Do-It -Yourself Wedding 1
You've read the opinions and blogs (maybe even ours!) about wedding planners and how fabulous they can be, and how worth the investment they are, but for whatever reason, you've decided to roll up your sleeves and take this dragon by the tail.
Whether for reasons of budget, creativity, or sheer stubbornness, you've taken a deep breath and are prepared to take the plunge and plan this wedding yourself.
Now there's just one problem.
Where the heck to you even start?! First and foremost, you need to get organized, my friend.
Assuming you are not six weeks from your wedding, in which case you need to suck it up and get a planner to save your bacon, you are in for a marathon and not a sprint.
Your stress level is not going to go down as the date approaches.
You do have a date, right? Get yourself organized, assemble your support team, and get to work.
Even if you've chosen to go the D-I-Y route for reasons other than budget, I'm assuming that you're keeping an eye on your bottom line.
There are a plethora of free resources out there to help you get and stay organized.
Weddingwire.
com, theknot.
com, and others can help you create your own time line or generate a planning time line complete with tasks for you to complete to stay on track.
For most people you'll want to start this phase of the planning process anywhere from nine to sixteen months out from your planned wedding date.
If you're dead set on getting married at a particular location that is more popular, trendy, in demand, etc.
, you'll want to start even earlier.
It's not out of the ordinary for couples to start the planning process 18 months to two years in advance when trying to snag a particularly exclusive venue or vendor.
This early planning stage is crucially important because it lays the foundation for all the planning that is to come.
Not only is this the time to start considering the broad brush strokes of you plan, tossing ideas around in your head, and considering what you want the big picture of your wedding to be, it's also the time to make sure you've put the framework up to make sure that you'll be able to dot all the I's and cross all the T's down the road.
To put it bluntly, you need a budget.
A real budget.
Not an "I think I might be able to spend around this much and mom and dad will chip in if I go over that" pie-in-the-sky idea, but a concrete dollar figure that you don't want to go over.
Now take a look at that number and decide on another number - the number that you really can't go over in your planning.
Make a pledge to yourself to stick to this number as you move forward.
If you go over budget in one area, then you'll need to trim some fat from another area to make the math work.
Remember that the wedding industry is a gazillion dollar industry in the United States that has perfected the art of convincing you to spend more than you planned to on the perfect peach lampshade to complement the matching dresses of your fourteen flower girls.
Oh you only planned to have one? But everyone is having fourteen now.
One flower girl is soooo last season.
Having a budget firm in your mind and a fallback position that you really can't go beyond will help you stay strong when the florist tries to upsell you to the newest glitter infused calla lilies grown hydroponically in the shadow of the Parthenon instead of your original plan of homemade sunflower bouquets for your bridesmaids.
Whether for reasons of budget, creativity, or sheer stubbornness, you've taken a deep breath and are prepared to take the plunge and plan this wedding yourself.
Now there's just one problem.
Where the heck to you even start?! First and foremost, you need to get organized, my friend.
Assuming you are not six weeks from your wedding, in which case you need to suck it up and get a planner to save your bacon, you are in for a marathon and not a sprint.
Your stress level is not going to go down as the date approaches.
You do have a date, right? Get yourself organized, assemble your support team, and get to work.
Even if you've chosen to go the D-I-Y route for reasons other than budget, I'm assuming that you're keeping an eye on your bottom line.
There are a plethora of free resources out there to help you get and stay organized.
Weddingwire.
com, theknot.
com, and others can help you create your own time line or generate a planning time line complete with tasks for you to complete to stay on track.
For most people you'll want to start this phase of the planning process anywhere from nine to sixteen months out from your planned wedding date.
If you're dead set on getting married at a particular location that is more popular, trendy, in demand, etc.
, you'll want to start even earlier.
It's not out of the ordinary for couples to start the planning process 18 months to two years in advance when trying to snag a particularly exclusive venue or vendor.
This early planning stage is crucially important because it lays the foundation for all the planning that is to come.
Not only is this the time to start considering the broad brush strokes of you plan, tossing ideas around in your head, and considering what you want the big picture of your wedding to be, it's also the time to make sure you've put the framework up to make sure that you'll be able to dot all the I's and cross all the T's down the road.
To put it bluntly, you need a budget.
A real budget.
Not an "I think I might be able to spend around this much and mom and dad will chip in if I go over that" pie-in-the-sky idea, but a concrete dollar figure that you don't want to go over.
Now take a look at that number and decide on another number - the number that you really can't go over in your planning.
Make a pledge to yourself to stick to this number as you move forward.
If you go over budget in one area, then you'll need to trim some fat from another area to make the math work.
Remember that the wedding industry is a gazillion dollar industry in the United States that has perfected the art of convincing you to spend more than you planned to on the perfect peach lampshade to complement the matching dresses of your fourteen flower girls.
Oh you only planned to have one? But everyone is having fourteen now.
One flower girl is soooo last season.
Having a budget firm in your mind and a fallback position that you really can't go beyond will help you stay strong when the florist tries to upsell you to the newest glitter infused calla lilies grown hydroponically in the shadow of the Parthenon instead of your original plan of homemade sunflower bouquets for your bridesmaids.
