.
Keep each point short and simple, like a bullet point.
Don't try and write anything in order, just let every thought you think come out of your head and onto the paper, even if you don't think its important or you will remember it later.
Imagine you will loose that thought forever if you don't write it down. You will find you cant write quick enough to keep up with the thoughts.
3. Examples of what to write down
a) What do you want and not want for your wedding?
Such as:
- what suppliers do you want or not want involved in your wedding?
- what time of year do you want or not want to have your wedding?
- the style of your wedding dress, what do you love, what do you hate?
- hairstyle, what do you love, what do you hate?
- quantity and names of your bridal party. Who is on the list and who do you want to keep off the list?
- location of your ceremony / reception. Have many ideas? Write them all down!
- colour of your flowers
- colour for your theme. What are the colours you like and what are the colours you know you would not have.
- do you want a photographer and a videograher or just one or the other?
b) What parts of the wedding are non negotiable, such as a DJ for the dance floor or a custom made wedding dress.
c) What parts of the wedding could you DIY (do it yourself), such as make your own bouquet, guest favours or cake?
d) which wedding expo's would you like to go to?
e) literally every idea that comes to your mind about your wedding even if it doesn't make sense.
4. Categorise your list
You will now have a few pages of thoughts. When I did this I had 7 x A4 pages.
Start a new page and start to categorise your wedding with things that relate. Go through your entire brain dump and take the good, the bad and the ugly and rewrite it under the new headings.
Such as:
- take everything you wrote about your bridal attire (dress, shoes, hair, makeup) under "Bride's Look"
- "Ceremony & Reception Locations"
- "Bridal Party"
- "DIY Ideas"
- "Photography & Videography"
- "Food and Beverages"
- "Styling & Colours"
- "Stationery"
- "Honeymoon"
- "Transport"
- "Cake"
- "Entertainment & MC"
- "Rings"
- "Other"
5. Everything will now be clear
Now that you have a clear idea of your wants, dislikes and ideas for each part of your wedding you will see a pattern emerge between each heading of your wedding.
For example, you will see that you want to arrive to your wedding by helicopter and that one of the venue locations on your list allows for you to do this.
Now that you clearly understand what you want, chat to your fiance about what you think and discuss their wants and dislikes. It will narrow your list down even further. Try and keep an open mind with their comments and understand their reasons behind it. They may have a fear of flying.
You will find that you will now have a clearer and more concise vision for your big day allowing you to now build a budget for what your dream wedding will cost you.
I hope this has helped wish you all the best for your wedding planning!
P.S. Never throw your lists away, keep them in a safe place so you can always refer back to it.
Until next time, Bel x