Your Wedding Planning Checklist

Your engagement

The question’s been popped, the ring is on your finger and stars are in your eyes. Now what? With so many tasks to take care of and details to arrange, planning a wedding can seem slightly overwhelming. But, if you give yourself enough time to plan and sort the tasks month by month with a wedding-planning checklist, the job becomes more fun and definitely less stressful.

By breaking down the year, you are taking on the planning process in bite-size pieces and it will be far easier to cope with.

The ideal engagement length, in terms of planning, is possibly 12 to 14 months. With a year or more to plan, couples will usually be able to book their venue of choice. That’s not to say you can’t get your dream venue with less time; it can just be trickier, of course, as popular venues book up quickly. You may need to be a little more versatile with your date. Fridays and Sundays are now also popular choices.

12 months to go

Determine your budget

It’s time to work out the figures and see what you can afford. Before you can start anything, you have to figure out who’s paying for what. From there, you’ll want to break down  the budget and decide on what’s a priority. Then you can start allocating funds accordingly. And since these numbers will change as you plan, it’s smart to start a detailed spreadsheet from the start. This will help you keep track of your spending and make it easy to adjust numbers along the way.

Make your initial guest list

If only you could invite any and everyone! Chances are, you can’t. When deciding your head count, consider your budget – how much can you afford? And your venue – how many people does it fit?

Select the venue

OK, you know who you’re marrying. Now the real question is where? Choosing the wedding venue is one of the most important decisions you’ll make. The location affects almost everything else, from how many people you invite to what theme your wedding will be. Chances are, it’s also the biggest chunk of money you will have to put down. That’s why it’s a good idea to explore your options. Visit your favourites and select a place that fits your guest numbers, style, and budget. Create a pros and cons list if you can’t decide. This decision is about how you feel when you’re there. How formal do you want it? Do you really want to copy where your friends got married? What time of year is your wedding going to be. Lots of factors need to be taken into account here.

Choose a caterer

Your wedding is the best and largest dinner party of your life. So how exactly do you feed 150 of your friends and family? Well, start with hiring people you trust —whether that’s the venue’s in-house caterer or a preferred caterer. You need to feel really comfortable with who you will be working with.

Choose your colours and themes

Pull up your Pinterest boards if this is how you want to do it. This is a fun bit of what you will be doing. It’s finally time to gather inspiration, select a color palette, and create a mood board. Or create something on an easel, so you can constantly admire it and stick ideas and colours to it. This will then go towards the whole theme of your wedding. Make it exactly how you want it!

10 months to go

Book the photographer, band, DJ, videographer…

These are the people who will make your night fun. And they will assist in creating and making all those memories last forever. So you want the best for your budget – book them all early.

Wedding dress

You may know exactly what you want or you might not, which is OK too. You may have an idea in your head of what you want and then try it on and hate it! It’s best to start looking as early as possible. There may be one off the peg that you just love, but if you need the dress to be handmade, then find your dressmaker and get going with it.

Engagement photos

This is a lovely thing to do and can be a way of you getting used to having your photos taken together. You can then also see how you gel with your photographer and work out the styling for your photos.

Invitations

The wedding invitation is a guest’s first impression of your big day. There are so many companies who create wonderful invitations, save the day cards as well as table plans and place names. Do this all at one place if you want them all to match. Or if you want to hand make them yourself, then now is the time to start thinking about this. They can be very time consuming!

8 months to go

Register for your gifts

Involve your partner this one, After all, you two are building a life and home together. So much of a wedding can be done together. When registering with a shop, if that is the route you are going down, it’s smart to ask for staples. Like sheets and pots and pans, and so on—but it’s even more genius to think about what you really want. You may like to ask everyone for a contribution to your honeymoon. Which can be overlooked with all the costs of an expensive wedding. Think about what you really want…

Bridesmaid dresses

After browsing online for initial research and inspiration, ask your bridesmaids to come shopping with you. It will be helpful for you to see them in the dresses, and you could even ask how they feel in the options you’re considering. They do have to wear it in front of a crowd of hundreds, after all! You may have many different personalities you are trying to keep happy. Perhaps pick a colour and choose different styles, depending on the sizes and personalities of them all. This can be a stressful part of your wedding planning, so try and make it as pain-free as possible!

Sort the men’s clothing!

Although a lot of grooms can be guilty of leaving this till the last minute, get it organised! They need to look good too! Choose the style of attire you want and whether you will be buying or renting. Then search accordingly. The groom may want understated or to choose this as a time to be really ostentatious! This may also require a conversation…Kilts are always a good possibility as well as other family themed ideas. They may want to wear something similar to their Dad. Lots of ideas here, so don’t leave the planning too late.

Flowers

Once you know your colour scheme, then pick your florist. Go as simple or as detailed as you like and your budget allows. Chat with them and come up with ideas of what you would really like for your day. What flowers will be at the church as well as the venue. You may want to keep it really simple and just have a bouquet for you and your bridesmaids. Or you may love flowers and want them everywhere!

Hire your celebrant

If you aren’t marrying in a church, you’ll need to hire someone to make it official. There may be one linked to your venue, so make sure you meet them beforehand so they can start to build a picture of you as a couple.

6 months to go

Transport

Will you need transport? To the church? To the wedding reception? How many vehicles do you need? Do you want to go traditionally or something a little more modern? Lots of room for something spectacular here, or you can just walk if it’s close by.

Book your honeymoon

Choose where you want to go and make it as special as you can afford. You will always remember your honeymoon, so think about the time of year and choose somewhere that has the right weather that’s best for this time. There’s no point picking somewhere really exotic if it is the rainy season!

Food tasting

Now it’s time to taste what your caterers are really made of. The tasting has become increasingly important as more and more couples choose to customise everything and have really high expectations. Super Event Catering & Marquee Hire Ltd have an annual food tasting day, where we invite our couples to come and see exactly what we can do. This really helps to decide what menus you would like as well. Most caterers will do this in some form or another, but we like to see this as a prelude to the excitement of your wedding! It really starts to build from here on in. And it may not be with 4-6 months to go. It could be more or less, depending on your wedding date.

The wedding cake

Are you having a sweet or savoury cake? Will this be the dessert or could it be a cake of cheese that is growing in popularity and to be used for the evening food. Will it be traditional or something modern and fun? Lots of choice here and there are some great ideas around.

4 months to go

Buy the rings

You will most probably need to have them either handmade or resized, so get these organised and booked. You may also want engraving on them, so give yourself enough time here.

Hair and make up trials

Help your stylists help you by researching some images and makes before you come in for your trials. Look back at old photos of yourself so you can find something that’s worked before and ensure you still look like yourself. Next, feel free to search social media for other inspiration; just don’t delude yourself with highly-filtered Instagram expectations! Bring photos and be as specific as possible about what you want and don’t want.

Order your invitations

You may want to deal with this even earlier, if you are organised and know what you want as well as need. Don’t forget to set up a system for recording RSVP replies, and confirm all addresses and spelling. But when it comes to design and wording, the options are endless.  Keep reminding yourself that the theme of your invites should match the theme and colour scheme of your wedding, as well as expressing you as a couple.

2 months to go

Send out the invites

You already did the hard part—the selection process of who is coming, so now you just need to send these out. As we say, log who replies so you know who you have to chase!

Choose your wedding favours

These depend on budgets and how many you have to buy for. You don’t have to buy favours, but if you do, then make it something special, that your guests will want to take home with them. You don’t want to be picking them up from the tables at the end of the evening!

Select the readings, songs or hymns

You may need to do this before you sort your invites, if you are also creating an order of service. As with everything else, make these special to you and your family.

Dress fitting

Just to remind you: your first fitting should be anywhere between two to three months after ordering, and your second one around the six-week mark. Many brides want to lose a bit of weight before their wedding so will be hitting the gym hard perhaps. Just beware that this can sometimes really alter your body shape and could really change the look of your dress.

Buy the Bridesmaid/Groomsmen presents

This doesn’t need to be a big thing, just something special to say thank you x

Sort your song selections

Having a first dance together? Or have you been practising a dance and want to impress your guests? Sort your songs and playlists out so you aren’t disappointed with them on the night. If you are having entertainment at the wedding, confirm with the respective people or company to ensure they are organised to be there.

Create a seating plan

This will probably be the hardest part of your planning. Ensuring everyone is happy and sat with people they like! It can be a really tough job.

Break in your wedding shoes

Always a good idea to wear your shoes before the day. Both you and your partner. Nothing worse than ending your wedding day with blisters!

The final week

Go through everything with your venue and caterer. Ensure all points and diets have been covered. Have your final wedding dress fitting and collect your dress. Sort your hair colour. Get your eyebrows and eyelashes done. Have a manicure and pedicure. Perhaps even a touch of colour to your skin. Pack your bags for the honeymoon! Practice your wedding vows. Lots of last minute and smaller tasks to complete. Mostly all fun now, so enjoy…

The night before…

Eat a good healthy meal. Not too much alcohol! Drink plenty of water. Sort where all bags need to be, if you are straight off on your honeymoon. And breathe…try and get a good night’s sleep!

The morning of your wedding day

Eat breakfast and drink water! Make sure your dress is hanging outside the bag. Sort your hair and make up. Take lots of photographs! And make sure you thank all people around you. for their part in your celebrations.

The most important thing though, is to keep calm and really enjoy these final preparations. It is such a wonderful feeling on the morning of your wedding, so just enjoy it.

The wedding itself

This is where you need to relax, enjoy the whole thing and let all your hard work and planning come into play. Don’t be guilty of looking back at your day, worrying that everyone isn’t enjoying themselves. As long as you both do, then it’s up to your guests!

We hope you have enjoyed reading our thoughts and ideas for your wedding planning. Some will move ideas and timings around. However, as they say, it is all in the planning. The most important thing to remember is that you are marrying that person you love the most – that’s all there is to it…