Where do I start with Wedding Planning?

   You have the soul mate, the ring, and the vision,  now what!?  It’s a valid question.  I think our couples say to us at least once per week, “I’m so sorry, I’ve never planned a wedding before!”  This phrase usually follows a series of questions, but the fact of the matter is, if you’ve never planned a wedding you probably don’t know where to start with wedding planning?  We’re here to say, it’s okay, neither did the vast majority of couples before you and trust me when I say, they were still amazing celebrations.  So, don’t feel bad, and never apologize for your questions.  Most wedding vendors love the opportunity to provide a little client education as it helps to establish clear communication and expectations.  But, before we deep dive into the details of specific vendors, let’s establish a plan of action so you can make sure you stay on target with regards to timelines and ensure that you don’t miss anything which could leave you scrambling last minute.  No need to fret, as full time wedding photographers for the last 10 years w/750+ weddings under our belts, we’ve been fortunate to absorb a lot of planning strategies and experience during that time.  We’ll list out everything in order and plan to keep it simple so you don’t feel overwhelmed with minor details!

Our number one tip before we start the list is to hire a wedding planner.  You will be paying a professional who eat, sleeps, and breaths weddings to do everything on this list for you (or at least guide for certain things) and keep you on track.  Hiring a reputable pro can remove a lot of stress from your plate.   The vast majority of our couples hire a planner or day of coordinator and we can tell you from firsthand experience, things usually go a lot smoother on the day of when you’ve hired a great wedding planner/coordinator.

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If you’re unsure about hiring a planner for your big day, for whatever reason, here’s the list!

1.  Decide when and where

For certain markets, peak wedding season can book up extremely fast and over a year in advance.  For example, we work primarily in two different markets, half of the year in Western NC, and the other half in Western, Wyoming.  If you’re booking a traditional wedding, mid October, on a Saturday in the Asheville area, you may have to be okay with waiting over a year for the next available date.  We’ve had fall wedding couples book us 18 months out, after booking their venue 24 months out.  The Same could be said for Jackson Hole in June.  However, maybe you’re trying to have a winter wedding, you will probably have more options in terms of dates being available.  We’ve been hired a couple months prior during winter months.  All this to say, if you’re getting married during peak season somewhere, you’ll likely need to get a move on things, but if you’re getting married in the offseason in most areas, you can plan for 6 months out and still have time to book all of your vendors.  Once you decide on where and when, then it will be easier to figure out a realistic timeline.  Example, if you get engaged in September, it might not be realistic to get married in your dream venue in October and have all of your favorite vendors available.  You would likely have to wait until the next October (this assumes a peak season in October like Asheville).

2.  Decide on a guest count

Shouldn’t be a surprise here, guest count is important!  Or important enough to be number 2 on the list and it can have big influence on number 3.  If you and your partner envision a mort intimate occasion of 50-70 people, it will allow more wedding venue options than if your guest count was 240 people, there will be less venues that can accommodate that many guests so this can likely limit your choices.  Additionally, more guests usually means higher price tag as you have to take everything into consideration from transportation shuttles, guest accommodations (if you’re planning on doing that), head count for your catering, chairs needed for rentals, etc.

3. Set a realistic budget and priority

Asheville and the overall WNC wedding market is diverse.  We have a good amount of luxury wedding venues, budget friendly options, and just about everything in between.  This goes for wedding vendors as well.  The hard part for a lot of people can be deciding on a budget.  Maybe you have plenty of expendable income or savings set aside for this but you also want to get the most for your money.  If you find yourself here, sometimes it can be helpful to decide on priority of vendors first because then you will know which costs are going to be fixed because they are your must haves and which costs could vary based on possibly reallocating funds in certain areas and splurging in others.  For instance if you want one specific venue no matter what, and you know their package you want is $8,000, then that cost is fixed.  If you already had a photographer in mind, and the package you want is $4,000, then this will also be a fixed cost.  This is assuming venue and photography were your priorities.  Maybe you’re a big foodie and you value a higher end culinary experience for your guests on your wedding, then you may have to allocate more funds here.  Deciding on priorities ahead of time will give you a little more insight in to where you think you can save, and overall is your wedding budget realistic for what you’re envisioning?  The last time we read one of the yearly industry at a glance articles from Wedding Pro, the average cost of a wedding in the US is between $33,000 and $36,000.   We have clients whose overall budget comes in much lower than that all the time.  But this average is pretty on point with many exceeding this budget for peak season or that exclusive venue you’ve had your eye on.  My one point of personal advice here, never go venue broke.  Consider the big picture and decide if splurging right out of the gate is going to allow you to hire the rest of the priority vendors you’ve been considering.

4.  Book your priority vendors asap;  Book the rest after based on the following recommendations.

For your average peak season wedding on a Saturday we get booked a year out.  It’s not to say we never get hired 6-9 months out from an October wedding, but it’s not the norm. We’ve always heard you should hire your hair and make up artist between 4-6 months out, but we’ve had brides book hair and make up before us.  Book your priority vendors as soon as you are able.  From there we recommend following general guidelines you for when you should have your wedding vendors hired (general ranges below).

12-18 months out

-Venue

-Wedding planner

10-14 months out

-photographer

-videographer

-dj/band

-catering

-florist

8-10 months

-decor

-travel accommodations (hotel, transportation, etc.)

-wedding attire

-officiant

-rentals/linens

4-6 months

-hair and make up artist(s)

-cake / desserts

-stationary

-photo booth

-transportation

5.  Send out invites/Save the dates

You may need to schedule an engagement session with your wedding photographer if you were planning on sending out save the dates.  A lot of couples use their proposal photos if they did a proposal session.  In general you want to have these sent out 6-12 months before your wedding.  For weddings far out of town or destination weddings, you’ll want to be in that 9-12 month range to give people time to make accommodations.  If it’s all local as well as most of your guests, 6-8 months is considered sufficient.

6.  Make it legal

Be sure to research what you will need to do with regards to your marriage license, whether or not you need actual minister for your officiant or if your friend can do it.  Different states have different requirements.  Be sure to start this process at least 3 months out as different areas have different requirements for timelines.  In our experience working with our couples and our own experience, it’s a fairly simple process, just be sure to give yourself enough time.  Your wedding day creeps up fast!

7.  Finalize guest count & final walk throughs

The general consensus we’ve always heard is finalize your guest count 14-30 days out.  Sometimes this can be determined by your catering contract as your cater will need to make sure they can get everything needed in time for your guest count.  It’s likely that there will already have been communication leading up to your big day with many of your vendors, but it’s common that a lot of couples do a final walk through whether in person or virtually.  It’s a good opportunity to confirm a lot of small details with regards to your decor, layouts, reviewing timeline and overall flow.  In our experience these are usually 2-4 weeks out.

8.  Enjoy the day

All your hard work and planning has lead to this!

Just to recap, we always recommend hiring a planner/coordinator if your budget allows!  But, if you’re not planning to go that route, be sure to follow these 8 steps to provide a frame work for your overall wedding planning.  It will help to ensure you don’t miss anything and you’re on a timeline that works for your vision and your budget.