Chances are if you’ve clicked on this post, you’re contemplating planning a wedding… (nothing like stating the obvious there, Stephanie!) perhaps you’ve just got engaged and, like me two months ago, have no idea where to begin; or perhaps you have started planning your big day, but just want to double check you’ve considered everything. Regardless of your situation, I’m hoping that this quick checklist guide I’ve put together will come in useful for your own plans…
1. Source your venue. Aside from your partner (!), your venue is going to be the most important, and most expensive part of your day. You can’t have a wedding without a venue, so this is one of the first things I’d advise to look at… once that’s in place, everything else can be planned for. Do you want a church wedding, a civil ceremony, an indoor wedding, an outdoor wedding, a country wedding, a city venue? Do you want somewhere that offers on site accommodation? What time do you want the bar to run until? Get an idea of your own tastes and preferences, and then you can begin to shortlist some options. Even if you already have your heart set on a particular venue, it’s still a good idea to go and look at some other places too – chances are you’ll draw on inspiration from everywhere you visit, so this won’t be wasted time.
2. To package or not to package? This comes hand in hand with your venue really, but will also set the marker for your budget. Do you want to go for a venue that offers a package, or do you want to opt for hiring a space that you can really make your own? Wedding packages will cover the majority of “big” wedding essentials, and really take away some of the planning stress for you – the majority include your actual ceremony (although can be limited to civil ceremonies, unless they have an on site chapel), accommodation, the food, the room decor, evening food and entertainment, drinks, canapés, and your toastmaster. You then add your own touches on top. However, you are limited to the menus and packages your chosen place offers. Alternatively, you can hire out a venue and make the whole day unique to you – you then bring in your own caterers, entertainment, and finishing touches. You’ll get a better idea of exactly what you want as you begin to start looking around different venues.
3. Get a rough idea of your guest list. We have booked our wedding and it’s over two years away yet… but we still sat down and put together a very rough guest list so that we had an estimate on numbers. Unless you’re hiring a completely open space, you will need to have an idea on this before you book; but even then, when you start reserving caterers etc, they’ll need some of this information. Chances are you’ll already know who you your nearest and dearest are, even if it is a while away, then all we did is made sure that these guests sat comfortably within that number, and we had a bit of leeway for anyone else that may have a special impact on our lives over the next couple of years, or guests who are single now, but potentially may not be when the big day comes around. Try not to get overly hung up on this though, as you can add day numbers on closer to the time – just not in their masses. The evening guest numbers aren’t that important at this stage, you can pretty much have as many people as you wish on the evening, our venue just asked us to give an estimate closer to the time so that they can add more bar staff on the day if required.
The Minute Guest List – courtesy of The Plant Based Bride
4. Sort out the legalities as early as possible. Once you’ve booked your venue, you’ll know the finer details of your ceremony options. If you have gone for a civil ceremony, you’ll need to book in a registrar. If you’ve opted for a church wedding, you’ll need to arrange a Vicar – now granted, most churches have their own Vicar, however we are using our venues on site chapel, so we also needed to arrange the Vicar – ensure you double check this. Wherever possible, book all these things in as early as you can, you don’t want to be left stressing out, or even broken hearted close to your day; these things can book up quickly, especially if you are planning to wed in peak season. You’ll also need to give legal notice of your marriage (which costs about £35 per person at the moment), we are planning on doing this about a year before.
5. Wedding insurance. Anyone else not have a clue wedding insurance was a thing until they got engaged? Yep, me too. It is however, an extremely important consideration. A good wedding insurance package will cover you should supplier companies fold before your big day, or even just not turn up. Anything you book, you’ll be expected to pay a deposit on, so it will protect these for you also. And you’re also covered for the more extreme (albeit unlikely) situations such as your guests damaging the venue, or the place falling down before your big day. A decent insurance package will set you back about £50 – £70, as a one off single payment – completely worth it for peace of mind. Weddings are extremely expensive, protect yourself.
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