EdwardYou have finally decided to get married but a myriad of thoughts begin to overwhelm you: where to start to organize a wedding at its best? If there is one thing that wedding planner work has taught me, it is that these are the very first steps that confuse couples.
Planning such an important day, you know, is not easy but patience and criteria are the qualities that you will have to arm yourself with from the very beginning. Within this article, I will help you rearrange your ideas through some simple guidelines to follow, to avoid mistakes and not lose control of the situation.
Plan your prepatations
Although it is advisable to start preparations at least a year in advance, the truth is that even a few months can be enough to organize a wedding as long as you follow a logical order.
After having drawn up a provisional list of people to invite, you need to choose the location that will frame your big day. Try to ask yourself how you imagine your wedding and the answer you will give will help you plan your dream! Immersed in rural nature or on a beach, in an elegant historic residence or within the walls of a romantic castle? There are many solutions but what matters is that the choice of location reflects your taste and has enough space to accommodate you all.
Another aspect not to be overlooked is the distance between the place where the rite will be celebrated and the location where the reception will take place. The travel time should not be too long and it is preferable to move along easy roads: your guests certainly will not want to spend hours in the car, nor will they be stuck in traffic. To facilitate the movement of everyone, you could think of transfers with a driver or choose a location including a consecrated chapel or recognized as a municipal house. In this way the guests would be ready for the celebrations in the same place of the ceremony and without having to take the car back to move.
At this point, you can proceed with the choice of the photographer, who is often also a video maker, and the entertainment services. Music is an essential element and will accompany you at different times of the day: during the ceremony, during and after the wedding banquet, at the first dance and at the cutting of the cake. Like every component of the wedding, even the musical accompaniment will convey the mood of your wedding. Once the mood and style of the event have been established, we move on to the choice of clothes, the floral arrangement and the design of thewedding stationery with the help of a good graphic designer. The organization of the wedding continues with the search for a make-up artist and a hair-stylist: these are fundamental figures to enhance the beauty of every bride without forgetting that the make-up and hairstyle must be in line with the dress, personality and style of the wedding.
It is now clear to you: choosing a style is the starting point for selecting the right suppliers, so as to create a harmonious connection between the elements and the visual details of the wedding. What I will never tire of repeating, however, is to avoid mixing styles and colors that clash with each other or with the context that will surround you: the atmosphere you will create will be the frame of your day and will talk about you to your guests.
Define the budget
Preparation planning must go hand in hand with budgeting, but how much does it cost to get married? In USA, a good wedding with around 100 guests is estimated at around € 35,000. This is not a “rule” since the overall budget depends on many factors: first of all, the number of guests to whom the cost of the wedding banquet is linked, the quantity of elements of the “wedding stationery” to be printed, the size of the location to be set up and the number ofwedding favors. In addition to the variable costs, however, you will also encounter fixed costs that will remain so, regardless of the people you invite: this is the case of the cost of clothes, wedding rings and the engagement of most suppliers.
I will return to the topic with a dedicated article but, for the moment, my advice is to establish an indicative and realistic budget range, based on the wedding you want. During the’organization of the wedding daydreaming will come naturally to you however, if you want to contain expenses, try to stay with your feet on the ground by imagining impactful but not excessively scenographic settings and giving priority to the guests you really care. Then avoid going in search of the “bargain” and rely only on professionals with good quality / price because, in some cases, a single wrong supplier can ruin the marriage.
Choose the location
The location you choose must have an external and an internal solution, both large enough, to comfortably accommodate the same number of people. Having a floor A and a floor B in a single location is the fundamental requirement to better organize the spaces, obviously considering also the areas intended for the band and the dance floor. Furthermore, to date, it is still unthinkable to organize a wedding without taking into account the anti Covid-19 rules. This is why, once the number of guests has been defined, the choice of location will also be closely related to its capacity in compliance with safety distances.
It often happens that some locations, during the contracting phase, avoid uncomfortable topics that can lead customers to prefer other structures. Carefully visit all the environments and discuss any doubts and critical issues, even if you seem to ask difficult questions: one of these is the one concerning the presence of an electric current generator in the event of a black out! Finally, ask if it is necessary to guarantee a minimum number of guests to take advantage of the same price treatment: when signing the contract, make sure that the times within which you can make changes to the number of guests initially communicated are indicated. A suggestion that I would like to give you is to provide an indicative number 10% lower than the attendance you expect. This is because no structure will have problems in meeting you by adding some guests even a couple of weeks after the wedding, as long as it is a small number that does not upset the organization of staff and spaces.
Select suppliers
The success of a wedding is largely determined by the team of suppliers chosen and who will have to embody the wedding of your dreams. The lineup of professionals to choose from is truly vast and the challenge may seem rather daunting. From the first consultation, it is essential to establish a relationship of complicity and trust with the suppliers you will meet: in addition to professionalism, pay attention to their propensity to listen since it is only by letting you speak and accepting your requests that they will prove to put you in the first place.. Furthermore, you can always check the skills and approach of the suppliers, referring to word of mouth but, above all, to the reviews left by customers or other married couples.
You will happen to choose suppliers who have never collaborated but if you choose real professionals, working together will be a pleasure for everyone. Finally, you might think about drawing up a timeline to be sent to all your suppliers a few days before the wedding. It is a roadmap that shows the timing of the phases that will characterize your day and that I too prepare for all my married couples. A detailed timeline will inform your suppliers in advance about what will happen during the wedding and will favor a more fluid development: remember that you will be the “hosts” and you will have to do everything possible to ensure that the wedding organization works at its best!
