Just got engaged? How to start planning a wedding
I worked for many years at Wedding magazine. So I remember how our first two issues of the year were always the biggest because statistics say the biggest percentage of engagements happen at Christmas and new year, then valentines. I do think more and more engagements happen now in the summer, in beautiful holiday locations too. I thought I’d write a post for all those that just got engaged, not about photography but what to do first after you just got engaged and how to start planning a wedding.
1. Enjoy it!
Firstly enjoy the engagement bubble, tell your friends, pop the champagne at this point it can be whatever you want it to be! I remember being gifted a huge pile of wedding magazines, I loved look through their glossy pages. As well as magazines many of us head online for inspiration now, www.pinterest.com/juliaandian is my first point of call whenever I’m planning anything. From my home to parties to holiday plans. You can dream and pin as much as you want whilst you’re in early stages of planning!
2. Have a chat
A wedding is bringing both of you together and both of your ideas, and two families and two sets of friends. But at this point the only two that matter are you as a couple. The two major discussions to have before any planning can really start is who, where and when.
Who
Who do YOU two want to invite, Do you have big families you’re close to, do you love the idea of a huge party of your friends, or do you want it to be your nearest and dearest for a more intimate day. Personally myself and my husband don’t have big extended families, so we had an intimate affair and it was perfect for us. It was still a fairly lavish affair as we wanted to really treat those that did come.
Where
Where do you want to have your wedding is also a big factor, if you both work in the city but families live at the other end of the country you might want to go back home, if both families are at different ends of the country you might pick somewhere inbetween. Or you might want a wedding where you now live and have made home. With our wedding we opted for London, we worked in London and many of our friends lived their- my parents were north of London and my husbands were on the south coast so it felt fairly central to them both.
Lots of couples head abroad too, to a destination they love or have always wanted to visit. We have been fortunate enough to shoot several weddings abroad and you have so much choice, its worth talking to an experienced planner like www.louiseperryweddings.com who we have shot several weddings abroad so they can take out the hard parts of a destination wedding
When
When do you want to get married, do you dream of a springtime wedding surrounded by blossom, or golden leaves of autumn, or summer time with plenty of sun and long daylight hours to make the most of it, or a wintery wedding, maybe at Christmas with all the magic that entails. The bonus to summer is hours are long, but if you love golden hour photos, spring and autumn are often better. Winter can be magical but the days are short and if you want daylight photos you need to consider the time of the service. Often the year you get is dictated by budget…
3. Budget
Once you have a good idea of who you want to be there and roughly where you want to hold the wedding – here or abroad – its time to think about about budget. If you’re saving this will also dictate when you can get married, if family are contributing they may want a say in certain aspects too, that’s why its good to have chatted about who and where beforehand!
Everyone’s budget is different, there are online budget guides but often these are out of date or swayed by unusual figures, for example a couple that gets married at home may put 0 for their venue costs bringing averages right down. You might be better chatting to friends who’ve hosted weddings recently that have been similar to the style of wedding you love.
4. Just got engaged? how to start planning a wedding – online first
Now the fun really starts, who, where, when and how much have been discussed. The hardest job is finding the right people and places to put that first vision on your pinterest board together. Its a good idea before you jump into finer details to think about what you want style and venue wise, and luckily there are LOTS of places to look in print and online.
Wedding venues magazine is perfect for a venue search, if you like it in print. Bridebook has a fantastic venue search facility, as well as good old google! If you are heading abroad it might be worth chatting to a planner unless you have family in the country of choice. As I said before my favourite destination planner is Louise Perry. On the next blog I’m going to chat more about finding the perfect venue!
Blogs
When I got married I was lucky I knew a lot of venues and suppliers because of Wedding magazine I worked at. Now you can find out so much online before you step in, so its worth researching before you go visit too many. I love browsing wedding blogs such as Rock my wedding, Love my dress and Whimsical wonderland weddings, pinterest of course and google again, but this time hit image search (oh and do it on a laptop rather than your phone so you can really appreciate the work).
Once you have ideas in place the real planning commences! On the next blog Im going to chat about picking a venue. If you liked Just got engaged? how to start planning a wedding, here are some blogs and pages that might also help with venue searches:
All the wedding venues Ive photographed
Essex wedding venues
Hertfordshire wedding venues
Buckinghamshire wedding venues
Surrey wedding venues
Destination weddings
Kent wedding venues
