Planning a Wedding For Dummies Cheat Sheet

If doesn’t matter who you are; everyone has a budget. Crafting a workable budget is a vital part in wedding planning. It is the compass that will guide you in multiple decisions along the way so you don’t outspend your means.

Everything in weddings is pretty. It’s like walking into a car dealership where everything comes with a big, beautiful bow and a pristine interior.

If you lose your focus on the budget, you will buy things you don’t need because they’re so alluring. Follow these steps to stay on track with your budget.

• Pick your must-have items. Those are the items that you can’t live without. Do you want an amazing venue? Is a five-star meal a must have? Do you want an amazing photographer? Come up with your top five items and focus your budget on those pieces.
• Determine who’s paying. Make sure you know how much you have available to spend so you can maximize your budget. Resource all your connections to determine you max budget.
• Determine what your own budget includes. Does it include your dress, hair, makeup, or honeymoon? Does it only cover the reception elements, such as food, entertainment, bar, photo, flowers, and decor? Make a list of the items that need to fit within your budget.
• Don’t forget about service fees. Service fees can add up quickly. Make sure you understand all the fees associated with a vendor’s services so you can maximize your budget. For example, if you think the food will be $25 per person, after you add the service fees, the actual cost is $38 per person.
• Budget for tips and gratuities. Make sure you include tips and gratuities in your budget. If you have a $10,000 budget and plan to tip your vendors 20 percent, that makes your overall budget $12,000.

Determining your budget will help you prepare your guest list, because you will pay for every guest you invite. With the average total cost per guest at $250, knowing your budget will help you formulate your guest list.

Remember to stick with your budget no matter how big or how small. Everyone has one and it is important to figure out what yours will be for a successful event.

Your wedding day is only as good as the team you put in place. Picking your dream team is a vital part of wedding planning. Making sure that you have the people in place to do the job you have hired them to do will eliminate the stress of planning a big event. You need to be able to trust them with your plan.

Building relationships with wedding planning team will allow you to let go when you need to so they can execute your plan. Follow these steps to ensure you select the dream team you deserve.

• Quality: Make sure you hire quality vendors for your big day. You do pay for what you get, and hiring vendors that don’t offer quality service will leave you wishing you had a different team.
• Get referrals: If someone you know has gotten married, ask them who they had on their team. They will tell you the good, bad, and ugly. Additionally, when you’re considering a particular vendor, always research them online. Don’t believe everything you read, but this will help you pick a team that offers quality service.
• Consider a wedding planner: You may be planning your own wedding, and that is why you’re reading this book. If you aren’t working with a wedding planner, at the very least hire a wedding coordinator. It will be worth the money so that you can relax and enjoy your day.
• Build relationships: Make sure you get to know your team for each category: florist, decorator, rentals, photo, video, catering, venue, bar and bartending, baker, entertainment, and transportation. If you establish relationships with your team, you will be able to let go and know they’ll make the best choice for you on your wedding day if something were to go wrong. If they don’t know you, they can’t make good decisions on your behalf. This will also help you let go, knowing they’ll take care of what needs to be done on your wedding day.

Selecting your guest list will drive your budget. The guests at your wedding are a variable cost. This means the cost of your food, flowers, bar, rentals, and cake will go up or down based on the final number of guests at your wedding.

It is important to follow these steps when formulating your guest list.

1. Determine your size: micro, medium, or large wedding.
2. Determine who is invited: your friends, your family, your fiancé’s friends, and your fiancé’s family.
3. Organize your guest list so that you can keep track of who is coming to your wedding.
4. Determine if you are allowing your guests to bring a guest.
5. Keep track of the RSVPs so that you aren’t paying for one more guest than you need do.

If you could hand your guests $250 cash and ask them to come to your wedding, they should make the cut. There will be difficult choices to make on who you are inviting, so work with your fiancé to determine the most important people in your life who need to be with you on your most important day.

The ceremony and reception elements are only yours. You may have attended weddings in the past, but no two weddings are alike. It’s important to customize your wedding day because all the elements work together as a reflection of your relationship.

Following, are some tips for ensuring a perfect ceremony and reception for your big day.

• Book the perfect ceremony and reception venue to fit your specific needs: indoor, outdoor, all-inclusive, venue only.
• Book an officiant who will customize your ceremony type to your specific needs.
• Make sure to check with the county clerk’s office so you know the rules and regulations for obtaining a marriage license.
• Choose your ceremony type (for example, will you have a religious ceremony or not?) and design a ceremony that is meaningful to you.
• Set the mood with music for your prelude, processional, special music, recessional, and postlude.
• Create a detailed timeline of events for your reception, including items such as cocktail hour, bridal party introductions, welcome before dinner, dinner service, cake cutting, toasts, special dances, bouquet toss, garter toss, and formal exit.
• Pick your food and beverages based on items you enjoy.

Remember to make your ceremony and reception memorable by including as many personalized touches as possible. For example, fill out a questionnaire sharing how you met or when you knew you were in love and have your officiant share that insider information at your ceremony.

You could also have a close relative share your love story with your guests. All your favorite people will gather to witness your marriage and celebrate at the reception.

An important part of a successful wedding weekend is the creation, distribution, rehearsal, and implementation of your plan. Just as in marriage, communication is key to any successful event. If you don’t communicate, you won’t have a successful wedding day — it’s a simple as that. It’s also important to rehearse the plan with your bridal party. Finally, you get to watch the plan in action.

Following these steps to ensure a perfect wedding day:

• Pick a good team of vendors who can implement your plan and vision. Having a team you trust will enable you to relax and enjoy your wedding day, knowing that they’re taking care of the details.
• Create your detailed schedule of events to include your bridal party names, vendor names and contact information, the timeline of the day, flowers and decor, and final guest list.
• Distribute your detailed schedule of events to your vendor team. Make sure they know who the contact is on the day of the event in case they have any questions.
• Rehearse with your bridal party to make sure they know how they will enter and exit the ceremony. They will also need to know the activities that are scheduled for the wedding day, including when and where they’ll be getting ready, the ceremony elements, and the reception elements.

Don’t forget to obtain your marriage license before your ceremony! The following table includes info on what form of identification you need, whether you must be a resident, how old you need to be, when the license expires, if you need a blood test, if there is a waiting period, and whether you need a witness, and if so, how many.

It’s always a good idea to reach out to the state or county where you’re getting married to confirm the information because rules and regulations do change.

Marriage License Rules by State