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1. Guest List because you need #s for the right size venue
2. Venue because without this you have no date to book everything else
Caterer if it does not come with.
3. Photographer
edited
We made the mistake of looking at venues before we had a budget. I'd say
1. Budget
2. Guest List
3. Venue
Congratulations on your engagement! :-)
Set a date and get the venue! Many venues book out far in advance. Also, if you plan on a church wedding, get that set in stone, too. It took us some back and forth with the church and venue until we had a date that worked for both.
Don't buy the dress too soon! I know that's the most fun part and it's tempting, but you will see so many dresses while you plan. Anything you look at will have a picture of a bride in a gorgeous dress. If you buy your dress first thing, you might end up having second thoughts like me.
You can also find wedding check lists online. They will tell you what you should do how far in advance. I found them pretty helpful.
1. Make a guest list. It doesn't have to be the final list - but this will help you figure out how big of a wedding you will have.
2. Venue, venue, venue. This will set the date, start giving you an idea of costs, and then you can build around it. You'll pick a venue based on how many guests (which is why #1 is important).
3. All of the vendors that will get booked quickly (photographer, caterer, DJ/musicians, hair/makeup artist, florist) - there's a sliding scale here - but that's a basic framework... in a nutshell, you don't want to find someone you love, only to find out they can't do your wedding because they are already booked.
...dress shopping comes after essential vendors, IMO.
1. We started with a list of a few Saturdays that would work for us and our parents.
2. We booked a venue.
3. Made a guest list (but this was quite a while later).
LGenz makes a good point! Figure out your budget. And start finding out what things cost. We had a budget before anything else, but it did not work out that way. If it was up to me, I would have strictly planned the wedding around the budget. But FH had this idea of the big church extravaganza and reception with everybody he ever met invited, so we had to adjust upwards twice.
1. Budget
2. Guest list, based on budget
3. Venue, based on guest list and budget :)
This is what I did although I should probably have put the dress later on in the list..
1. Dress
2. Guest List/Budget (that somewhat went hand in hand for us)
3. Venue
1 Budget really should be NUMBER ONE. You really cant decide anything without a budget.
2 Venue & Guest list [these two go together because some venues have restriction on number of guests]
3 Dress.
Dress cant be number one because how can you choose the dress without knowing what your budget is.
1.) Budget!!!!!
2.) Guest List -- Try not to let your budget affect it too much. You don't have to invite anyone you've ever met, but it's better to not hurt feelings and feed people whatever you can afford to feed 'em. Friendships don't break up over chicken vs. lobster. At least, not the friendships that are worth having.
3.) Venue -- be sure to pick one that gives your budget some wiggle room, because everything else is going to cost more than you are planning on. Add up all the costs/fees involved -- some places have fees for everything
I don't think I did things in the right order, but it worked for us!
1. Decided on a vision.
2. Budget.
3. Dress.
I didn't mean to buy the dress so early, but I thought it would be hard to find so I wanted to start shopping early. And once I found it, I had to have it! I don't suggest buying the dress before the venue b/c it limited our choices.
@Miss Sardine: haha it really isn't though. The number in my head was "reasonable" and then at the first venue we went to they asked us what we were looking to spend and I turned to my mom with an expectant look and she was like "um why are you looking at me?". A budget isn't just a number, its also knowing who will be contributing and what strings come attached to the money.
We knew where we were going to have the wedding, we knew the date, and I knew I wasn't going to spend over $5000 so my first 3 are gonna be different:
1. Reception venue
2. Theme and colors
3. Bridal Party
But you should definately know your budget and then go from there.
I knew that I was going to DIY with a lot of our wedding, so I started picking up decorations the end of October while everything was on clearance and that saved us a lot of money. I think the only thing that wasn't at least 50% off was my dress and the reception venue and food. Good luck
There's a wedding planner on here somewhere you can ask, too... Not sure where her post got to...
Anywhos, Here's my suggestion:
1) Budget.
2) Vision
3) Guest List (can be swapped with #2)
4) Venue
From there you can choose colors, flowers, etc. I suggest finding a good check list you like and using it as a basis. Just remember that you have to know how much you CAN spend, before you can figure out where you can have the wedding, how many you can invite, etc.
It's like if you're buying a car, you gotta know what you can spend before you can buy. You might like the newest model covertable, but if you only have a budget for a little sedan, it's not going to happen (unless you manage to pull off a miracle, lol in which case, I want details!!!).
Good luck!!! And congrats!!!
We started by looking at venues to understand what the costs were in our area/ what our options were- hotels, museums, etc...just tried to get a feel for the endless wedding options out there...
bought a TON of wedding magazines :) as I had never really looked at wedding stuff before the boy popped the question
Looking at venues helped us shaped our budget and then we started to pull together a general guest (wait...how many cousins do we actually have??) and that helped narrow down our search a bit.
By this time, we had a general idea of what we wanted the day to be like and picked a venue!
Just have fun and enjoy yourself :)
I think it depends on what you want. Everybody knows certain things about their wedding even before they start planning. Someone who ends up with 500 people at their wedding rarely starts out thinking there will only be 40 there. Someone with a 30k budget rarely starts off hoping to get it all done with 3k. Everyone has a ballpark.
1. So I think that's the first thing: Find your ballpark, your vision for size and money before you have specific numbers. What is an absolute must? A church? Dancing until midnight? Hydrangeas? If the beach is a must, 300 people probably is going to be hard to swing. If a formal sit down dinner is a must, then 2k most likely ain't gonna do it. You gotta find your balance first. Preliminary #'s for budget and guests are good here.
2. Next really is the budget though. You can't go looking at venues when you're not sure whether you have $2,000 or $5,000 to spend, or any amounts that vary by more than a thousand bucks. You gotta have the tough talk with FI and parents, grandparents, or anyone else who may or may not be contributing.
3. I think venue is the next big thing. Most venues don't have extremely specific min-max #'s so as long as you're looking at places that are in your ballpark you don't have to have the precise number of guests before you book a venue. Based on your ballpark you should know whether you'll have 80 people or 140 people even without listing every name.
This might be a little stickier when you get up into the really large weddings. If your parents are paying a lot and are expecting to invite over 100 people not even counting FI's side or your friends, then that's something that should be discussed during vision--but again, it's likely something you'll have some clue of before since you know your family.
4. The guest list is a struggle, not gonna lie. Everyone has a different idea about how far into your extended family and acquaintances you should go, but really I think under the "majors" it's the last thing that really needs to be nailed down in stone, every name decided.
We went with a cheap as possible Budget and I've kept to that so it's worked.
1. Guestlist.... this will confirm your "budget" range and tell you what size venue to get
2. Type of Wedding.... Theme/Colors/Formality/Time of Day
3. Any projects you will DIY... want to know what you're looking at for investing time
I waited for my vendors.... Infact we just book our caterer for our April Wedding In January (right before the local Wedding Expo <--- dates always fill up there) It's a very reputable company here and she said she was having brides book for February when we went in. lol
I agree that it is definitely Budget, Guest List, Venue. After you know those things you can pick a date based on your/the venue's availability and the other things fall together after!
1. Save money...been doing that since the summer (before I was engaged, but I wish I had started sooner!)
2. Guest list (just started tweaking more and more, we knew it was going to be on the smaller end of things.
3. Pick a venue ( I researched several venues, but I knew way back which one I wanted because of sentimental reasons)
4. On to looking for a dress now.
THE VERY FIRST THING YOU SHOULD DO IS GET A BINDER AND DIVIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing fancy, mine was just laying around the house.
1. Decide on a BUDGET
2. Decide on the TYPE/STYLE wedding you want. I've seen elegant pictures of both backyard casual affairs as well as ballroom gala type weddings.
3. Set a DATE. The first question every venue, vendor, salon, etc. will ask you each and every time you email, visit, phone them will be what's your wedding date!!! LOL.
I know you said 3 things, but booking the VENUE is the very next thing you should do. They book up FAST!!!
Congrats on your engagement and happy planning!!!
1. Booked Venue
2. Booked Caterer
3. Booked Photographer
Those were my 3 main concerns that seemed most important to have. Everything else fell into place.
1) Budget
2) Type/style of wedding (colors/themes, more casual vs. more elegant/traditional, small and intimate or not, etc.)
3) Guest list (which would depend on your budget and the type of wedding you decide on.
I actually didn't follow my own list.. haha... I did #1 and #2 and then got carried away looking at venues. I booked a venue, caterer, photographer and other vendors before finalizing our guest list. We had a magic number in our heads (150) and after putting down everyone on paper, realized we were looking at around 175-200. Not too bad and not too far from our original number, but it would've saved us a lot of going back and forth in terms of what we could afford vs. what we could not if we had finalized the guest list earlier.
1) Decided on a budget & guest list
2) Venue
3) Officiant
4) Photographer
5) Attire.
other things have been interspersed between these things (like looking at invitation designs and other diy stuff).
@Miss Sardine: That's what my budget is right now! I'm just getting started, but we have made a (super-tentative) guest list & started looking into possible dates for the ceremony and places that look either awesome or not our style.
Dress
Photographer
Venue
(Guestlist was already sort of started, and the budget was previously mentioned and therefore expected)
1) figure out the budget
2) figure out the level of formality and size of the wedding you want (number of guests)
3) book a venue
This is what we did:
1) Budget
2) Picked a date
3) Chose our venue (since we held it in my husband's grandparents' backyard, we weren't worried about guest list as much)
1.) Made a rough guest list to get an idea of the size of the wedding so I know what venues to look at.
2.) Looked at venues because that would dictate the date depending on availability.. Since some places were already booked a year and a half in advance (since we want to do it in the busy summer season).
3.) Picked a date Then finally got a bit of a budget..
Rough estimate of a guest list and budget. That way you look at the venues that you can afford and can host your number of guests.
1. Budget - for sure, it determines a lot!!
2. Guest List - this determines your venue size
3. Venue
and ps, wait a while to ask your bridal party too
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Hello Ladies!
I am planning a fall 2012 wedding, and I would like to know where/when to start planning!! I haven't done too much in the planning process, only looked at things online, and visited a few reception sites (not appointments just a look-see). So what were the first big decisions you did for your wedding? Is the dress first? Or is it last? Haha, I don't know...all my friends did it differently, what do you suggest?
