BridalMusings.com features wedding planning tips every Wednesday from the best in the wedding industry.
We have experts who can help you make the entire wedding planning process more manageable and even fun.
It’s my pleasure to introduce top London wedding planner Andri Benson of Always Andri Wedding Design, a London-based boutique wedding planning company. She has helped many couples plan their dream weddings with her keen eye, excellent organizational skills, and friendly nature.
We’re lucky that she shared some of her best wedding planning tips with us here at Brides Musings.
Wedding Planning Tip
This series of posts will help you navigate the minefield of wedding planning.
What’s next after you accept the proposal? Before you choose the color of your confetti, you and your partner should sit down together to discuss some important questions.
What type of wedding do you desire?
You may have always imagined a white wedding, complete with all the trimmings. Or perhaps a black-tie affair.
Are you looking forward to a slap-up or a relaxed get-together?
Consider the mood or feeling you want to create for your wedding day. Consider whether you would like a civil ceremony, which will allow you more freedom in choosing the venue, or a church wedding.
You want your wedding to reflect you and your partner as a couple.
Who should I invite?
It’s useless to look for venues without knowing who will be attending.
Divide your list by grouping it into family, friends, school, university, and work. Within each group, rank the people according to their importance. You want to spend your special day with the people who mean the most to you and your partner, so you don’t need to invite everyone. Grouping people at this point will help you if you decide to create a seating chart.
It is also the time to choose who will be the best man or chief bridesmaid. Your bridal party plays a key role in both the planning and the actual wedding day.
When should you marry?
Do you have a particular time of the year that has special meaning? Do you want to celebrate an anniversary or a date that is important in your relationship?
If you need to save for your wedding, you’ll have to allow yourself enough time to do so. You may want to get married outside of the season if your budget is tight. Consider a wedding during the week or not in summer.
If you are not planning a small wedding or you can’t be flexible about the date, you should give yourself at least one year to plan your wedding.
Where can I marry?
You and your partner want to get married close to each other’s current residence. You may have always wanted to return to your hometown to get married. Consider a destination wedding. You’ll have more time to spend with your family and friends.
What is important to you?
Decide what is most important to you both. You both enjoy good restaurants, so the food and drink should be at the top. You may have met at a concert, and you feel that entertainment is important. You have a lot of photos in your home, so you’re sure that the photographs you took on the big day will be treasured for many years to come.
Make a list of everything you think you will be doing at your wedding and what you would like to see there. Number it according to importance, and don’t hesitate to remove some items.
Knowing your priorities will help you decide how much time and money you want to spend on planning the wedding.
What is your budget?
It would be best if you also considered how much it will cost. I’ll go into more detail about this in my post on Wedding Budget.
Here’s a ‘pinnable image’ with all of the key tips in this post that you can pin to your Wedding Planning Board on Pinterest.
If you prefer the old-school method, you can print, cut out, and tape to your refrigerator/into your wedding Filofax.
