You’re engaged, now what? 7 helpful tips to get you started

No. 1: Enjoy being engaged

First off, congratulations, you’re engaged! It’s so important that you take the time to celebrate this. Don’t rush straight into planning, but first take a moment to enjoy being engaged and the fact that you will be marrying your best friend. 

Even when the wedding planning process starts, make sure you don’t discuss the wedding every waking minute. Date nights should not be dominated by wedding planning talk, dedicate separate time to those discussions, and enjoy each other's company. 

No. 2: Know your priorities

What is actually important to you as a couple? Is it the food, the music, the flowers, the entertainment? Knowing what your priorities are is so essential and it’s important you discuss them as a couple up front. My suggestion is, write down everything that goes into a wedding and rank them. By ranking them, you can see where you want to invest most of your time, energy and importantly your budget £££. 

No. 3: Set a budget

I’m not going to dwell on this one, but set a budget guys. If you aren’t working with a wedding planner who will create your budget tracker for you, make sure you start a spreadsheet. Regularly check in on the budget and make sure you don’t forget about the little things. Candles, transport, dress alterations, etc. - all these things will add up and if you don’t keep track of them, your budget will quickly spiral. 

No. 4: Picking your venue 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed picking a venue. You will find yourself requesting brochures, trying to get an idea of what your budget can afford, trying to pick a venue style that suits your taste. My advice, try and start early and begin by checking out venues that match your vision online. Create a short list of venues you want to visit, maybe 5 or so to start, and do some quick math to make sure you can afford them! Last thing you want is to fall in love with a venue you can’t afford. 

And probably my biggest piece of advice, try not to get too fixated on a venue before you visit. Venue’s will surprise you, the ones you think you will love might be a bit of a let down, and you may end up booking the venue you least expected you would - that’s what happened to me! 

No. 5: Add Supplier payment dates to your calendar

As you book your suppliers, make sure you're saving their invoices to a dedicated folder and also add your suppliers payment dates to your calendars. This will help you better manage when you’ve got to make payments and make sure no payments get missed. 

No. 6: The magical power of the pinterest board

If you’re someone who has been envisioning your wedding for years, then you probably already have a pinterest board, let’s face it. And if you are struggling to figure out what you want, using pinterest for inspiration can be REALLY helpful. 

Now my tip here is actually for couples, where one person wants to be involved but isn’t as in touch with their creative side to articulate what they want and prefer, a.k.a. My fiancé. My fiancé, bless him, 100% had opinions and wanted to be involved in the planning, but didn’t know how to describe what he wanted. So here’s the tip: Create a BRAND NEW PINTEREST ACCOUNT (this can’t be your account because your taste will influence what pins your partner will see) and get them to pin what they like. You can prompt them: Find suits you like, find decor you like, find flowers you like… Slowly you will see their taste appear on the board and hey presto, you’ve got a better idea of what your partner likes and you’ve got pictures to work with.

No. 7: Get organized

Everyone has different methods they prefer for keeping track of their to-do-list, but the key thing is, you need one. I personally like using Trello for my to do list, but you could use an excel, a checklist or sticky notes etc. My preferred method is having the months counting down to the wedding and then the tasks listed below - this helps you get a good overview of what needs to be done and makes the process feel less overwhelming.

Lucy Norton is a Surrey, UK based wedding planner. Looking for a wedding planner or day of coordinator? Please do get in touch: hello@lucynortonevents.co.uk