Recently engaged? Congratulations! About to plan your wedding? Uh…good luck. All jokes aside, weddings are unashamedly complicated events to plan and organise. But if you break down the process into easy, manageable chunks, you can create a wonderful wedding and you may even enjoy the process along the way!
Here are our 7 easy steps to creating a wonderful wedding…
Choose a versatile venue
First things first, secure a venue. Wedding venues can be booked up months if not years in advance, so you’ve got to be prepared. Finalize your budget and find a venue to fit. Remember, the venue doesn’t need to be extravagant or super fancy, but it should be versatile and able to accommodate your wishes and guest list. You might choose a converted hall, a vineyard, or even the flower-filled garden of a friend or family member (For Free! Normally these free venues have already wedding decors especially wedding flowers. All you need to do would be to do some upgrading). As long as there’s enough room, clean facilities, aesthetic charm and a good atmosphere, you can decorate and enhance the venue to make it fabulous.
Finalize your guest list and order eye-catching invitations
Sit down with your partner and finalize your guest list. Be sure to choose a number which your budget can cater for. Start with the obvious ones, immediate family and closest friends. Then think about who else in your life you really would like to share your celebration with i.e. close colleagues/work friends and distant relatives. Take plus ones into consideration too, as they ramp up the numbers pretty quickly. Then decide whether or not kids are invited.
Take a look at the list, imagine your wedding, then think about if there’s anyone you’ve missed and would regret not having there…or anyone you would regret inviting. Juggle the list until you’ve got it right where you want it.
Now you can get to the fun part and start designing some amazing invitations to entice your guests and give a taster of what your amazing wedding will be like! And lastly, provide an RSVP date with lots of methods of getting back to you, i.e. email, text, post or phone. That way, you won’t be left wondering who’s coming and who’s not.
Nominate the key roles for the wedding
The key roles you need to nominate are: maid of honor, bridesmaids, flower girls and the Master of Ceremonies. Think about the most special people in your life and those you value the most. Your maid of honor should be someone you love, lean on and have shared many memories with. Your bridesmaids should be close friends who know and love you to bits. Your Master of Ceremonies must be a confident, relaxed-yet-authoritative person with a talent for public speaking. Choose someone you trust to lead the wedding schedule and keep the day running smoothly.
Make special dates to meet with each person and present them with a special gift or bunch of flowers as you make your special request for them to be a part of your big day.
Choose an easy, delicious and crowd-pleasing menu
Food is a very important aspect of any wedding, especially when there is alcohol being served. The last thing you want is for your guests to be thinking “I’m hungry, when is the food coming out?!”.
Make sure there are finger foods being handed around if there are any stretches of time where people are mingling and drinking for longer than 30 minutes. It doesn’t need to be super fancy, just tasty, simple food.
For your main menu, i.e. lunch or dinner, have a variety of foods to enjoy. Meat dishes, salads, starches (i.e. breads and potato choices) and tasty sauces or condiments suffice. With these basic guidelines you can build an extremely delicious menu, full of flavor and reasonably cost-effective ingredients.
People don’t necessarily want to be dining on the world’s finest foods, they just want something tasty, filling and attractive on the plate.
Find the perfect dress and nail your beauty look
The best part…the dress along with its accessories (wedding veil, fascinator, jewelries like earrings, necklace, bracelet, bouquet, petticoat if needed, as well as wedding shoes)! Give yourself plenty of time to find the perfect dress you will feel comfortable and yourself in. Allow time for fittings, adjustments and alterations…and be honest about your budget. Remember to make use of sales and discounted warehouses to find cheap-but-beautiful dresses. Cheap dresses can be just as stunning as expensive dresses, so don’t feel as though you have to spend crazy amounts of money on your gown.
Start shopping around for makeup artists and hair stylists and book consultations to discuss which look you want. Or if you’re skilled at makeup yourself, save money and go DIY! Have some fun at home playing around with makeup tutorials on YouTube and find a look which compliments your natural beauty and looks great in photos.
Design or choose timeless bridesmaid and flower girl dresses
Now for the other important gowns in your wedding, the bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. Think about the complexions and body types of your bridesmaids and choose colors and silhouettes to flatter them. You could always go for different designs in the same color to allow each bridesmaid to choose a silhouette which suits her figure.
White flower girl dresses look absolutely stunning on all little girls, and are a perfect match if you’ve chosen white for your own gown. Or, go for fun and exciting colors to make your littlest wedding members really stand out in their flower girl dresses.
Book memorable entertainment and design stunning decor
Think about what you want your wedding to look and feel like. Think about what kind of experience you want your guests to have. Do you want a live band and a huge dance floor? Or do you want a DJ and a smaller dance floor with intimate places to sit and talk? Do you want fun photo booths with props and costumes? Or do you want long outside tables laden with carafes of wine for the guests to sip under the stars as the night grows dark around them? And what do you want your wedding to look like? How do you want it to be described? Rustic French country chic? Modern simplistic? Vintage retro? Bold and bright?
Make a definitive list of entertainment and decor and start to make enquiries. Start a Pinterest board and gather lots of visual inspiration to pass on to your wedding designer (if you’re having one) or to inspire you as you go shopping to find the perfect wedding decor.
When it comes to the star of wedding decorations, it would be safe to say that flowers have always enjoyed the number one spot. This is because of their innate ability to lift up the event by several notches owing to their gracefulness, beauty and otherworldly feels. However, if you work with someone inexperienced in the industry, you will not be able to make flowers the hero decoration of your wedding. Working with the best flower store Dubai can ensure that you are able to select the most exotic flowers for your wedding, regardless of whether they are in season or not.
Conclusion
Break your wedding planning down into simple steps and check them off as you go along. Get yourself a large, plain workbook to write down lists, stick inspirational pictures and jot down ideas. Go with simple-yet-beautiful designs, tasty-yet-simple menus and fun entertainment everyone will love. As long as your wedding reflects you and your partner, and you plan it with love and a sense of fun, it will be amazing.
To read more on topics like this, check out the lifestyle category.
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