Make Your Wedding Day Truly Unforgettable

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Hold it right there! There’s no time for cold feet or second thoughts; it’s time to plan for the best, most important day of your life. Eek!

Planning your dream wedding can be both exciting, and completely nerve-wracking. It’s very easy to get stressed out with all the different wedding packages available and the series of unanswerable questions from your close ones. Perhaps the best to approach wedding planning is to be open to anything. Many of us dream of having it in a specific place, at a certain time with a specific theme. Life just ain’t that simple I’m afraid. You have to be willing to compromise, especially if you have a budget and a large guest list.  

To help you cross off some important elements that make up a great wedding, here’s a few points from a handy checklist:

• Start a wedding folder or binder.
• Begin leafing through bridal, lifestyle, fashion, gardening, design, and food magazines for inspiration.
• Work out your budget.
• Determine how much you have to spend, based on your families’ contributions and your own.
• Pick your wedding party.
• As soon as you’re engaged, people will start wondering who’s in.
• Start the guest list.
• Make a head count database to use throughout your planning process, with columns for contact info, RSVPs, gifts, and any other relevant information. (Want to keep costs low? It may be brutal, but the best way to do it is to reduce your guest list.)
• Hire a planner, if desired.
• A planner will have relationships with—and insights about—vendors.
• Reserve your date and venues.
• Decide whether to have separate locations for the ceremony and the reception, factoring in travel time between the two places.
• Travel is important for the guests. Book an affordable limo service such as Bergen Limo
• Book your officiant.
• Research photographers, bands, florists, and caterers.
• Keep their contact information in your binder.
• Throw an engagement party, if you wish.
• But remember that your invitees should be on your wedding guest list as well.

(the full checklist can be found here)

The best thing you can do when designing your perfect wedding is prepare yourself mentally. Get into the right frame of mind and, like I said, be prepared to meet people in the middle.

Allow ideas to change because not only will you need to be lenient with your planning, but you need to be willing to make sacrifices financially. Don't try to over plan or be too controlling and take everything with a grain of salt and a sense of humor. It’s a huge deal, but not one that can be controlled down to the finest detail. You want it to be memorable for the right reasons, not look back in say: “I wish we could’ve had a bigger venue, or fancier decorations.”

At the end of the day, your wedding can be anything you want it to be, within the realms of possibility of course. Once the chaos of the big day is finalised, all you have to do is strut your stuff down the aisle, and the rest is history.

Three cheers for the happy couple!