So you’re ENGAGED!! If you’re anything like us you have waited for this day for a LONG time! At this point you’ve probably called all your family and friends, posted on Instagram, and now it’s time for the fun part—planning your wedding!
Soon you’ll be overwhelmed with color palettes, floral designs, venue options, catering choices, and so many other decisions. When we were planning our wedding we were not prepared for all the different details we were going to have to take care of. To make your planning go as smoothly as possible, we’ve made a list of the six things we wish we knew when planning our wedding.
1) Create a separate email specifically for your wedding planning
I don’t know about you but in my email I am constantly filtering through Target, Starbucks, Old Navy, and all my other shopping emails that it is easy to miss any email that’s not an ad.
When planning your wedding, you are going to be emailing all sorts of vendors. There are photographers, florists, caterers, cake designers, bridal shops, venues, and tuxedo shops.
You absolutely do not want your personal or work email flooded with all of these different venues. Do yourself a HUGE favor and create your own email address with your husband-to-be. Plus, you can create a cute email address together!
2) Don’t spend too much money too early
The beginning stages of an engagement are SO exciting! You’re now sporting a big old rock on your finger, and getting ready for your engagement photos. You probably have started looking back at the wedding Pinterest Board you’ve been making since high school and started to make a list of everything you need to have at your wedding. However, don’t say yes to all of those wish list items too quickly. Creating memories for your wedding by buying all of those personalized items may sound necessary, but you might want to consider saving that money for your bigger expense items like the venue, the caterer, and the wedding photographer.
3) Break in those new shoes!
I probably spent more time picking out my wedding shoes than I did my wedding dress. I wanted the picture perfect sparkly heels that would photograph so well. You want to know how long I wore them? The amount of time it took me to walk down the aisle and back. The rest of the time I went barefoot. My shoes were SO uncomfortable and I didn’t even pull them out of the box until 5 minutes before I was supposed to be down the aisle. Whether it’s flats or high heels, do yourself a favor and make sure to break those shoes in for a while before you wear them on your wedding day. You are going to be standing around for long periods of time when you are taking all of those photographs, so you want to make sure that you are not going to be uncomfortable. Seriously, wear the shoes around the house for a while to break them in so you are as comfortable as possible on your big day!
4) Plan out your family photographs ahead of time, and stick to that list!
When it comes time to taking the pictures, we have found that everybody wants to be in the photos. Cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews all want to be a part of the memories. Talk with your photographer about a specific set of photographs that you would like to take. Having a schedule of what pictures are going to be taken is going to save a ton of time. After all, no one (especially the bride) wants to stand around trying to figure out photograph combinations.
5) Once the reception is over, LEAVE!
I cannot stress this one enough!!! We tried to do our wedding as inexpensively as possible and did a ton of DIY projects and decorated the entire reception venue with just the help of family. Once the reception was over, I ran around in my wedding dress and Alex in his suit trying to make sure everything was picked up, things were loaded in the car, and food was cleaned up.
Designate a person or group of people to take care of collecting all of the decorations and cleaning up. As ‘hosts’ of this event, we have found that the bride and groom typically feel responsible for making sure that all of the decorations are picked up, that the food is packed away, and that everything is nice and neat so there aren’t any hidden cleaning fees. If you designate a cleaning crew, you are going to be able to run away as a newly married couple and enjoy that special and intimate time together.
6) Have as much fun as you possibly can!
This one may seem like a no-brainer, but when it comes to the wedding day, it is an absolute whirlwind. Take advantage of every second that you can and live as ‘in the moment’ as possible. Put that phone away, try not to stress, and enjoy the day that you have waited your entire life for. You are only going to be married once, and while the day may seem very chaotic, it is extremely important that you are as happy as possible so you can look back on the day you said “I do” and it be the best day of your life.
