Congratulations, you're getting married! Can you actually believe you are on the road to becoming a married woman?! There is noting like the moment when you are asked that one simple question...
'WILL. YOU. MARRY. ME?'
The world stops. We feel shock, euphoria, pure happiness and so much excitement. Words fly out our mouths quicker than we can think. 'Are you joking?' 'Oh my god!' 'Really?' and finally between the tears and the school girl fits of giggles, you say 'YES!'
SO WHAT NOW...
Jacob and I have been married for eight years this August and I still remember the weird sort of feeling after the initial rush of adrenaline post proposal. It dawned on me that I had no idea how to actually plan a wedding or how to even get married! You start getting asked lots of questions by our overly enthusiastic friends and family:
'Where do you want to get married?'
'What sort of dress do you want?'
'What vibe are you going for?'
'What are you going to do for your hen?'
'OMG, are you going to invite Sarah after what she did?!' (we all have a 'Sarah')
There is no doubt that starting to plan a wedding can feel overwhelming. With pintrest and instagram at our fingertips, the modern bride is bombarded with images of the 'perfect wedding' with endless options and ideas. The wedding industry is full of hugely creative suppliers all wanting to look after couples on the most special day of their lives. If you want your wedding rings delivered by a cute animal, it can happen. If you want to be painted by and artist whilst saying your vows, thats a thing. I have even heard that you can now hire an instagram and TikTok reel creator to come and film and edit your wedding day reels! If you want it, the wedding industry will be ready to supply it!
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
With this in mind, I always feel that discovering as a couple what is important to you is the best place to start when planning for your wedding. When imagining your wedding day, what details are you willing to compromise on and what is a priority? I would say that the vast majority of brides feel that looking and feeling beautiful and confident on their wedding day is a priority. I think we feel that once we have that bit right then the rest kind of falls into place. We are of course all different and our partner may have their own ideas too (whether we want them to or not!).
So here is an idea for you. Sit down as a couple and try to create a list of all of the different elements you are considering for your day. Then try to number them 1 - 10 (depending on how many you have) and prioritise them 1 being the most important and 10 being the least. For us for example, we really prioritised a live band so that would sit somewhere around 3 and the photo booth sat at a 9. This will start to help you both understand each others wedding day vision and the beginnings of a financial plan.
Below I have written a list of wedding list ideas/elements to help you get started:
WEDDING DAY ELEMENT LIST
Wedding Dress
Flowers
Venue
Hair and Makeup
Evening band
DJ
Fireworks
Live ceremony music
Photographer
Videographer
Wedding planner
Wedding Favours
Food
Entertainment
Suits
Smoke bombs/sparklers
Stationary
Sweet/ice cream station
Photo booth
Live Artist
You may find that you share similar priorities but don't be discouraged if you find things don't quite match up, you might have a few drafts! Try to be open and listen to your partners reasoning’s to their answers. It might challenge you but thats ok. Use it as an opportunity to learn more about each other and your wedding day vision and even designate who is going to research into each element you have chosen. But most importantly, have fun with it!
I would love to know if you give this a go and what you discovered? Happy wedding planning and keep an eye out for my next blog coming soon!
Holly x