Wedding Planning in Three Stages

Now that you are officially engaged, there are just too many things to do to ensure that you will be having the wedding fir for royalty. Even if you can't afford gold plated plates and utensils, you can still turn ordinary stainless steel into figurative gold with the right planning.

If you would want to plan your own wedding and not hire a wedding planner, whether it is due to time or budget constraints or you just want to be hands-on with your wedding, you have to start planning as soon as you can. There are three stages of planning that you need to consider for your wedding preparations: the pre-wedding, wedding proper, and post-wedding.

For the pre-wedding, this is the time when you have to plan your date and wedding location. Once you have the date finalized, it is time to book your wedding in the venue of your choice. This may be a beach resort, a garden, or a hotel ballroom. After that, make the necessary arrangements such as legal documents, contracts, and reservations to the caterer and photographers. However, you also have to make sure that everything you will be booking or reserving will fit your budget so you won't have problems come your wedding day.

For the wedding proper, preparations for things that will be needed for the wedding itself are considered. Your guest list, above all, is important and make sure you do not miss out on any important people to avoid ill feelings. Draft a list of all the people you want to attend your wedding. It can be hard to cut people from the list, so you might also consider spending a little less per head so that you can invite everyone. If you do not want to spend too much on the caterer, make sure you also allot a maximum number of seats per invitation. This is also the part where you have to finalize your entourage and what they should be wearing. Oftentimes, you will be allowed to do rehearsals in the wedding venue, so try to add this to your list of to-dos.

The post wedding preparations include things such as who takes care of the wedding location after the party. You have to make sure that whether or not you need to hire someone to do the clean up, or whether it is included in the venue's package. How about the gifts? You will probably be too tired to make the necessary arrangements after the wedding so make sure you draft everything that needs to be accomplished after and entrust this to a close friend or relative.

To make it easier for you, write down everything in a notebook, segregated accordingly into the three stages. All reservations such as the wedding venue and photographers go to the pre-wedding section, things that will be used in the wedding day itself such as wedding gowns should be included in the wedding day section, and arrangements after the wedding such as finalized documents and other necessary arrangements go to the post-wedding section.

It might be quite challenging to whip up a recipe for a successful and magical wedding. However, if you get everything right, it will be something that you will cherish for a lifetime.