10 Essential Wedding Planning Tips From Professionals

By Ross | 1 Entertainment on Jul 17 2020

Although planning a wedding is typically a very enjoyable experience, it can be challenging at times due to the many decisions that are involved. You will need to make dozens of difficult choices, fro

To help you take some of the confusion out of your big day, we’ve gathered together a collection of tips from professional wedding planners. The accumulated wisdom will help you focus on the issues that really matter and plan a successful wedding.

Start With The Basics

One of the most frequent pieces of advice we hear from wedding planners is to set clear boundaries for your wedding very early. This will give you a foundation from which you can start planning. Start by asking:

• When will the wedding be held?

• Will it be a big wedding or a small one?

• How many people will be invited?

• Will it be a formal or relaxed event?

• What type of ceremony will it be?

• Will there be a specific reception theme?

• Where will the reception be held?

• Will you be using a wedding planner?

• What’s your budget?

The answers to these questions don’t need to be specific at an early stage of planning, so for questions like “when will the wedding be held?” an answer like “Autumn 2025” would suffice.

Once you have these answers, you can refer back to them when you are choosing a venue location, hiring a caterer, designing invitations, and so on. They will inform you how to deal with the hundreds of smaller questions you will encounter.

Use Planning Tools

It helps to have a strategy for remaining organised as you plan your wedding. Many people will use a large “wedding book” which contains inspirational images, contact details of vendors, addresses of venues, quotes, and other important information. The only problem with this approach is that your plans may fall apart if you lose your book!

Most professional event organisers use software when planning large scale events like weddings. Some of the most useful apps for planning weddings are Planning Pod, Joy, Wedding Wire, Wedding Happy, Trello, and Evernote. These apps make it simple to record contact information, todo lists, and task progress.

Keep Track Of Your Finances At Every Stage

It’s crucial to use a written budget when planning a wedding. It will ensure that you remain below your total spend target and have sufficient funds available for the most important parts of your wedding.

Get Everything In Writing

Experienced wedding planners often mention the importance of getting written contracts with vendors. A written contract gives you much more certainty than a verbal agreement. It sets out the timeframes, payments, services to be rendered, and other important details very clearly, so both parties understand their individual obligations. It also sets out a procedure to follow in the event of a dispute.

Figure Out Who Is In Charge

Nominating a single decision maker will make planning and running the wedding much easier. In most cases, the engaged couple will make decisions during the lead-up to the wedding. However, they may wish to give decision making responsibility to someone else on their big day, like a professional wedding planner, family member, or friend.

Having a single person in charge will make it easier to liaise with vendors and deal with any unexpected emergencies during the big day.

Whatever you do, don’t let the bride or groom be the person in charge on the wedding day. They should be focussing on their celebration, not logistical details and last minute problems.

Be Realistic

Many professional wedding planners have experienced clients who arrive with a picture of a celebrity wedding and say: “I want this”. Unfortunately, most high-end weddings featured in magazines cost several hundred thousand pounds.

A better approach is to design a romantic wedding that reflects your personality and remains within your budget. Don’t try to emulate high-end weddings unless you have a very large budget available.

Consult With Families Early On

It’s common for parents to have certain expectations for how a wedding should be organised. Unfortunately, their vision may be very different to what the happy couple has envisioned.

Most professional wedding planners suggest that clients have an honest and open discussion with their parents in the early stages of wedding planning. This gathers input from all parties, sets expectations, and helps everyone move forward together.

Don’t take Too Much Advice

When you announce your wedding, don’t be surprised to see your in-laws, friends, and close family members inundate you with wedding ideas. They will all have opinions on what the perfect wedding looks like.

Unfortunately, this huge influx of wedding ideas may not be particularly helpful. Their ideas might cloud your thinking or add to the uncertainty about the type of wedding you should be throwing.

Instead, choose two or three people you trust to advise you on the wedding. Close friends, family members, and wedding planners are all good choices. Even then, always remember that it is your wedding and you should only proceed with ideas that you love.

Lock Down A Venue First

Professional event organisers always suggest that venue selection is the most important part of running an event. When you have a venue locked in, you can start locking in other aspects of the wedding, like entertainment, bar hire, and so on.

Let It All Go

The final piece of advice from wedding planers is simple — on your big day, focus on enjoying yourself and leave the worrying to others. Don’t try to micromanage the performance of your catering team or become upset if the weather isn’t perfect.

Thanks for reading. If you require any help planning your big day, contact 1 Entertainment on 0207 193 8029. We are the UK’s number one event entertainment and event planning company. Our experienced team will help you organise the wedding of your dreams.