Do you want to know something?
99.9% of brides (and grooms) have no clue how to start planning a wedding!
Planning a wedding, specially if you are not hiring a wedding planning, is a huge undertaking. From learning the wedding jargon you need to communicate with the vendors, the pressure from family members and friends to follow their “expert” advice, to selecting the right vendors, to choosing the flowers, the food, and the other million of things you to do can make run for the hills and hate the whole wedding planning process.
Planning your wedding should be fun, exciting and stress-free!
What you need to do is to make sure you are aware of all the common mistakes most brides made and avoid them.
Here are 12 of the biggest mistakes brides make when planning a wedding, and how to avoid them.
1. you blow your wedding budget too early
Blowing the budget, in general, isn’t ideal, but finding yourself with a maxed-out credit card and suppliers still to pay six months before the wedding is panic-inducing. Money is a tricky topic but you need to have honest conversations with your partner, parents, and own bank statements about what is affordable before you start booking things.
We know how exciting it is at the start, but don’t start ordering everything you see on Pinterest. Make a realistic budget (with a month-by-month saving and payment plan), find your venue, decide your theme and what flowers/décor/entertainment are non-negotiable, and work backward to budget everything else.
2. you let other people (moms, i’m looking at you!) decide who makes it into the guest list
It’s your wedding and you should be the people you love watching you walk down the aisle – not your dad’s gold buddy you never met. Family is hard to say no to, but you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches and money if you learn how to set boundaries and stop them from messing. with your guest list.
First, make a list of the people you and your partner absolutely couldn’t imagine your wedding without. After that, there are three main solutions:
1) If your parents are helping you pay for the wedding, give each set of parents a limit of, say, 10 invites, but no more;
2) If they want to invite more people, tell them they need to stump up the extra cost per head themselves, or
3) Cave in and wave to your old dentist as he eats your pricy beef wellington.
3. Assuming going ALL DYI will save you tons of Cash
This is a big one, and one that can actually end up costing you even more down the line.
Some couples think DIY’ing everything will save money when, in fact, it can be more even more expensive! After buying the materials, labor, transport, set up and tear down, it can wind up costing so much more. You can DIY or purchase certain elements like table numbers or place cards, but look into renting larger decor items like arch ways and centerpieces. Plus you’ll save yourself some sleepless nights when your DIY invites definitely don’t look like the Pinterest tutorial.
4. Procrastinating and ordering your dress too late
8 weeks. That’s how long it took for my wife to get her dress, plus 2 additional weeks for final alterations. Start your dress search at least nine months before your wedding. Finding “the one”, get it to the store, and get it altered might take longer than you expect.
5. not having a plan B for a wet day
Mother nature does whatever she wants when she wants, so you better prepare.
If you are getting married in the venue’s garden, speak with the wedding coordinator in advance to draft a plan B in case of rain. They will most likely have a bigger room that they could quickly dress it up, put chairs and make it available without interrupting the guest.
If you are having a fully outdoor wedding with no “inside room” option, it’s in your best interest to put down a deposit with a tent company, just in case. You might lose your deposit if you don’t end up using them, but the peace of mind will be priceless. Damp guest, a muddy dance floor is not the look you are looking for.
6. letting pinterest get in your head
Once you’ve got a theme or you’ve ordered your flowers with the florist, stop looking at more ideas on Pinterest. You’ll start to second-guess all your choices and that’s silly: you’ll adore what you chose when you see it on the day. Once something is booked, cross it off your list and give your scrolling finger a rest.
7. ignoring the hidden costs
Make an extra line in your budget for miscellaneous. Your vendors need to be feed. The postage on your invites might be higher than expected. They venue might charge extra for security, coatroom staff, or might have extra cleaning charges.
Hidden costs can sneak up everywhere so the best thing to do is set aside 10% of your total budget for these surprise expenses and don’t touch it unless absolutely necessary. Make sure you’re getting all your contracts with your suppliers in writing to avoid these issues in the first place.
…And the good thing is, if you don’t end up using that extra cash, you can buy a few more margaritas on your honey moon.
8. Bankrupting you dress budget
Remember alterations, the veil, shoes, bag, jewelry, lingerie, and other accessories come into this budget too. Be firm with yourself at the bridal boutique if a dress is right at the upper limit of the price you had in your head.
9. Not building extra room into your wedding day schedule
There are a lot of moving parts in a wedding, and the day rarely goes according to plan. Photos take longer than you think, stuff happens that needs attention, sometimes your hair and makeup needs a touch up. Plus, you need time to just breathe and enjoy time with your people.
Whenever I sit down with my couples to draft their wedding day timeline, I make sure to allocate extra time for photos and communicate any changes with the venue and DJ on the wedding day. There is nothing worse than coming back from your portrait session only to find a cold plate of Risotto.
10. skipping lunch, snacks or drinking water
In the whirlwind of getting ready, it’s easy for the bride and bridal party to skip a hearty breakfast and lighter lunch. The trouble is it could leave you all faint when standing up at the altar. Likewise, for grooms, you might want a beer or two to calm the nerves, but make sure you’ve lined your stomach too or you could find starting early hits you when it comes time for speeches.
You’ll likely miss the canapes and may not get to eat your whole meal if you’re greeting guests so ask the caterer to set you aside from a few nibbles and have something waiting in your honeymoon suite for the evening too.
11. Trying to please everyone
Everybody and their mother have an opinion – and boy, they love to share it!
You will never make everyone happy, it is your wedding day, so focus only on making whatever make you and your partner have the day you want. The trick is to be kind but firm: tell them you appreciate their advice and opinion, but you prefer to do it your way. A little “thanks but no thanks” goes a long way.
12. Selecting your photographer (and other vendors) based just on price
OK, I might be a bit biased here, but quite often, the biggest regret I hear from couples after their wedding is that they didn’t get the photos or experience they were expecting. This is sad.
There are countless wedding photographers available out there, so I wanted to say thank you for reading this and considering me to be your wedding photographer.
To put it simply, I love what I do, and I would be absolutely honored to be your photographer. I want to be there along your side through it all. It’s going to be an absolutely gorgeous wedding day, and I want to be there to document it the way it deserves to be. The way that you’ve always envisioned it.
As you move forward with the wedding planning process, remember to take time and enjoy the little moments. The cake tastings, the road trips in search of the perfect venue, and the people you meet along the way. The entire wedding planning experience happens once in a lifetime and it’s a lot of fun.
I hope you found these tips helpful! And as always, send over your wedding planning questions. I would love to answer them for you.
And most importantly, if you are engaged and you’re in need of an awesome wedding photographer, please get in touch right now! Just use the contact form on my website, fill out all the form fields, and send it over!
I’m super excited to hear from you soon. Thanks so much
