After Richard asked me to marry him, I had to figure out what I actually needed to do first. Even though I work with brides on a daily bases I actually had no idea where to start. Since I got engaged on Christmas, one of my good friends gave me a wedding planner book and I bought a book from theknot.com. My over compulsive self loves checklists!!! There really is no better therapy than crossing completed activities out on a very long and very detailed list of unnecessary things that I need to accomplish before I die.
There are literally hundreds of wedding websites that provide 'to-do' checklists. Each of them work the same way and I haven't really found one that is better than the rest. Perhaps the most popular one is theknot.com. Which I am registered with and that I really enjoy surfing through. Once i registered and saw that i had over 300 things to do, I tried my best to convince Richard that we should elope immediately. I would even volunteer to pay gas money for the trip to Vegas. Since God in his infinite wisdom decided to provide both us with cars that barely run, skipping town to vegas wasn't really an option. And he wouldn't let me elope. :)
The key to planning a wedding is getting organized. This was a very exciting thing for me to do!! I love to organize and plan. ok.. So i took my 'to-do' list which happens to broken up into months away from your wedding date. for example 12+ before your wedding you should do this..... 9-11 months before you wedding you should do this.... etc, etc, etc. PERFECT! I bought myself a jumbo calendar and divided up all the items in their designated months and made a timeline.
Since we will be getting married in 9 months from December, I took all the agendas from the 6-8 months, 9-11 months and 12+ months and combined them. Giving them specific dates between to be completed by April (6 months before the wedding) To save myself stress and not to be overwhelmed and to properly budget for the wedding, I can only talk about, plan, pay for [unless certain circumstances arise] or shop for the things that need to be done for the month on my 'to-do' calendar. For april, some of my items are: Order my wedding cakes, Order my wedding dress.. so only in the month of april am I allowed to shop for, discuss, or talk about my cake or dress. It has kept me sane and not overwhelmed at all. I can concentrate on one thing at a time.
Some major minor things we had to do is set a budget, create a rough guest list, and set a date. You would think these are minor things... but NO. They are the major things that need to be done first in order to adequately budget for the rest of your wedding. You have to have a rough idea of how many people are going to attend your wedding. This is very important when dealing with florists and caterers, looking at invitations, reception sites, ceremony site, wedding favors, programs, ets. you can't adequately budget or discuss prices with anyone until you know an approximation of how many people are coming to shove their faces with free food and beverages.
Then set a budget, and do not compromise. You can do it!! a few dollars here and few dollars there adds up quickly. You can always find a cheaper better deal. If it doesn't fit in your budget then you weren't meant to have it. Unless you have a third party that is willing to cover differences or go in half for wedding costs then you say no. A lot of times when you tell a caterer or a florist your budget they will work with you and show you your options for your specific budget. Sometimes they will even come down on their prices to secure your business. :) :) remember this when dealing with businesses. There is always somebody else that may accept the price you are willing to pay.
Once you set a budget. Divide the total cost by how many months (- 1 month ) until your wedding. That's what you need to save each month and put into your wedding budget. If you don't adequately budget for your wedding you will find that you will be figuring out where all this money is going to come from 2 weeks before the wedding. Usually business do not expect payment until the week of your wedding. If you budget right, taking into account when deposits are due.. you should be set!
