20+ Expert Wedding Planning Tips to Plan Your Perfect Wedding
Hey there, friend! Are you in the midst of planning your dream wedding? It can be overwhelming, but don’t worry – I’ve got you covered. I’ve gathered 20+ expert wedding planning tips to help you plan the perfect wedding. From setting a budget to finding the right suppliers, these wedding planning tips will guide you every step of the way.
Below is the compiled list of 20+ unique wedding planning tips for planning your dream wedding!
Our 20+ Wedding Planning Tips
1 | Trust your intuition
The first and most important thing in planning your wedding is to trust your intuition. You as a couple know and can feel what is right for you. If something doesn’t seem right, trust yourselves. and don’t be afraid to decide to avoid things that do not feel right for you as a couple.
This doesn’t apply to your overall wedding planning strategy, but is also as important for all of your wedding decisions, from choosing the right venue, florist, wedding dress, and invitation designer to every single thing you want on your special day.
The one thing to always remember is that this is your day to celebrate your love as a couple. Your wedding day should reflect both of you and who you are as a couple.
2 | Be yourselves and decide on what’s important to both of you
When you’re planning a wedding, all of a sudden everyone has their own opinion on what you should or shouldn’t do. While some tips and experiences might help you and some can get you a few good ideas, one thing to remember is that your wedding day is all about both of you.
So, no matter what others think, you should decide as a couple what you really want for your wedding day. Be true to yourself, and plan a wedding that is a reflection of who you are as a couple.
3 | Decide on a Budget early on (and try sticking to it)
It’s absolutely important to set a budget for your wedding as much as possible early on in the wedding planning process. Setting a budget for your wedding will help you and guide you in making decisions. And, will help you to not overspend. While we can agree your wedding day is the most important (or, at least one of the most important) days in your life, it’s also good to remind yourself that you should be realistic about your expectations for what you can actually afford. And, you should prioritize the most important things on your wedding day planning checklist. It’s possible to have a dream wedding on a budget you’re comfortable with. Here are our tips on how to plan a wedding on a budget.
4 | Decide on a location or consider a destination wedding
Most of the time you will already know where you’d like your wedding to take place. And, the location plays a crucial part in planning your wedding. There’s a difference in how planning is being done if you’re just picking a nearby location, a location in your state/country, or a destination wedding. While destination weddings can be fun, and provide a break free from daily routines, there’s also extra care when planning one. Depending on your wedding location some of your vendors might need extra licenses, and your guests will need help with airfares, hotels, and organizing travel arrangements. So, be sure to research this as early on as you can. No matter if you are planning your wedding by yourselves or if you will work with a wedding planner, the location is one of the first things you’ll need to decide on.
5 | Do your research
Social media is one of the best places to look around and find wedding professionals to connect with, ones that have the style you envisioned for your wedding day. It’s always a good idea to use hashtags that include the location of your wedding. This should get you a big enough list of potential wedding vendors you can connect with, and also see their portfolios and learn more about the experience of working together.
While social media is great for quickly finding wedding professionals, that shouldn’t be your only source. You can also turn to the good old friend Google, and try searching for a wedding professional you’re looking to hire.
And, if that doesn’t get you enough options, you can always ask friends and family for their recommendations. Ask them specifics about their personal experience of working with the specific wedding vendor.
Just keep in mind, that their personal experience can be biased since it is subjective to their needs, wants, preferences, and other personal things that impact the overall perception of how their big day went. So, make sure to also look for reviews for those vendors. And, YES! Even if they are recommended by someone you completely and fully trust.
6 | Find a wedding planner that truly reflects your vision
A professional wedding planner will be incredibly helpful for taking care of so many big and small details for your wedding day. There are many things you’ll need to take care of for your wedding day, such as choosing the right vendors while at the same time sticking to the budget and staying on track. All of this impacts if everything will run smoothly on your wedding day, and a wedding planner will always be the much-needed help to make your wedding day organized and perfect. You may want to save up your energy and time for your big day, and a wedding planner will help you in doing that.
7 | Find the right wedding vendors
If you or your wedding planner did the research you probably will narrow down the list of potential vendors for your wedding day. Choosing the right wedding vendor is especially important and it takes time to find the ones who will bring your vision to life. So, the best advice for this is to take time and not rush into making a decision when selecting wedding vendors. Ask the ones you’d like to work with to meet in person (or online) and ask them the most important questions to ask wedding vendors before hiring them.
8 | Meet vendors in person
Meeting your wedding vendors in person is so important before hiring them. Connecting with them personally and in a different way than just through a means of social media or email will allow you to learn more about their personality and working style. This always helps to narrow down the vendors you’d like to work with and are comfortable working with. A meet and greet session with your wedding vendors is always a good opportunity to ask questions about things that are important for your wedding day and find out if the wedding vendor you’re considering can bring your vision to life.
9 | Take your time
Take time to educate yourself so you can make informed decisions. While you may feel pressured by the approaching wedding day date, it’s important not to rush the complete process. While the wedding planning process can be overwhelming, taking time to make decisions will help you not to overlook a thing, resulting in the unforgettable wedding day experience you always dreamt of. And, always remember, you can hire a wedding planner if you feel like you need some or all of the planning taken care of and lifted off your shoulders.
10 | Create a personalized wedding website and/or a unique social media hashtag
Creating a personalized wedding website will give you a dedicated place where you can share everything about your wedding and what your guests need to know. A wedding website is a great way for you to familiarize all of your family members and friends with your wedding, venue, ceremony information, wedding venue, hotel, and flights, and share interesting things they do not know about you as a couple. You can also add a gift registry so your guests can get you a gift you really want and need.
Creating a hashtag for your wedding is a fun way to share photos and videos about your wedding. You can include photos of your engagement, pre-wedding, or photos and videos featuring you as a couple. The hashtag will come in handy at a later time when you may want to pull and keep some images and videos your guests captured. Ones different from those of your photographer or videographer.
11 | Create a personalized wedding program
A personalized wedding program can provide guests with important information about the ceremony, as well as interesting details about you and your partner. Consider including a breakdown of the ceremony’s proceedings, translations of any traditional vows or readings, and any other information that guests may need to know.
12 | Provide welcome bags
Traveling guests will always need extra tenderness, love, and care. If guests are arriving from different places and traveling to your wedding, consider greeting them with welcome bags upon arrival. These welcome bags may include local information, snacks, water, or other thoughtful items. You can also provide them with a keepsake from your wedding.
13 | Create a well-planned seating chart
An organized and well-planned seating chart will ensure that guests will have an awesome experience at the reception. For creating your wedding seating chart there are plenty of things to consider. Considering the relationships between guests, their similarities, interests, and, if they know each other is essential for creating a seating chart.
14 | Keep the ceremony brief
The wedding ceremony is an extremely important part of the wedding. However, it’s also as important for the wedding ceremony to be brief, a ceremony that will not only tie you as a couple but will be enjoyable for your guests, too. You don’t want a too-long ceremony that will drag on too long. We recommend getting the proceedings without entrances and exits to around 20 minutes. That way you will keep your guests’ undivided attention. This also should leave enough time for other activities you planned, such as a photo session and for the actual reception.
15 | Make it personal
You can absolutely leave the complete wedding planning to a wedding planning professional. However, for a unique, memorable, and unforgettable day, a day you can cherish for years to come, you may want to personalize some parts of your wedding. There are plenty of ideas on how you can personalize your wedding day. You may want to include a family tradition, a tradition in connection to your origin, picking music songs (or a list of songs) that hold a special place in your hearts as a couple, or writing your own wedding vows. Be sure to read through our article on how to write wedding vows, if you think this would be amazing to do on your wedding and fits you as a couple. It’s also always good to remind yourselves of what makes you unique as a couple before deciding what you’d like to do for personalizing your wedding.
16 | Choose comfortable wedding shoes
You will be on your feet for so long on your wedding day. Therefore, it’s important to have ones that are first and foremost comfortable, ones you can wear for an extended time. Use your wedding day shoes before your wedding day, so you can break them beforehand and avoid any discomfort.
17 | Always have an emergency kit nearby
Unexpected situations can come up, and it’s always a great idea to have an easy-to-access emergency kit nearby. The emergency kit can come in handy if you need any pain delivers, safety pins, stain removers, tissues, or sanitary pads. You can also include a make-up emergency kit in case your make-up artist will not be accessible at your wedding venue.
18 | Have a backup plan
No wedding ever went 100% as planned, no matter how carefully the planning was done. And, no matter what they tell you, there are many things that may not go as you planned and imagined. While some things you can not impact or change, it’s good to plan what will you do in case those things happen. You can not plan for all of the things and it’s best to concentrate on the big picture and those that may have a negative impact on your wedding the most. For example, if your wedding is outside, what will happen if it rains? Will you have a tent? Or, a backup vendor for any last-minute cancellations?
19 | Don’t worry about the small things
Always remember – the wedding day is about celebrating your love as a couple. While there are many small details when planning a wedding, don’t let some minor things ruin your wedding day. No matter what you have heard about someone else’s wedding, the truth is – there’s no such thing as a wedding that went 100% as planned. And, yes, it’s perfectly normal for you to want perfection for your wedding day and not want to settle for less. So, we prepared tips for you on how to avoid wedding day disasters. But, most important for your wedding day is to enjoy the moment and create memories you will cherish for the rest of your life.
20 | Read before signing any contracts
As much as formal this sounds, and definitely not a fun thing, it’s absolutely important for you as a couple to do your due diligence. Doing the homework for finding the best wedding vendors and the moment it seems as if you have found your perfect vendor, is not the final step. After connecting and getting investment information from your potential vendor, take time to go through all of the details you’re presented with.
And, especially, contracts! Read through the contract and make sure you are completely aware and know what you’re signing. If you’re not sure about clauses in the contract, ask your vendor for clarification. And, in some events, you may want to ask for legal consultation from a legal professional or an attorney.
21 | Be flexible
Yes, you definitely want the most important and probably the biggest day in your life to be perfect. Every couple wants that. But, there are so many things that can go wrong or don’t work out the way you wanted or envisioned.
While on some you can influence and make contingency plans, the one thing you can not control is Mother Nature. There can be rain, a tornado, or some other weather condition that will change and impact your wedding day.
However, there are things you can do to minimize this. Read through our tips on how to avoid wedding day disasters, and get prepared the best you can.
Still, you need to be flexible and accept that not everything will turn out perfectly.
The day I got married was almost how I envisioned it would be, but the night before there was rain and it seemed as if we would have a rainy wedding. It was problematic to take photos in a grassy area, my heels got stuck in the wet ground, but I enjoyed every single bit of my wedding. And, especially since I married the love of my life!
22 | Take breaks and practice self-care
The complete wedding planning process can be overwhelming and stressful. Taking breaks and practicing self-care is so important throughout the wedding planning process. No matter what, make some time in your busy wedding planning schedule to do activities that you enjoy. You don’t want to end up burnt out from the planning process. Do some reading, exercise, watch those series you always wanted, spend some time with friends and family, or go for a brisk walk with your furry friend. Practice self-care because your mental health should always come first, and you want to shine on your wedding day.
23 | Enjoy the journey
Although it can be a long process and sometimes things may invoke stress, planning a wedding will probably be one of the most exciting and special times in your whole life.
Even in the event when some small things do not turn out completely how you imagined, cherish this time, and enjoy the journey from living as an engaged couple to getting married. It truly is a unique experience, so make the most of it.
The end result will be marrying your best friend and, the love of your life, and that’s the only thing that truly matters.
Summary: 20+ Expert Wedding Planning Tips
So there you have it – 20+ expert wedding planning tips for planning the perfect wedding. I hope these wedding planning tips are helpful in planning your dream wedding! Remember to trust your instincts, be true to yourselves, and take your time. With these wedding planning tips in mind, you’ll be well on your way to planning the wedding you always dreamt of.
Don’t forget to share this post with any friends who are also planning their weddings!
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