Weddings are expensive, and we understand why many couples rather organize the whole party to save and be able to have their dream wedding. But planning a wedding when you are unfamiliar with the wedding industry is not a piece of cake, and you will soon find out there is more than finding a wedding venue, food, and music.
Weddings are a once-in-a-lifetime event that needs to be taken seriously. Still, like you, many couples manage to plan their own without hiring a wedding planner, and we have nine tips for you to plan a successful wedding without hiring a planner. It isn’t that hard, as you will soon find out.
You must start planning a year ahead
This is a common mistake amongst newly engaged couples who think they have plenty of time to plan their wedding just because they set a day for the next year. Weddings are booked with a year of anticipation, at least. And if you are too specific about the wedding venue and vendors you want for your wedding, you should start even earlier. For instance, if you want to be more modern and trendy in terms of wedding decor, then better get help in advance from a free wedding hashtag generator for you to have a unique wedding hashtag ever created. Although you can plan a wedding in six months, you won’t have exactly what you imagined.
Vendors book quickly
Especially the good ones, professional wedding vendors, are not free all the time waiting for you to come and book your date. They usually have a limited capacity to take in weddings, so they set a limited number of weddings per week and stick to that to provide the best experience possible. If you are in love with the work of a wedding photographer or a catering service, you must run to book your wedding as soon as you have a wedding venue date secured.
You need to be organized
The organization is key for success when planning a wedding, from keeping records of every vendor you have visited and their offers to staying within the time frame to ensure you get things done promptly. It is quite a task, but you can tackle it with the help of spreadsheets, notes, your smartphone, and some useful websites or apps to keep track of your vendors appointments and even your wedding budget.
Keep records of every extra you must consider for your wedding. For example, if your wedding venue doesn’t include a wedding chuppah for your ceremony, you need to have a note to find a convenient rental. And the same goes for ceiling fabric draping, which is usually not included in your wedding venue rental, and you can save money by renting online and installing it yourself.
Find professional and experienced vendors
Don’t get drawn by the super low cost from unknown wedding vendors who ensure you get the same for less but don’t have reviews on their websites or good references. It is easy to say they will do the same for less, but delivering it is a different story. As tempting as it might be, you must trust your instinct and rely on professional vendors with years of experience and awesome reviews from other couples.
The quality mainly makes a wedding of your vendors, so find the best in town or search online for amazing vendors with plenty of good reviews. Having experienced wedding vendors on your big day will make the difference because they can give you advice on how to save money and make your wedding as amazing as you imagine it.
Weddings aren’t planned for one month
You will spend months planning your wedding, even if it is one weekly meeting or a couple of hours searching for your wedding invitations. You must put time into your wedding planning every week to finish things on time. Remember, you are subject to your vendors’ schedules, which might delay the process.
Contracts are everything
When you hire a wedding planner, you don’t need to worry much about the content of your contracts because your professional wedding planner reviews every single one. But this task falls right in your hands if you are not hiring one. Wedding vendors give you a contract stipulating all the possible scenarios and consequences of certain events, from what is included in the rate you pay to cancelation and rescheduling policies.
We advise you to read the contract and understand every point before signing. If you have any questions, get answers from your vendor before closing the deal, and if you need them to add or delete anything from the contract, don’t hesitate to voice it and make sure the final contract includes everything you discussed. If someone does not deliver what the contract stated, you have it as a backup for any further action taken.
Flexibility is key
When you organize your wedding, it is understandable that you want every piece of it to be perfect, but you need to remember that perfection comes at a high cost and if you have a day job, a family, and a life to live while you plan your wedding thigs might get messy. We advise you to be flexible, especially in the little things; we see how coupes stress about personalized objects all over the wedding venue when guests won’t even bother to notice them. Pick your battles and keep them flexible.
Listen to your vendors
Their expertise can solve many problems and make your wedding planning easier than you imagine. If your florist tells you to stick with seasonal blooms instead of bringing them from a foreign country and praying for them to be as beautiful as you imagine them, go for seasonal and local blooms. Or if your decorator says you can rent your ceiling fabric draping online and save money because it has the same quality as the local one, then go for it. They have enough experience to know better.
Perfect is relative
Finally, we can’t stress this enough, weddings have flaws; no one will notice this but you. Your wedding guests will be delighted with your wedding regardless of the color of the napkins or how many flowers you placed on the wedding chuppah. They attend your wedding to witness the union between you and your partner; they won’t judge every detail of the wedding as you might. So relax and do the best you can but stop idealizing your wedding because you don’t want the stress to take over such an amazing moment in life.
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