You’re Engaged… Now What?

You’re Engaged… Now What? Wedding planning tips for couples

You’ve had the manicure, posted your ring pic to Instagram, everyone’s delighted. Everyone has questions for you and you don’t know where to start. Planning a wedding isn’t easy, even for the more laid back among us, you are planning one of the biggest events of your life. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed so I’ve written a quick post to get you started.

Wedding planning tips for couples: Celebrate

It’s so easy to get carried away and jump straight into planning but hold your horses on making your Pinterest boards private. Enjoy the initial engagement period. You’ll only have this time once.

Wedding planning tips for couples: Guestlist

Some people find this stressful but grab a glass of champers and make a list of everyone you’d love to have at your wedding. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. It’s a wishlist. Don’t divulge the list to anyone just yet because it will change. You’ll save yourself a lot of heartache down the line! There’s nothing worse than falling in love with a venue only to find out it it can’t take your numbers!

Wedding planning tips for couples: Budget

You have your crew, now it’s time to figure out much you want to spend. Having a rough outline of what you want to spend will make the whole process a hell of a lot easier. It’s also a good reference point for when things start to spiral out of control. You can go back and take stock. You can move things around or you can increase the budget but it’s always good to have a starting point.

Wedding planning tips for couples: Time of year

Time of year can greatly affect not only the kind of wedding you can have but also your budget. Summer weddings generally cost more because venues and suppliers are in demand. If you’re willing to go off-peak you might save yourself a few bob!

Wedding planning tips for couples: Research venues

You’re ready to start researching venues. We are spoiled for choice in Ireland with a plethora of venues. Start with the One Fab Day venue guide. They’ve done all the hard work and it’s great to have all the info there in one place. Decide on what kind of wedding you want. You may never have thought about your wedding before or you may be the Pinterest obsessed bride who knows EXACTLY what she wants. Either way, you probably know what kind of wedding you want and this will inform your choice of venue.

Wedding planning tips for couples: Take your time

Planning a wedding can get stressful so don’t lose track of why you’re doing it in the first place. Feeling overwhelmed? Take a step back and organise a date night where you don’t talk about it and most celebrate every little accomplishment! The best piece of advice I was given was to use every wedding event eg dress shopping, guest list planning, invite writing as an excuse to celebrate!

Check out blogs, I love Confetti and One Fab Day, family friends, friends’ wedding suppliers, see what you like and don’t like. It won’t be long before you have a definite vision for your big day. Confetti also have an amazing wedding planner which I find super handy. You can buy it online here or in your local Eason.

I’ve also written a no-nonsense blog about things I’ve learned in my years of wedding photography. Read it here.