Terri Ramsey Beavers When it comes to your wedding, you know that you’re going to have a whole lot of decisions to make. Sometimes, you can find this incredibly overwhelming. But that doesn’t always have to be the case. In fact, sometimes, you’re going to want to be very blunt about things. Not every decision will need a lot of mulling over. There are some things that you will just know. And these are always the decisions that you want to get out of the way early. Because when you do, you’ll often find that later decisions are so much easier to make as a result. Sound great? Of course, it does. So let’s consider some of the key decisions you’re going to want to make early on.
Home Or Away
First of all, it’s the biggie – where you want the wedding to be. Now, the venue decisions themselves can actually take a little more time (unless you’ve always known where you want to get married). But when you’re thinking about the actual overall location, you can do this quite quickly. One of the biggest overall decisions here is whether you want to get married close to home or even overseas. If you’ve always dreamt of a destination wedding, then you know that this is one of your biggest decisions dealt with.
Guest List
Then, there’s the guest list. Again, the intricate details of the guest list will require a bit more thought, but the overall shape of it should be easy to work out. Do you want a huge wedding or something more intimate? Do you want to invite children or should it stay adults only? These are the kind of yes or no answers you can give right away. So set the tone early on with your guest list to make later decisions easier.
Your Look
Another really simple decision for you should be how you want to look and feel on the day. You’ll know if you want to go classic and natural or glamorous and over the top. So start your preparations early. As you’ll see, according to this timeline, there’s a lot to work through. So making your decisions on the look early on will help everything else fall into place.
The Budget
The budget should be easy enough for you to decide on. Well, a ballpark anyway. When it comes to your wedding budget and finance you have to be realistic. And choose something you’re happy with. You’ll know what you can afford and what you want to spend, so get this in mind early and it will give you set options for every area of the wedding.
The Theme
Last but definitely not least, there’s also the theme to be thinking about. If you want to be sure that you can make all of the decisions relatively easy, you need to pick a theme. When you opt for shabby chic or vintage glamour, or any other style of theme, you should find that it’s much easier to make other decisions. Food, decor, music, and other options all fit into your key theme, so it’s kind of like you have less to think about when you’re working with a theme.
It will be almost 8 years since my husband and I got married. We had a medium-sized wedding but yes, I totally still remember all the planning and execution. I really enjoyed the process from beginning to end, though a bit stressful.
I am not yet married yet but I couldn’t agree more on your list. Definitely planning earlier should be taken into consideration.
This is a great overview of planning for a wedding. I think a budget should be figured out first because that affects every other decision directly.
I really enjoyed reading this post. Creating and sticking to a budget is so important when having a wedding.
Very important factors when planning your wedding. I think it all depends on the budget first and then the rest follows. All of these work hand in hand though.
These are great things to think on before getting hitched. My daughters best friend was visiting yesterday talking about marriage. I’ll share this with her!
We had a memorable wedding … have a nice wedding pic framed on my desk that I am looking at while typing this … but looking back on the large amount of money we spent have to say eloping and using the cash we would have saved on household bills, investments and our savings account probably would have been a better move. Keep the big picture in mind when planning your wedding and be cautious of how much you end up investing in hosting the occasion.
This is such an enlightening post! I have never been married and so its good to know the decisions that can be made ahead of time!
Wonderful tips for me to share with my stepdaughter who will be planning her own Wedding soon.
The hardest thing for us to complete when we were preparing for the wedding was finalizing the guest list because we had too many guests coming from overseas and they didn’t confirm their attendance until the very last week before the wedding. It was somewhat stressful! 🙂
I’ve never been to a themed wedding. People around here seem to pick dates based on the venue (beach), the honeymoon or the budget. Some do get married during certain holidays because then the churches are already decorated with flowers.
Like how people are picking themes now. That wasn’t done when I was married years ago. Make a list and don’t over look the little details.
Weddings are so exciting and the choices are so varied. I think once you set the place the other parts tend to fall in line. It is fun but stressful toounfortunately.
I wish I have a guide like this when I was planning my wedding. This reminds me of our 15th anniversary next month.
Guest lists and budgets are the hardest things to narrow down and finalize in my opinion. All great tips for people planning a wedding!
Weddings always seem like there is so much that goes into them! It is a really good idea, to make sure you have an idea on what to do first and have a bit of an idea of a plan.
I love weddings! The venue does make all the difference in the world. My youngest daughter got married on a yacht in Charleston two years ago. People are still telling us how much they enjoyed the wedding.
I feel like fall themed weddings are big here in New England. So many people get married in October because of the foliage and the rest of the decorations go along with that theme.
For me, and all the weddings I have attended in my years, the venue makes all the decisions! If it is rustic, so will everything else. Although, I have to say, I had a friend who had a rustic venue and a traditional gown and it was amazing.