Bridal Guide: Tips for Planning Your Wedding

Create a Wedding Binder to keep all your ideas, contracts, and plans in one place. Use a 3-ring binder and dividers to keep all your wedding information from the ceremony to the reception in one handy place. This is a great way to organize all your vendors’ information and contracts. 

Begin planning for your wedding as soon as possible after becoming engaged. First, choose your wedding date. You will need to have this set before you can start booking your venue and vendors. If you are having your ceremony in a church, contact your church first to be sure your date is available before calling on reception venues.

Look for wedding planning computer software to help make your planning easier. These programs will usually create a timeline and checklists for you to help keep you on track. They also help you make sure you are staying on budget.

Create a budget and stick to it. There are a lot of tasks you can do yourself to save money. Your wedding budget should follow these guidelines:

•         Reception: 48%-50% of budget
•         Ceremony: 2%-3% of budget
•         Attire: 8%-10% of budget
•         Flowers: 8%-10% of budget
•         Entertainment/Music: 8%-10% of budget
•         Photography/Videography: 10%-12% of budget
•         Stationery: 2%-3% of budget
•         Wedding Rings: 2%-3% of budget
•         Parking/Transportation: 2%-3% of budget
•         Gifts: 2%-3% of budget
•         Miscellaneous: 8% of budget
•        To avoid stress, allot about 5% of your budget for a "just-in-case" fund.

Decide on your theme and color palette so you can create an event that carries the theme in all the details. Your color palette can be used throughout your wedding in the flowers, dresses, invitations, favors and more. Make sure your theme fits both you and your fiancé. Be creative with all the little details.

Nail down the approximate number of guests. You can’t look for venues if you don’t know how many you’re planning to invite.

Involve your fiancé in the planning. It’s their wedding too! Give them specific tasks to undertake. This ensures that they are involved in the planning and takes some pressure off you.

Accept help and advice from family, friends, and vendors graciously but don’t feel obligated to use it. Everyone will have an opinion about how your wedding should be planned. Remember, this is your and your fiancé’s wedding and should reflect both of your personalities.