Getting engaged is always extremely exciting and most couples spend the first few days after the engagement celebrating and letting friends and family members know about the engagement. These first few days are extremely exciting. However, in no time at all the couple begins to realize the first question friends and family members ask after offering their congratulations is when the wedding will be. This is when the excitement over the engagement begins to wear off and the couple realizes they need to start planning their wedding in earnest. However, this can be a very daunting task. As the couple starts to think about everything that is involved in the process of planning a wedding it is very easy to get overwhelmed. However, this does not have to be the case. This article will discuss the process of starting to plan a wedding.
The first step in the process of planning a wedding is not to panic. It is very easy to get caught up in thinking there is no way you can handle planning a wedding but this is not true. Couples have been planning weddings for years and they are no more organized or more talented than you are. Even if planning events is not your strong suit, I promise you can pull this off. You may need a little more help than some people will need but you can do this.
The problem most couples have when it comes to planning a wedding is they just don’t know where to start. They start thinking about all of the little details involved and have trouble prioritizing the list of tasks they need to complete. The easiest way to solve this problem is to buy a book to assist you in planning your wedding. There are all kinds of books which you may find useful. Most couples really like using wedding planners which include timelines to assist you in the wedding planning process. These are structured like calendars but you can start them at any time of the year and work backwards from your wedding date to determine when you need to accomplish certain tasks. These types of planners let you know how soon before your wedding date each tasks should be accomplished. These planners also provide you with advice on where to begin and which tasks to complete first. Most wedding planners also provide you with areas for taking notes and storing receipts. Other types of books many couples use are more like textbooks and cover everything from creating a budge to etiquette and timelines to assist the couple in the wedding plans and preparations.
Hiring a wedding planner to assist in the process of planning the wedding is the first step for those couples who feel as though books, websites and advice from family members will not be enough to help them plan their wedding the right way. Hiring a wedding planner can be expensive but if the budget allows for this luxury it can also help to eliminate a great deal of stress for the couple. The wedding planner can not only help to keep the couple organized and on schedule but can also make recommendations for locations and service providers. The wedding planner can also handle negotiations with service providers. This can result in a significant savings for the couple especially if the service providers are in the habit of offering discounts to the wedding planner based on the amount of business she brings to them. In some cases these discounts may even more than offset the price of hiring the wedding planner in the first place.
Finally, when a couple first begins to start planning a wedding they have to consider whether or not they are open to input from friends and family members. This is important because the couple is likely to receive a great deal of unsolicited advice at this time. They have to decide whether they are open to this type of advice or whether they need to decide on a way to politely decline offers of advice and assistance. This may not sound significant but once the couple begins to get inundated with offers of advice and assistance they will realize how important it is to have a strategy for dealing with this in place.